The Message - Isaiah

Isaiah

Isaiah 1 (The Message)

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. 2 Heaven and earth, you're the jury. Listen to God's case: "I had children and raised them well, and they turned on me. 3 The ox knows who's boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not Israel. My people don't know up from down. 4 Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals - My people have walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back. 5 "Why bother even trying to do anything with you when you just keep to your bullheaded ways? You keep beating your heads against brick walls. Everything within you protests against you. 6 From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores - untended, unwashed, unbandaged. 7 Your country is laid waste, your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch, reduced to rubble by barbarians. 8 Daughter Zion is deserted - like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats. 9 If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah. 10 "Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God's revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people. 11 "Why this frenzy of sacrifices?" God's asking. "Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don't you think I've had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? 12 When you come before me, who ever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that - all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship? 13 "Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings - meetings, meetings, meetings - I can't stand one more! 14 Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You've worn me out! I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. 15 When you put on your next prayer-performance, I'll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. 16 Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. 17 Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. Let's Argue This Out 18 "Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out." This is God's Message: "If your sins are blood-red, they'll be snow-white. If they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool. 19 If you'll willingly obey, you'll feast like kings. 20 But if you're willful and stubborn, you'll die like dogs." That's right. God says so. Those Who Walk Out on God 21 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city has become a whore! She was once all justice, everyone living as good neighbors, And now they're all at one another's throats. 22 Your coins are all counterfeits. Your wine is watered down. 23 Your leaders are turncoats who keep company with crooks. They sell themselves to the highest bidder and grab anything not nailed down. They never stand up for the homeless, never stick up for the defenseless. 24 This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Strong One of Israel: "This is it! I'll get my oppressors off my back. I'll get back at my enemies. 25 I'll give you the back of my hand, purge the junk from your life, clean you up. 26 I'll set honest judges and wise counselors among you just like it was back in the beginning. Then you'll be renamed City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City." 27 God's right ways will put Zion right again. God's right actions will restore her penitents. 28 But it's curtains for rebels and God-traitors, a dead end for those who walk out on God. 29 "Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines will leave you looking mighty foolish, All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens that you thought was the latest thing. 30 You'll end up like an oak tree with all its leaves falling off, Like an unwatered garden, withered and brown. 31 'The Big Man' will turn out to be dead bark and twigs, and his 'work,' the spark that starts the fire That exposes man and work both as nothing but cinders and smoke."

Isaiah 2 (The Message)

1 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem: 2 There's a day coming when the mountain of God's House Will be The Mountain - solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it. 3 They'll say, "Come, let's climb God's Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He'll show us the way he works so we can live the way we're made." Zion's the source of the revelation. God's Message comes from Jerusalem. 4 He'll settle things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore. 5 Come, family of Jacob, let's live in the light of God. 6 God, you've walked out on your family Jacob because their world is full of hokey religion, Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus, 7 a world rolling in wealth, Stuffed with things, no end to its machines and gadgets, 8 And gods - gods of all sorts and sizes. These people make their own gods and worship what they make. 9 A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter. Don't bother with them! They're not worth forgiving! Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth 10 Head for the hills, hide in the caves From the terror of God, from his dazzling presence. 11 People with a big head are headed for a fall, pretentious egos brought down a peg. It's God alone at front-and-center on the Day we're talking about, 12 The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies is matched against all big-talking rivals, against all swaggering big names; 13 Against all giant sequoias hugely towering, and against the expansive chestnut; 14 Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna, against the ranges of Alps and Andes; 15 Against every soaring skyscraper, against all proud obelisks and statues; 16 Against ocean-going luxury liners, against elegant three-masted schooners. 17 The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders, the pretentious egos brought down to earth, Leaving God alone at front-and-center on the Day we're talking about. 18 And all those sticks and stones dressed up to look like gods will be gone for good. 19 Clamber into caves in the cliffs, duck into any hole you can find. Hide from the terror of God, from his dazzling presence, When he assumes his full stature on earth, towering and terrifying. 20 On that Day men and women will take the sticks and stones They've decked out in gold and silver to look like gods and then worshiped, And they will dump them in any ditch or gully, 21 Then run for rock caves and cliff hideouts To hide from the terror of God, from his dazzling presence, When he assumes his full stature on earth, towering and terrifying. 22 Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans, so full of themselves, so full of hot air! Can't you see there's nothing to them?

Isaiah 3 (The Message)

1 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. 2 He's withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, 3 captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. 4 He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. 5 People will be at each other's throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbor against neighbor, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. 6 One brother will grab another and say, 'You look like you've got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess.' 7 And he'll say, 'Me? Not me! I don't have a clue. Don't put me in charge of anything.' 8 "Jerusalem's on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in my face. 9 Brazen in their depravity, they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed; now they'll sleep in it. 10 "Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. 11 But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them. 12 "Skinny kids terrorize my people. Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley. They're sending you off on a wild goose chase." A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows 13 God enters the courtroom. He takes his place at the bench to judge his people. 14 God calls for order in the court, hauls the leaders of his people into the dock: "You've played havoc with this country. Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor. 15 What is this anyway? Stomping on my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?" That's what the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says. 16 God says, "Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street, swinging their hips, Tossing their hair, gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry." 17 The Master will fix it so those Zion women will all turn bald - Scabby, bald-headed women. The Master will do it. 18 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles - 19 the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, 20 combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, 21 the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, 22 the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, 23 all the world's finest in fabrics and design. 24 Instead of wearing seductive scents, these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns, they'll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos, scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks, scabs and scars. 25 Your finest fighting men will be killed, your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. 26 The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead - A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrows.

Isaiah 4 (The Message)

1 That will be the day when seven women will gang up on one man, saying, "We'll take care of ourselves, get our own food and clothes. Just give us a child. Make us pregnant so we'll have something to live for!" God's Branch 2 And that's when God's Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel's survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they'll hold their heads high! 3 Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as "holy" - alive and therefore precious. 4 God will give Zion's women a good bath. He'll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment. 5 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, 6 shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

Isaiah 5 (The Message)

1 I'll sing a ballad to the one I love, a love ballad about his vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard, a fine, well-placed vineyard. 2 He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds, and planted the very best vines. He built a lookout, built a winepress, a vineyard to be proud of. He looked for a vintage yield of grapes, but for all his pains he got junk grapes. 3 "Now listen to what I'm telling you, you who live in Jerusalem and Judah. What do you think is going on between me and my vineyard? 4 Can you think of anything I could have done to my vineyard that I didn't do? When I expected good grapes, why did I get bitter grapes? 5 "Well now, let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard: I'll tear down its fence and let it go to ruin. I'll knock down the gate and let it be trampled. 6 I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for - thistles and thorns will take over. I'll give orders to the clouds: 'Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'" 7 Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies is the country of Israel. All the men and women of Judah are the garden he was so proud of. He looked for a crop of justice and saw them murdering each other. He looked for a harvest of righteousness and heard only the moans of victims. You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil 8 Doom to you who buy up all the houses and grab all the land for yourselves - Evicting the old owners, posting no trespassing signs, Taking over the country, leaving everyone homeless and landless. 9 I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say: "Those mighty houses will end up empty. Those extravagant estates will be deserted. 10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine, a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain." 11 Doom to those who get up early and start drinking booze before breakfast, Who stay up all hours of the night drinking themselves into a stupor. 12 They make sure their banquets are well-furnished with harps and flutes and plenty of wine, But they'll have nothing to do with the work of God, pay no mind to what he is doing. 13 Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don't know the score. Their "big men" will starve to death and the common people die of thirst. 14 Sheol developed a huge appetite, swallowing people nonstop! Big people and little people alike down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks. 15 The down-and-out on a par with the high-and-mighty, Windbag boasters crumpled, flaccid as a punctured bladder. 16 But by working justice, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain. By working righteousness, Holy God will show what "holy" is. 17 And lambs will graze as if they owned the place, Kids and calves right at home in the ruins. 18 Doom to you who use lies to sell evil, who haul sin to market by the truckload, 19 Who say, "What's God waiting for? Let him get a move on so we can see it. Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up, we'd like to check it out." 20 Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, Who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Doom to you who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves! 22 All you're good at is drinking - champion boozers who collect trophies from drinking bouts 23 And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty while you violate the rights of the innocent. 24 But they won't get by with it. As fire eats stubble and dry grass goes up in smoke, Their souls will atrophy, their achievements crumble into dust, Because they said no to the revelation of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Would have nothing to do with The Holy of Israel. 25 That's why God flamed out in anger against his people, reached out and knocked them down. The mountains trembled as their dead bodies piled up in the streets. But even after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. 26 He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation, whistles for people at the ends of the earth. And here they come - on the run! 27 None drag their feet, no one stumbles, no one sleeps or dawdles. Shirts are on and pants buckled, every boot is spit-polished and tied. 28 Their arrows are sharp, bows strung, The hooves of their horses shod, chariot wheels greased. 29 Roaring like a pride of lions, the full-throated roars of young lions, They growl and seize their prey, dragging it off - no rescue for that one! 30 They'll roar and roar and roar on that Day, like the roar of ocean billows. Look as long and hard as you like at that land, you'll see nothing but darkness and trouble. Every light in the sky will be blacked out by the clouds. Holy, Holy, Holy!

Isaiah 6 (The Message)

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne - high, exalted! - and the train of his robes filled the Temple. 2 Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew." 3 And they called back and forth one to the other, Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth. 4 The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. 5 I said, "Doom! It's Doomsday! I'm as good as dead! Every word I've ever spoken is tainted - blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I've looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!" 6 Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with the coal and said, "Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out." 8 And then I heard the voice of the Master: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" I spoke up, "I'll go. Send me!" 9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it; look hard, but you won't catch on.' 10 Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won't see a thing, won't hear a word, So they won't have a clue about what's going on and, yes, so they won't turn around and be made whole." 11 Astonished, I said, "And Master, how long is this to go on?" He said, "Until the cities are emptied out, not a soul left in the cities - Houses empty of people, countryside empty of people. 12 Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off, the land totally empty. 13 And even if some should survive, say a tenth, the devastation will start up again. The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down - Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there's a holy seed in those stumps."

Isaiah 7 (The Message)

1 During the time that Ahaz son of Jothan, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out. 2 When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind. 3 Then God told Isaiah, "Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. 4 Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don't be afraid. And don't panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there's nothing to them. 5 Aram, along with Ephraim's son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They've conspired against you, saying, 6 'Let's go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.' 7 But God, the Master, says, "It won't happen. Nothing will come of it 8 Because the capital of Aram is Damascus and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin. As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years it will be rubble, nothing left of it. 9 The capital of Ephraim is Samaria, and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah. If you don't take your stand in faith, you won't have a leg to stand on." 10 God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, 11 "Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!" 12 But Ahaz said, "I'd never do that. I'd never make demands like that on God!" 13 So Isaiah told him, "Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired. 14 So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). 15 By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, 16 the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. 17 But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!" 18 That's when God will whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt's Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria. 19 They'll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There'll be no getting away from them. 20 And that's when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates - the king of Assyria no less! - and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He'll shave off your beards while he's at it. 21 It will be a time when survivors will count themselves lucky to have a cow and a couple of sheep. 22 At least they'll have plenty of milk! Whoever's left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods - curds, say, and honey. 23 But that's not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards - thousands of them, worth millions! - will revert to a weed patch. 24 Weeds and thorn bushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits. 25 Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds - but there won't be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.

Isaiah 8 (The Message)

1 Then God told me, "Get a big sheet of paper and write in indelible ink, 'This belongs to Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Spoil-Speeds-Plunder-Hurries).'" 2 I got two honest men, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, to witness the document. 3 Then I went home to my wife, the prophetess. She conceived and gave birth to a son. 4 Before that baby says 'Daddy' or 'Mamma' the king of Assyria will have plundered the wealth of Damascus and the riches of Samaria." 5 God spoke to me again, saying: 6 "Because this people has turned its back on the gently flowing stream of Shiloah And gotten all excited over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 I'm stepping in and facing them with the wild floodwaters of the Euphrates, The king of Assyria and all his fanfare, a river in flood, bursting its banks, 8 Pouring into Judah, sweeping everything before it, water up to your necks, A huge wingspan of a raging river, O Immanuel, spreading across your land." 9 But face the facts, all you oppressors, and then wring your hands. Listen, all of you, far and near. Prepare for the worst and wring your hands. Yes, prepare for the worst and wring your hands! 10 Plan and plot all you want - nothing will come of it. All your talk is mere talk, empty words, Because when all is said and done, the last word is Immanuel - God-With-Us. A Boulder Blocking Your Way 11 God spoke strongly to me, grabbed me with both hands and warned me not to go along with this people. He said: 12 "Don't be like this people, always afraid somebody is plotting against them. Don't fear what they fear. Don't take on their worries. 13 If you're going to worry, worry about The Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 14 The Holy can be either a Hiding Place or a Boulder blocking your way, The Rock standing in the willful way of both houses of Israel, A barbed-wire Fence preventing trespass to the citizens of Jerusalem. 15 Many of them are going to run into that Rock and get their bones broken, Get tangled up in that barbed wire and not get free of it." 16 Gather up the testimony, preserve the teaching for my followers, 17 While I wait for God as long as he remains in hiding, while I wait and hope for him. 18 I stand my ground and hope, I and the children God gave me as signs to Israel, Warning signs and hope signs from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who makes his home in Mount Zion. 19 When people tell you, "Try out the fortunetellers. Consult the spiritualists. Why not tap into the spirit-world, get in touch with the dead?" 20 Tell them, "No, we're going to study the Scriptures." People who try the other ways get nowhere - a dead end! 21 Frustrated and famished, they try one thing after another. When nothing works out they get angry, cursing first this god and then that one, Looking this way and that, 22 up, down, and sideways - and seeing nothing, A blank wall, an empty hole. They end up in the dark with nothing.

