Isaiah Cross References - WEB

¹ 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. ² Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. ³ The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.” ⁴ Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward. ⁵ Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, bandaged, or soothed with oil. ⁷ Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. ⁸ The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city. ⁹ Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah. ¹⁰ Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! ¹¹ “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. ¹² When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? ¹³ Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies. ¹⁴ My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶ Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. ¹⁷ Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.” ¹⁸ “Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; ²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” ²¹ How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers. ²² Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. ²³ Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them. ²⁴ Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies. ²⁵ I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin. ²⁶ I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’ ²⁷ Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness. ²⁸ But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed. ²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen. ³⁰ For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water. ³¹ The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

⁶ He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.

⁴ he says, who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, and having his eyes open:

¹⁶ he says, who hears the words of God, knows the knowledge of the Most High, and who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, and having his eyes open:

¹ In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.

⁷ Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in David’s city: and Jotham his son reigned in his place.

³² In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign.

¹ Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. ⁵ He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. ⁶ For he joined with Yahweh. He didn’t depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses. ⁷ Yahweh was with him. Wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him. ⁸ He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. ⁹ In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. ¹⁰ At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they didn’t obey Yahweh their God’s voice, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it or do it. ¹³ Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. ¹⁴ Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Return from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵ Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house. ¹⁶ At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of Yahweh’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field. ¹⁸ When they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came out to them. ¹⁹ Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? ²⁰ You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.

¹ When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. ² He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴ It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” ⁵ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’” ⁸ So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹ When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ ‘Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: “Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?”’” ¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to defy the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Yahweh, are God alone.” ²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you. ²¹ This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

¹ In those days Hezekiah was sick and dying. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order; for you will die, and not live.’” ² Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying, ³ “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴ Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of the city, Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, ⁵ “Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to Yahweh’s house. ⁶ I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”’” ⁷ Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. ⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I will go up to Yahweh’s house the third day?” ⁹ Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: should the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.” ¹¹ Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. ¹² At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the storehouse of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, even from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” ¹⁶ Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear Yahweh’s word. ¹⁷ ‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. ¹⁸ ‘They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will father; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” ¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?” ²⁰ Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²¹ Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

¹ All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. ² He built Eloth and restored it to Judah. After that the king slept with his fathers. ³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jechiliah, of Jerusalem. ⁴ He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper. ⁶ He went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the country of Ashdod, and among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gur Baal, and the Meunim. ⁸ The Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah. His name spread abroad even to the entrance of Egypt; for he grew exceedingly strong. ⁹ Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. ¹⁰ He built towers in the wilderness, and dug out many cisterns, for he had much livestock; in the lowland also, and in the plain. He had farmers and vineyard keepers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields, for he loved farming. ¹¹ Moreover Uzziah had an army of fighting men, who went out to war by bands, according to the number of their reckoning made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains. ¹² The whole number of the heads of fathers’ households, even the mighty men of valor, was two thousand six hundred. ¹³ Under their hand was an army, three hundred seven thousand five hundred, who made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. ¹⁴ Uzziah prepared for them, even for all the army, shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem, he made devices, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad, because he was marvelously helped until he was strong. ¹⁶ But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men. ¹⁸ They resisted Uzziah the king, and said to him, “It isn’t for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. It will not be for your honor from Yahweh God.” ¹⁹ Then Uzziah was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in Yahweh’s house, beside the altar of incense. ²⁰ Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there. Yes, he himself also hurried to go out, because Yahweh had struck him. ²¹ Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from Yahweh’s house. Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land. ²² Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, wrote. ²³ So Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” Jotham his son reigned in his place.

¹ Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. ² He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into Yahweh’s temple. The people still acted corruptly. ³ He built the upper gate of Yahweh’s house, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. ⁴ Moreover he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built fortresses and towers. ⁵ He also fought with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. The children of Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. The children of Ammon also gave that much to him in the second year, and in the third. ⁶ So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before Yahweh his God. ⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s city; and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

