Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin;

²Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation.

⁴For his princes were at Zoan, And his ambassadors came to Hanes.

⁵They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help or benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.”

⁶The burden against the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit;

⁷For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever:

⁹That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the LORD;

¹⁰Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.

¹¹Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, And trust in oppression and perversity, And rely on them,

¹³Therefore this iniquity shall be to you Like a breach ready to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, Which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments A shard to take fire from the hearth, Or to take water from the cistern.”

¹⁵For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not,

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 shall flee at the threat of one, At the threat of five you shall flee, Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain And as a banner on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

¹⁹For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you.

²⁰And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.

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

²²You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”

²³Then He will give the rain for your seed With which you sow the ground, And bread of the increase of the earth; It will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed In large pastures.

²⁴Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground Will eat cured fodder, Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.

²⁵There will be on every high mountain And on every high hill Rivers and streams of waters, In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall.

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people And heals the stroke of their wound.

²⁷Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, Burning with His anger, And His burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, And His tongue like a devouring fire.

²⁸His breath is like an overflowing stream, Which reaches up to the neck, To sift the nations with the sieve of futility; And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, Causing them to err.

²⁹You shall have a song As in the night when a holy festival is kept, And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, To come into the mountain of the LORD, To the Mighty One of Israel.

³⁰The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm, With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.

³¹For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down, As He strikes with the rod.

³²And in every place where the staff of punishment passes, Which the LORD lays on him, It will be with tambourines and harps; And in battles of brandishing He will fight with it.

³³For Tophet was established of old, Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood; The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, Kindles it.

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

²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity.

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together.

⁴For thus the LORD has spoken to me: “As a lion roars, And a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice Nor be disturbed by their noise), So the LORD of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.

⁵Like birds flying about, So will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

⁷For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold— sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸“Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, And his young men shall become forced labor.

⁹He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear, And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,” Says the LORD, Whose fire is in Zion And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, And princes will rule with justice.

²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, And a cover from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

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

⁴Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful;

⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the LORD, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice.

⁸But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, Hear my voice; You complacent daughters, Give ear to my speech.

¹⁰In a year and some days You will be troubled, you complacent women; For the vintage will fail, The gathering will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;

¹⁴Because the palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—

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

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

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace, And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.

¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,

¹⁹Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

¹Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, They will deal treacherously with you.

²O LORD, be gracious to us; We have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, Our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the tumult the people shall flee; When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;

⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.

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

⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside, The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

⁸The highways lie waste, The traveling man ceases. He has broken the covenant, He has despised the cities, He regards no man.

⁹The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and shriveled; Sharon is like a wilderness, And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

¹⁰“Now I will rise,” says the LORD; “Now I will be exalted, Now I will lift Myself up.

¹¹You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble; Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:

¹⁶He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.

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

¹⁹You will not see a fierce people, A people of obscure speech, beyond perception, Of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, A tabernacle that will not be taken down; Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, Nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the majestic LORD will be for us A place of broad rivers and streams, In which no galley with oars will sail, Nor majestic ships pass by

²²(For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Lawgiver, The LORD is our King; He will save us);

²³Your tackle is loosed, They could not strengthen their mast, They could not spread the sail. Then the prey of great plunder is divided; The lame take the prey.

²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it.

²For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter.

³Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

⁴All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment.

⁶The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, 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.

⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

⁹Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches.

¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest.

¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs And hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.

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

¹The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;

²It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.

⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

⁶Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.

⁷The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray.

⁹No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,

¹⁰And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

²Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

³And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust?

⁵I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?

⁶Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, 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 trust in him.

⁷“But 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 said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’

⁸Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

⁹How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰Have I now come up without the LORD 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 the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

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

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

¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;

¹⁵nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink 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 lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”

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

¹And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

²Then 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.

³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

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

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

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

⁷Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

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

⁹And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

¹¹Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

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

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:

¹⁶“O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

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

¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.