Isaiah 9 (The Message)

1 But there'll be no darkness for those who were in trouble. Earlier he did bring the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali into disrepute, but the time is coming when he'll make that whole area glorious - the road along the Sea, the country past the Jordan, international Galilee. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows - light! sunbursts of light! 3 You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they're so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. 4 The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants - all their whips and cudgels and curses - Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon's old victory over Midian. 5 The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! 6 For a child has been born - for us! the gift of a son - for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. 7 His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this. God Answered Fire with Fire 8 The Master sent a message against Jacob. It landed right on Israel's doorstep. 9 All the people soon heard the message, Ephraim and the citizens of Samaria. But they were a proud and arrogant bunch. They dismissed the message, saying, 10 "Things aren't that bad. We can handle anything that comes. If our buildings are knocked down, we'll rebuild them bigger and finer. If our forests are cut down, we'll replant them with finer trees." 11 So God incited their adversaries against them, stirred up their enemies to attack: 12 From the east, Arameans; from the west, Philistines. They made hash of Israel. But even after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. 13 But the people paid no mind to him who hit them, didn't seek God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 14 So God hacked off Israel's head and tail, palm branch and reed, both on the same day. 15 The big-head elders were the head, the lying prophets were the tail. 16 Those who were supposed to lead this people led them down blind alleys, And those who followed the leaders ended up lost and confused. 17 That's why the Master lost interest in the young men, had no feeling for their orphans and widows. All of them were godless and evil, talking filth and folly. And even after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. 18 Their wicked lives raged like an out-of-control fire, the kind that burns everything in its path - Trees and bushes, weeds and grasses - filling the skies with smoke. 19 God-of-the-Angel-Armies answered fire with fire, set the whole country on fire, Turned the people into consuming fires, consuming one another in their lusts - 20 Appetites insatiable, stuffing and gorging themselves left and right with people and things. But still they starved. Not even their children were safe from their rapacious hunger. 21 Manasseh ate Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and then the two ganged up against Judah. And after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

Isaiah 10 (The Message)

1 Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims - 2 Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, Exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. 3 What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you? 4 A sorry sight you'll be then, huddled with the prisoners, or just some corpses stacked in the street. Even after all this, God is still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. Doom to Assyria! 5 "Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger. My wrath is a cudgel in his hands! 6 I send him against a godless nation, against the people I'm angry with. I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind, and then push their faces in the mud and leave them. 7 But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He's out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can. 8 Assyria says, 'Aren't my commanders all kings? Can't they do whatever they like? 9 Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish? Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus? 10 I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria. 11 So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'" 12 When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, 13 the way he goes around saying, "'I've done all this by myself. I know more than anyone. I've wiped out the boundaries of whole countries. I've walked in and taken anything I wanted. I charged in like a bull and toppled their kings from their thrones. 14 I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest. Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, And no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.'" 15 Does an ax take over from the one who swings it? Does a saw act more important than the sawyer? As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger! As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails! 16 Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters. Under the canopy of God's bright glory a fierce fire will break out. 17 Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush. 18 God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens. The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing like a disease-ridden invalid. 19 A child could count what's left of the trees on the fingers of his two hands. 20 And on that Day also, what's left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They'll lean on God, The Holy - yes, truly. 21 The ragtag remnant - what's left of Jacob - will come back to the Strong God. 22 Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. 23 For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe. 24 Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: "My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don't be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. 25 In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I'll turn my destroying anger on them. 26 I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o'-nine-tails and finish them off decisively - as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. 27 On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck." Assyria's on the move: up from Rimmon, 28 on to Aiath, through Migron, with a bivouac at Micmash. 29 They've crossed the pass, set camp at Geba for the night. Ramah trembles with fright. Gibeah of Saul has run off. 30 Cry for help, daughter of Gallim! Listen to her, Laishah! Do something, Anathoth! 31 Madmenah takes to the hills. The people of Gebim flee in panic. 32 The enemy's soon at Nob - nearly there! In sight of the city he shakes his fist At the mount of dear daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, swings his ax and lops the branches, Chops down the giant trees, lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march. 34 His ax will make toothpicks of that forest, that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.

Isaiah 11 (The Message)

1 A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse's stump, from his roots a budding Branch. 2 The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God. 3 Fear-of-God will be all his joy and delight. He won't judge by appearances, won't decide on the basis of hearsay. 4 He'll judge the needy by what is right, render decisions on earth's poor with justice. His words will bring everyone to awed attention. A mere breath from his lips will topple the wicked. 5 Each morning he'll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land. A Living Knowledge of God 6 The wolf will romp with the lamb, the leopard sleep with the kid. Calf and lion will eat from the same trough, and a little child will tend them. 7 Cow and bear will graze the same pasture, their calves and cubs grow up together, and the lion eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens, the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent. 9 Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on my holy mountain. The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive, a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide. 10 On that day, Jesse's Root will be raised high, posted as a rallying banner for the peoples. The nations will all come to him. His headquarters will be glorious. 11 Also on that day, the Master for the second time will reach out to bring back what's left of his scattered people. He'll bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Sinar, Hamath, and the ocean islands. 12 And he'll raise that rallying banner high, visible to all nations, gather in all the scattered exiles of Israel, Pull in all the dispersed refugees of Judah from the four winds and the seven seas. 13 The jealousy of Ephraim will dissolve, the hostility of Judah will vanish - Ephraim no longer the jealous rival of Judah, Judah no longer the hostile rival of Ephraim! 14 Blood brothers united, they'll pounce on the Philistines in the west, join forces to plunder the people in the east. They'll attack Edom and Moab. The Ammonites will fall into line. 15 God will once again dry up Egypt's Red Sea, making for an easy crossing. He'll send a blistering wind down on the great River Euphrates, Reduce it to seven mere trickles. None even need get their feet wet! 16 In the end there'll be a highway all the way from Assyria, easy traveling for what's left of God's people - A highway just like the one Israel had when he marched up out of Egypt.

Isaiah 12 (The Message)

1 And you will say in that day, "I thank you, God. You were angry but your anger wasn't forever. You withdrew your anger and moved in and comforted me. 2 "Yes, indeed - God is my salvation. I trust, I won't be afraid. God - yes God! - is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation!" 3 Joyfully you'll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. 4 And as you do it, you'll say, "Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he's done, spread the news of his great reputation! 5 "Sing praise-songs to God. He's done it all! Let the whole earth know what he's done! 6 Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel."

Isaiah 13 (The Message)

1 The Message on Babylon. Isaiah son of Amoz saw it: 2 "Run up a flag on an open hill. Yell loud. Get their attention. Wave them into formation. Direct them to the nerve center of power. 3 I've taken charge of my special forces, called up my crack troops. They're bursting with pride and passion to carry out my angry judgment." 4 Thunder rolls off the mountains like a mob huge and noisy - Thunder of kingdoms in an uproar, nations assembling for war. God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling his army into battle formation. 5 They come from far-off countries, they pour in across the horizon. It's God on the move with the weapons of his wrath, ready to destroy the whole country. 6 Wail! God's Day of Judgment is near - an avalanche crashing down from the Strong God! 7 Everyone paralyzed in the panic, 8 and unstrung, Doubled up in pain like a woman giving birth to a baby. Horrified - everyone they see is like a face out of a nightmare. 9 "Watch now. God's Judgment Day comes. Cruel it is, a day of wrath and anger, A day to waste the earth and clean out all the sinners. 10 The stars in the sky, the great parade of constellations, will be nothing but black holes. The sun will come up as a black disk, and the moon a blank nothing. 11 I'll put a full stop to the evil on earth, terminate the dark acts of the wicked. I'll gag all braggarts and boasters - not a peep anymore from them - and trip strutting tyrants, leave them flat on their faces. 12 Proud humanity will disappear from the earth. I'll make mortals rarer than hens' teeth. 13 And yes, I'll even make the sky shake, and the earth quake to its roots Under the wrath of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Judgment Day of his raging anger. 14 Like a hunted white-tailed deer, like lost sheep with no shepherd, People will huddle with a few of their own kind, run off to some makeshift shelter. 15 But tough luck to stragglers - they'll be killed on the spot, throats cut, bellies ripped open, 16 Babies smashed on the rocks while mothers and fathers watch, Houses looted, wives raped. 17 "And now watch this: Against Babylon, I'm inciting the Medes, A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes, the kind of brutality that no one can blunt. 18 They massacre the young, wantonly kick and kill even babies. 19 And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms, the pride and joy of Chaldeans, Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom, and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them. 20 No one will live there anymore, generation after generation a ghost town. Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there. Shepherds will give it a wide berth. 21 But strange and wild animals will like it just fine, filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds. Skunks will make it their home, and unspeakable night hags will haunt it. 22 Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing, and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers. "Babylon is doomed. It won't be long now."

Isaiah 14 (The Message)

1 But not so with Jacob. God will have compassion on Jacob. Once again he'll choose Israel. He'll establish them in their own country. Outsiders will be attracted and throw their lot in with Jacob. 2 The nations among whom they lived will actually escort them back home, and then Israel will pay them back by making slaves of them, men and women alike, possessing them as slaves in God's country, capturing those who had captured them, ruling over those who had abused them. 3 When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure, 4 you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king of Babylon: Can you believe it? The tyrant is gone! The tyranny is over! 5 God has broken the rule of the wicked, the power of the bully-rulers 6 That crushed many people. A relentless rain of cruel outrage Established a violent rule of anger rife with torture and persecution. 7 And now it's over, the whole earth quietly at rest. Burst into song! Make the rafters ring! 8 Ponderosa pine trees are happy, giant Lebanon cedars are relieved, saying, "Since you've been cut down, there's no one around to cut us down." 9 And the underworld dead are all excited, preparing to welcome you when you come. Getting ready to greet you are the ghostly dead, all the famous names of earth. All the buried kings of the nations will stand up on their thrones 10 With well-prepared speeches, royal invitations to death: "Now you are as nothing as we are! Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!" 11 This is where your pomp and fine music led you, Babylon, to your underworld private chambers, A king-size mattress of maggots for repose and a quilt of crawling worms for warmth. 12 What a comedown this, O Babylon! Daystar! Son of Dawn! Flat on your face in the underworld mud, you, famous for flattening nations! 13 You said to yourself, "I'll climb to heaven. I'll set my throne over the stars of God. I'll run the assembly of angels that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon. 14 I'll climb to the top of the clouds. I'll take over as King of the Universe!" 15 But you didn't make it, did you? Instead of climbing up, you came down - Down with the underground dead, down to the abyss of the Pit. 16 People will stare and muse: "Can this be the one Who terrorized earth and its kingdoms, 17 turned earth to a moonscape, Wasted its cities, shut up his prisoners to a living death?" 18 Other kings get a decent burial, honored with eulogies and placed in a tomb. 19 But you're dumped in a ditch unburied, like a stray dog or cat, Covered with rotting bodies, murdered and indigent corpses. Your dead body desecrated, mutilated - 20 no state funeral for you! You've left your land in ruins, left a legacy of massacre. The progeny of your evil life will never be named. Oblivion! 21 Get a place ready to slaughter the sons of the wicked and wipe out their father's line. Unthinkable that they should own a square foot of land or desecrate the face of the world with their cities! 22 "I will confront them" - Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies - "and strip Babylon of name and survivors, children and grandchildren. 23 " God's Decree. "I'll make it a worthless swamp and give it as a prize to the hedgehog. And then I'll bulldoze it out of existence." Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Who Could Ever Cancel Such Plans? 24 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks: "Exactly as I planned, it will happen. Following my blueprints, it will take shape. 25 I will shatter the Assyrian who trespasses my land and stomp him into the dirt on my mountains. I will ban his taking and making of slaves and lift the weight of oppression from all shoulders." 26 This is the plan, planned for the whole earth, And this is the hand that will do it, reaching into every nation. 27 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has planned it. Who could ever cancel such plans? His is the hand that's reached out. Who could brush it aside? 28 In the year King Ahaz died, this Message came: 29 Hold it, Philistines! It's too soon to celebrate the defeat of your cruel oppressor. From the death throes of that snake a worse snake will come, and from that, one even worse. 30 The poor won't have to worry. The needy will escape the terror. But you Philistines will be plunged into famine, and those who don't starve, God will kill. 31 Wail and howl, proud city! Fall prostrate in fear, Philistia! On the northern horizon, smoke from burned cities, the wake of a brutal, disciplined destroyer. 32 What does one say to outsiders who ask questions? Tell them, "God has established Zion. Those in need and in trouble find refuge in her."

Isaiah 15 (The Message)

1 A Message concerning Moab: Village Ar of Moab is in ruins, destroyed in a night raid. Village Kir of Moab is in ruins, destroyed in a night raid. 2 Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills, goes up to lament. Moab weeps and wails over Nebo and Medba. Every head is shaved bald, every beard shaved clean. 3 They pour into the streets wearing black, go up on the roofs, take to the town square, Everyone in tears, everyone in grief. 4 Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud. The sound carries as far as Jahaz. Moab sobs, shaking in grief. The soul of Moab trembles. 5 Oh, how I grieve for Moab! Refugees stream to Zoar and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah. Up the slopes of Luhith they weep; on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss. 6 The springs of Nimrim are dried up - grass brown, buds stunted, nothing grows. 7 They leave, carrying all their possessions on their backs, everything they own, Making their way as best they can across Willow Creek to safety. 8 Poignant cries reverberate all through Moab, Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim, heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim. 9 The banks of the Dibon crest with blood, but God has worse in store for Dibon: A lion - a lion to finish off the fugitives, to clean up whoever's left in the land.

Isaiah 16 (The Message)

1 "Dispatch a gift of lambs," says Moab, "to the leaders in Jerusalem - Lambs from Sela sent across the desert to buy the goodwill of Jerusalem. 2 The towns and people of Moab are at a loss, New-hatched birds knocked from the nest, fluttering helplessly At the banks of the Arnon River, unable to cross: 3 'Tell us what to do, help us out! Protect us, hide us! 4 Give the refugees from Moab sanctuary with you. Be a safe place for those on the run from the killing fields.'" "When this is all over," Judah answers, "the tyrant toppled, The killing at an end, all signs of these cruelties long gone, 5 A new government of love will be established in the venerable David tradition. A Ruler you can depend upon will head this government, A Ruler passionate for justice, a Ruler quick to set things right." 6 We've heard - everyone's heard! - of Moab's pride, world-famous for pride - Arrogant, self-important, insufferable, full of hot air. 7 So now let Moab lament for a change, with antiphonal mock-laments from the neighbors! What a shame! How terrible! No more fine fruitcakes and Kir-hareseth candies! 8 All those lush Heshbon fields dried up, the rich Sibmah vineyards withered! Foreign thugs have crushed and torn out the famous grapevines That once reached all the way to Jazer, right to the edge of the desert, Ripped out the crops in every direction as far as the eye can see. 9 I'll join the weeping. I'll weep right along with Jazer, weep for the Sibmah vineyards. And yes, Heshbon and Elealeh, I'll mingle my tears with your tears! The joyful shouting at harvest is gone. Instead of song and celebration, dead silence. 10 No more boisterous laughter in the orchards, no more hearty work songs in the vineyards. Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields, silence - deathly and deadening silence. 11 My heartstrings throb like harp strings for Moab, my soul in sympathy for sad Kir-heres. 12 When Moab trudges to the shrine to pray, he wastes both time and energy. Going to the sanctuary and praying for relief is useless. Nothing ever happens. 13 This is God's earlier Message on Moab. 14 God's updated Message is, "In three years, no longer than the term of an enlisted soldier, Moab's impressive presence will be gone, that splendid hot-air balloon will be punctured, and instead of a vigorous population, just a few shuffling bums cadging handouts."

Isaiah 17 (The Message)

1 A Message concerning Damascus: "Watch this: Damascus undone as a city, a pile of dust and rubble! 2 Her towns emptied of people. The sheep and goats will move in And take over the towns as if they owned them - which they will! 3 Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim, not a trace of government left in Damascus. What's left of Aram? The same as what's left of Israel - not much." Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. The Day Is Coming 4 "The Day is coming when Jacob's robust splendor goes pale and his well-fed body turns skinny. 5 The country will be left empty, picked clean as a field harvested by field hands. She'll be like a few stalks of barley left standing in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest, 6 Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked in the top of the olive tree, Or the four or five apples that the pickers couldn't reach in the orchard." Decree of the God of Israel. 7 Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. 8 They'll lose interest in all the stuff they've made - altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion - however impressive it is. 9 And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned - the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate. You Have Forgotten God 10 And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation, not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge. And so, even though you are very religious, planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees to honor and influence your fertility gods, 11 And even though you make them grow so well, bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms, Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest you'll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain. 12 Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people! Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves! Nations roaring, roaring, like the roar of a massive waterfall, 13 Roaring like a deafening Niagara! But God will silence them with a word, And then he'll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree, like down from a thistle. 14 At bedtime, terror fills the air. By morning it's gone - not a sign of it anywhere! This is what happens to those who would ruin us, this is the fate of those out to get us.