¹ Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, like David his father, ² but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molten images for the Baals. ³ Moreover he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. ⁴ He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. ⁵ Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. ⁶ For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. ⁷ Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king. ⁸ The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, and also took away much plunder from them, and brought the plunder to Samaria. ⁹ But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them, “Behold, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven. ¹⁰ Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Aren’t there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God? ¹¹ Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives that you have taken captive from your brothers, for the fierce wrath of Yahweh is on you.” ¹² Then some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war, ¹³ and said to them, “You must not bring in the captives here, for you intend that which will bring on us a trespass against Yahweh, to add to our sins and to our guilt; for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.” ¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the princes and all the assembly. ¹⁵ The men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the plunder clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them, gave them sandals, and gave them something to eat and to drink, anointed them, carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria. ¹⁶ At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. ¹⁷ For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. ¹⁸ The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there. ¹⁹ For Yahweh brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, because he acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against Yahweh. ²⁰ Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him. ²¹ For Ahaz took away a portion out of Yahweh’s house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it didn’t help him. ²² In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz. ²³ For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which struck him. He said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, so I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. ²⁴ Ahaz gathered together the vessels of God’s house, and cut the vessels of God’s house in pieces, and shut up the doors of Yahweh’s house; and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked Yahweh, the God of his fathers, to anger. ²⁶ Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, because they didn’t bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

¹ Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done. ³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of Yahweh’s house, and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the wide place on the east, ⁵ and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in Yahweh our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs. ⁷ Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes. ⁹ For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, don’t be negligent now; for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense.” ¹² Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³ and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by Yahweh’s words, to cleanse Yahweh’s house. ¹⁶ The priests went into the inner part of Yahweh’s house to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in Yahweh’s temple into the court of Yahweh’s house. The Levites took it from there to carry it out to the brook Kidron. ¹⁷ Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they came to Yahweh’s porch. They sanctified Yahweh’s house in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ¹⁸ Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, “We have cleansed all Yahweh’s house, including the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of show bread with all its vessels. ¹⁹ Moreover, we have prepared and sanctified all the vessels which king Ahaz threw away in his reign, when he was unfaithful. Behold, they are before Yahweh’s altar.” ²⁰ Then Hezekiah the king arose early, gathered the princes of the city, and went up to Yahweh’s house. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on Yahweh’s altar. ²² So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar. They killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ They brought near the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them. ²⁴ Then the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. ²⁵ He set the Levites in Yahweh’s house with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was from Yahweh by his prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with David’s instruments, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷ Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, Yahweh’s song also began, along with the trumpets and instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸ All the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹ When they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. ³⁰ Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. ³¹ Then Hezekiah answered, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into Yahweh’s house.” The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. ³² The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh. ³³ The consecrated things were six hundred head of cattle and three thousand sheep.

¹ Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel. ² For the king had taken counsel with his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month. ³ For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. ⁴ The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly. ⁵ So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it in great numbers in the way it is written. ⁶ So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Yahweh, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. ⁸ Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹ For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” ¹⁰ So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by Yahweh’s word. ¹³ Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly. ¹⁴ They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars for incense and threw them into the brook Kidron. ¹⁵ Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into Yahweh’s house. ¹⁶ They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Yahweh pardon everyone ¹⁹ who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.” ²⁰ Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people. ²¹ The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. The Levites and the priests praised Yahweh day by day, singing with loud instruments to Yahweh. ²² Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making confession to Yahweh, the God of their fathers. ²³ The whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness. ²⁴ For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. ²⁵ All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷ Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

¹ Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. ² Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites after their divisions, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of Yahweh’s camp. ³ He also appointed the king’s portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in Yahweh’s law. ⁴ Moreover he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to Yahweh’s law. ⁵ As soon as the commandment went out, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the increase of the field; and they brought in the tithe of all things abundantly. ⁶ The children of Israel and Judah, who lived in the cities of Judah, also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated to Yahweh their God, and laid them in heaps. ⁷ In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. ⁸ When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel. ⁹ Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰ Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since people began to bring the offerings into Yahweh’s house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.” ¹¹ Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare rooms in Yahweh’s house, and they prepared them. ¹² They brought in the offerings, the tithes, and the dedicated things faithfully. Conaniah the Levite was ruler over them, and Shimei his brother was second. ¹³ Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of God’s house. ¹⁴ Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper at the east gate, was over the free will offerings of God, to distribute Yahweh’s offerings and the most holy things. ¹⁵ Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office of trust, to give to their brothers by divisions, to the great as well as to the small; ¹⁶ in addition to those who were listed by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into Yahweh’s house, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their divisions; ¹⁷ and those who were listed by genealogy of the priests by their fathers’ houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their divisions; ¹⁸ and those who were listed by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation; for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves in holiness. ¹⁹ Also for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the fields of the pasture lands of their cities, in every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all who were listed by genealogy among the Levites. ²⁰ Hezekiah did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and faithful before Yahweh his God. ²¹ In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

