Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin;

²Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame, And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.

⁴For their officials are at Zoan And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.

⁵Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who do not benefit them, Who are not a help or benefit, but a source of shame and also disgrace.”

⁶The pronouncement concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of distress and anguish, From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent, They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on camels’ humps, To a people who will not benefit them;

⁷Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore, I have called her “Rahab who has been exterminated.”

⁸Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence And inscribe it on a scroll, That it may serve in the time to come As a witness forever.

⁹For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD;

¹⁰Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy the truth to us. Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions.

¹¹Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Stop speaking before us about the Holy One of Israel!”

¹²Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Since you have rejected this word And have put your trust in oppression and crookedness, and have relied on them,

¹³Therefore this wrongdoing will be to you Like a breach about to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,

¹⁴Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a shard will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

¹⁵For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,

¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses!” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on swift horses!” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one man; You will flee at the threat of five, Until you are left like a signal post on a mountain top, And like a flag on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

¹⁹For, you people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will certainly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.

²⁰Although the Lord has given you bread of deprivation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher, will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher.

²¹Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

²²And you will desecrate your carved images plated with silver, and your cast metal images plated with gold. You will scatter them as a filthy thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

²³Then He will give you rain for your seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful; on that day your livestock will graze in a wide pasture.

²⁴Also the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned feed, which has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

²⁵And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the wound He has inflicted.

²⁷Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; His anger is burning and dense with smoke; His lips are filled with indignation, And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

²⁸His breath is like an overflowing river, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads astray.

²⁹You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival, And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute, To go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰And the LORD will cause His voice of authority to be heard, And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger, And in the flame of a consuming fire In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.

³¹For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified, When He strikes with the rod.

³²And every blow of the rod of punishment, Which the LORD will lay on him, Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres; And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.

³³For Topheth has long been ready, Indeed, it has been prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large, A pyre of fire with plenty of wood; The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!

²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of the workers of injustice.

³Now the Egyptians are human and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And any helper will stumble, And one who is helped will fall. And all of them will come to an end together.

⁴For this is what the LORD says to me: “As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, Against which a band of shepherds is called out, And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, So will the LORD of armies come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

⁵Like flying birds so the LORD of armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and save it; He will pass over and rescue it.

⁶Return to Him against whom you have been profoundly obstinate, you sons of Israel.

⁷For on that day every person will reject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made for you as a sin.

⁸And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not wielded by a man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers.

⁹“His rock will pass away because of panic, And his officers will be terrified by the flag,” Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

¹Behold, a king will reign righteously, And officials will rule justly.

²Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in an exhausted land.

³Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, And the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴The mind of the rash will discern the truth, And the tongue of the stammerers will hurry to speak clearly.

⁵No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.

⁶For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness: To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

⁷As for a rogue, his weapons are evil; He devises wicked schemes To destroy the poor with slander, Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

⁸But the noble person devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, And hear my voice; Listen to my word, You complacent daughters.

¹⁰Within a year and a few days You will be troubled, you complacent daughters; For the vintage is ended, And the fruit gathering will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent daughters; Strip, undress, and put sackcloth on your waist,

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

¹³For the land of my people in which thorns and briars will come up; Indeed, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.

¹⁴For the palace has been neglected, the populated city abandoned. Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever, A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

¹⁵Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fertile field, And the fertile field is considered as a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness will remain in the fertile field.

¹⁷And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸Then my people will live in a peaceful settlement, In secure dwellings, and in undisturbed resting places;

¹⁹And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters, Who let the ox and the donkey out freely.

¹Woe to you, destroyer, While you were not destroyed; And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him. As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed; As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

²LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their strength every morning, Our salvation also in the time of distress.

³At the sound of a roar, peoples flee; At the lifting up of Yourself, nations disperse.

⁴Your plunder is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; Like an infestation of locusts, people storm it.

⁵The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; The fear of the LORD is his treasure.

⁷Behold, their brave men cry out in the streets, The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased, He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, He has no regard for mankind.

⁹The land mourns and wastes away, Lebanon is shamed and withers; Sharon is like a desert plain, And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.

¹⁰“Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

¹¹You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble; My breath will consume you like a fire.

¹²The peoples will be burned to lime, Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

¹³“You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?”

¹⁵One who walks righteously and speaks with integrity, One who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; One who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking at evil;

¹⁶He will dwell on the heights, His refuge will be the impregnable rock; His bread will be given him, His water will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see a distant land.

¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is one who counts? Where is one who weighs? Where is one who counts the towers?”

¹⁹You will no longer see a fierce people, A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends, Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

²⁰Look at Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed settlement, A tent which will not be folded; Its stakes will never be pulled up, Nor any of its ropes be torn apart.

²¹But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us A place of rivers and wide canals On which no boat with oars will go, And on which no mighty ship will pass—

²²For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will save us—

²³Your ship’s tackle hangs slack; It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly, Nor spread out the sail. Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided; Those who limp will take the plunder.

²⁴And no resident will say, “I am sick”; The people who live there will be forgiven their wrongdoing.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

²For the LORD’S anger is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them, He has turned them over to slaughter.

³So their slain will be thrown out, And their corpses will give off their stench, And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.

⁴And all the heavenly lights will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All its lights will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree.

⁵For My sword has drunk its fill in heaven; Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom, And upon the people whom I have designated for destruction.

⁶The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷Wild oxen will also fall with them And young bulls with strong ones; So their land will be soaked with blood, And their dust become greasy with fat.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of retribution for the cause of Zion.

⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It will not be extinguished night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness.

¹²Its nobles—there is no one there Whom they may proclaim king— And all its officials will be nothing.

¹³Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities; It will also be a haunt of jackals And a habitat of ostriches.

¹⁴The desert creatures will meet with the wolves, The goat also will cry to its kind. Yes, the night-bird will settle there And will find herself a resting place.

¹⁵The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there, And it will hatch and gather them under its protection. Yes, the hawks will be gathered there, Every one with its kind.

¹⁶Seek from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these will be missing; None will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, And His Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it to them by the measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

¹The wilderness and the desert will rejoice, And the desert will shout for joy and blossom; Like the crocus

²It will blossom profusely And rejoice with joy and jubilation. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God.

³Strengthen the exhausted, and make the feeble strong.

⁴Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The retribution of God will come, But He will save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened, And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.

⁶Then those who limp will leap like a deer, And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.

⁷The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for the one who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.

⁹No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious animal go up on it; They will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰And the redeemed of the LORD will return And come to Zion with joyful shouting, And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the fuller’s field.

³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.

⁴And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have?

⁵I say, ‘Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?

⁶Behold, you have relied on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

⁷But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

⁸Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

⁹How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰And have I now come up without the LORD’S approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”

¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you;

¹⁵and do not let Hezekiah lead you to rely on the LORD, saying, “The LORD will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!”

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the waters of his own cistern,

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The LORD will save us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they saved Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have saved their land from my hand, that the LORD would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they were silent and did not answer him so much as a word; for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹Now when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.

²Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

³And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.

⁴Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘This is what the LORD says: “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

⁷Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear news and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

⁹Now he heard them say regarding Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰“This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

¹¹Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved?

¹²Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’ ”

¹⁴Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.

¹⁵Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,

¹⁶“LORD of armies, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Incline Your ear, LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to taunt the living God.

¹⁸Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands,

¹⁹and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but only the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

²⁰But now LORD, our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: “She has shown contempt for you and derided you, The virgin daughter of Zion; The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind you!

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily raised your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice junipers. And I will come to its highest peak, its thickest forest.

²⁵I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the canals of Egypt.’

²⁶Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it about That you would turn fortified cities into ruined heaps.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants were powerless, They were shattered and put to shame; They were like the vegetation of the field and the green grass, Like grass on the housetops that is scorched before it has grown.

²⁸But I know your sitting down, Your going out, your coming in, And your raging against Me.

²⁹Because of your raging against Me And because your complacency has come up to My ears, I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way that you came.

³⁰“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what grows from the same, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

³¹The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

³²For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of armies will perform this.” ’

³³“Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, nor heap up an assault ramp against it.

³⁴By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the LORD.

³⁵‘For I will protect this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

³⁶Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead.

³⁷So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived in Nineveh.

³⁸Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are going to die and not live.’ ”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

³and said, “Please, LORD, just remember how I have walked before You wholeheartedly and in truth, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept profusely.

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David says: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶And I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city.” ’

⁷“And this shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will perform this word that He has spoken:

⁸Behold, I will make the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

⁹This is a writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I have been deprived of the rest of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.

¹³I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

¹⁵“What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will walk quietly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶Lord, by these things people live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; Restore me to health and let me live!