Isaiah 18 (The Message)

1 Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes beyond the Ethiopian rivers, 2 Shipping emissaries all over the world, down rivers and across seas. Go, swift messengers, go to this people tall and handsome, This people held in respect everywhere, this people mighty and merciless, from the land crisscrossed with rivers. 3 Everybody everywhere, all earth-dwellers: When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look! When you hear the trumpet blown, listen! 4 For here's what God told me: "I'm not going to say anything, but simply look on from where I live, Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun, silent as dew during harvest." 5 And then, just before harvest, after the blossom has turned into a maturing grape, He'll step in and prune back the new shoots, ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches. 6 He'll leave them piled on the ground for birds and animals to feed on - Fodder for the summering birds, fodder for the wintering animals. 7 Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies, brought from this people tall and handsome, This people once held in respect everywhere, this people once mighty and merciless, From the land crisscrossed with rivers, to Mount Zion, God's place.

Isaiah 19 (The Message)

1 A Message concerning Egypt: Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud, moving in on Egypt! The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake, Egyptians paralyzed by panic. 2 God says, "I'll make Egyptian fight Egyptian, brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor, City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom - anarchy and chaos and killing! 3 I'll knock the wind out of the Egyptians. They won't know coming from going. They'll go to their god-idols for answers; they'll conjure ghosts and hold sŽances, desperate for answers. 4 But I'll turn the Egyptians over to a tyrant most cruel. I'll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king." Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 5 The River Nile will dry up, the riverbed baked dry in the sun. 6 The canals will become stagnant and stink, every stream touching the Nile dry up. River vegetation will rot away 7 the banks of the Nile-baked clay, The riverbed hard and smooth, river grasses dried up and gone with the wind. 8 Fishermen will complain that the fishing's been ruined. 9 Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers and workers in linen and cotton and wool 10 Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness - everyone who works for a living, jobless. 11 The princes of Zoan are fools, the advisors of Pharaoh stupid. How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh, "Trust me: I'm wise. I know what's going on. Why, I'm descended from the old wisdom of Egypt"? 12 There's not a wise man or woman left in the country. If there were, one of them would tell you what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt. 13 As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools and the princes of Memphis, dunces. The honored pillars of your society have led Egypt into detours and dead ends. 14 God has scrambled their brains, Egypt's become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk. 15 Egypt's hopeless, past helping, a senile, doddering old fool. 16 On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 17 Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say "Judah" to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies' plan against Egypt. 18 On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title "City of the Sun." 19 On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. 20 It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he'll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. 21 God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they'll get to know him on that Day. They'll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They'll make vows and keep them. 22 God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe. 23 On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they'll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians! 24 On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. 25 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: "Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!"

Isaiah 20 (The Message)

1 In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, 2 God told Isaiah son of Amoz, "Go, take off your clothes and sandals," and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted. 3 Then God said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He'll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers - the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! 5 Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. 6 Everyone who lives along this coast will say, 'Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they'd rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what's going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?'"

Isaiah 21 (The Message)

1 A Message concerning the desert at the sea: As tempests drive through the Negev Desert, coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place, 2 A hard vision is given me: The betrayer betrayed, the plunderer plundered. Attack, Elam! Lay siege, Media! Persians, attack! Attack, Babylon! I'll put an end to all the moaning and groaning. 3 Because of this news I'm doubled up in pain, writhing in pain like a woman having a baby, Baffled by what I hear, undone by what I see. 4 Absolutely stunned, horror-stricken, I had hoped for a relaxed evening, but it has turned into a nightmare. 5 The banquet is spread, the guests reclining in luxurious ease, Eating and drinking, having a good time, and then, "To arms, princes! The fight is on!" 6 The Master told me, "Go, post a lookout. Have him report whatever he spots. 7 When he sees horses and wagons in battle formation, lines of donkeys and columns of camels, Tell him to keep his ear to the ground, note every whisper, every rumor." 8 Just then, the lookout shouted, "I'm at my post, Master, Sticking to my post day after day and all through the night! 9 I watched them come, the horses and wagons in battle formation. I heard them call out the war news in headlines: 'Babylon fallen! Fallen! And all its precious god-idols smashed to pieces on the ground.'" 10 Dear Israel, you've been through a lot, you've been put through the mill. The good news I get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, I now pass on to you. 11 A Message concerning Edom: A voice calls to me from the Seir mountains in Edom, "Night watchman! How long till daybreak? How long will this night last?" 12 The night watchman calls back, "Morning's coming, But for now it's still night. If you ask me again, I'll give the same answer." 13 A Message concerning Arabia: You'll have to camp out in the desert badlands, you caravans of Dedanites. 14 Haul water to the thirsty, greet fugitives with bread. Show your desert hospitality, you who live in Tema. 15 The desert's swarming with refugees escaping the horrors of war. 16 The Master told me, "Hang on. Within one year - I'll sign a contract on it! - the arrogant brutality of Kedar, those hooligans of the desert, will be over, 17 nothing much left of the Kedar toughs." The God of Israel says so.

Isaiah 22 (The Message)

1 A Message concerning the Valley of Vision: What's going on here anyway? All this partying and noisemaking, 2 Shouting and cheering in the streets, the city noisy with celebrations! 3 You have no brave soldiers to honor, no combat heroes to be proud of. Your leaders were all cowards, captured without even lifting a sword, A country of cowards captured escaping the battle. You Looked, but You Never Looked to Him 4 In the midst of the shouting, I said, "Let me alone. Let me grieve by myself. Don't tell me it's going to be all right. These people are doomed. It's not all right." 5 For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people, Jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision, knocking down walls and hollering to the mountains, "Attack! Attack!" 6 Old enemies Elam and Kir arrive armed to the teeth - weapons and chariots and cavalry. 7 Your fine valleys are noisy with war, chariots and cavalry charging this way and that. 8 God has left Judah exposed and defenseless. 9 You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool. 10 You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall. 11 You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water. You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city. 12 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, called out on that Day, Called for a day of repentant tears, called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning. 13 But what do you do? You throw a party! Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets! You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast - slabs of meat, kegs of beer. "Seize the day! Eat and drink! Tomorrow we die!" 14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: "You'll pay for this outrage until the day you die." The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so. The Key of the Davidic Heritage 15 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, spoke: "Come. Go to this steward, Shebna, who is in charge of all the king's affairs, and tell him: 16 What's going on here? You're an outsider here and yet you act like you own the place, make a big, fancy tomb for yourself where everyone can see it, making sure everyone will think you're important. 17 God is about to sack you, to throw you to the dogs. He'll grab you by the hair, 18 swing you round and round dizzyingly, and then let you go, sailing through the air like a ball, until you're out of sight. Where you'll land, nobody knows. And there you'll die, and all the stuff you've collected heaped on your grave. You've disgraced your master's house! 19 You're fired - and good riddance! 20 "On that Day I'll replace Shebna. I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I'll dress him in your robe. I'll put your belt on him. I'll give him your authority. He'll be a father-leader to Jerusalem and the government of Judah. 22 I'll give him the key of the Davidic heritage. He'll have the run of the place - open any door and keep it open, lock any door and keep it locked. 23 I'll pound him like a nail into a solid wall. He'll secure the Davidic tradition. 24 Everything will hang on him - not only the fate of Davidic descendants but also the detailed daily operations of the house, including cups and cutlery. 25 "And then the Day will come," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies, "when that nail will come loose and fall out, break loose from that solid wall - and everything hanging on it will go with it." That's what will happen. God says so.

Isaiah 23 (The Message)

1 Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins! When the ships returned from Cyprus, they saw the destruction. 2 Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast, merchants of Sidon. Your people sailed the deep seas, buying and selling, 3 Making money on wheat from Shihor, grown along the Nile - multinational broker in grains! 4 Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up, the powerhouse of the ocean says, "I've never had labor pains, never had a baby, never reared children to adulthood, Never gave life, never worked with life. It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss." 5 When Egypt gets the report on Tyre, what wailing! what wringing of hands! Nothing Left Here to Be Proud Of 6 Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast. Take a good, long look and wail - yes, cry buckets of tears! 7 Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive, bustling with activity, this historic old city, Expanding throughout the globe, buying and selling all over the world? 8 And who is behind the collapse of Tyre, the Tyre that controlled the world markets? Tyre's merchants were the business tycoons. Tyre's traders called all the shots. 9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash to show the sordid backside of pride and puncture the inflated reputations. 10 Sail for home, O ships of Tarshish. There are no docks left in this harbor. 11 God reached out to the sea and sea traders, threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil. God ordered the destruction of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce. 12 God said, "There's nothing left here to be proud of, bankrupt and bereft Sidon. Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus? Don't count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either." 13 Look at what happened to Babylon: There's nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble. 14 Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins! 15 For the next seventy years, a king's lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song: 16 "Take a harp, circle the city, unremembered whore. Sing your old songs, your many old songs. Maybe someone will remember." 17 At the end of the seventy years, God will look in on Tyre. She'll go back to her old whoring trade, selling herself to the highest bidder, doing anything with anyone - promiscuous with all the kingdoms of earth - for a fee. 18 But everything she gets, all the money she takes in, will be turned over to God. It will not be put in banks. Her profits will be put to the use of God-Aware, God-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing.

Isaiah 24 (The Message)

1 Danger ahead! God's about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins, Rip everything out by the roots and send everyone scurrying: 2 Priests and laypeople alike, owners and workers alike, celebrities and nobodies alike, buyers and sellers alike, bankers and beggars alike, the haves and have-nots alike. 3 The landscape will be a moonscape, totally wasted. And why? Because God says so. He's issued the orders. 4 The earth turns gaunt and gray, the world silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colorless. Earth Polluted by Its Very Own People 5 Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant. 6 Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth. Its people pay the price of their sacrilege. They dwindle away, dying out one by one. 7 No more wine, no more vineyards, no more songs or singers. 8 The laughter of castanets is gone, the shouts of celebrants, gone, the laughter of fiddles, gone. 9 No more parties with toasts of champagne. Serious drinkers gag on their drinks. 10 The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns. Every house is boarded up, condemned. 11 People riot in the streets for wine, but the good times are gone forever - no more joy for this old world. 12 The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble. 13 That's the way it will be on this earth. This is the fate of all nations: An olive tree shaken clean of its olives, a grapevine picked clean of its grapes. 14 But there are some who will break into glad song. Out of the west they'll shout of God's majesty. 15 Yes, from the east God's glory will ascend. Every island of the sea Will broadcast God's fame, the fame of the God of Israel. 16 From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing: "All praise to the Righteous One!" But I said, "That's all well and good for somebody, but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom." All of them at one another's throats, yes, all of them at one another's throats. 17 Terror and pits and booby traps are everywhere, whoever you are. 18 If you run from the terror, you'll fall into the pit. If you climb out of the pit, you'll get caught in the trap. Chaos pours out of the skies. The foundations of earth are crumbling. 19 Earth is smashed to pieces, earth is ripped to shreds, earth is wobbling out of control, 20 Earth staggers like a drunk, sways like a shack in a high wind. Its piled-up sins are too much for it. It collapses and won't get up again. 21 That's when God will call on the carpet rebel powers in the skies and Rebel kings on earth. 22 They'll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail, Corralled and locked up in a jail, and then sentenced and put to hard labor. 23 Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated, red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced, Because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over, ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem, Splendid and glorious before all his leaders.

Isaiah 25 (The Message)

1 God, you are my God. I celebrate you. I praise you. You've done your share of miracle-wonders, well-thought-out plans, solid and sure. 2 Here you've reduced the city to rubble, the strong city to a pile of stones. The enemy Big City is a non-city, never to be a city again. 3 Superpowers will see it and honor you, brutal oppressors bow in worshipful reverence. 4 They'll see that you take care of the poor, that you take care of poor people in trouble, Provide a warm, dry place in bad weather, provide a cool place when it's hot. Brutal oppressors are like a winter blizzard 5 and vicious foreigners like high noon in the desert. But you, shelter from the storm and shade from the sun, shut the mouths of the big-mouthed bullies. 6 But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will throw a feast for all the people of the world, A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts. 7 And here on this mountain, God will banish the pall of doom hanging over all peoples, The shadow of doom darkening all nations. 8 Yes, he'll banish death forever. And God will wipe the tears from every face. He'll remove every sign of disgrace From his people, wherever they are. Yes! God says so! 9 Also at that time, people will say, "Look at what's happened! This is our God! We waited for him and he showed up and saved us! This God, the one we waited for! Let's celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation. 10 God's hand rests on this mountain!" As for the Moabites, they'll be treated like refuse, waste shoveled into a cesspool. 11 Thrash away as they will, like swimmers trying to stay afloat, They'll sink in the sewage. Their pride will pull them under. 12 Their famous fortifications will crumble to nothing, those mighty walls reduced to dust.

Isaiah 26 (The Message)

1 At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation. 2 Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. 3 People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit. 4 Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing. 5 Those who lived high and mighty he knocked off their high horse. He used the city built on the hill as fill for the marshes. 6 All the exploited and outcast peoples build their lives on the reclaimed land. 7 The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler evens the road for the right-living. 8 We're in no hurry, God. We're content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want. 9 Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right. 10 If the wicked are shown grace, they don't seem to get it. In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living, blind to the splendor of God. 11 You hold your hand up high, God, but they don't see it. Open their eyes to what you do, to see your zealous love for your people. Shame them. Light a fire under them. Get the attention of these enemies of yours. 12 God, order a peaceful and whole life for us because everything we've done, you've done for us. 13 O God, our God, we've had other masters rule us, but you're the only Master we've ever known. 14 The dead don't talk, ghosts don't walk, Because you've said, "Enough - that's all for you," and wiped them off the books. 15 But the living you make larger than life. The more life you give, the more glory you display, and stretch the borders to accommodate more living! 16 O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble, when your discipline was so heavy they could barely whisper a prayer. 17 Like a woman having a baby, writhing in distress, screaming her pain as the baby is being born, That's how we were because of you, O God. 18 We were pregnant full-term. We writhed in labor but bore no baby. We gave birth to wind. Nothing came of our labor. We produced nothing living. We couldn't save the world. 19 But friends, your dead will live, your corpses will get to their feet. All you dead and buried, wake up! Sing! Your dew is morning dew catching the first rays of sun, The earth bursting with life, giving birth to the dead. 20 Come, my people, go home and shut yourselves in. Go into seclusion for a while until the punishing wrath is past, 21 Because God is sure to come from his place to punish the wrong of the people on earth. Earth itself will point out the bloodstains; it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.

Isaiah 27 (The Message)

1 At that time God will unsheathe his sword, his merciless, massive, mighty sword. He'll punish the serpent Leviathan as it flees, the serpent Leviathan thrashing in flight. He'll kill that old dragon that lives in the sea. 2 "At that same time, a fine vineyard will appear. There's something to sing about! 3 I, God, tend it. I keep it well-watered. I keep careful watch over it so that no one can damage it. 4 I'm not angry. I care. Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes, I'll just pull them out and burn them up. 5 Let that vine cling to me for safety, let it find a good and whole life with me, let it hold on for a good and whole life." 6 The days are coming when Jacob shall put down roots, Israel blossom and grow fresh branches, and fill the world with its fruit. 7 Has God knocked them to the ground as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no. Were they killed as their killers were killed? Again, no. 8 He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence. He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind. 9 But the good news is that through this experience Jacob's guilt was taken away. The evidence that his sin is removed will be this: He will tear down the alien altars, take them apart stone by stone, And then crush the stones into gravel and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines. 10 For there's nothing left of that pretentious grandeur. Nobody lives there anymore. It's unlivable. But animals do just fine, browsing and bedding down. 11 And it's not a bad place to get firewood. Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful. It's the leavings of a people with no sense of God. So, the God who made them Will have nothing to do with them. He who formed them will turn his back on them. 12 At that time God will thresh from the River Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt, And you, people of Israel, will be selected grain by grain. 13 At that same time a great trumpet will be blown, calling home the exiles from Assyria, Welcoming home the refugees from Egypt to come and worship God on the holy mountain, Jerusalem.