¹ After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and intended to win them for himself. ² When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that he was planning to fight against Jerusalem, ³ he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city, and they helped him. ⁴ So, many people gathered together and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the middle of the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find abundant water?” ⁵ He took courage, built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, with the other wall outside, and strengthened Millo in David’s city, and made weapons and shields in abundance. ⁶ He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the wide place at the gate of the city, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, ⁷ “Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater one with us than with him. ⁸ An arm of flesh is with him, but Yahweh our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles.” The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. ⁹ After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ Sennacherib king of Assyria says, “In whom do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem? ¹¹ Doesn’t Hezekiah persuade you, to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, ‘Yahweh our God will deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?’ ¹² Hasn’t the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall worship before one altar, and you shall burn incense on it?’ ¹³ Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand? ¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? ¹⁵ Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?” ¹⁶ His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.” ¹⁸ They called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city. ¹⁹ They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands. ²⁰ Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven. ²¹ Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came out of his own body killed him there with the sword. ²² Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side. ²³ Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from then on. ²⁴ In those days Hezekiah was terminally ill, and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign. ²⁵ But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem. ²⁶ Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that Yahweh’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah. ²⁷ Hezekiah had exceedingly much riches and honor. He provided himself with treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of valuable vessels; ²⁸ also storehouses for the increase of grain, new wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of animals, and flocks in folds. ²⁹ Moreover he provided for himself cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him abundant possessions. ³⁰ This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of David’s city. Hezekiah prospered in all his works. ³¹ However concerning the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. ³² Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ³³ Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

¹⁹ Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.

¹ This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

¹ In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

¹ In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

¹ The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

² A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.

⁹ You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”

¹⁶ Yahweh of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

¹ Yahweh’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

¹ The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

¹ Yahweh’s word that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

¹ A revelation about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

² Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.

⁹ As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

¹⁷ Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate,

¹⁹ “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

¹ It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

²¹ For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

³¹ and in the wilderness where you have seen how that Yahweh your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.”

⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? ⁸ What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed.

²² At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. ²³ When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants,

¹ Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

⁴ He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:

¹ Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. ² He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

¹ “Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

⁹ For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law;

³ “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb. ⁴ Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.

⁹ In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. ¹⁰ But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

² I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

⁵ Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless? ⁶ They didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no one passed through, and where no man lived?’ ⁷ I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸ The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed things that do not profit. ⁹ “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children. ¹⁰ For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹ Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit. ¹² “Be astonished, you heavens, at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says Yahweh. ¹³ “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

¹⁹ Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

¹⁵ Hear, and give ear. Don’t be proud, for Yahweh has spoken.

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear Yahweh’s word!

⁹ They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.

⁶ “‘“When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ ⁷ I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare. ⁸ “‘“Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine. ⁹ “‘“Then washed I you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sealskin sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck. ¹² I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. ¹⁴ Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh.

⁵ Tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, ‘I am Yahweh your God;’ ⁶ in that day I swore to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. ⁷ I said to them, ‘Each of you throw away the abominations of his eyes. Don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’ ⁸ “‘“But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt. ⁹ But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰ So I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. ¹¹ I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them. ¹² Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. ¹³ “‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. ¹⁴ But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. ¹⁵ Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; ¹⁶ because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. ¹⁷ Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them. I didn’t make a full end of them in the wilderness. ¹⁸ I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Don’t walk in the statutes of your fathers. Don’t observe their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. ¹⁹ I am Yahweh your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my ordinances, and do them. ²⁰ Make my Sabbaths holy. They shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.’ ²¹ “‘“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. ²² Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. ²³ Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; ²⁴ because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. ²⁵ Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live. ²⁶ I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh.”’ ²⁷ “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Moreover, in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me. ²⁸ For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There they also made their pleasant aroma, and there they poured out their drink offerings. ²⁹ Then I said to them, ‘What does the high place where you go mean?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.”’ ³⁰ “Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations? ³¹ When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you! ³² “‘“That which comes into your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’

⁴ therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which have become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all around;

¹ Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

² Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

⁸ But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

¹ Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say. ² Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

²⁰ for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”

¹ Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.

