Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, Biblical Foundations for Mission, p. 73-75

3              John 1:10-11
5              Matthew 6:22-23
9              Genesis 18:16-33
11-14       Amos 5:21-22
12-20      Isaiah 58; Matthew 5:23-26
13            Galatians 4:10
27            Isaiah 5:16
30            Psalm 1:3

11-17      John Dominic Crossan, The Greatest Prayer, p. 16-17
11-15      H. E. Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer, p. 57 f.
18-20    William Safire, The First Dissident, p. 63

18-19     Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 265
18           Carl Sandburg, “The Sins of Kalamazoo,” The Voice That Is Great Within Us, p. 23

18           William Stafford, “Whispered in Winter,” The Way It Is, p. 13

19-20     My translation

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the LORD has spoken:
“Sons have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows its owner,
and the ass its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people does not understand.”

4 Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
sons who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the LORD,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.

5 Why will you still be smitten,
that you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and bleeding wounds;
they are not pressed out, or bound up,
or softened with oil.

7 Your country lies desolate,
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
aliens devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
9 If the LORD of hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we should have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of he-goats.

12 “When you come to appear before me,
who requires of you
this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread forth your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
defend the fatherless,
plead for the widow.

18 “Come now, 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 become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

21 How the faithful city
has become a harlot,
she that was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
your wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Every one loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

24 Therefore the Lord says, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will vent my wrath on my enemies,
and avenge myself on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you
and will smelt away your dross as with lye
and remove all your alloy.
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.”

27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28 But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29 For you shall be ashamed of the oaks
in which you delighted;
and you shall blush for the gardens
which you have chosen.
30 For you shall be like an oak
whose leaf withers,
and like a garden without water.
31 And the strong shall become tow,
and his work a spark,
and both of them shall burn together,
with none to quench them.

1-5      Matthew 5:14-16
2-5     Micah 4:1-5
2-4    Jeremiah 51:44; Hosea 2:18-20; Isaiah 40:4-9
2         Revelation 21:22-26
3         Acts 1:8
4         Judges 3:2; Joel 3:10
20       Mark 10:21-22

1-5         Walter Brueggemann, Journey to the Common Good, p. 27

1-5         Me, “Five Mountains,” Sermon of December 2, 2001

2-3        Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal, p. 261

2            Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh

4            Carla De Sola, “Vine and Fig Tree,” The Spirit Moves, p. 119

4            Pedro Reyes, “Palas por Pistolas,” in The Language of Trees, p. 13

4            David Rosenberg, A Poet’s Bible, p. 240-241

4            William Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers, p. 36

11-17     Ivan Steiger, Ivan Steiger Sees the Bible, p. 121

1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD.
6 For thou hast rejected thy people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of diviners from the east
and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they strike hands with foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their own fingers have made.
9 So man is humbled,
and men are brought low—
forgive them not!
10 Enter into the rock,
and hide in the dust
from before the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
and the pride of men shall be humbled;
and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For the LORD of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up and high;
13 against all the cedars of Lebanon,
lofty and lifted up;
and against all the oaks of Bashan;
14 against all the high mountains,
and against all the lofty hills;
15 against every high tower,
and against every fortified wall;
16 against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all the beautiful craft.
17 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the pride of men shall be brought low;
and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols shall utterly pass away.
19 And men shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
20 In that day men will cast forth
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Turn away from man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?

5          Mark 13:12
9-11     Matthew 7:1-2

1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
stay and staff,
the whole stay of bread,
and the whole stay of water;
2 the mighty man and the soldier,
the judge and the prophet,
the diviner and the elder,
3 the captain of fifty
and the man of rank,
the counselor and the skilful magician
and the expert in charms.
4 And I will make boys their princes,
and babes shall rule over them.
5 And the people will oppress one another,
every man his fellow
and every man his neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
and the base fellow to the honorable.

6 When a man takes hold of his brother
in the house of his father, saying:
“You have a mantle;
you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
shall be under your rule”;
7 in that day he will speak out, saying:
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is neither bread nor mantle;
you shall not make me
leader of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen;
because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD,
defying his glorious presence.

9 Their partiality witnesses against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom,
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil upon themselves.
10 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for what his hands have done shall be done to him.
12 My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you,
and confuse the course of your paths.

13 The LORD has taken his place to contend,
he stands to judge his people.
14 The LORD enters into judgment
with the elders and princes of his people:
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard,
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor?” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

16 The LORD said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks,
glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
tinkling with their feet;
17 the Lord will smite with a scab
the heads of the daughters of Zion,
and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.

18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; 20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and nose rings; 22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

24 Instead of perfume there will be rottenness;
and instead of a girdle, a rope;
and instead of well-set hair, baldness;
and instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
instead of beauty, shame.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword
and your mighty men in battle.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn;
ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground.

2    Isaiah 6:13, 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; Zechariah 3:8, 6:12; Malachi 4:1
6    Psalm 121:5-6

5-6    Amy Clampitt, “The Poetry of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 255 f.

1 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying,
“We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes,
only let us be called by your name;
take away our reproach.”

2 In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.  3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.  5 Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy and a pavilion.  6 It will be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Samuel Sandmel, The Enjoyment of Scripture, p. 252

1-7     Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah 27:2-5
1-2     Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1; Luke 20:9
6         Isaiah 7:23-25, 10:17, 32:13; Matthew 5:44
6         Isaiah 1:27

1-7          R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122, 124

1-5         Your Word is Fire, p. 107

5             Frank Moore Cross, Bible Review (December 1992), p. 27

11-14     Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 467 f.
24-25    Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 467 f.

1 Let me sing for my beloved
a love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He digged it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you,
between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?

5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, a cry!

8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
9 The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
till wine inflames them!
12 They have lyre and harp,
timbrel and flute and wine at their feasts;
but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,
or see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into exile for want of knowledge;
their honored men are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.

14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down,
her throng and he who exults in her.
15 Man is bowed down, and men are brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19 who say: “Let him make haste,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will be as rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and smote them,
and the mountains quaked;
and their corpses were as refuse
in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.

26 He will raise a signal for a nation afar off,
and whistle for it from the ends of the earth;
and lo, swiftly, speedily it comes!
27 None is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistcloth is loose,
not a sandal-thong broken;
28 their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey,
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
30 They will growl over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land,
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Ronald B. Allen, “Gasping Before Him,” Worship Leader (January 1997), p. 10 & 16 [Note]

Frederick Buechner, “The Calling of Voices,” The Hungering Dark, p. 25-33
Amy Clampitt, “The Poetry of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 255-257

Otto Kaiser, Isaiah 1-12, p. 119

Denise Levertov, “Wings of God,” Poems 1968-1972 (Relearning the Alphabet), p. 39

Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, p. 60 f., 63

Imaging the Word, Vol. 3, p. 226

1          Isaiah 57:15
3         Revelation 4:8, 11:9
4         Mark 15:38; Revelation 15:8
5-7     Zechariah 3:2-5

1-7      Stephen Mitchell, “Isaiah,” Parables and Portraits, p. 24
1-4      Carla De Sola, The Spirit Moves, p. 121
2         Phillips Brooks, “The Wings of the Seraphim,” The Light of the World, p. 253-269
3         Samuel Terrien, The Elusive Presence, p. 203

6-8     Denise Levertov, “Caedmo,” Breathing the Water, p. 65
6-8     W. B. Yeats, Selected Poems and Plays, p. 136

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.  2 Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.  5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

6 Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  7 And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”  8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

9-13     Isaiah 42:7, 42:16, 42:18-20, 43:8
9-10     Deuteronomy 29:2-4; Isaiah 28:9-13, 44:18, 52:15
9-10     Matthew 13:14; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:40; Acts 28:26-27; Revelation 10-11

9-11     Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 265
9-11     Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, Biblical Foundations for Mission, p. 73
9-10    W. H. Auden, “For the Time Being,” quoted by John Dominic Crossan in In Parables, p. 53

9-10    R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 125

9-10    E. E. Cummings, quoted by Madeleine L’Engle in Walking on Water, p. 7

9-10    John Donne, “Devotions: The first Alteration … ”Classics of Western Spirituality, p. 255

9 And he said,

“Go, and say to this people:
‘Hear and hear, but do not understand;
see and see, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people fat,
and their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without men,
and the land is utterly desolate,
12 and the LORD removes men far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

12-14     Exodus 17:7
14           Matthew 1:23
15           Deuteronomy 1:39
23           Isaiah 5:6

10-14     Me, “Sermons,” (December 13, 1998; December 23, 2001)

14           John Donne, “Number 8,” Sermons on the Psalms and Gospels, p. 178

14           Morton Smith, quoted in The Gospel According to Jesus by Stephen Mitchell, p. 80

14            Geza Vermes, The Changing Faces of Jesus, p. 228

15-16     Jacob Milgrom, “Sex and Wisdom,” Bible Review (December 1994), p. 21

1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.  2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him, ‘Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.  5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord GOD:

It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established.’”

10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”  12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.”  13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?  14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.  17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria.”

18 In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly which is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria.  19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.

20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor which is hired beyond the River — with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep; 22 and because of the abundance of milk which they give, he will eat curds; for every one that is left in the land will eat curds and honey.

23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.  24 With bow and arrows men will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; 25 and as for all the hills which used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

5             John 9:7
12-13    1 Peter 3:14-15
14-15     1 Peter 2:8
17-18     Hebrews 2:13

6-10       Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, Biblical Foundations for Mission, p. 76-77
11-22     Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden , p. 274 f.
16-23    David Rosenberg, A Poet’s Bible, p. 253
16-18     Samuel Terrien, “The Deus Absconditus,” The Elusive Presence, p. 250

1 Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write upon it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’”  2 And I got reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.  3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the child knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 The LORD spoke to me again:  6 “Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and melt in fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks; 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck; and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

9 Be broken, you peoples,
and be dismayed;
give ear, all you far countries;
gird yourselves and be dismayed;
gird yourselves and be dismayed.
10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nought;
speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.

11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:  12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.  13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.  14 And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  15 And many shall stumble thereon; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

16 Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.  17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.  18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.  19 And when they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?  20 To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word which they speak there is no dawn.  21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their God, and turn their faces upward; 22 and they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness.

1-2     Matthew 4:15-16; Luke 1:79
2        Psalm 23:4
4        Leviticus 26:13; Isaiah 14:25
7        Psalm 145:13; Luke 1:32-33
17       Zephaniah 3:17
19       Mark 13:12

1-7      Pope Francis, “Homily at Madison Square Garden Mass,” September 25, 2015, New York Times

1-7      David Rosenberg, A Poets Bible, p. 256
1-2      Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love, p. 30
2-7     Hans Walter Wolff, “The Dawn of Peace,” Old Testament and Christian Preaching, p. 55-64
2-6     Frederick Buechner, “Come and See,” The Hungering Dark, p. 49-56
6         Wendell Berry, Sex Economy Freedom & Community, p. 86

1 But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation,
thou hast increased its joy;
they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called
“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
7 Of the increase of his government
and of peace there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom,
to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and for evermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

8 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,
and it will light upon Israel;
9 and all the people will know,
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.”
11 So the LORD raises adversaries against them,
and stirs up their enemies.
12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west
devour Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.

13 The people did not turn to him who smote them,
nor seek the LORD of hosts.
14 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day—
15 the elder and honored man is the head,
and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
16 for those who lead this people lead them astray,
and those who are led by them are swallowed up.
17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,
and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for every one is godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.

18 For wickedness burns like a fire,
it consumes briers and thorns;
it kindles the thickets of the forest,
and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts
the land is burned,
and the people are like fuel for the fire;
no man spares his brother.
20 They snatch on the right, but are still hungry,
and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied;
each devours his neighbor’s flesh,
21 Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
and together they are against Judah.
For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.

5-34       Isaiah 14:24-27; Nahum 1:1—3:19; Zephaniah 2:13-15
17            Isaiah 5:6
22-23     Romans 9:27
27           Matthew 11:30

5-27        Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, Biblical Foundations for Mission, p. 77-79
28-34     Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 466 f.

1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the storm which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.

5 Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger,
the staff of my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But he does not so intend,
and his mind does not so think;
but it is in his mind to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few;
8 for he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
as I have done to Sama’ria and her images?”

12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.  13 For he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
14 My hand has found like a nest
the wealth of the peoples;
and as men gather eggs that have been forsaken
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing,
or opened the mouth, or chirped.”

15 Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16 Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.
17 The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame;
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land
the LORD will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down.

20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.  21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.  22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.  23 For the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord, the LORD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they smite with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.  25 For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as when he smote Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.  27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.”

He has gone up from Rimmon,
28 he has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron,
at Michmash he stores his baggage;
29 they have crossed over the pass,
at Geba they lodge for the night;
Ramah trembles,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!
Hearken, O Laishah!
Answer her, O Anathoth!
31 Madmenah is in flight,
the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32 This very day he will halt at Nob,
he will shake his fist
at the mount of the daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts
will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the great in height will be hewn down,
and the lofty will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe,
and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.

Peter Davison, “The Housewife’s Paradise,” Odd Angles of Heaven, p. 85 f.

Samuel Terrien, “The Psalmody of Presence,” The Elusive Presence, p. 303

1     Isaiah 4:2; Malachi 4:1; Revelation 5:5, 22:16
2     Matthew 3:16; John 1:32
4     2 Thessalonians 2:8
5     Ephesians 6:14

1-3     Justin Martyr, The Holy Spirit, p. 27

1-3     Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 467
1         John Donne, CWS, p. 104

2         Donald Juel, “Christ the Crucified,” Messianic Exegesis, p. 108

3         Donald Juel, “4 QpIsa frag D in The Dead Sea Scriptures, p. 307,” Messianic Exegesis, p. 75

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist,
and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

April Bernard, “What Would Happen Then,” The New Yorker (February 14, 2000), p. 40

Wendell Berry, “Preserving Wildness,” Home Economics, p. 142

Peter Davison, “The Housewife’s Paradise,” Odd Angles of Heaven, p. 85 f.

Madeleine L’Engle, “The Irish Setter and swallow story ,” The Irrational Season, p. 191-193
Denise Levertov, “Meeting the Ferret,” Sands of the Well, p. 47

Stanley Moss, “Peace,” The New Yorker (December 1, 2008), p. 58

Mary Rose O’Reiley, Weavings (May/June 1994), p. 20

Imaging the Word, Vol. 2, p. 84-87 [Tree of Jesse, by C. Terry Saul (Chickasaw/Choctaw painter)]

6-9     Isaiah 65:25; Hosea 2:18
6         Psalm 23:4
8         Matthew 16:18
9         Isaiah 6:3, 48:18; Habakkuk 2:14; Matthew 6:9

6     Dan Damon, Faith Will Sing, p. 15

6     Robert C. Morris, “Invocation of the Creatures,” Weavings (May/June 1993), p. 32

6     Pattiann Rogers, “Animals and People,” Song of the World Becoming, p. 449

6     W. B. Yeats, Selected Poems and Plays, p. 172

9     Aleane Mason, “Christmas Letter,” Christmas File

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

10     Romans 15:12
15     Revelation 16:12

12-16     R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 121

10 In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant which is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12 He will raise an ensign for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,
and together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15 And the LORD will utterly destroy
the tongue of the sea of Egypt;
and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching wind,
and smite it into seven channels
that men may cross dryshod.
16 And there will be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant which is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from the land of Egypt.

2     Exodus 15:2; Psalm 118:14
3     John 4:10
5     Exodus 15:1, 15:21

1 You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to thee, O LORD,
for though thou wast angry with me,
thy anger turned away,
and thou didst comfort me.

2 “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  4 And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the LORD,
call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the nations,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

1-22     Isaiah 47:1-15; Jeremiah 50:1—51:64
6           Joel 1:15
10         Ezekiel 32:7; Mark 13:24-25; Revelation 6:12-13, 8:12
19         Genesis 19:24
21         Isaiah 34:14; Zephaniah 2:14; Revelation 18:2

9-22     Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden , p. 266

1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 On a bare hill raise a signal,
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my mighty men
to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.

4 Hark, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Hark, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The LORD of hosts is mustering
a host for battle.
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.

6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every man’s heart will melt,
8 and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in travail.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make men more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the LORD of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
every man will turn to his own people,
and every man will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or dwelt in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there,
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But wild beasts will lie down there,
and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there satyrs will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.

1-23        Isaiah 47:1-15; Jeremiah 50:1—51:64
12            Revelation 8:10, 9:1
13-15      Matthew 11:23; Luke 10:15
24-27     Isaiah 10:5-34; Nahum 1:1—3:19; Zephaniah 2:13-15
25           Isaiah 9:4
28           2 Kings 16:20; 2 Chronicles 28:27
29-31     Jeremiah 47:1-7; Ezekiel 25:15-17; Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:6-8;  Zephaniah 2:4-7; Zechariah 9:5-7

4-21     David Rosenberg, A Poet’s Bible, p. 260

1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and aliens will join them and will cleave to the house of Jacob.  2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male and female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

3 When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

“How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!
5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that smote the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.

7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 The cypresses rejoice at you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no hewer comes up against us.’
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come,
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10 All of them will speak
and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!’
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.

12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you,
and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;
19 but you are cast out, away from your sepulchre,
like a loathed untimely birth,
clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the Pit,
like a dead body trodden under foot.
20 You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.

“May the descendants of evildoers
nevermore be named!
21 Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the LORD.  23 And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of hosts.”

24 The LORD of hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and upon my mountains trample him under foot;
and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.”
26 This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth;
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?

28 In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:

29 “Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
that the rod which smote you is broken,
for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30 And the first-born of the poor will feed,
and the needy lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant I will slay.
31 Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.”

32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“The LORD has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people
find refuge.”

1-9    Isaiah 25:10-12; Jeremiah 48:1-47; Ezekiel 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3;  Zephaniah 2:8-11

1 An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar is laid waste in a night
Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night
Moab is undone.
2 The daughter of Dibon has gone up
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
On every head is baldness,
every beard is shorn;
3 in the streets they gird on sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
every one wails and melts in tears.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
his fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
6 the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the new growth fails,
the verdure is no more.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Brook of the Willows.
8 For a cry has gone
round the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim,
the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;
yet I will bring upon Dibon even more,
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.

1-14    Isaiah 25:10-12; Jeremiah 48:1-47; Ezekiel 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3;  Zephaniah 2:8-11

1 They have sent lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 Like fluttering birds,
like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
3 “Give counsel,
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts,
betray not the fugitive;
4 let the outcasts of Moab
sojourn among you;
be a refuge to them
from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples under foot has vanished from the land,
5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love
and on it will sit in faithfulness
in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab,
how proud he was; of his arrogance,
his pride, and his insolence—
his boasts are false.
7 Therefore let Moab wail,
let every one wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have struck down its branches,
which reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
its shoots spread abroad
and passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer
for the vine of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh;
for upon your fruit and your harvest
the battle shout has fallen.
10 And joy and gladness are taken away
from the fruitful field;
and in the vineyards no songs are sung,
no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
the vintage shout is hushed.
11 Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab,
and my heart for Kir-heres.

12 And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

13 This is the word which the LORD spoke concerning Moab in the past.  14 But now the LORD says, “In three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”

1-3     Jeremiah 49:23-27; Amos 1:3-5; Zechariah 9:1

1 An oracle concerning Damascus.

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city,
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 Her cities will be deserted for ever;
they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like the glory of the children of Israel,
says the LORD of hosts.

4 And in that day
the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
says the LORD God of Israel.

7 In that day men will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; 8 they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

9 In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and set out slips of an alien god,
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow;
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12 Ah, the thunder of many peoples,
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations,
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and whirling dust before the storm.
14 At evening time, behold, terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who despoil us,
and the lot of those who plunder us.

1-7    Zephaniah 2:12
7       Isaiah 45:14

7     R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 121

1 Ah, land of whirring wings which is
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2 which sends ambassadors by the Nile,
in vessels of papyrus upon the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation, tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.

3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, hear!
4 For thus the LORD said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he will hew away.
6 They shall all of them be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer upon them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.

7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.

Ancient Near East, Vol 1, p. 254 & 255

1-25    Jeremiah 46:2-26; Ezekiel 29:1—32:32

23           R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 121
24-25     David H. C. Read, “How Neutral is the Church?,” I Am Persuaded, p. 37-46

1 An oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and they will fight, every man against his brother
and every man against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound their plans;
and they will consult the idols and the sorcerers,
and the mediums and the wizards;
4 and I will give over the Egyptians
into the hand of a hard master;
and a fierce king will rule over them,
says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

5 And the waters of the Nile will be dried up,
and the river will be parched and dry;
6 and its canals will become foul,
and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,
reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile,
on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen will mourn and lament,
all who cast hook in the Nile;
and they will languish who spread nets upon the water.
9 The workers in combed flax will be in despair,
and the weavers of white cotton.
10 Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,
and all who work for hire will be grieved.

11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings”?
12 Where then are your wise men?
Let them tell you and make known
what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of her tribes
have led Egypt astray.
14 The LORD has mingled within her
a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all her doings
as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt
which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand which the LORD of hosts shakes over them.  17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; every one to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which the LORD of hosts has purposed against them.

18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.

19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.  20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the LORD because of oppressors he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them.  21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.  22 And the LORD will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will heed their supplications and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.”

1         Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 197
2-5    Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden , p. 275 & 277

1 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it, -2 at that time the LORD had spoken by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take off your shoes from your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot -3 the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians captives and the Ethiopians exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.  5 Then they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their boast.  6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

9     Revelation 14:8,  18:2

5-12    Tom Clark, “Isaiah, John, and Luke,” Communion, p. 435-450

1 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the desert,
from a terrible land.
2 A stern vision is told to me;
the plunderer plunders,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam,
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in travail;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear,
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4 My mind reels, horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
5 They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes,
oil the shield!
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
let him announce what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on asses, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
8 Then he who saw cried:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
9 And, behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
10 O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.

11 The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
12 The watchman says:
“Morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.”

13 The oracle concerning Arabia.

In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,
O caravans of Dedanites.
14 To the thirsty bring water,
meet the fugitive with bread,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
and from the press of battle.

16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end; 17 and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

13     1 Corinthians 15:32
22     Matthew 16:19, 18:18; John 20:23; Revelation 1:18, 3:7

13          Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 244
15-25    Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden , p. 267

1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, exultant town?
Your slain are not slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together,
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me,
let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5 For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day
of tumult and trampling and confusion
in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

12 In that day the Lord GOD of hosts
called to weeping and mourning,
to baldness and girding with sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
slaying oxen and killing sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die,”
says the Lord GOD of hosts.

15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:  16 What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have hewn here a tomb for yourself, you who hew a tomb on the height, and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock?  17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you, 18 and whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there shall be your splendid chariots, you shame of your master’s house.  19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station.

20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.  22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.  23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.  24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.  25 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

1-18    Ezekiel 26:1—28:19; Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:9-10; Zechariah 9:1-4;  Matthew 11:21-22; Luke 10:13-14

16-18     David Rosenberg, A Poet’s Bible, p. 265

1 The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste,
without house or haven!
From the land of Cyprus
it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers passed over the sea
3 and were on many waters;
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were the merchant of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither travailed nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up virgins.”
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Pass over to Tarshish,
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle afar?
8 Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 The LORD of hosts has purposed it,
to defile the pride of all glory,
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
10 Overflow your land like the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no restraint any more.
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea,
he has shaken the kingdoms;
the LORD has given command concerning Canaan
to destroy its strongholds.
12 And he said:
“You will no more exult,
O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;
arise, pass over to Cyprus,
even there you will have no rest.”

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild beasts. They erected their siegetowers, they razed her palaces, they made her a ruin.

14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.

15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

16 “Take a harp,
go about the city,
O forgotten harlot!
Make sweet melody,
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.”

17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire, and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.  18 Her merchandise and her hire will be dedicated to the LORD; it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122

2       Mark 9:35;  Galatians 3:28
18     Amos 5:19
23    Mark 13:24, 14:62; Revelation 5:8-10

1    Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 256
3    Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 254

1 Behold, the LORD will lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;
for the LORD has spoken this word.

4 The earth mourns and withers,
the world languishes and withers;
the heavens languish together with the earth.
5 The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.
7 The wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the timbrels is stilled,
the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9 No more do they drink wine with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of chaos is broken down,
every house is shut up so that none can enter.
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has reached its eventide;
the gladness of the earth is banished.
12 Desolation is left in the city,
the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the vintage is done.

14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.
15 Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD;
in the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, “I pine away,
I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously,
the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

17 Terror, and the pit, and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 He who flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit;
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is rent asunder,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth staggers like a drunken man,
it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls, and will not rise again.

21 On that day the LORD will punish
the host of heaven, in heaven,
and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be confounded,
and the sun ashamed;
for the LORD of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
and before his elders he will manifest his glory.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122

8           1 Corinthians 15:54; Revelation 7:17, 21:4
10-12    Isaiah 15:1—16:14; Jeremiah 48:1-47; Ezekiel 25:8-11;  Amos 2:1-3; Zephaniah 2:8-11

7-8     Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love, p. 115

1 O LORD, thou art my God;
I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name;
for thou hast done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2 For thou hast made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of aliens is a city no more,
it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee;
cities of ruthless nations will fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5 like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees,
of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for ever,
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth;
for the LORD has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,

and Moab shall be trodden down in his place,
as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.
11 And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim;
but the LORD will lay low his pride together with the skill of his hands.
12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122

11    Hebrews 10:27
19    Ephesians 5:14
21    Revelation 6:10

7     Ivan Steiger, Ivan Steiger Sees the Bible, p. 127

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation which keeps faith
may enter in.
3 Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusts in thee.
4 Trust in the LORD for ever,
for the LORD GOD
is an everlasting rock.
5 For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city. He lays it low,
lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”

7 The way of the righteous is level;
thou dost make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 In the path of thy judgments,
O LORD, we wait for thee;
thy memorial name
is the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for thee in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals perversely
and does not see the majesty of the LORD.
11 O LORD, thy hand is lifted up,
but they see it not.
Let them see thy zeal for thy people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them.
12 O LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us,
thou hast wrought for us all our works.
13 O LORD our God,
other lords besides thee have ruled over us,
but thy name alone we acknowledge.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end thou hast visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 But thou hast increased the nation, O LORD,
thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified;
thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 O LORD, in distress they sought thee,
they poured out a prayer
when thy chastening was upon them.
17 Like a woman with child,
who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O LORD;
18 we were with child, we writhed,
we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.

20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
21 For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her,
and will no more cover her slain.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122

1         Job 41:1; Psalm 74:14, 104:26
2-5     Isaiah 5:1-7
5         Matthew 5:9
12       Matthew 13:24-30

1             Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 108
2-5        R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 122, 124

12-13    R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 121

1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day:
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3 I, the LORD, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest any one harm it,
I guard it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would set out against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”

6 In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,
and fill the whole world with fruit.

7 Has he smitten them as he smote those who smote them?
Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8 Measure by measure, by exile thou didst contend with them;
he removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes,
there he lies down, and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them,
he that formed them will show them no favor.

12 In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel.  13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

9-13      Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:10-17; Mark 4:10-13; Luke 8:9-10
11-12     1 Corinthians 14:21
16          Psalm 118:22-23; Romans 9:33, 10:11; 1 Peter 2:6
21          Joshua 10:10-12; 2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Chronicles 14:11

1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of E’phraim,
and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head
of the rich valley of those
overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;
like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,
he will cast down to the earth with violence.
3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trodden under foot;
4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley,
will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer:
when a man sees it, he eats it up
as soon as it is in his hand.

5 In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;
6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 These also reel with wine
and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are confused with wine,
they stagger with strong drink;
they err in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit,
no place is without filthiness.

9 “Whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”

11 Nay, but by men of strange lips
and with an alien tongue
the LORD will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
13 Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little;
that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.

14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
16 therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘He who believes will not be in haste.’
17 And I will make justice the line,
and righteousness the plummet;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
you will be beaten down by it.
19 As often as it passes through it will take you;
for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
21 For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim,
he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
and to work his work—alien is his work!
22 Now therefore do not scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land.

23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cummin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and spelt as the border?
26 For he is instructed aright;
his God teaches him.

27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin;
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cummin with a rod.
28 Does one crush bread grain?
No, he does not thresh it for ever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses,
he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel,
and excellent in wisdom.

10      Proverbs 29:18; Isaiah 30:10; Matthew 6:22
13      Matthew 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7; Egerton 2r
14      1 Corinthians 1:19
15      Isaiah 40:27
16      Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20
18      Isaiah 35:5
19      Matthew 5:3 & 5
22     Genesis 2:25, 3:10
23     Matthew 6:9
24     Psalm 106:25

1 Ho Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
3 And I will encamp against you round about,
and will besiege you with towers
and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 Then deep from the earth you shall speak,
from low in the dust your words shall come;
your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,
and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

5 But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,
6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 As when a hungry man dreams he is eating
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not with strong drink!
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes, the prophets,
and covered your heads, the seers.

11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”  12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

13 And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote;
14 therefore, behold, I will again do
marvelous things with this people,
wonderful and marvelous;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”

15 Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

17 Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon
shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,
and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless shall come to nought
and the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

10          Isaiah 29:10
15-17     Matthew 5:14
15          Psalm 46:10; Isaiah 32:17-18; Matthew 11:28-30
21          Jeremiah 31:34; John 14:6
25         Luke 13:4
26         Revelation 21:23
33         Acts 2:2-4

8-23       David Rosenberg, A Poet’s Bible, p. 267-75

12-14      Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 268
15-20     Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 468
15-17      Ivan Steiger, Ivan Steiger Sees the Bible, p. 129
21            Christina Rossetti, “Give Us Grace,” The Book of Uncommon Prayer, p. 127

1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine;
and who make a league, but not of my spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4 For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,
5 every one comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”

6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the viper and the flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of asses,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7 For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,
therefore I have called her
“Rahab who sits still.”

8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet,
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness for ever.
9 For they are a rebellious people,
lying sons,
sons who will not hear
the instruction of the LORD;
10 who say to the seers, “See not”;
and to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word,
and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and rely on them;
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
which is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
And you would not, 16 but you said,
“No! We will speed upon horses,”
therefore you shall speed away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds,”
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.

18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.  20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.  21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.  22 Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and your gold-plated molten images. You will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them, “Begone!”  23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures; 24 and the oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.  26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones.  31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he smites with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the staff of punishment which the LORD lays upon them will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with brandished arm he will fight with them.  33 For a burning place has long been prepared; yea, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the LORD!
2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster,
he does not call back his words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers,
and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are men, and not God;
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together.

4 For thus the LORD said to me,
As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
and when a band of shepherds is called forth against him
is not terrified by their shouting
or daunted at their noise,
so the LORD of hosts will come down
to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.
5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it,
he will spare and rescue it.

6 Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel.  7 For in that day every one shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9 His rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

13           Isaiah 5:6
15-20    James 3:18
15           Isaiah 43:3; Luke 24:49
17-18     Isaiah 30:15
20          Isaiah 30:24

1-8     R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 125

1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a covert from the tempest,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will hearken.
4 The mind of the rash will have good judgment,
and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.
5 The fool will no more be called noble,
nor the knave said to be honorable.
6 For the fool speaks folly,
and his mind plots iniquity:
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the LORD,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
7 The knaveries of the knave are evil;
he devises wicked devices
to ruin the poor with lying words,
even when the plea of the needy is right.
8 But he who is noble devises noble things,
and by noble things he stands.

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10 In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the vintage will fail,
the fruit harvest will not come.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease,
shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine,
13 for the soil of my people
growing up in thorns and briers;
yea, for all the joyous houses
in the joyful city.
14 For the palace will be forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens for ever,
a joy of wild asses,
a pasture of flocks;
15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19 And the forest will utterly go down,
and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters,
who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free.

Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 83

6              Matthew 6:20
13-16      Psalm 24:3-6; Daniel 3:1-30; Luke 3:16-17
16            Matthew 6:11; John 4:32
20-22     Revelation 22:1-5
24            Jeremiah 31:34; Mark 2:1-12; John 9:1-3

1 Woe to you, destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
with whom none has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously,
you will be dealt with treacherously.

2 O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for thee.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 At the thunderous noise peoples flee,
at the lifting up of thyself nations are scattered;
4 and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
as locusts leap, men leap upon it.

5 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness;
6 and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

7 Behold, the valiant ones cry without;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste,
the wayfaring man ceases.
Covenants are broken,
witnesses are despised,
there is no regard for man.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert;
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

10 “Now I will arise,” says the LORD,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil,
16 he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
they will behold a land that stretches afar.
18 Your mind will muse on the terror:
“Where is he who counted,
where is he who weighed the tribute?
Where is he who counted the towers?”
19 You will see no more the insolent people,
the people of an obscure speech which you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a tongue which you cannot understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the LORD in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor stately ship can pass.
22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler,
the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23 Your tackle hangs loose;
it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,
or keep the sail spread out.

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even the lame will take the prey.
24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

1-4       Mark 13:24-25
4          Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:26; Revelation 6:13-14
5-17     Isaiah 63:1-6; Jeremiah 49:7-22; Ezekiel 25:12-14, 35:1-15;  Amos 1:11-12; Obadiah 1-14; Malachi 1:2-5
10         Revelation 14:11, 19:3

1-5    Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 273

1 Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and hearken, O peoples!
Let the earth listen, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the LORD is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host,
he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.

5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have doomed.
6 The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood,
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
and their soil made rich with fat.

8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into brimstone;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up for ever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plummet of chaos over its nobles.
12 They shall name it No Kingdom There,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas,
the satyr shall cry to his fellow;
yea, there shall the night hag alight,
and find for herself a resting place.
15 There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow;
yea, there shall the kites be gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the LORD:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it for ever,
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 121

3         Job 4:3-4; Hebrews 12:12
4         Isaiah 40:9-10
5-6     Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22
5         Isaiah 29:18
8         Isaiah 52:1
9         Ezekiel 34:25
10       Isaiah 51:11

1-4    Imaging the Word, Vol. 2, p. 88-91
1-2    Imaging the Word, Vol. 1, p. 86-87
1        Dan Damon, “You Draw Us Closer, God, Each Day,” The Sound of Welcome, p. 23
4-7    Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., “A New Coke in Your Life?,” Lovely in Eyes Not His, p. 157-162
5        R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 125

6-7    Carla De Sola, The Spirit Moves, p. 126

1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
the majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, fear not!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not pass over it,
and fools shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 120 f.

6     Ezekiel 29:6-7

6     Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, p. 16

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.  2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.  3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this confidence of yours?  5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me?  6 Behold, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.  7 But if you say to me, “We rely on the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?  8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them.  9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?  10 Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Pray, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”  12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!  14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”  16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern; 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.  18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?  19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?  20 Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”  22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo’ah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of the Rab’shakeh.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 120 f.

16     Exodus 25:22

21-29    Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation and Obedience, p. 70-94
35          R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 127

1 When King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.  2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, clothed with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.  3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.  4 It may be that the LORD your God heard the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.  7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.  9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered?  12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar?  13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.  15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:  16 “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.  17 Incline thy ear, O LORD, and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.  18 Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they were destroyed.  20 So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou alone art the LORD.”  21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:

‘She despises you, she scorns you—
the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.

23 ‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I came to its remotest height,
its densest forest.
25 I dug wells
and drank waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.

26 ‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.

28 ‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’

30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same; then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.  31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; 32 for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

33 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD.  35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

36 And the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.  37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went home and dwelt at Nineveh.  38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 120 f.

1-3          2 Kings 20:1-3
7-8          2 Kings 20:9-11
17            Mark 8:33
21-22     2 Kings 20:7-8

5-8         Christina Büchmann, “The Holy One of Isaiah,” Out of the Garden, p. 276

10-20    John Michael Talbot, “I Will Lift Up My Eyes,” Hiding Place

1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover.”  2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:  5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.  6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

7 “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:  8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

9 A writing of Hezeki’ah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10 I said, In the noontide of my days
I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see the LORD
in the land of the living;
I shall look upon man no more
among the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night thou dost bring me to an end;
13 I cry for help until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
from day to night thou dost bring me to an end.

14 Like a swallow or a crane I clamor,
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be thou my security!
15 But what can I say? For he has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
All my sleep has fled
because of the bitterness of my soul.

16 O Lord, by these things men live,
and in all these is the life of my spirit.
Oh, restore me to health and make me live!

17 Lo, it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but thou hast held back my life
from the pit of destruction,
for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank thee,
death cannot praise thee;
those who go down to the pit cannot hope
for thy faithfulness.
19 The living, the living, he thanks thee,
as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
thy faithfulness.

20 The LORD will save me,
and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our life,
at the house of the LORD.

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”  22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

R. E. Clements, “The Unity of the Book of Isaiah,” Interpretation (April 1982), p. 120 f., 126

7     Daniel 1:1-7; 2 Kings 24:10-16

1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.  2 And Hezekiah welcomed them; and he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.  3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And whence did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”  4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:  6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD.  7 And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”  8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”