Isaiah 28 (The Message)

1 Doom to the pretentious drunks of Ephraim, shabby and washed out and seedy - Tipsy, sloppy-fat, beer-bellied parodies of a proud and handsome past. 2 Watch closely: God has someone picked out, someone tough and strong to flatten them. Like a hailstorm, like a hurricane, like a flash flood, one-handed he'll throw them to the ground. 3 Samaria, the party hat on Israel's head, will be knocked off with one blow. 4 It will disappear quicker than a piece of meat tossed to a dog. 5 At that time, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be the beautiful crown on the head of what's left of his people: 6 Energy and insights of justice to those who guide and decide, strength and prowess to those who guard and protect. 7 These also, the priest and prophet, stagger from drink, weaving, falling-down drunks, Besotted with wine and whiskey, can't see straight, can't talk sense. 8 Every table is covered with vomit. They live in vomit. 9 "Is that so? And who do you think you are to teach us? Who are you to lord it over us? We're not babies in diapers to be talked down to by such as you - 10 'Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's a good little girl, that's a good little boy.'" 11 But that's exactly how you will be addressed. God will speak to this people In baby talk, one syllable at a time - 12 and he'll do it through foreign oppressors. He said before, "This is the time and place to rest, to give rest to the weary. This is the place to lay down your burden." But they won't listen. 13 So God will start over with the simple basics and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time - "Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's a good little girl, that's a good little boy." And like toddlers, they will get up and fall down, get bruised and confused and lost. 14 Now listen to God's Message, you scoffers, you who rule this people in Jerusalem. 15 You say, "We've taken out good life insurance. We've hedged all our bets, covered all our bases. No disaster can touch us. We've thought of everything. We're advised by the experts. We're set." The Meaning of the Stone 16 But the Master, God, has something to say to this: "Watch closely. I'm laying a foundation in Zion, a solid granite foundation, squared and true. And this is the meaning of the stone: a trusting life won't topple. 17 I'll make justice the measuring stick and righteousness the plumb line for the building. A hailstorm will knock down the shantytown of lies, and a flash flood will wash out the rubble. 18 "Then you'll see that your precious life insurance policy wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Your careful precautions against death were a pack of illusions and lies. When the disaster happens, you'll be crushed by it. 19 Every time disaster comes, you'll be in on it - disaster in the morning, disaster at night." Every report of disaster will send you cowering in terror. 20 There will be no place where you can rest, nothing to hide under. 21 God will rise to full stature, raging as he did long ago on Mount Perazim And in the valley of Gibeon against the Philistines. But this time it's against you. Hard to believe, but true. Not what you'd expect, but it's coming. 22 Sober up, friends, and don't scoff. Scoffing will just make it worse. I've heard the orders issued for destruction, orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies - ending up in an international disaster. 23 Listen to me now. Give me your closest attention. 24 Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow? Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow? 25 After they've prepared the ground, don't they plant? Don't they scatter dill and spread cumin, Plant wheat and barley in the fields and raspberries along the borders? 26 They know exactly what to do and when to do it. Their God is their teacher. 27 And at the harvest, the delicate herbs and spices, the dill and cumin, are treated delicately. 28 n the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly. The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain. 29 He's learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who knows everything about when and how and where.

Isaiah 29 (The Message)

1 Doom, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David set camp! Let the years add up, let the festivals run their cycles, 2 But I'm not letting up on Jerusalem. The moaning and groaning will continue. Jerusalem to me is an Ariel. 3 Like David, I'll set up camp against you. I'll set siege, build towers, bring in siege engines, build siege ramps. 4 Driven into the ground, you'll speak, you'll mumble words from the dirt - Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost. Your speech will whisper from the dust. 5 But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust, the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff. Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere, 6 a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise, backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes, 7 And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel, all who trouble and hassle and torment her, will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare. 8 Like a hungry man dreaming he's eating steak and wakes up hungry as ever, Like a thirsty woman dreaming she's drinking iced tea and wakes up thirsty as ever, So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion will wake up and find they haven't shot an arrow, haven't killed a single soul. 9 Drug yourselves so you feel nothing. Blind yourselves so you see nothing. Get drunk, but not on wine. Black out, but not from whiskey. 10 For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep, put the discerning prophets to sleep, put the farsighted seers to sleep. You Have Everything Backwards 11 What you've been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, "Read this," she'll say, "I can't. The envelope is sealed." 12 And if you give it to someone who can't read and tell him, "Read this," he'll say, "I can't read." 13 The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, 14 I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing." 15 Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track. You shut God out and work behind the scenes, Plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting mysterious, never showing your hand. 16 You have everything backwards! You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, "He didn't write a word of me"? Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, "She had nothing to do with this"? 17 And then before you know it, and without you having anything to do with it, Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens, and Mount Carmel reforested. 18 At that time the deaf will hear word-for-word what's been written. After a lifetime in the dark, the blind will see. 19 The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God, the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel. 20 For there'll be no more gangs on the street. Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species. Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean will never be heard of again: 21 Gone the people who corrupted the courts, gone the people who cheated the poor, gone the people who victimized the innocent. 22 And finally this, God's Message for the family of Jacob, the same God who redeemed Abraham: "No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame, no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting. 23 For he's going to see his children, my personal gift to him - lots of children. And these children will honor me by living holy lives. In holy worship they'll honor the Holy One of Jacob and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel. 24 Those who got off-track will get back on-track, and complainers and whiners learn gratitude."

Isaiah 30 (The Message)

1 "Doom, rebel children!" God's Decree. "You make plans, but not mine. You make deals, but not in my Spirit. You pile sin on sin, one sin on top of another, 2 Going off to Egypt without so much as asking me, Running off to Pharaoh for protection, expecting to hide out in Egypt. 3 Well, some protection Pharaoh will be! Some hideout, Egypt! 4 They look big and important, true, with officials strategically established in Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south, 5 but there's nothing to them. Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid - All show, no substance, an embarrassing farce." 6 And this note on the animals of the Negev encountered on the road to Egypt: A most dangerous, treacherous route, menaced by lions and deadly snakes. And you're going to lug all your stuff down there, your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes, Thinking you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation? 7 Egypt is all show, no substance. My name for her is Toothless Dragon. This Is a Rebel Generation 8 So, go now and write all this down. Put it in a book So that the record will be there to instruct the coming generations, 9 Because this is a rebel generation, a people who lie, A people unwilling to listen to anything God tells them. 10 They tell their spiritual leaders, "Don't bother us with irrelevancies." They tell their preachers, "Don't waste our time on impracticalities. Tell us what makes us feel better. 11 Don't bore us with obsolete religion. That stuff means nothing to us. Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel." 12 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: "Because you scorn this Message, Preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies, 13 This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses - 14 Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, smashed beyond recognition or repair, Useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash." God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right 15 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me - The very thing you've been unwilling to do. 16 You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!' You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough! You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!' Do you think your pursuers ride old nags? 17 Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker. Before a mere five you'll all run off. There'll be nothing left of you - a flagpole on a hill with no flag, a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off." 18 But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right - everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones. 19 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. 20 Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road." 22 You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!" 23 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. 24 Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well 25 near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. 26 Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land. 27 ook, God's on his way, and from a long way off! Smoking with anger, immense as he comes into view, Words steaming from his mouth, searing, indicting words! 28 A torrent of words, a flash flood of words sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words. He'll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction, herd them into a dead end. 29 But you will sing, sing through an all-night holy feast! Your hearts will burst with song, make music like the sound of flutes on parade, En route to the mountain of God, on the way to the Rock of Israel. 30 God will sound out in grandiose thunder, display his hammering arm, Furiously angry, showering sparks - cloudburst, storm, hail! 31 Oh yes, at God's thunder Assyria will cower under the clubbing. 32 Every blow God lands on them with his club is in time to the music of drums and pipes, God in all-out, two-fisted battle, fighting against them. 33 Topheth's fierce fires are well prepared, ready for the Assyrian king. The Topheth furnace is deep and wide, well stoked with hot-burning wood. God's breath, like a river of burning pitch, starts the fire.

Isaiah 31 (The Message)

1 Doom to those who go off to Egypt thinking that horses can help them, Impressed by military mathematics, awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders - And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, not so much as a prayer to God. 2 Still, he must be reckoned with, a most wise God who knows what he's doing. He can call down catastrophe. He's a God who does what he says. He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong, stands up against interfering evildoers. 3 Egyptians are mortal, not God, and their horses are flesh, not Spirit. When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave. 4 This is what God told me: "Like a lion, king of the beasts, that gnaws and chews and worries its prey, Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds who arrive to chase it off, So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights. 6 Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. 7 On the day you return, you'll throw away - every last one of you - the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood. 8 "Assyrians will fall dead, killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier, laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal. Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives, and their prize young men made slaves. 9 Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces, their leaders scatter hysterically." God's Decree on Assyria. His fire blazes in Zion, his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem. 45 And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky, God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem. I'll protect and rescue it. Yes, I'll hover and deliver."

Isaiah 32 (The Message)

1 But look! A king will rule in the right way, and his leaders will carry out justice. 2 Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds, provide safe cover in stormy weather. Each will be cool running water in parched land, a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert. 3 Anyone who looks will see, anyone who listens will hear. 4 The impulsive will make sound decisions, the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence. 5 No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame. 6 For fools are fools and that's that, thinking up new ways to do mischief. They leave a wake of wrecked lives and lies about God, Turning their backs on the homeless hungry, ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets. 7 And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are, inventive in sin and scandal, Exploiting the poor with scams and lies, unmoved by the victimized poor. 8 But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble. 9 Take your stand, indolent women! Listen to me! Indulgent, indolent women, listen closely to what I have to say. 10 In just a little over a year from now, you'll be shaken out of your lazy lives. The grape harvest will fail, and there'll be no fruit on the trees. 11 Oh tremble, you indolent women. Get serious, you pampered dolls! Strip down and discard your silk fineries. Put on funeral clothes. 12 Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage. 13 Weep for my people's gardens and farms that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes. Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy, the merry city no longer merry. 14 The royal palace is deserted, the bustling city quiet as a morgue, The emptied parks and playgrounds taken over by wild animals, delighted with their new home. 15 Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests. 16 Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field. 17 And where there's Right, there'll be Peace and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust. 18 My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens. 19 The forest of your pride will be clear-cut, the city showing off your power leveled. 20 But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, with your farm animals grazing freely.

Isaiah 33 (The Message)

1 Doom to you, Destroyer, not yet destroyed; And doom to you, Betrayer, not yet betrayed. When you finish destroying, your turn will come - destroyed! When you quit betraying, your turn will come - betrayed! 2 God, treat us kindly. You're our only hope. First thing in the morning, be there for us! When things go bad, help us out! 3 You spoke in thunder and everyone ran. You showed up and nations scattered. 4 Your people, for a change, got in on the loot, picking the field clean of the enemy spoils. 5 God is supremely esteemed. His center holds. Zion brims over with all that is just and right. 6 God keeps your days stable and secure - salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus, and best of all, Zion's treasure, Fear-of-God. 7 But look! Listen! Tough men weep openly. Peacemaking diplomats are in bitter tears. 8 The roads are empty - not a soul out on the streets. The peace treaty is broken, its conditions violated, its signers reviled. 9 The very ground under our feet mourns, the Lebanon mountains hang their heads, Flowering Sharon is a weed-choked gully, and the forests of Bashan and Carmel? Bare branches. 10 "Now I'm stepping in," God says. "From now on, I'm taking over. The gloves come off. Now see how mighty I am. 11 There's nothing to you. Pregnant with chaff, you produce straw babies; full of hot air, you self-destruct. 12 You're good for nothing but fertilizer and fuel. Earth to earth - and the sooner the better. 13 "If you're far away, get the reports on what I've done, And if you're in the neighborhood, pay attention to my record. 14 The sinners in Zion are rightly terrified; the godless are at their wit's end: 'Who among us can survive this firestorm? Who of us can get out of this purge with our lives?'" 15 The answer's simple: Live right, speak the truth, despise exploitation, refuse bribes, reject violence, avoid evil amusements. 16 This is how you raise your standard of living! A safe and stable way to live. A nourishing, satisfying way to live. God Makes All the Decisions Here 17 Oh, you'll see the king - a beautiful sight! And you'll take in the wide vistas of land. 18 In your mind you'll go over the old terrors: "What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated? And the one who gouged us of taxes? And that cheating moneychanger?" 19 Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet! No more putting up with a language you can't understand, no more sounds of gibberish in your ears. 20 Just take a look at Zion, will you? Centering our worship in festival feasts! Feast your eyes on Jerusalem, a quiet and permanent place to live. No more pulling up stakes and moving on, no more patched-together lean-tos. 21 Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place in a country of broad rivers and streams, But rivers blocked to invading ships, off-limits to predatory pirates. 22 For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king. God runs this place and he'll keep us safe. 23 Ha! Your sails are in shreds, your mast wobbling, your hold leaking. The plunder is free for the taking, free for all - for weak and strong, insiders and outsiders. 24 No one in Zion will say, "I'm sick." Best of all, they'll all live guilt-free.

Isaiah 34 (The Message)

1 Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully, you people. Pay attention! Earth, you too, and everything in you. World, and all that comes from you. 2 And here's why: God is angry, good and angry with all the nations, So blazingly angry at their arms and armies that he's going to rid earth of them, wipe them out. 3 The corpses, thrown in a heap, will stink like the town dump in midsummer, Their blood flowing off the mountains like creeks in spring runoff. 4 Stars will fall out of the sky like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard, And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket and put away in a closet. All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing, like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting! 5 "Once I've finished with earth and sky, I'll start in on Edom. I'll come down hard on Edom, a people I've slated for total termination." 6 God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood, a sword hungry for well-fed flesh, Lamb and goat blood, the suet-rich kidneys of rams. Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital, the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse. 7 A wholesale slaughter, wild animals and farm animals alike slaughtered. The whole country soaked with blood, all the ground greasy with fat. 8 It's God's scheduled time for vengeance, the year all Zion's accounts are settled. 9 Edom's streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution, the soil sterile, poisoned with waste, The whole country a smoking, stinking garbage dump - 10 The fires burning day and night, the skies black with endless smoke. Generation after generation of wasteland - no more travelers through this country! 11 Vultures and skunks will police the streets; owls and crows will feel at home there. God will reverse creation. Chaos! He will cancel fertility. Emptiness! 12 Leaders will have no one to lead. They'll name it No Kingdom There, A country where all kings and princes are unemployed. 13 Thistles will take over, covering the castles, fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes. Wild dogs will prowl the ruins, ostriches have the run of the place. 14 Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together, demons and devils dance through the night. The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious, will establish permanent quarters. 15 Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood, infestations of ominous evil. 16 Get and read God's book: None of this is going away, this breeding, brooding evil. God has personally commanded it all. His Spirit set it in motion. 17 God has assigned them their place, decreed their fate in detail. This is permanent - generation after generation, the same old thing.

Isaiah 35 (The Message)

1 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower - 2 bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color. Mountain glories of Lebanon - a gift. Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon - gifts. God's resplendent glory, fully on display. God awesome, God majestic. 3 Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. 4 Tell fearful souls, "Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He's on his way! He'll save you!" 5 Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, 6 Lame men and women will leap like deer, the voiceless break into song. Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert. 7 Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain. Even lowly jackals will have water to drink, and barren grasslands flourish richly. 8 There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It's for God's people exclusively - impossible to get lost on this road. Not even fools can get lost on it. 9 No lions on this road, no dangerous wild animals - Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening. Only the redeemed will walk on it. 10 The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.

Isaiah 36 (The Message)

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria made war on all the fortress cities of Judah and took them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his general, the "Rabshekah," accompanied by a huge army, from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. The general stopped at the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. 3 Three men went out to meet him: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, in charge of the palace; Shebna the secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the official historian. 4 The Rabshekah said to them, "Tell Hezekiah that the Great King, the king of Assyria, says this: 'What kind of backing do you think you have against me? 5 You're bluffing and I'm calling your bluff. Your words are no match for my weapons. What kind of backup do you have now that you've rebelled against me? 6 Egypt? Don't make me laugh. Egypt is a rubber crutch. Lean on Egypt and you'll end up flat on your face. That's all Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who leans on him. 7 And if you try to tell me, "We're leaning on our God," isn't it a bit late? Hasn't Hezekiah just gotten rid of all the places of worship, telling you, "You've got to worship at this altar"? 8 "'Be reasonable. Face the facts: My master the king of Assyria will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them. 9 You can't do it, can you? So how do you think, depending on flimsy Egypt's chariots and riders, you can stand up against even the lowest-ranking captain in my master's army? 10 "'And besides, do you think I came all this way to destroy this land without first getting God's blessing? It was your God who told me, Make war on this land. Destroy it.'" 11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah answered the Rabshekah, "Please talk to us in Aramaic. We understand Aramaic. Don't talk to us in Hebrew within earshot of all the people gathered around." 12 But the Rabshekah replied, "Do you think my master has sent me to give this message to your master and you but not also to the people clustered here? It's their fate that's at stake. They're the ones who are going to end up eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine." 13 Then the Rabshekah stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, the common language, "Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Don't listen to Hezekiah's lies. He can't save you. 15 And don't pay any attention to Hezekiah's pious sermons telling you to lean on God, telling you 'God will save us, depend on it. God won't let this city fall to the king of Assyria.' 16 "Don't listen to Hezekiah. Listen to the king of Assyria's offer: 'Make peace with me. Come and join me. Everyone will end up with a good life, with plenty of land and water, 17 and eventually something far better. I'll turn you loose in wide open spaces, with more than enough fertile and productive land for everyone.' 18 Don't let Hezekiah mislead you with his lies, 'God will save us.' Has that ever happened? Has any god in history ever gotten the best of the king of Assyria? 19 Look around you. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? The gods of Sepharvaim? Did the gods do anything for Samaria? 20 Name one god that has ever saved its countries from me. So what makes you think that God could save Jerusalem from me?'" 21 The three men were silent. They said nothing, for the king had already commanded, "Don't answer him." 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, tearing their clothes in defeat and despair, went back and reported what the Rabshekah had said to Hezekiah.

Isaiah 37 (The Message)

1 When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them also dressed in penitential burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, "Hezekiah says, 'This is a black day. We're in crisis. We're like pregnant women without even the strength to have a baby! 4 Do you think your God heard what the Rabshekah said, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living God? And do you think your God will do anything about it? Pray for us, Isaiah. Pray for those of us left here holding the fort!'" 5 Then King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah said, "Tell your master this: 'God's Message: Don't be upset by what you've heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me. 7 I personally will take care of him. I'll arrange it so that he'll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush home to take care of it. And he'll die there. Killed - a violent death.'" 8 The Rabshekah left and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. (He had gotten word that the king had left Lachish.) 9 Just then the Assyrian king received an intelligence report on King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: "He is on his way to make war on you." 10 "Don't let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won't fall to the king of Assyria. 11 Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world - one country after another devastated! And do you think you're going to get off? 12 Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed - Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar? 13 Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?" 14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to God: 16 "God-of-the-Angel-Armies, enthroned over the cherubim-angels, you are God, the only God there is, God of all kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth. 17 Listen, O God, and hear. Look, O God, and see. Mark all these words of Sennacherib that he sent to mock the living God. 18 It's quite true, O God, that the kings of Assyria have devastated all the nations and their lands. 19 They've thrown their gods into the trash and burned them - no great achievement since they were no-gods anyway, gods made in workshops, carved from wood and chiseled from rock. An end to the no-gods! 20 But now step in, O God, our God. Save us from him. Let all the kingdoms of earth know that you and you alone are God." 21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this word to Hezekiah: "God's Message, the God of Israel: Because you brought King Sennacherib of Assyria to me in prayer, 22 here is my answer, God's answer: "'She has no use for you, Sennacherib, nothing but contempt, this virgin daughter Zion. She spits at you and turns on her heel, this daughter Jerusalem. 23 "'Who do you think you've been mocking and reviling all these years? Who do you think you've been jeering and treating with such utter contempt All these years? The Holy of Israel! 24 You've used your servants to mock the Master. You've bragged, "With my fleet of chariots I've gone to the highest mountain ranges, penetrated the far reaches of Lebanon, Chopped down its giant cedars, its finest cypresses. I conquered its highest peak, explored its deepest forest. 25 I dug wells and drank my fill. I emptied the famous rivers of Egypt with one kick of my foot. 26 "'Haven't you gotten the news that I've been behind this all along? This is a longstanding plan of mine and I'm just now making it happen, using you to devastate strong cities, turning them into piles of rubble 27 and leaving their citizens helpless, bewildered, and confused, drooping like unwatered plants, stunted like withered seedlings. 28 "'I know all about your pretentious poses, your officious comings and goings, and, yes, the tantrums you throw against me. 29 Because of all your wild raging against me, your unbridled arrogance that I keep hearing of, I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. I'll show you who's boss. I'll turn you around and take you back to where you came from. 30 "'And this, Hezekiah, will be your confirming sign: This year's crops will be slim pickings, and next year it won't be much better. But in three years, farming will be back to normal, with regular sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting. 31 What's left of the people of Judah will put down roots and make a new start. 32 The people left in Jerusalem will get moving again. Mount Zion survivors will take hold again. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.' 33 "Finally, this is God's verdict on the king of Assyria: "'Don't worry, he won't enter this city, won't let loose a single arrow, Won't brandish so much as one shield, let alone build a siege ramp against it. 34 He'll go back the same way he came. He won't set a foot in this city. God's Decree. 35 I've got my hand on this city to save it, Save it for my very own sake, but also for the sake of my David dynasty.'" 36 Then the Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp - 185,000 Assyrians died. By the time the sun came up, they were all dead - an army of corpses! 37 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, got out of there fast, back home to Nineveh. 38 As he was worshiping in the sanctuary of his god Nisroch, he was murdered by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. They escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon became the next king.

Isaiah 38 (The Message)

1 At that time, Hezekiah got sick. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and said, "God says, 'Prepare your affairs and your family. This is it: You're going to die. You're not going to get well.'" 2 Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and, facing the wall, prayed to God: 3 "God, please, I beg you: Remember how I've lived my life. I've lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You've seen how I've lived, the good that I have done." And Hezekiah wept as he prayed - painful tears. 4 Then God told Isaiah, 5 "Go and speak with Hezekiah. Give him this Message from me, God, the God of your ancestor David: 'I've heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here's what I'll do: I'll add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I'll save both you and this city from the king of Assyria. I have my hand on this city. 7 "'And this is your confirming sign, confirming that I, God, will do exactly what I have promised. 8 Watch for this: As the sun goes down and the shadow lengthens on the sundial of Ahaz, I'm going to reverse the shadow ten notches on the dial.'" And that's what happened: The declining sun's shadow reversed ten notches on the dial. 9 This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he'd been sick and then recovered from his sickness: 10 In the very prime of life I have to leave. Whatever time I have left is spent in death's waiting room. 11 No more glimpses of God in the land of the living, No more meetings with my neighbors, no more rubbing shoulders with friends. 12 This body I inhabit is taken down and packed away like a camper's tent. Like a weaver, I've rolled up the carpet of my life as God cuts me free of the loom And at day's end sweeps up the scraps and pieces. 13 I cry for help until morning. Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me, relentlessly finishing me off. 14 I squawk like a doomed hen, moan like a dove. My eyes ache from looking up for help: "Master, I'm in trouble! Get me out of this!" 15 But what's the use? God himself gave me the word. He's done it to me. I can't sleep - I'm that upset, that troubled. 16 O Master, these are the conditions in which people live, and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive - fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life! 17 It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. But my sins you let go of, threw them over your shoulder - good riddance! 18 The dead don't thank you, and choirs don't sing praises from the morgue. Those buried six feet under don't witness to your faithful ways. 19 It's the living - live men, live women - who thank you, just as I'm doing right now. Parents give their children full reports on your faithful ways. 20 God saves and will save me. As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes, We'll sing, oh we'll sing, sing, for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God. 21 Isaiah had said, "Prepare a poultice of figs and put it on the boil so he may recover." 22 Hezekiah had said, "What is my cue that it's all right to enter again the Sanctuary of God?"

Isaiah 39 (The Message)

1 Sometime later, King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent messengers with greetings and a gift to Hezekiah. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and was now well. 2 Hezekiah received the messengers warmly. He took them on a tour of his royal precincts, proudly showing them all his treasures: silver, gold, spices, expensive oils, all his weapons - everything out on display. There was nothing in his house or kingdom that Hezekiah didn't show them. 3 Later the prophet Isaiah showed up. He asked Hezekiah, "What were these men up to? What did they say? And where did they come from?" Hezekiah said, "They came from a long way off, from Babylon." 4 "And what did they see in your palace?" "Everything," said Hezekiah. "I showed them the works, opened all the doors and impressed them with it all." 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Now listen to this Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: 6 I have to warn you, the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. God says that there will be nothing left. Nothing. 7 And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." 8 Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "Good. If God says so, it's good." Within himself he was thinking, "But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I'll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live."

Isaiah 40 (The Message)

1 "Comfort, oh comfort my people," says your God. 2 "Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem, but also make it very clear That she has served her sentence, that her sin is taken care of - forgiven! She's been punished enough and more than enough, and now it's over and done with." 3 Thunder in the desert! "Prepare for God's arrival! Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God. 4 Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. 5 Then God's bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said." 6 A voice says, "Shout!" I said, "What shall I shout?" "These people are nothing but grass, their love fragile as wildflowers. 7 The grass withers, the wildflowers fade, if God so much as puffs on them. Aren't these people just so much grass? 8 True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade, but our God's Word stands firm and forever." 9 Climb a high mountain, Zion. You're the preacher of good news. Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem. You're the preacher of good news. Speak loud and clear. Don't be timid! Tell the cities of Judah, "Look! Your God!" 10 Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power, ready to go into action. He is going to pay back his enemies and reward those who have loved him. 11 Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, Hugging them as he carries them, leading the nursing ewes to good pasture. The Creator of All You Can See or Imagine 12 Who has scooped up the ocean in his two hands, or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger, Who has put all the earth's dirt in one of his baskets, weighed each mountain and hill? 13 Who could ever have told God what to do or taught him his business? 14 What expert would he have gone to for advice, what school would he attend to learn justice? What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows, showed him how things work? 15 Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket, a mere smudge on a window. Watch him sweep up the islands like so much dust off the floor! 16 There aren't enough trees in Lebanon nor enough animals in those vast forests to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship. 17 All the nations add up to simply nothing before him - less than nothing is more like it. A minus. 18 So who even comes close to being like God? To whom or what can you compare him? 19 Some no-god idol? Ridiculous! It's made in a workshop, cast in bronze, Given a thin veneer of gold, and draped with silver filigree. 20 Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood - olive wood, say - that won't rot, Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god, giving special care to its base so it won't tip over! 21 Have you not been paying attention? Have you not been listening? Haven't you heard these stories all your life? Don't you understand the foundation of all things? 22 God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants. He stretches out the skies like a canvas - yes, like a tent canvas to live under. 23 He ignores what all the princes say and do. The rulers of the earth count for nothing. 24 Princes and rulers don't amount to much. Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted, They shrivel when God blows on them. Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind. 25 "So - who is like me? Who holds a candle to me?" says The Holy. 26 Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name - so magnificent! so powerful! - and never overlooks a single one? 27 Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, "God has lost track of me. He doesn't care what happens to me"? 28 Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening? God doesn't come and go. God lasts. He's Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. 29 He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. 30 For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. 31 But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind.

Isaiah 41 (The Message)

1 "Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen! Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength. Gather around me. Say what's on your heart. Together let's decide what's right. 2 "Who got things rolling here, got this champion from the east on the move? Who recruited him for this job, then rounded up and corralled the nations so he could run roughshod over kings? He's off and running, pulverizing nations into dust, leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake. 3 He chases them and comes through unscathed, his feet scarcely touching the path. 4 "Who did this? Who made it happen? Who always gets things started? I did. God. I'm first on the scene. I'm also the last to leave. 5 "Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic. The ends of the earth are shaken. Fearfully they huddle together. 6 They try to help each other out, making up stories in the dark. 7 The godmakers in the workshops go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods, Urging one another on - 'Good job!' 'Great design!' - pounding in nails at the base so that the things won't tip over. 8 "But you, Israel, are my servant. You're Jacob, my first choice, descendants of my good friend Abraham. 9 I pulled you in from all over the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth, Telling you, 'You're my servant, serving on my side. I've picked you. I haven't dropped you.' 10 Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. 11 "Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you will end up out in the cold - real losers. Those who worked against you will end up empty-handed - nothing to show for their lives. 12 When you go out looking for your old adversaries you won't find them - Not a trace of your old enemies, not even a memory. 13 That's right. Because I, your God, have a firm grip on you and I'm not letting go. I'm telling you, 'Don't panic. I'm right here to help you.' 14 "Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob? Don't be afraid. Feel like a fragile insect, Israel? I'll help you. I, God, want to reassure you. The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel. 15 I'm transforming you from worm to harrow, from insect to iron. As a sharp-toothed harrow you'll smooth out the mountains, turn those tough old hills into loamy soil. 16 You'll open the rough ground to the weather, to the blasts of sun and wind and rain. But you'll be confident and exuberant, expansive in The Holy of Israel! 17 "The poor and homeless are desperate for water, their tongues parched and no water to be found. But I'm there to be found, I'm there for them, and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty. 18 I'll open up rivers for them on the barren hills, spout fountains in the valleys. I'll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond, the waterless waste into splashing creeks. 19 I'll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland, also acacia, myrtle, and olive. I'll place the cypress in the desert, with plenty of oaks and pines. 20 Everyone will see this. No one can miss it - unavoidable, indisputable evidence That I, God, personally did this. It's created and signed by The Holy of Israel. 21 "Set out your case for your gods," says God. "Bring your evidence," says the King of Jacob. 22 "Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments, assemble reasons. Spread out the facts before us so that we can assess them ourselves. Ask them, 'If you are gods, explain what the past means - 23 or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future. Can't do that? How about doing something - anything! Good or bad - whatever. Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?' 24 They say nothing, because they are nothing - sham gods, no-gods, fool-making gods. 25 "I, God, started someone out from the north and he's come. He was called out of the east by name. He'll stomp the rulers into the mud the way a potter works the clay. 26 Let me ask you, Did anyone guess that this might happen? Did anyone tell us earlier so we might confirm it with 'Yes, he's right!'? No one mentioned it, no one announced it, no one heard a peep out of you. 27 But I told Zion all about this beforehand. I gave Jerusalem a preacher of good news. 28 But around here there's no one - no one who knows what's going on. I ask, but no one can tell me the score. 29 Nothing here. It's all smoke and hot air - sham gods, hollow gods, no-gods.

Isaiah 42 (The Message)

1 "Take a good look at my servant. I'm backing him to the hilt. He's the one I chose, and I couldn't be more pleased with him. I've bathed him with my Spirit, my life. He'll set everything right among the nations. 2 He won't call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. 3 He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right. 4 He won't tire out and quit. He won't be stopped until he's finished his work - to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for his teaching." The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life 5 God's Message, the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies, laid out the earth and all that grows from it, Who breathes life into earth's people, makes them alive with his own life: 6 "I am God. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, 7 To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons. 8 I am God. That's my name. I don't franchise my glory, don't endorse the no-god idols. 9 Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled. I'm announcing the new salvation work. Before it bursts on the scene, I'm telling you all about it." 10 Sing to God a brand-new song, sing his praises all over the world! Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause, with all the far-flung islands joining in. 11 Let the desert and its camps raise a tune, calling the Kedar nomads to join in. Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir and perform from the tops of the mountains. 12 Make God's glory resound; echo his praises from coast to coast. 13 God steps out like he means business. You can see he's primed for action. He shouts, announcing his arrival; he takes charge and his enemies fall into line: 14 "I've been quiet long enough. I've held back, biting my tongue. But now I'm letting loose, letting go, like a woman who's having a baby - 15 Stripping the hills bare, withering the wildflowers, Drying up the rivers, turning lakes into mudflats. 16 But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them - sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." 17 But those who invested in the no-gods are bankrupt - dead broke. You've Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing 18 Pay attention! Are you deaf? Open your eyes! Are you blind? 19 You're my servant, and you're not looking! You're my messenger, and you're not listening! The very people I depended upon, servants of God, blind as a bat - willfully blind! 20 You've seen a lot, but looked at nothing. You've heard everything, but listened to nothing. 21 God intended, out of the goodness of his heart, to be lavish in his revelation. 22 But this is a people battered and cowed, shut up in attics and closets, Victims licking their wounds, feeling ignored, abandoned. 23 But is anyone out there listening? Is anyone paying attention to what's coming? 24 Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs, let loose the robbers on Israel? Wasn't it God himself, this God against whom we've sinned - not doing what he commanded, not listening to what he said? 25 Isn't it God's anger that's behind all this, God's punishing power? Their whole world collapsed but they still didn't get it; their life is in ruins but they don't take it to heart.

Isaiah 43 (The Message)

1 But now, God's Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel: "Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you. I've called your name. You're mine. 2 When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. When you're in rough waters, you will not go down. When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end - 3 Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! 4 That's how much you mean to me! That's how much I love you! I'd sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. 5 "So don't be afraid: I'm with you. I'll round up all your scattered children, pull them in from east and west. 6 I'll send orders north and south: 'Send them back. Return my sons from distant lands, my daughters from faraway places. 7 I want them back, every last one who bears my name, every man, woman, and child Whom I created for my glory, yes, personally formed and made each one.'" 8 Get the blind and deaf out here and ready - the blind (though there's nothing wrong with their eyes) and the deaf (though there's nothing wrong with their ears). 9 Then get the other nations out here and ready. Let's see what they have to say about this, how they account for what's happened. Let them present their expert witnesses and make their case; let them try to convince us what they say is true. 10 "But you are my witnesses." God's Decree. "You're my handpicked servant So that you'll come to know and trust me, understand both that I am and who I am. Previous to me there was no such thing as a god, nor will there be after me. 11 I, yes I, am God. I'm the only Savior there is. 12 I spoke, I saved, I told you what existed long before these upstart gods appeared on the scene. And you know it, you're my witnesses, you're the evidence." God's Decree. "Yes, I am God. 13 I've always been God and I always will be God. No one can take anything from me. I make; who can unmake it?" You Didn't Even Do the Minimum 14 God, your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel, says: "Just for you, I will march on Babylon. I'll turn the tables on the Babylonians. Instead of whooping it up, they'll be wailing. 15 I am God, your Holy One, Creator of Israel, your King." 16 This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, 17 The God who summons horses and chariots and armies - they lie down and then can't get up; they're snuffed out like so many candles: 18 "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. 19 Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. 20 Wild animals will say 'Thank you!' - the coyotes and the buzzards - Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose, 21 the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me. 22 "But you didn't pay a bit of attention to me, Jacob. You so quickly tired of me, Israel. 23 You wouldn't even bring sheep for offerings in worship. You couldn't be bothered with sacrifices. It wasn't that I asked that much from you. I didn't expect expensive presents. 24 But you didn't even do the minimum - so stingy with me, so closefisted. Yet you haven't been stingy with your sins. You've been plenty generous with them - and I'm fed up. 25 "But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins - that's what I do. I don't keep a list of your sins. 26 "So, make your case against me. Let's have this out. Make your arguments. Prove you're in the right. 27 Your original ancestor started the sinning, and everyone since has joined in. 28 That's why I had to disqualify the Temple leaders, repudiate Jacob and discredit Israel.

Isaiah 44 (The Message)

1 "But for now, dear servant Jacob, listen - yes, you, Israel, my personal choice. 2 God who made you has something to say to you; the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you. Don't be afraid, dear servant Jacob, Jeshurun, the one I chose. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty ground and send streams coursing through the parched earth. I will pour my Spirit into your descendants and my blessing on your children. 4 They shall sprout like grass on the prairie, like willows alongside creeks. 5 This one will say, 'I am God's,' and another will go by the name Jacob; That one will write on his hand 'God's property' - and be proud to be called Israel." 6 God, King of Israel, your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: "I'm first, I'm last, and everything in between. I'm the only God there is. 7 Who compares with me? Speak up. See if you measure up. From the beginning, who else has always announced what's coming? So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try? 8 Don't be afraid, and don't worry: Haven't I always kept you informed, told you what was going on? You're my eyewitnesses: Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me? There's no Rock like me that I know of." Lover of Emptiness 9 All those who make no-god idols don't amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing - they're total embarrassments! 10 Who would bother making gods that can't do anything, that can't "god"? 11 Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality. 12 The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil - such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst. 13 The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape - a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. 14 He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. 15 Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships - carves it into a god shape and prays before it. 16 With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life." 17 And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design - a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, "Save me. You're my god." 18 Pretty stupid, wouldn't you say? Don't they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? 19 Doesn't it occur to them to say, "Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I've used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!" 20 This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can't even look at what he's doing, can't even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, "This is crazy." 21 "Remember these things, O Jacob. Take it seriously, Israel, that you're my servant. I made you, shaped you: You're my servant. O Israel, I'll never forget you. 22 I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There's nothing left of your sins. Come back to me, come back. I've redeemed you." 23 High heavens, sing! God has done it. Deep earth, shout! And you mountains, sing! A forest choir of oaks and pines and cedars! God has redeemed Jacob. God's glory is on display in Israel. 24 God, your Redeemer, who shaped your life in your mother's womb, says: "I am God. I made all that is. With no help from you I spread out the skies and laid out the earth." 25 He makes the magicians look ridiculous and turns fortunetellers into jokes. He makes the experts look trivial and their latest knowledge look silly. 26 But he backs the word of his servant and confirms the counsel of his messengers. He says to Jerusalem, "Be inhabited," and to the cities of Judah, "Be rebuilt," and to the ruins, "I raise you up." 27 He says to Ocean, "Dry up. I'm drying up your rivers." 28 He says to Cyrus, "My shepherd - everything I want, you'll do it." He says to Jerusalem, "Be built," and to the Temple, "Be established."

Isaiah 45 (The Message)

1 God's Message to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand To give the task of taming the nations, of terrifying their kings - He gave him free rein, no restrictions: 2 "I'll go ahead of you, clearing and paving the road. I'll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances. 3 I'll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables - Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4 It's because of my dear servant Jacob, Israel my chosen, That I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work. And you don't even know me! 5 I am God, the only God there is. Besides me there are no real gods. I'm the one who armed you for this work, though you don't even know me, 6 So that everyone, from east to west, will know that I have no god-rivals. I am God, the only God there is. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make harmonies and create discords. I, God, do all these things. 8 "Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, God, generate all this. 9 But doom to you who fight your Maker - you're a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: 'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!' 10 Would a sperm say to a father, 'Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?' Or a fetus to a mother, 'Why have you cooped me up in this belly?'" 11 Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel's Maker, says: "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do? 12 I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it. I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings. 13 And now I've got Cyrus on the move. I've rolled out the red carpet before him. He will build my city. He will bring home my exiles. I didn't hire him to do this. I told him. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies." 14 God says: "The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia, and those statuesque Sabeans Will all come over to you - all yours. Docile in chains, they'll follow you, Hands folded in reverence, praying before you: 'Amazing! God is with you! There is no other God - none.'" Look at the Evidence 15 Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes, God of Israel, Savior God. 16 Humiliated, all those others will be ashamed to show their faces in public. Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols won't know what to do with themselves. 17 The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God, saved with an eternal salvation. They won't be ashamed, they won't be at loose ends, ever. 18 God, Creator of the heavens - he is, remember, God. Maker of earth - he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn't go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: "I am God, the one and only. 19 I don't just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, 'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am God. I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right. 20 So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they - those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick? 21 So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is - The only God who does things right and knows how to help. 22 So turn to me and be helped - saved! - everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only. 23 I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me, 24 'Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!'" All who have raged against him will be brought before him, disgraced by their unbelief. 25 And all who are connected with Israel will have a robust, praising, good life in God!

Isaiah 46 (The Message)

1 The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps. The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules And have to be hauled off, wearing out the poor mules - 2 Dead weight, burdens who can't bear burdens, hauled off to captivity. 3 "Listen to me, family of Jacob, everyone that's left of the family of Israel. I've been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, 4 And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old. I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray. I've done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you. 5 "So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable? Can you picture me without reducing me? 6 People with a lot of money hire craftsmen to make them gods. The artisan delivers the god, and they kneel and worship it! 7 They carry it around in holy parades, then take it home and put it on a shelf. And there it sits, day in and day out, a dependable god, always right where you put it. Say anything you want to it, it never talks back. Of course, it never does anything either! 8 "Think about this. Wrap your minds around it. This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart. 9 Remember your history, your long and rich history. I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have - incomparable, irreplaceable - 10 From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, 'I'm in this for the long haul, I'll do exactly what I set out to do,' 11 Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east, from a far country the man I chose to help me. I've said it, and I'll most certainly do it. I've planned it, so it's as good as done. 12 "Now listen to me: You're a hardheaded bunch and hard to help. 13 I'm ready to help you right now. Deliverance is not a long-range plan. Salvation isn't on hold. I'm putting salvation to work in Zion now, and glory in Israel.

Isaiah 47 (The Message)

1 "Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt, virgin daughter of Babylon. No more throne for you - sit on the ground, daughter of the Chaldeans. Nobody will be calling you 'charming' and 'alluring' anymore. Get used to it. 2 Get a job, any old job: Clean gutters, scrub toilets. Hock your gowns and scarves, put on overalls - the party's over. 3 Your nude body will be on public display, exposed to vulgar taunts. It's vengeance time, and I'm taking vengeance. No one gets let off the hook." You're Acting Like the Center of the Universe 4 Our Redeemer speaks, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel: 5 "Shut up and get out of the way, daughter of Chaldeans. You'll no longer be called 'First Lady of the Kingdoms.' 6 I was fed up with my people, thoroughly disgusted with my progeny. I turned them over to you, but you had no compassion. You put old men and women to cruel, hard labor. 7 You said, 'I'm the First Lady. I'll always be the pampered darling.' You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart, never gave tomorrow a thought. 8 Well, start thinking, playgirl. You're acting like the center of the universe, Smugly saying to yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me. I'll never be a widow, I'll never lose my children.' 9 Those two things are going to hit you both at once, suddenly, on the same day: Spouse and children gone, a total loss, despite your many enchantments and charms. 10 You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life, saying, 'No one sees me.' You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out. What delusion! Smugly telling yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me.' 11 Ruin descends - you can't charm it away. Disaster strikes - you can't cast it off with spells. Catastrophe, sudden and total - and you're totally at sea, totally bewildered! 12 But don't give up. From your great repertoire of enchantments there must be one you haven't yet tried. You've been at this a long time. Surely something will work. 13 I know you're exhausted trying out remedies, but don't give up. Call in the astrologers and stargazers. They're good at this. Surely they can work up something! 14 "Fat chance. You'd be grasping at straws that are already in the fire, A fire that is even now raging. Your 'experts' are in it and won't get out. It's not a fire for cooking venison stew, not a fire to warm you on a winter night! 15 That's the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies you've been in cahoots with all your life. They reel, confused, bumping into one another. None of them bother to help you.

Isaiah 48 (The Message)

1 "And now listen to this, family of Jacob, you who are called by the name Israel: Who got you started in the loins of Judah, you who use God's name to back up your promises and pray to the God of Israel? But do you mean it? Do you live like it? 2 You claim to be citizens of the Holy City; you act as though you lean on the God of Israel, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 3 For a long time now, I've let you in on the way I work: I told you what I was going to do beforehand, then I did it and it was done, and that's that. 4 I know you're a bunch of hardheads, obstinate and flint-faced, 5 So I got a running start and began telling you what was going on before it even happened. That is why you can't say, 'My god-idol did this.' 'My favorite god-carving commanded this.' 6 You have all this evidence confirmed by your own eyes and ears. Shouldn't you be talking about it? And that was just the beginning. I have a lot more to tell you, things you never knew existed. 7 This isn't a variation on the same old thing. This is new, brand-new, something you'd never guess or dream up. When you hear this you won't be able to say, 'I knew that all along.' 8 You've never been good listeners to me. You have a history of ignoring me, A sorry track record of fickle attachments - rebels from the womb. 9 But out of the sheer goodness of my heart, because of who I am, I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper. I don't wash my hands of you. 10 Do you see what I've done? I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction. 11 Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do. I have my reputation to keep up. I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people. 12 "Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel - I'm the One who named you! I'm the One. I got things started and, yes, I'll wrap them up. 13 Earth is my work, handmade. And the skies - I made them too, horizon to horizon. When I speak, they're on their feet, at attention. 14 "Come everybody, gather around, listen: Who among the gods has delivered the news? I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I'm using him to do what I want with Babylon. 15 I, yes I, have spoken. I've called him. I've brought him here. He'll be successful. 16 Come close, listen carefully: I've never kept secrets from you. I've always been present with you." Your Progeny, Like Grains of Sand And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit 17 with this Message from God, your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel: "I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go. 18 If you had listened all along to what I told you, your life would have flowed full like a river, blessings rolling in like waves from the sea. 19 Children and grandchildren are like sand, your progeny like grains of sand. There would be no end of them, no danger of losing touch with me." 20 Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Shout the news. Broadcast it. Let the world know, the whole world. Tell them, "God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!" 21 They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water pour out of the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed. 22 "There is no peace," says God, "for the wicked."

Isaiah 49 (The Message)

1 Listen, far-flung islands, pay attention, faraway people: God put me to work from the day I was born. The moment I entered the world he named me. 2 He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate. He kept his hand on me to protect me. He made me his straight arrow and hid me in his quiver. 3 He said to me, "You're my dear servant, Israel, through whom I'll shine." 4 But I said, "I've worked for nothing. I've nothing to show for a life of hard work. Nevertheless, I'll let God have the last word. I'll let him pronounce his verdict." 5 "And now," God says, this God who took me in hand from the moment of birth to be his servant, To bring Jacob back home to him, to set a reunion for Israel - What an honor for me in God's eyes! That God should be my strength! 6 He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant - just to recover the tribes of Jacob, merely to round up the strays of Israel. I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!" 7 God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel, says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations, slave labor to the ruling class: "Kings will see, get to their feet - the princes, too - and then fall on their faces in homage Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word, The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you." 8 God also says: "When the time's ripe, I answer you. When victory's due, I help you. I form you and use you to reconnect the people with me, To put the land in order, to resettle families on the ruined properties. 9 I tell prisoners, 'Come on out. You're free!' and those huddled in fear, 'It's all right. It's safe now.' There'll be foodstands along all the roads, picnics on all the hills - 10 Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty, shade from the sun, shelter from the wind, For the Compassionate One guides them, takes them to the best springs. 11 I'll make all my mountains into roads, turn them into a superhighway. 12 Look: These coming from far countries, and those, out of the north, These streaming in from the west, and those from all the way down the Nile!" 13 Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead! Mountains, send up cheers! God has comforted his people. He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people. 14 But Zion said, "I don't get it. God has left me. My Master has forgotten I even exist." 15 "Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I'd never forget you - never. 16 Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands. The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight. 17 Your builders are faster than your wreckers. The demolition crews are gone for good. 18 Look up, look around, look well! See them all gathering, coming to you? As sure as I am the living God" - God's Decree - "you're going to put them on like so much jewelry, you're going to use them to dress up like a bride. 19 "And your ruined land? Your devastated, decimated land? Filled with more people than you know what to do with! And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory. 20 The children born in your exile will be saying, 'It's getting too crowded here. I need more room.' 21 And you'll say to yourself, 'Where on earth did these children come from? I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless. So who reared these children? How did these children get here?'" 22 The Master, God, says: "Look! I signal to the nations, I raise my flag to summon the people. Here they'll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms, men carrying your little girls on their shoulders. 23 Kings will be your babysitters, princesses will be your nursemaids. They'll offer to do all your drudge work - scrub your floors, do your laundry. You'll know then that I am God. No one who hopes in me ever regrets it." 24 Can plunder be retrieved from a giant, prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant? 25 But God says, "Even if a giant grips the plunder and a tyrant holds my people prisoner, I'm the one who's on your side, defending your cause, rescuing your children. 26 And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves, killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction. Then everyone will know that I, God, have saved you - I, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Isaiah 50 (The Message)

1 God says: "Can you produce your mother's divorce papers proving I got rid of her? Can you produce a receipt proving I sold you? Of course you can't. It's your sins that put you here, your wrongs that got you shipped out. 2 So why didn't anyone come when I knocked? Why didn't anyone answer when I called? Do you think I've forgotten how to help? Am I so decrepit that I can't deliver? I'm as powerful as ever, and can reverse what I once did: I can dry up the sea with a word, turn river water into desert sand, And leave the fish stinking in the sun, stranded on dry land... 3 Turn all the lights out in the sky and pull down the curtain." 4 The Master, God, has given me a well-taught tongue, So I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. 5 The Master, God, opened my ears, and I didn't go back to sleep, didn't pull the covers back over my head. 6 I followed orders, stood there and took it while they beat me, held steady while they pulled out my beard, Didn't dodge their insults, faced them as they spit in my face. 7 And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me, so I'm not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I'll never regret this. 8 My champion is right here. Let's take our stand together! Who dares bring suit against me? Let him try! 9 Look! the Master, God, is right here. Who would dare call me guilty? Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare socks and shirts, fodder for moths! 10 Who out there fears God, actually listens to the voice of his servant? For anyone out there who doesn't know where you're going, anyone groping in the dark, Here's what: Trust in God. Lean on your God! 11 But if all you're after is making trouble, playing with fire, Go ahead and see where it gets you. Set your fires, stir people up, blow on the flames, But don't expect me to just stand there and watch. I'll hold your feet to those flames.

Isaiah 51 (The Message)

1 "Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Yes, ponder Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who bore you. Think of it! One solitary man when I called him, but once I blessed him, he multiplied. 3 Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion, comfort all her mounds of ruins. I'll transform her dead ground into Eden, her moonscape into the garden of God, A place filled with exuberance and laughter, thankful voices and melodic songs. 4 "Pay attention, my people. Listen to me, nations. Revelation flows from me. My decisions light up the world. 5 My deliverance arrives on the run, my salvation right on time. I'll bring justice to the peoples. Even faraway islands will look to me and take hope in my saving power. 6 Look up at the skies, ponder the earth under your feet. The skies will fade out like smoke, the earth will wear out like work pants, and the people will die off like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my setting-things-right will never be obsolete. 7 "Listen now, you who know right from wrong, you who hold my teaching inside you: Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked don't let it get you down. 8 Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten, from brains that are termite-ridden, But my setting-things-right lasts, my salvation goes on and on and on." 9 Wake up, wake up, flex your muscles, God! Wake up as in the old days, in the long ago. Didn't you once make mincemeat of Rahab, dispatch the old chaos-dragon? 10 And didn't you once dry up the sea, the powerful waters of the deep, And then made the bottom of the ocean a road for the redeemed to walk across? 11 In the same way God's ransomed will come back, come back to Zion cheering, shouting, Joy eternal wreathing their heads, exuberant ecstasies transporting them - and not a sign of moans or groans. What Are You Afraid of - or Who? 12 "I, I'm the One comforting you. What are you afraid of - or who? Some man or woman who'll soon be dead? Some poor wretch destined for dust? 13 You've forgotten me, God, who made you, who unfurled the skies, who founded the earth. And here you are, quaking like an aspen before the tantrums of a tyrant who thinks he can kick down the world. But what will come of the tantrums? 14 The victims will be released before you know it. They're not going to die. They're not even going to go hungry. 15 For I am God, your very own God, who stirs up the sea and whips up the waves, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 16 I teach you how to talk, word by word, and personally watch over you, Even while I'm unfurling the skies, setting earth on solid foundations, and greeting Zion: 'Welcome, my people!'" 17 So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes! Up on your feet, Jerusalem! You've drunk the cup God handed you, the strong drink of his anger. You drank it down to the last drop, staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk. 18 And nobody to help you home, no one among your friends or children to take you by the hand and put you in bed. 19 You've been hit with a double dose of trouble - does anyone care? Assault and battery, hunger and death - will anyone comfort? 20 Your sons and daughters have passed out, strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits, Sleeping off the strong drink of God's anger, the rage of your God. 21 Therefore listen, please, you with your splitting headaches, You who are nursing the hangovers that didn't come from drinking wine. 22 Your Master, your God, has something to say, your God has taken up his people's case: "Look, I've taken back the drink that sent you reeling. No more drinking from that jug of my anger! 23 I've passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you, 'Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!' And you had to do it. Flat on the ground, you were the dirt under their feet."

Isaiah 52 (The Message)

1 Wake up, wake up! Pull on your boots, Zion! Dress up in your Sunday best, Jerusalem, holy city! Those who want no part of God have been culled out. They won't be coming along. 2 Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem! Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion! 3 God says, "You were sold for nothing. You're being bought back for nothing." 4 Again, the Master, God, says, "Early on, my people went to Egypt and lived, strangers in the land. At the other end, Assyria oppressed them. 5 And now, what have I here?" God's Decree. "My people are hauled off again for no reason at all. Tyrants on the warpath, whooping it up, and day after day, incessantly, my reputation blackened. 6 Now it's time that my people know who I am, what I'm made of - yes, that I have something to say. Here I am!" 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!" 8 Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts, shouting in joyful unison. They see with their own eyes God coming back to Zion. 9 Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem: "God has comforted his people! He's redeemed Jerusalem!" 10 God has rolled up his sleeves. All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm. Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other, sees him at work, doing his salvation work. 11 Out of here! Out of here! Leave this place! Don't look back. Don't contaminate yourselves with plunder. Just leave, but leave clean. Purify yourselves in the process of worship, carrying the holy vessels of God. 12 ut you don't have to be in a hurry. You're not running from anybody! God is leading you out of here, and the God of Israel is also your rear guard. It Was Our Pains He Carried 13 "Just watch my servant blossom! Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd! 14 But he didn't begin that way. At first everyone was appalled. He didn't even look human - a ruined face, disfigured past recognition. 15 Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback, kings shocked into silence when they see him. For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes, what was unthinkable they'll have right before them."

Isaiah 53 (The Message)

1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? 2 The servant grew up before God - a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. 3 He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. 4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. 6 We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. 7 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. 8 Justice miscarried, and he was led off - and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. 9 They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. 10 Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it - life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him. 11 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. 12 Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly - the best of everything, the highest honors - Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Isaiah 54 (The Message)

1 "Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby. Fill the air with song, you who've never experienced childbirth! You're ending up with far more children than all those childbearing women." God says so! 2 "Clear lots of ground for your tents! Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big! Use plenty of rope, drive the tent pegs deep. 3 You're going to need lots of elbow room for your growing family. You're going to take over whole nations; you're going to resettle abandoned cities. 4 Don't be afraid - you're not going to be embarrassed. Don't hold back - you're not going to come up short. You'll forget all about the humiliations of your youth, and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory. 5 For your Maker is your bridegroom, his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel, known as God of the whole earth. 6 You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief, and God welcomed you back, Like a woman married young and then left," says your God. 7 Your Redeemer God says: "I left you, but only for a moment. Now, with enormous compassion, I'm bringing you back. 8 In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you - but only for a moment. It's with lasting love that I'm tenderly caring for you. 9 "This exile is just like the days of Noah for me: I promised then that the waters of Noah would never again flood the earth. I'm promising now no more anger, no more dressing you down. 10 For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces, My love won't walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart." The God who has compassion on you says so. 11 "Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied: I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise, Lay your foundations with sapphires, 12 construct your towers with rubies, Your gates with jewels, and all your walls with precious stones. 13 All your children will have God for their teacher - what a mentor for your children! 14 You'll be built solid, grounded in righteousness, far from any trouble - nothing to fear! far from terror - it won't even come close! 15 If anyone attacks you, don't for a moment suppose that I sent them, And if any should attack, nothing will come of it. 16 I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer - 17 ut no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God's servants can expect. I'll see to it that everything works out for the best." God's Decree.

Isaiah 55 (The Message)

1 "Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway - buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money - everything's free! 2 Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. 3 Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love. 4 I set him up as a witness to the nations, made him a prince and leader of the nations, 5 And now I'm doing it to you: You'll summon nations you've never heard of, and nations who've never heard of you will come running to you Because of me, your God, because The Holy of Israel has honored you." 6 Seek God while he's here to be found, pray to him while he's close at hand. 7 Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness. 8 "I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's Decree. 9 "For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. 10 Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don't go back until they've watered the earth, Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, 11 So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They'll do the work I sent them to do, they'll complete the assignment I gave them. 12 "So you'll go out in joy, you'll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause. 13 No more thistles, but giant sequoias, no more thornbushes, but stately pines - Monuments to me, to God, living and lasting evidence of God."

Isaiah 56 (The Message)

1 God's Message: "Guard my common good: Do what's right and do it in the right way, For salvation is just around the corner, my setting-things-right is about to go into action. 2 How blessed are you who enter into these things, you men and women who embrace them, Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it, who watch your step and don't do anything evil! 3 Make sure no outsider who now follows God ever has occasion to say, 'God put me in second-class. I don't really belong.' And make sure no physically mutilated person is ever made to think, 'I'm damaged goods. I don't really belong.'" 4 For God says: "To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths and choose what delights me and keep a firm grip on my covenant, 5 I'll provide them an honored place in my family and within my city, even more honored than that of sons and daughters. I'll confer permanent honors on them that will never be revoked. 6 "And as for the outsiders who now follow me, working for me, loving my name, and wanting to be my servants - All who keep Sabbath and don't defile it, holding fast to my covenant - 7 I'll bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. They'll be welcome to worship the same as the 'insiders,' to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar. Oh yes, my house of worship will be known as a house of prayer for all people." 8 The Decree of the Master, God himself, who gathers in the exiles of Israel: "I will gather others also, gather them in with those already gathered." 9 A call to the savage beasts: Come on the run. Come, devour, beast barbarians! 10 For Israel's watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them. They have no idea what's going on. They're dogs without sense enough to bark, lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun - 11 But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat, voracious dogs, with never enough. And these are Israel's shepherds! They know nothing, understand nothing. They all look after themselves, grabbing whatever's not nailed down. 12 "Come," they say, "let's have a party. Let's go out and get drunk!" And tomorrow, more of the same: "Let's live it up!"

Isaiah 57 (The Message)

1 Meanwhile, right-living people die and no one gives them a thought. God-fearing people are carted off and no one even notices. The right-living people are out of their misery, they're finally at rest. 2 They lived well and with dignity and now they're finally at peace. 3 "But you, children of a witch, come here! Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore. 4 What business do you have taunting, sneering, and sticking out your tongue? Do you have any idea what wretches you've turned out to be? A race of rebels, a generation of liars. 5 You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade and fornicate at whim. You kill your children at any convenient spot - any cave or crevasse will do. 6 You take stones from the creek and set up your sex-and-religion shrines. You've chosen your fate. Your worship will be your doom. 7 You've climbed a high mountain to practice your foul sex-and-death religion. 8 Behind closed doors you assemble your precious gods and goddesses. Deserting me, you've gone all out, stripped down and made your bed your place of worship. You've climbed into bed with the 'sacred' whores and loved every minute of it, adoring every curve of their naked bodies. 9 You anoint your king-god with ointments and lavish perfumes on yourselves. You send scouts to search out the latest in religion, send them all the way to hell and back. 10 You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different, and never see what a waste it all is. You've always found strength for the latest fad, never got tired of trying new religions. 11 "Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense, leaving me high and dry, forgetting you ever knew me? Because I don't yell and make a scene do you think I don't exist? 12 I'll go over, detail by detail, all your 'righteous' attempts at religion, and expose the absurdity of it all. 13 Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods: A good wind will blow them away. They're smoke, nothing but smoke. "But anyone who runs to me for help will inherit the land, will end up owning my holy mountain!" 14 Someone says: "Build, build! Make a road! Clear the way, remove the rocks from the road my people will travel." 15 A Message from the high and towering God, who lives in Eternity, whose name is Holy: "I live in the high and holy places, but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed, And what I do is put new spirit in them, get them up and on their feet again. 16 For I'm not going to haul people into court endlessly, I'm not going to be angry forever. Otherwise, people would lose heart. These souls I created would tire out and give up. 17 I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel's sins. I struck him hard and turned away in anger, while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways. 18 When I looked again and saw what he was doing, I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him, creating a new language of praise for the mourners. 19 Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand," says God - "and yes, I will heal them. 20 But the wicked are storm-battered seas that can't quiet down. The waves stir up garbage and mud. 21 There's no peace," God says, "for the wicked.