⁴ who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵ of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

²⁸ For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them. ²⁹ Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

⁸ Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

¹² The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹⁸ They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

²² “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”

⁷ Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.

³ “They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh. ⁴ “Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer. ⁵ Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity. ⁶ Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.

⁸ But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.

¹⁴ Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand. ¹⁴ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: ¹⁵ for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’

¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

²⁸ Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

⁵ For this they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God,

¹³ Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.

¹⁴ “Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.

²⁵ Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,

¹⁶ Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.

¹⁹ Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

¹⁰ The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals.”

³ The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

¹⁸ For our shield belongs to Yahweh, our king to the Holy One of Israel.

²³ Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

⁸ For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

¹⁹ who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”

²⁴ Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁶ Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”

²⁰ You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.

¹⁹ The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

¹¹ Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” ¹² Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it,

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,

²³ Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁴ Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁶ You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰ that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

³ “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes. ⁴ Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,

³ a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

⁵ Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?

¹³ “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

¹⁷ “Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?

¹⁹ “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

³¹ Generation, consider Yahweh’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more’?

³³ How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.

¹⁹ Do they provoke me to anger?” says Yahweh. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”

²⁶ Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

¹¹ then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. ¹² You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.

²⁹ “Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

⁵ For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

³³ People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

³³ You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. ⁵² Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

²² Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

⁵ for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities.

²² In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.

³⁴ Also our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

¹³ Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.

²¹ Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁶ Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

²⁴ The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

³⁰ “I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

³ O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

⁵ I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

²⁸ They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly. ²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed in the fire. In vain they go on refining, for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰ Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.”

³ “They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.

¹³ “‘“In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you won’t be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

⁸ Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him. ¹⁰ We haven’t obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. ¹¹ Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him.

¹ Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, the oppressing city! ² She didn’t obey the voice. She didn’t receive correction. She didn’t trust in Yahweh. She didn’t draw near to her God. ³ Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day. ⁴ Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.

⁵ You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; ⁶ for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷ It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.

⁸ The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. ⁹ People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory. ¹⁰ The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, ¹¹ and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn’t repent of their works.

²⁸ “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; ²⁹ whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands toward this house;

⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. ⁸ He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.

¹⁸ For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. ⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. ⁵ My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness.

² In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

¹⁴ They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.

²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold of me. ²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

¹² For Yahweh says, “Your hurt is incurable. Your wound is grievous.

⁶ ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.

¹² Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness. ¹³ “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

¹⁹ There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?

² But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.

¹² When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.

³⁴ came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

²⁰ A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores, ²¹ and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

³⁴ Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

³³ A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,

⁴³ The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.

⁴⁸ therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵² They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you.

⁵ Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.

¹⁶ At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. ¹⁷ For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. ¹⁸ The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there. ¹⁹ For Yahweh brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, because he acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against Yahweh. ²⁰ Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him. ²¹ For Ahaz took away a portion out of Yahweh’s house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it didn’t help him.

³⁴ and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.

³⁹ Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.

⁵ Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. ⁶ I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

⁹ In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.

¹⁷ Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,

⁵ For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

¹⁰ The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ¹¹ There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. ¹² The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.

⁹ Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁵ The young lions have roared at him and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

⁸ Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”

² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.

¹² I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”

⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realize it.

⁷ For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

¹⁸ He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

¹⁴ that I may show all of your praise. I will rejoice in your salvation in the gates of the daughter of Zion.

⁴ when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning.

⁸ It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will fill the width of your land, Immanuel.

³² This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

²² this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

¹¹ Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes! Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him!’”

¹⁷ As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says Yahweh.

¹ How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

⁶ He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest.

¹⁰ Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

⁴³ For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”

¹⁵ “Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

²⁶ Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

³² He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”

²⁴ Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

²³ that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath.

¹⁸ Yet I reserved seven thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.”

¹³ If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stump remains when they are cut down; so the holy seed is its stock.”

²⁰ It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ²¹ A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. ²² For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

⁶ Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹³ For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

⁴ It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

³¹ The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. ³² For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.’

²² It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.

⁶ For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her.

⁸ “‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.

²² Yet, behold, there will be left a remnant in it that will be carried out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.

³² It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.

¹¹ “I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

² Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

⁹ Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.

⁸ It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. ⁹ I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”

¹⁴ How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

²⁹ but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed them all. ³⁰ It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

²⁷ Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;

²⁹ As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”

⁴ But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

⁶ and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way;

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.

¹⁹ Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. ²⁰ Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing; and another said another. ²¹ A spirit came out and stood before Yahweh, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ²² Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’ ²³ Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.”

⁹ The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.

²⁰ Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

¹⁴ Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

¹⁴ In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

⁴⁶ Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters.

⁴⁹ “‘“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

⁸ The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?

⁷ Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

⁸ But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin. ⁹ Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. ¹⁰ They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.” ¹² Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

⁸ Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

²² Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

⁸ I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

¹⁶ For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

⁸ The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

³ He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:

²⁰ To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

²¹ Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.

²¹ I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

⁷ Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

¹⁰ “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

¹³ But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

¹⁷ Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

²³ Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁶ Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.

¹ Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

¹ “Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins. ² Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.

⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

⁵ But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,

¹⁶ In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by you.

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts. ³ “‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings. ⁴ “‘These are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season. ⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover. ⁶ On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ In the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. ⁸ But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.’” ⁹ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ He shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹² On the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb without defect a year old for a burnt offering to Yahweh. ¹³ The meal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to Yahweh for a pleasant aroma; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. ¹⁴ You must not eat bread, or roasted grain, or fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ¹⁵ “‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. ¹⁶ The next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to Yahweh. ¹⁷ You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yahweh. ¹⁸ You shall present with the bread seven lambs without defect a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to Yahweh, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to Yahweh. ¹⁹ You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. ²⁰ The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before Yahweh, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yahweh for the priest. ²¹ You shall make proclamation on the same day that there shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. ²² “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners of your field, and you must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor, and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.’” ²³ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴ “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a solemn rest for you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ²⁵ You shall do no regular work. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh.’” ²⁶ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall afflict yourselves and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. ²⁸ You shall do no kind of work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. ²⁹ For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ Whoever does any kind of work in that same day, I will destroy that person from among his people. ³¹ You shall do no kind of work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³² It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.” ³³ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths for seven days to Yahweh. ³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. ³⁶ Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work. ³⁷ “‘These are the appointed feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, a meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day— ³⁸ in addition to the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and in addition to your gifts, and in addition to all your vows, and in addition to all your free will offerings, which you give to Yahweh. ³⁹ “‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. ⁴⁰ You shall take on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days. ⁴¹ You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month. ⁴² You shall dwell in temporary shelters for seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in temporary shelters, ⁴³ that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in temporary shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’” ⁴⁴ So Moses declared to the children of Israel the appointed feasts of Yahweh.

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘See that you present my offering, my food for my offerings made by fire, as a pleasant aroma to me, in their due season.’ ³ You shall tell them, ‘This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to Yahweh: male lambs a year old without defect, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering. ⁴ You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and you shall offer the other lamb at evening, ⁵ with one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil. ⁶ It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh. ⁷ Its drink offering shall be the fourth part of a hin for each lamb. You shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to Yahweh in the holy place. ⁸ The other lamb you shall offer at evening. As the meal offering of the morning, and as its drink offering, you shall offer it, an offering made by fire, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. ⁹ “‘On the Sabbath day, you shall offer two male lambs a year old without defect, and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering mixed with oil, and its drink offering: ¹⁰ this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. ¹¹ “‘In the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to Yahweh: two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without defect, ¹² and three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering mixed with oil, for each bull; and two tenth parts of fine flour for a meal offering mixed with oil, for the one ram; ¹³ and one tenth part of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering to every lamb, as a burnt offering of a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh. ¹⁴ Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, the third part of a hin for the ram, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year. ¹⁵ Also, one male goat for a sin offering to Yahweh shall be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. ¹⁶ “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh’s Passover. ¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. ¹⁸ In the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work, ¹⁹ but you shall offer an offering made by fire, a burnt offering to Yahweh: two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. They shall be without defect, ²⁰ with their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil. You shall offer three tenths for a bull, and two tenths for the ram. ²¹ You shall offer one tenth for every lamb of the seven lambs; ²² and one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you. ²³ You shall offer these in addition to the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. ²⁴ In this way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. It shall be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. ²⁵ On the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. ²⁶ “‘Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to Yahweh in your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work; ²⁷ but you shall offer a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old; ²⁸ and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths for each bull, two tenths for the one ram, ²⁹ one tenth for every lamb of the seven lambs;

¹ Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. ³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ⁴ No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the meat, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. ⁵ You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you; ⁶ but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. ⁷ You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents. ⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work. ⁹ You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. ¹⁰ You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give according to how Yahweh your God blesses you. ¹¹ You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. ¹² You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. ¹³ You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. ¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. ¹⁵ You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. ¹⁶ Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty. ¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. ¹⁸ You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹ You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. ²¹ You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves. ²² Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh your God hates.

³¹ and to offer all burnt offerings to Yahweh, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before Yahweh;

⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations?

³⁹ “‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

⁹ And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’”

⁴² But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

¹⁷ But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

³⁰ Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will.

¹³ He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?

¹ Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

²⁴ You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.

⁸ “For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

¹³ Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain.

⁸ I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.

¹⁷ You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’

²² Solomon stood before Yahweh’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;

⁵⁴ It was so, that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before Yahweh’s altar, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁵ At the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God;

⁸ For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? ⁹ Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

¹ For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.

¹⁸ If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.

² Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!

²⁸ Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;

¹⁷ I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

⁷ Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

² But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

⁸ Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit.

¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”

⁴ Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

⁹ Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. ¹⁰ They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

¹³ It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;

⁷ In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.

¹³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

⁸ I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

¹³ “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him. ¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

⁶ I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,

¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.

²⁷ Depart from evil, and do good. Live securely forever.

¹¹ Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels.

⁶ Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. ⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?

⁵ saying, “Return now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forever more.

³⁰ “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity will not be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel?

¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

³ Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. ⁴ Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

⁸ Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!

¹⁶ Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

¹ Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²² that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit, ²³ and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. ²⁵ Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another. ²⁶ “Be angry, and don’t sin.” Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ and don’t give place to the devil. ²⁸ Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. ²⁹ Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹² instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age; ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

¹ Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,

¹¹ Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁴ I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.

³ “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. ⁴ Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”

⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”

³ Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

¹⁵ “Should you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. ¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so it was well, then. Wasn’t this to know me?” says Yahweh.

²⁷ Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”

³ Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger.

⁹ “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. ¹⁰ Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’

¹⁶ These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,

⁷ Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before Yahweh concerning all the righteous acts of Yahweh, which he did to you and to your fathers.

⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

¹ “Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment.

²¹ Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.

²⁴ You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. ²⁵ I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. ²⁶ Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified.

²² I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

² Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

² Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

⁴ He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

²⁵ As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, “Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you.”

²⁰ The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;

⁶ to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, ⁷ in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

¹⁵ Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.

¹⁰ Tell the righteous “Good!” For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹ “Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness. ³ Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

¹² Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever. ¹³ Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.” ¹⁴ “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁸ “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God. ¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’ ²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.

¹ Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. ² Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls. ³ Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.” ⁴ “I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.

²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed.

²⁸ But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ ²⁹ He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went. ³⁰ He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I’m going, sir,’ but he didn’t go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.

⁹ Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

³³ I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

²⁵ But if you keep doing evil, you will be consumed, both you and your king.”

²⁹ Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”

¹⁴ Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place; ¹⁶ but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

¹¹ Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.

²⁵ Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.

⁵ Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”

¹⁴ then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.

¹² I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

⁴ But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of Yahweh of Armies has spoken.

² in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;

¹ Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away. ² For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, ³ how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard,

¹⁵ David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.

⁹ He commanded them, saying, “You shall do this in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.

¹ The princes of the people lived in Jerusalem. The rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the other cities.

⁴ There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.

¹ A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

⁸ As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.

⁷ For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

² for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

³ “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes. ⁴ Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood, ⁵ you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? ⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? ⁷ On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice. ⁸ You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts, for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me, and have gone up. You have enlarged your bed and made you a covenant with them. You loved what you saw on their bed. ⁹ You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol.