¹⁷Behold, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; But You have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have hurled all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

¹⁹It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

²⁰The LORD is certain to save me; So we will play my songs on stringed instruments All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.”

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.”

²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

¹At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

²Hezekiah was pleased, and let them see all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the balsam oil, the excellent olive oil, his entire armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his realm that Hezekiah did not let them see.

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

⁴Then he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not let them see.”

⁵Isaiah then said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of armies,

⁶‘Behold, the days are coming when everything that is in your house, and what your fathers have stored up to this day, will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the LORD.

⁷‘And some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

²“Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her guilt has been removed, That she has received of the LORD’S hand Double for all her sins.”

³The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the uneven ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;

⁵Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

⁶A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; The people are indeed grass!

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

⁹Go up on a high mountain, Zion, messenger of good news, Raise your voice forcefully, Jerusalem, messenger of good news; Raise it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

¹⁰Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His compensation is with Him, And His reward before Him.

¹¹Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in the fold of His robe; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And measured the heavens with a span, And calculated the dust of the earth with a measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him?

¹⁴With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge, And informed Him of the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

¹⁶Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

¹⁹As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter.

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³It is He who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

²⁴Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.

²⁵“To whom then will you compare Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.

²⁶Raise your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who brings out their multitude by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, Jacob, and you assert, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives strength to the weary, And to the one who lacks might He increases power.

³⁰Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,

³¹Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

¹“Listen to Me in silence, you coastlands, And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them speak; Let’s come together for judgment.

²Who has stirred one from the east Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He turns nations over to him And subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, Like the wind-driven chaff with his bow.

³He pursues them, passing on in safety, By a way he had not been traversing with his feet.

⁴Who has performed and accomplished it, Summoning the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’ ”

⁵The coastlands have seen and are afraid; The ends of the earth tremble; They have approached and have come.

⁶Each one helps his neighbor And says to his brother, “Be strong!”

⁷So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, “It is good”; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter.

⁸“But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend,

⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth And called from its remotest parts, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

¹¹Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.

¹²You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.

¹³For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’

¹⁴Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you people of Israel; I will help you,” declares the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I turned you into a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, And make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, And the storm will scatter them; But you will rejoice in the LORD, You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them Myself; As the God of Israel I will not abandon them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights, And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land fountains of water.

¹⁹I will put the cedar in the wilderness, The acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will place the juniper in the desert, Together with the elm tree and the cypress,

²⁰So that they may see and recognize, And consider and gain insight as well, That the hand of the LORD has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹“Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your evidence,” The King of Jacob says.

²²Let them bring them forward and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, So that we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming;

²³Declare the things that are going to come afterward, So that we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may be afraid and fear together.

²⁴Behold, you are less than nothing, And your work is less than nothing! He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵“I have put one from the north into motion, and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My name; And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, As the potter treads on clay.”

²⁶Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know? Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”? There was no one at all who declared, There was no one at all who proclaimed, There was no one at all who heard your words.

²⁷“Previously I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’ And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’

²⁸But when I look, there is no one, And there is no counselor among them Who, if I ask, can give an answer.

²⁹Behold, all of them are false; Their works are nothing, Their cast metal images are wind and emptiness.

¹“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

²He will not cry out nor raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street.

³A bent reed He will not break off And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

⁴He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice on the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”

⁵This is what God the LORD says, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it:

⁶“I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,

⁷To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

⁸I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to idols.

⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they sprout I proclaim them to you.”

¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it; You islands, and those who live on them.

¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, The settlements which Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains.

¹²Let them give glory to the LORD And declare His praise in the coastlands.

¹³The LORD will go out like a warrior, He will stir His zeal like a man of war. He will shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.

¹⁴“I have kept silent for a long time, I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now like a woman in labor I will groan, I will both gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds.

¹⁶I will lead those who are blind by a way they have not known, In paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them And uneven land into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not leave them undone.”

¹⁷They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in idols, Who say to cast metal images, “You are our gods.”

¹⁸Hear, you who are deaf! And look, you who are blind, so that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as one who is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD?

²⁰You have seen many things, but you do not retain them; Your ears are open, but no one hears.

²¹The LORD was pleased for His righteousness’ sake To make the Law great and glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become plunder, with no one to save them, And spoils with no one to say, “Give them back!”

²³Who among you will listen to this? Who will pay attention and listen in the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoils, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose Law they did not obey?

²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention.