God’s Universal Reign

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

2 Now it will come about that

aIn the last days

The bmountain of the house of the Lord

Will be established 1as the chief of the mountains,

And will be raised above the hills;

And call the nations will stream to it.

3 And many peoples will 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 1concerning His ways

And that we may walk in His paths.”

For the 2law will go forth afrom Zion

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 And He will judge between the nations,

And will 1render decisions for many peoples;

And athey will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

bNation will not lift up sword against nation,

And never again will they learn war.

5 Come, ahouse of Jacob, and let us walk in the blight of the Lord.

6 For You have aabandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,

Because they are filled with influences from the east,

And they are soothsayers blike the Philistines,

And they cstrike bargains with the children of foreigners.

7 Their land has also been filled with silver and gold

And there is no end to their treasures;

Their land has also been filled with ahorses

And there is no end to their chariots.

8 Their land has also been afilled with idols;

They worship the bwork of their hands,

That which their fingers have made.

9 So athe common man has been humbled

And the man of importance has been abased,

But bdo not forgive them.

10 aEnter the rock and hide in the dust

bFrom the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.

11 The 1aproud look of man will be abased

And the bloftiness of man will be humbled,

And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

A Day of Reckoning Coming

12 For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning

Against aeveryone who is proud and lofty

And against everyone who is lifted up,

That he may be abased.

13 And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,

Against all the aoaks of Bashan,

14 Against all the alofty mountains,

Against all the hills that are lifted up,

15 Against every ahigh tower,

Against every fortified wall,

16 Against all the aships of Tarshish

And against all the beautiful craft.

17 The pride of man will be humbled

And the loftiness of men will be abased;

And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

18 But the aidols will completely vanish.

19 Men will ago into caves of the rocks

And into holes of the 1ground

Before the terror of the Lord

And the splendor of His majesty,

When He arises bto make the earth tremble.

20 In that day men will acast away to the moles and the bbats

Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

Which they made for themselves to worship,

21 In order to ago into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs

Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,

When He arises to make the earth tremble.

22 1aStop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;

For 2bwhy should he be esteemed?

Chapter 3

God Will Remove the Leaders

1 For behold, the Lord 1God of hosts ais going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah

Both 2supply and support, the whole 2supply of bread

And the whole 2supply of water;

2 aThe mighty man and the warrior,

The judge and the prophet,

The diviner and the elder,

3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man,

The counselor and the expert artisan,

And the skillful enchanter.

4 And I will make mere alads their princes,

And 1capricious children will rule over them,

5 And the people will be aoppressed,

Each one by another, and each one by his bneighbor;

The youth will storm against the elder

And the inferior against the honorable.

6 When a man alays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,

“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,

And these ruins will be under your 1charge,”

7 He will 1protest on that day, saying,

“I will not be your 2ahealer,

For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”

8 For aJerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,

Because their 1bspeech and their actions are against the Lord,

To crebel against 2His glorious presence.

9 1The expression of their faces bears witness against them,

And they display their sin like aSodom;

They do not even conceal it.

Woe to 2them!

For they have bbrought evil on themselves.

10 Say to the arighteous that it will go well with them,

For they will eat the fruit of their actions.

11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,

For 1awhat he deserves will be done to him.

12 O My people! Their oppressors 1are achildren,

And women rule over them.

O My people! bThose who guide you lead you astray

And confuse the direction of your paths.

God Will Judge

13 aThe Lord arises to contend,

And stands to judge the people.

14 The Lord aenters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,

“It is you who have bdevoured the vineyard;

The cplunder of the poor is in your houses.

15 “What do you mean by acrushing My people

And grinding the face of the poor?”

Declares the Lord 1God of hosts.

Judah’s Women Denounced

16 Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the adaughters of Zion are proud

And walk with 1heads held high and seductive eyes,

And go along with mincing steps

And tinkle the bangles on their feet,

17 Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,

And the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, acrescent ornaments,

19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,

20 aheaddresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets,

21 1finger rings, anose rings,

22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses,

23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils.

24 Now it will come about that instead of 1sweet aperfume there will be putrefaction;

Instead of a belt, a rope;

Instead of bwell-set hair, a cplucked-out scalp;

Instead of fine clothes, a ddonning of sackcloth;

And branding instead of beauty.

25 Your men will afall by the sword

And your 1mighty ones in battle.

26 And her 1agates will lament and mourn,

And deserted she will bsit on the ground.

Chapter 4

A Remnant Prepared

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

2 In that day the aBranch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the bfruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the csurvivors of Israel.

3 It will come about that he who is aleft in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called bholy—everyone who is crecorded for life in Jerusalem.

4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the adaughters of Zion and 1purged the bbloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the cspirit of judgment and the dspirit of burning,

5 then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies aa cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the bglory will be a canopy.

6 There will be a ashelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and 1protection from the storm and the rain.