²⁰Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone.”

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back!

²³“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest.

²⁵I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.’

²⁶“Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁸“But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me.

²⁹Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.” ’

³⁰“This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

³¹And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward.

³²For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

³³“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it.

³⁴By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the LORD.

³⁵‘For I will defend 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 killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

³⁸Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

¹In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

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

³and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

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

⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.

⁶I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.” ’

⁷And this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which He has spoken:

⁸“Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.

⁹This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”

¹¹I said, “I shall not see YAH, The LORD in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.

¹³I have considered until morning— Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!

¹⁵“What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, And He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live.

¹⁷Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast 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 truth.

¹⁹The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children.

²⁰“The LORD was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the LORD.”

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”

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

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

²And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

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

⁴And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

⁶‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD.

⁷‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

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

¹“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God.

²“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand Double for all her sins.”

³The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth;

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

⁶The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.

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

⁹O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

¹⁰Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.

¹¹He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.

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

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

¹⁴With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.

¹⁶And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.

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

¹⁹The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains.

²⁰Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

²¹Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told 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 dwell in.

²³He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.

²⁴Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

²⁵“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,

³¹But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

¹“Keep silence before Me, O coastlands, And let the people renew their strength! Let them come near, then let them speak; Let us come near together for judgment.

²“Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to His feet? Who gave the nations before him, And made him rule over kings? Who gave them as the dust to his sword, As driven stubble to his bow?

³Who pursued them, and passed safely By the way that he had not gone with his feet?

⁴Who has performed and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the LORD, am the first; And with the last I am He.’ ”

⁵The coastlands saw it and feared, The ends of the earth were afraid; They drew near and came.

⁶Everyone helped his neighbor, And said to his brother, “Be of good courage!”

⁷So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith; He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, Saying, “It is ready for the soldering”; Then he fastened it with pegs, That it might not totter.

⁸“But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend.

⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:

¹⁰Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

¹¹“Behold, all those who were incensed against you Shall be ashamed and disgraced; They shall be as nothing, And those who strive with you shall perish.

¹²You shall seek them and not find them— Those who contended with you. Those who war against you Shall be as nothing, As a nonexistent thing.

¹³For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

¹⁴“Fear not, you worm Jacob, You men of Israel! I will help you,” says the LORD And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵“Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, And make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away, And the whirlwind shall scatter them; You shall rejoice in the LORD, And glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the LORD, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

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

¹⁹I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, The myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine And the box tree together,

²⁰That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the LORD has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹“Present your case,” says the LORD. “Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob.

²²“Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; Or declare to us things to come.

²³Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together.

²⁴Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵“I have raised up one from the north, And he shall come; From the rising of the sun he shall call on My name; And he shall come against princes as though mortar, As the potter treads clay.

²⁶Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? And former times, that we may say, ‘He is righteous’? Surely there is no one who shows, Surely there is no one who declares, Surely there is no one who hears your words.

²⁷The first time I said to Zion, ‘Look, there they are!’ And I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings.

²⁸For I looked, and there was no man; I looked among them, but there was no counselor, Who, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

²⁹Indeed they are all worthless; Their works are nothing; Their molded images are wind and confusion.

¹“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

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

³A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

⁵Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it:

⁶“I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles,

⁷To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

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

⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise from the ends of the earth, You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, The villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing, Let them shout from the top of the mountains.

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

¹³The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies.

¹⁴“I have held My peace a long time, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor, I will pant and gasp at once.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills, And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers coastlands, And I will dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be turned back, They shall be greatly ashamed, Who trust in carved images, Who say to the molded images, ‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf; And look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind but My servant, Or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect, And blind as the LORD’s servant?

²⁰Seeing many things, but you do not observe; Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

²¹The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable.

²²But this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in holes, And they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, Nor were they obedient to His law.

²⁵Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger And the strength of battle; It has set him on fire all around, Yet he did not know; And it burned him, Yet he did not take it to heart.