1:1 THE VISION [seen by spiritual perception] of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah [the kingdom] and Jerusalem [its capital] in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. |
1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up sons {and} have made them great and exalted, but they have rebelled against Me {and} broken away from Me. |
1:3 The ox [instinctively] knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know {or} recognize Me [as Lord], My people do not consider {or} understand. |
1:4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised {and} shown contempt {and} provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have become utterly estranged (alienated). |
1:5 Why should you be stricken {and} punished any more [since it brings no correction]? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint (feeble, sick, and nauseated). |
1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness {or} health in [the nation's body]--but wounds and bruises and fresh {and} bleeding stripes; they have not been pressed out {and} closed up or bound up or softened with oil. [No one has troubled to seek a remedy.] |
1:7 [Because of your detestable disobedience] your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land--strangers devour it in your very presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens. |
1:8 And the Daughter of Zion [Jerusalem] is left like a [deserted] booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city [spared, but in the midst of desolation]. |
1:9 Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant [of survivors], we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah. |
1:10 Hear [O Jerusalem] the word of the Lord, you rulers {or} judges of [another] Sodom! Give ear to the law {and} the teaching of our God, you people of [another] Gomorrah! |
1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me [unless they are the offering of the heart]? says the Lord. I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts [without obedience]; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of he-goats [without righteousness]. |
1:12 When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you that your [unholy feet] trample My courts? |
1:13 Bring no more offerings of vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility); [your hollow offering of] incense is an abomination to Me; the New Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure--[it is] iniquity {and} profanation, even the solemn meeting. |
1:14 Your New Moon festivals and your [hypocritical] appointed feasts My soul hates. They are an oppressive burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. |
1:15 And when you spread forth your hands [in prayer, imploring help], I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood! |
1:16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes! Cease to do evil, |
1:17 Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, {and} correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. |
1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. |
1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; |
1:20 But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. |
1:21 How the faithful city has become an [idolatrous] harlot, she who was full of justice! Uprightness {and} right standing with God [once] lodged in her--but now murderers. |
1:22 Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water. |
1:23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after compensation {and} rewards. They judge not for the fatherless {nor} defend them, neither does the cause of the widow come to them [for they delay or turn a deaf ear]. |
1:24 Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will appease Myself on My adversaries and avenge Myself on My enemies. |
1:25 And I will bring My hand again upon you and thoroughly purge away your dross [as with lye] and take away all your tin {or} alloy. |
1:26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterward you shall be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City. |
1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her [returned] converts with righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God). |
1:28 But the crushing {and} destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and they who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. |
1:29 For you will be ashamed [of the folly and degradation] of the oak {or} terebinth trees in which you found [idolatrous] pleasure, and you will blush with shame for the [idolatrous worship which you practice in the passion-inflaming] gardens which you have chosen. |
1:30 For you shall be like an oak {or} terebinth whose leaf withers, and like a garden that has no water. |
1:31 And the strong shall become like tow {and} become tinder, and his work like a spark, and they shall both burn together, with none to quench them. |