Isaiah 58 (The Message)

1 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back - a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! 2 They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people - law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. 3 But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. 4 You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. 5 Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? 6 "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. 7 What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. 8 Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. 9 Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, 10 If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. 11 I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. 12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. 13 "If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don't use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God's holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,' making money, running here and there - 14 Then you'll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all. I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob." Yes! God says so!

Isaiah 59 (The Message)

1 Look! Listen! God's arm is not amputated - he can still save. God's ears are not stopped up - he can still hear. 2 There's nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn't hear. 3 Your hands are drenched in blood, your fingers dripping with guilt, Your lips smeared with lies, your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities. 4 No one speaks up for the right, no one deals fairly. They trust in illusion, they tell lies, they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies. 5 They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs. Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake! 6 The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls. No one can wear these weavings! They weave wickedness, they hatch violence. 7 They compete in the race to do evil and run to be the first to murder. They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil, and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them. 8 They know nothing about peace and less than nothing about justice. They make tortuously twisted roads. No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads! 9 Which means that we're a far cry from fair dealing, and we're not even close to right living. We long for light but sink into darkness, long for brightness but stumble through the night. 10 Like the blind, we inch along a wall, groping eyeless in the dark. We shuffle our way in broad daylight, like the dead, but somehow walking. 11 We're no better off than bears, groaning, and no worse off than doves, moaning. We look for justice - not a sign of it; for salvation - not so much as a hint. 12 Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God, our sins stand up and accuse us. Our wrongdoings stare us down; we know in detail what we've done: 13 Mocking and denying God, not following our God, Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition, pregnant with lies, muttering malice. 14 Justice is beaten back, Righteousness is banished to the sidelines, Truth staggers down the street, Honesty is nowhere to be found, 15 Good is missing in action. Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed. God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon - so much evil and no sign of Justice. 16 He couldn't believe what he saw: not a soul around to correct this awful situation. So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation, fueled by his own Righteousness. 17 He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor, with Salvation on his head like a helmet, Put on Judgment like an overcoat, and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders. 18 He'll make everyone pay for what they've done: fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies. Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full. 19 In the west they'll fear the name of God, in the east they'll fear the glory of God, For he'll arrive like a river in flood stage, whipped to a torrent by the wind of God. 20 "I'll arrive in Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who leave their sins." God's Decree. 21 "As for me," God says, "this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I've placed upon you and the words that I've given you to speak, they're not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won't ever stop." God's orders.

Isaiah 60 (The Message)

1 "Get out of bed, Jerusalem! Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight. God's bright glory has risen for you. 2 The whole earth is wrapped in darkness, all people sunk in deep darkness, But God rises on you, his sunrise glory breaks over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, kings to your sunburst brightness. 4 Look up! Look around! Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you: Your sons coming from great distances, your daughters carried by their nannies. 5 When you see them coming you'll smile - big smiles! Your heart will swell and, yes, burst! All those people returning by sea for the reunion, a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations! 6 And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see, young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah, Pouring in from the south from Sheba, loaded with gold and frankincense, preaching the praises of God. 7 And yes, a great roundup of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth, Welcome gifts for worship at my altar as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor. What's That We See in the Distance? 8 "What's that we see in the distance, a cloud on the horizon, like doves darkening the sky? 9 It's ships from the distant islands, the famous Tarshish ships Returning your children from faraway places, loaded with riches, with silver and gold, And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel, showering you with splendor. 10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship. When I was angry I hit you hard. It's my desire now to be tender. 11 Your Jerusalem gates will always be open - open house day and night! - Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations, and their kings, the delivery boys! 12 Any nation or kingdom that doesn't deliver will perish; those nations will be totally wasted. 13 The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered - all that cypress and oak and pine - To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary, as I make my footstool glorious. 14 The descendants of your oppressor will come bowing and scraping to you. All who looked down at you in contempt will lick your boots. They'll confer a title on you: City of God, Zion of The Holy of Israel. 15 Not long ago you were despised refuse - out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored. But now I've put you on your feet, towering and grand forever, a joy to look at! 16 When you suck the milk of nations and the breasts of royalty, You'll know that I, God, am your Savior, your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob. 17 I'll give you only the best - no more hand-me-downs! Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron, bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones. I'll install Peace to run your country, make Righteousness your boss. 18 There'll be no more stories of crime in your land, no more robberies, no more vandalism. You'll name your main street Salvation Way, and install Praise Park at the center of town. 19 You'll have no more need of the sun by day nor the brightness of the moon at night. God will be your eternal light, your God will bathe you in splendor. 20 Your sun will never go down, your moon will never fade. I will be your eternal light. Your days of grieving are over. 21 All your people will live right and well, in permanent possession of the land. They're the green shoot that I planted, planted with my own hands to display my glory. 22 The runt will become a great tribe, the weakling become a strong nation. I am God. At the right time I'll make it happen."

Isaiah 61 (The Message)

1 The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. 2 God sent me to announce the year of his grace - a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies - and to comfort all who mourn, 3 To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness" planted by God to display his glory. 4 They'll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They'll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new. 5 You'll hire outsiders to herd your flocks and foreigners to work your fields, 6 But you'll have the title "Priests of God," honored as ministers of our God. You'll feast on the bounty of nations, you'll bask in their glory. 7 Because you got a double dose of trouble and more than your share of contempt, Your inheritance in the land will be doubled and your joy go on forever. 8 "Because I, God, love fair dealing and hate thievery and crime, I'll pay your wages on time and in full, and establish my eternal covenant with you. 9 Your descendants will become well-known all over. Your children in foreign countries Will be recognized at once as the people I have blessed." 10 I will sing for joy in God, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jeweled tiara. 11 For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom and puts praise on display before the nations.

Isaiah 62 (The Message)

1 Regarding Zion, I can't keep my mouth shut, regarding Jerusalem, I can't hold my tongue, Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun and her salvation flames up like a torch. 2 Foreign countries will see your righteousness, and world leaders your glory. You'll get a brand-new name straight from the mouth of God. 3 You'll be a stunning crown in the palm of God's hand, a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God. 4 No more will anyone call you Rejected, and your country will no more be called Ruined. You'll be called Hephzibah (My Delight), and your land Beulah (Married), Because God delights in you and your land will be like a wedding celebration. 5 For as a young man marries his virgin bride, so your builder marries you, And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride, so your God is happy with you. 6 I've posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out, reminding God to remember. 7 They are to give him no peace until he does what he said, until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise. 8 God has taken a solemn oath, an oath he means to keep: "Never again will I open your grain-filled barns to your enemies to loot and eat. Never again will foreigners drink the wine that you worked so hard to produce. 9 No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food and praise God for it. And those who make the wine will drink the wine in my holy courtyards." 10 Walk out of the gates. Get going! Get the road ready for the people. Build the highway. Get at it! Clear the debris, hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples! 11 Yes! God has broadcast to all the world: "Tell daughter Zion, 'Look! Your Savior comes, Ready to do what he said he'd do, prepared to complete what he promised.'" 12 Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed, Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.

Isaiah 63 (The Message)

1 The watchmen call out, "Who goes there, marching out of Edom, out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red? Name yourself, so splendidly dressed, advancing, bristling with power!" "It is I: I speak what is right, I, mighty to save!" 2 "And why are your robes so red, your clothes dyed red like those who tread grapes?" 3 "I've been treading the winepress alone. No one was there to help me. Angrily, I stomped the grapes; raging, I trampled the people. Their blood spurted all over me - all my clothes were soaked with blood. 4 I was set on vengeance. The time for redemption had arrived. 5 I looked around for someone to help - no one. I couldn't believe it - not one volunteer. So I went ahead and did it myself, fed and fueled by my rage. 6 I trampled the people in my anger, crushed them under foot in my wrath, soaked the earth with their lifeblood." All the Things God Has Done That Need Praising 7 I'll make a list of God's gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, All the generous bounties of God, his great goodness to the family of Israel - Compassion lavished, love extravagant. 8 He said, "Without question these are my people, children who would never betray me." So he became their Savior. 9 In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time. 10 But they turned on him; they grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned on them, became their enemy and fought them. 11 Then they remembered the old days, the days of Moses, God's servant: "Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock up and out of the sea? And what happened to the One who set his Holy Spirit within them? 12 Who linked his arm with Moses' right arm, divided the waters before them, Making him famous ever after, 13 and led them through the muddy abyss as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground? 14 Like a herd of cattle led to pasture, the Spirit of God gave them rest." That's how you led your people! That's how you became so famous! 15 Look down from heaven, look at us! Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house! Whatever happened to your passion, your famous mighty acts, Your heartfelt pity, your compassion? Why are you holding back? 16 You are our Father. Abraham and Israel are long dead. They wouldn't know us from Adam. But you're our living Father, our Redeemer, famous from eternity! 17 Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways? Why did you make us cold and stubborn so that we no longer worshiped you in awe? Turn back for the sake of your servants. You own us! We belong to you! 18 For a while your holy people had it good, but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place. 19 For a long time now, you've paid no attention to us. It's like you never knew us.

Isaiah 64 (The Message)

1 Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence - 2 As when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to boil - 3 To shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots! You did terrible things we never expected, descended and made the mountains shudder at your presence. 4 Since before time began no one has ever imagined, No ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you who works for those who wait for him. 5 You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work. But how angry you've been with us! We've sinned and kept at it so long! Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved? 6 We're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves - sin-dried, we're blown off by the wind. 7 No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you Because you've turned away from us, left us to stew in our sins. 8 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us. 9 Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people - all of us. 10 Your holy cities are all ghost towns: Zion's a ghost town, Jerusalem's a field of weeds. 11 Our holy and beautiful Temple, which our ancestors filled with your praises, Was burned down by fire, all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins. 12 In the face of all this, are you going to sit there unmoved, God? Aren't you going to say something? Haven't you made us miserable long enough?

Isaiah 65 (The Message)

1 "I've made myself available to those who haven't bothered to ask. I'm here, ready to be found by those who haven't bothered to look. I kept saying 'I'm here, I'm right here' to a nation that ignored me. 2 I reached out day after day to a people who turned their backs on me, People who make wrong turns, who insist on doing things their own way. 3 They get on my nerves, are rude to my face day after day, Make up their own kitchen religion, a potluck religious stew. 4 They spend the night in tombs to get messages from the dead, Eat forbidden foods and drink a witch's brew of potions and charms. 5 They say, 'Keep your distance. Don't touch me. I'm holier than thou.' These people gag me. I can't stand their stench. 6 Look at this! Their sins are all written out - I have the list before me. I'm not putting up with this any longer. I'll pay them the wages 7 They have coming for their sins. And for the sins of their parents lumped in, a bonus." God says so. "Because they've practiced their blasphemous worship, mocking me at their hillside shrines, I'll let loose the consequences and pay them in full for their actions." 8 God's Message: "But just as one bad apple doesn't ruin the whole bushel, there are still plenty of good apples left. So I'll preserve those in Israel who obey me. I won't destroy the whole nation. 9 I'll bring out my true children from Jacob and the heirs of my mountains from Judah. My chosen will inherit the land, my servants will move in. 10 The lush valley of Sharon in the west will be a pasture for flocks, And in the east, the valley of Achor, a place for herds to graze. These will be for the people who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives, who actually bothered to look for me. 11 "But you who abandon me, your God, who forget the holy mountains, Who hold dinners for Lady Luck and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate, 12 Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be: your destiny, Death. For when I invited you, you ignored me; when I spoke to you, you brushed me off. You did the very things I exposed as evil; you chose what I hate." 13 Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God: "My servants will eat, and you'll go hungry; My servants will drink, and you'll go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, and you'll hang your heads. 14 My servants will laugh from full hearts, and you'll cry out heartbroken, yes, wail from crushed spirits. 15 Your legacy to my chosen will be your name reduced to a cussword. I, God, will put you to death and give a new name to my servants. 16 Then whoever prays a blessing in the land will use my faithful name for the blessing, And whoever takes an oath in the land will use my faithful name for the oath, Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten, banished far from my sight. New Heavens and a New Earth 17 "Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. 18 Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating: I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. 19 I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; 20 No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal - anything less will seem like a cheat. 21 They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow. 22 No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. 23 They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. 24 Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard. 25 Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.

Isaiah 66 (The Message)

1 God's Message: "Heaven's my throne, earth is my footstool. What sort of house could you build for me? What holiday spot reserve for me? 2 I made all this! I own all this!" God's Decree. "But there is something I'm looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say. 3 "Your acts of worship are acts of sin: Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox is no different from murdering the neighbor; Your offerings for worship, no different from dumping pig's blood on the altar; Your presentation of memorial gifts, no different from honoring a no-god idol. You choose self-serving worship, you delight in self-centered worship - disgusting! 4 Well, I choose to expose your nonsense and let you realize your worst fears, Because when I invited you, you ignored me; when I spoke to you, you brushed me off. You did the very things I exposed as evil, you chose what I hate." 5 But listen to what God has to say to you who reverently respond to his Word: "Your own families hate you and turn you out because of me. They taunt you, 'Let us see God's glory! If God's so great, why aren't you happy?' But they're the ones who are going to end up shamed." 6 Rumbles of thunder from the city! A voice out of the Temple! God's voice, handing out judgment to his enemies: 7 "Before she went into labor, she had the baby. Before the birth pangs hit, she delivered a son. 8 Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Has anyone seen anything like this? A country born in a day? A nation born in a flash? But Zion was barely in labor when she had her babies! 9 Do I open the womb and not deliver the baby? Do I, the One who delivers babies, shut the womb? 10 "Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her, celebrate! And all you who have shed tears over her, join in the happy singing. 11 You newborns can satisfy yourselves at her nurturing breasts. Yes, delight yourselves and drink your fill at her ample bosom." 12 God's Message: "I'll pour robust well-being into her like a river, the glory of nations like a river in flood. You'll nurse at her breasts, nestle in her bosom, and be bounced on her knees. 13 As a mother comforts her child, so I'll comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem." 14 You'll see all this and burst with joy - you'll feel ten feet tall - As it becomes apparent that God is on your side and against his enemies. 15 For God arrives like wildfire and his chariots like a tornado, A furious outburst of anger, a rebuke fierce and fiery. 16 For it's by fire that God brings judgment, a death sentence on the human race. Many, oh so many, are under God's sentence of death: 17 "All who enter the sacred groves for initiation in those unholy rituals that climaxed in that foul and obscene meal of pigs and mice will eat together and then die together." God's Decree. 18 "I know everything they've ever done or thought. I'm going to come and then gather everyone - all nations, all languages. They'll come and see my glory. 19 I'll set up a station at the center. I'll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I've done nor who I am. I'll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations. 20 They'll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They'll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They'll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem," says God. "They'll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God. 21 I'll even take some of them and make them priests and Levites," says God. 22 "For just as the new heavens and new earth that I am making will stand firm before me" - God's Decree - "So will your children and your reputation stand firm. 23 Month after month and week by week, everyone will come to worship me," God says. 24 "And then they'll go out and look at what happened to those who rebelled against me. Corpses! Maggots endlessly eating away on them, an endless supply of fuel for fires. Everyone who sees what's happened and smells the stench retches."