²⁰ “For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute. ²¹ Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

¹ “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

⁸ Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs, and turns backward. ⁹ Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

¹ Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; ³ and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. ⁴ As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all. ⁵ No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born. ⁶ “‘“When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ ⁷ I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare. ⁸ “‘“Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine. ⁹ “‘“Then washed I you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sealskin sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck. ¹² I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. ¹⁴ Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁵ “‘“But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by. It was his. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shall not happen, neither shall it be. ¹⁷ You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments, covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them. ¹⁹ My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and so it was,” says the Lord Yahweh. ²⁰ “‘“Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter, ²¹ that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them? ²² In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood. ²³ “‘“It has happened after all your wickedness. Woe, woe to you!” says the Lord Yahweh, ²⁴ “that you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a lofty place in every street. ²⁵ You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution. ²⁶ You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger. ²⁷ See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your portion, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. ²⁸ You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren’t satisfied. ²⁹ You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this. ³⁰ “‘“How weak is your heart,” says the Lord Yahweh, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute; ³¹ in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay. ³² “‘“A wife who commits adultery! Who takes strangers instead of her husband! ³³ People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. ³⁴ You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.”’ ³⁵ “Therefore, prostitute, hear Yahweh’s word: ³⁶ ‘The Lord Yahweh says, “Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them; ³⁷ therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated. I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸ I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. ³⁹ I will also give you into their hand, and they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places. They will strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels. They will leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ They will also bring up a company against you, and they will stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹ They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more. ⁴² So I will cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet, and will not be angry any more. ⁴³ “‘“Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord Yahweh: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations. ⁴⁴ “‘“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you, saying, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters. ⁴⁷ Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. ⁴⁸ As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. ⁴⁹ “‘“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ They were arrogant, and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. ⁵¹ Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. ⁵² You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. ⁵³ “‘“I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them; ⁵⁴ that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. ⁵⁵ Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. ⁵⁶ For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you all around. ⁵⁸ You have borne your lewdness and your abominations,” says Yahweh. ⁵⁹ “‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰ Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant. ⁶² I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; ⁶³ that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”

¹ Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. ³ You shall say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! ⁴ You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made! You have caused your days to draw near, and have come even to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. ⁵ Those who are near, and those who are far from you, will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult. ⁶ “‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. ⁷ In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow. ⁸ You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. ⁹ Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you. ¹⁰ In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. ¹¹ One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh. ¹³ “‘“Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been within you. ¹⁴ Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you. ¹⁶ You will be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”’” ¹⁷ Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it. ²² As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.’” ²³ Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,

¹² Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

² You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; ³ who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.

¹ Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, the oppressing city! ² She didn’t obey the voice. She didn’t receive correction. She didn’t trust in Yahweh. She didn’t draw near to her God. ³ Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.

³ Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’”

³⁴ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

⁵² Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

²² But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,

² Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.

¹ How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. ² The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it. ²² As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.’”

¹⁸ Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

⁴ “Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

¹⁷ For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

⁸ “You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

¹⁹ You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. ¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen. ²⁰ The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’” ²¹ They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house.

¹⁴ Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

²³ A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴ Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.

¹⁴ Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

¹ Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees; ² to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

²⁸ They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy. ²⁹ “Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”

⁶ “‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. ⁷ In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow. ⁸ You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. ⁹ Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you. ¹⁰ In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. ¹¹ One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh.

⁵ we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances. ⁶ We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

³ They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. ⁴ They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened. ⁵ On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.

¹⁵ “All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

¹ I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

¹¹ Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

³ Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

¹⁰ Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’

⁵ I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.

¹³ He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

¹⁷ He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”

² saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. ³ A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ ⁴ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’”

⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

⁵ In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem. ⁶ Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest. ⁷ When they had stood Peter and John in the middle of them, they inquired, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, ⁹ if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, ¹⁰ may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him. ¹¹ He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’

⁶³ It will happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess.

⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.

² how he swore to Yahweh, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

²⁵ but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof; ²⁶ I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you,

²⁹ You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock.

⁴ Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

²⁶ I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹⁶ You will also drink the milk of the nations, and will nurse from royal breasts. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

² to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

⁴ For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³ “‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

⁴² So I will cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet, and will not be angry any more.

¹⁷ I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”

¹³ from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.

⁸ Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.

²² Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste, ¹² and Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land. ¹³ If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stump remains when they are cut down; so the holy seed is its stock.”

²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed in the fire. In vain they go on refining, for the wicked are not plucked away.

⁷ Therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?

³⁸ I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”

²⁰ As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you.

²² As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.’”

¹¹ In that day you will not be disappointed for all your doings, in which you have transgressed against me; for then I will take away out from among you your proudly exulting ones, and you will no more be arrogant in my holy mountain.

⁷ “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

³ and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.

¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”

¹⁹ As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

³ Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

¹⁵ Moses was very angry, and said to Yahweh, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them.”

² Now, behold, the king walks before you. I am old and gray-headed. Behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth to this day. ³ Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.” ⁴ They said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything from anyone’s hand.” ⁵ He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”

²¹ How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.

¹ Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. ² A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

⁵ Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

¹⁴ The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you; and all those who despised you will bow themselves down at the soles of your feet. They will call you Yahweh’s City, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ For bronze I will bring gold; for iron I will bring silver; for wood, bronze, and for stones, iron. I will also make peace your governor, and righteousness your ruler. ¹⁸ Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor desolation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

²¹ Then your people will all be righteous. They will inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

¹ For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp. ² The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which Yahweh’s mouth will name.

²³ Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’

⁷ I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

¹¹ the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever;’ who bring thanksgiving into Yahweh’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed as at the first,” says Yahweh.

¹⁵ “In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. This is the name by which she will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.” ¹⁷ For Yahweh says: “David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.

²³ I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. ²⁴ I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

²⁴ “‘“My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. ²⁵ They will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived. They will dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever. David my servant will be their prince forever.

⁸ In the land it shall be to him for a possession in Israel. My princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.”

⁹ For then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call on Yahweh’s name, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.

¹³ The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid.”

⁸ and I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”

²⁷ There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

¹⁶ but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

²¹ Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me. ²² “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. ²³ I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. ²⁴ They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed. ²⁵ All the offspring of Israel will be justified in Yahweh, and will rejoice!

¹² They will call them “The Holy People, Yahweh’s Redeemed”. You will be called “Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken”.

²⁴ being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; ²⁶ to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁶ and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. ²⁷ This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”

³⁰ Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

²¹ For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹⁴ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

¹⁸ knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ,

⁶ But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them; ⁷ then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸ Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house?’ ⁹ and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’”

⁹ You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

³ Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

⁶ For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

⁶ You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

⁵ You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

³⁸ As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.

²⁷ For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

⁹ For, behold, your enemies, Yahweh, for, behold, your enemies shall perish. All the evildoers will be scattered.

³⁵ Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!

⁵ But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.

¹ He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.

¹³ therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

¹¹ Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.

¹¹ “But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny;

²⁴ “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

⁴ I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, ⁵ those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam, ⁶ those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.

⁴⁵ But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, ⁴⁶ then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful.

³ For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.

⁸ punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, ⁹ who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

⁷ But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸ But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

²² You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”

⁷ For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you.

¹⁶ They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.

⁵ you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

¹⁷ “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says Yahweh.

²⁰ “For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

⁶ Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.

¹³ You will know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.

⁶³ that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”

³¹ “‘“Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

¹³ They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

³ Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

⁸ Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is found.”

²¹ What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

⁶ I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

¹¹ and Yahweh will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.

⁵ Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh. ⁶ For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land.

¹² They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.

⁹ “Say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? It can’t be raised from its roots by a strong arm or many people. ¹⁰ Yes, behold, being planted, will it prosper? Won’t it utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the beds where it grew.”’”

²⁴ All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. “‘I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.’”

⁴ The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. ⁵ Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out. ⁶ All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow. ⁷ Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. ⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its boughs. The pine trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty. ⁹ I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’ ¹⁰ “Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; ¹¹ I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness. ¹² Strangers, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow, and have left him. ¹³ All the birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all the animals of the field will be on his branches; ¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don’t set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.’ ¹⁵ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. ¹⁶ I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. ¹⁷ They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations. ¹⁸ “‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

¹⁴ When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Then Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire; and his bands dropped from off his hands.

¹⁹ Through Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, the land is burned up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.

¹¹ Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.

⁴ Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

⁹ Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch. ¹⁰ It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.

¹⁷ who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick) says:

⁴⁷ Tell the forest of the South, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. ⁴⁸ All flesh will see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.”’”

²¹ The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword.

¹ “For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

¹⁰ “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.

⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched— ⁴⁶ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

¹⁴ The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. ¹⁵ The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”

¹⁰ he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

²⁰ The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

¹⁰ The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.