Isaiah 26:19–29:24

19 tYour dead shall live;

Together with 2my dead body they shall arise.

uAwake and sing, you who dwell in dust;

For your dew is like the dew of herbs,

And the earth shall cast out the dead.

Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment

20 Come, my people, venter your chambers,

And shut your doors behind you;

Hide yourself, as it were, wfor a little moment,

Until the indignation is past.

21 For behold, the Lord xcomes out of His place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

The earth will also disclose her 3blood,

And will no more cover her slain.

27 In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,

Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,

aLeviathan that twisted serpent;

And He will slay bthe reptile that is in the sea.

The Restoration of Israel

2 In that day csing to her,

d“A vineyard of 1red wine!

3 eI, the Lord, keep it,

I water it every moment;

Lest any hurt it,

I keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in Me.

Who would set fbriers and thorns

Against Me in battle?

I would go through them,

I would burn them together.

5 Or let him take hold gof My strength,

That he may hmake peace with Me;

And he shall make peace with Me.”

6 Those who come He shall cause ito take root in Jacob;

Israel shall blossom and bud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 jHas He struck 2Israel as He struck those who struck him?

Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

8 kIn measure, by sending it away,

You contended with it.

lHe removes it by His rough wind

In the day of the east wind.

9 Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;

And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:

When he makes all the stones of the altar

Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

3Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

10 Yet the fortified city will be mdesolate,

The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;

There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down

And consume its branches.

11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;

The women come and set them on fire.

For nit is a people of no understanding;

Therefore He who made them will onot have mercy on them,

And pHe who formed them will show them no favor.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord will thresh,

From the channel of 4the River to the Brook of Egypt;

And you will be qgathered one by one,

O you children of Israel.

13 rSo it shall be in that day:

sThe great trumpet will be blown;

They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,

And they who are outcasts in the land of tEgypt,

And shall uworship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem

28 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower

Which is at the head of the 1verdant valleys,

To those who are overcome with wine!

2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,

aLike a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,

Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,

Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.

3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,

Will be trampled underfoot;

4 And the glorious beauty is a fading flower

Which is at the head of the 2verdant valley,

Like the first fruit before the summer,

Which an observer sees;

He eats it up while it is still in his hand.

5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be

For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty

To the remnant of His people,

6 For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,

And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 But they also bhave erred through wine,

And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;

cThe priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,

They are swallowed up by wine,

They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;

They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

8 For all tables are full of vomit and filth;

No place is clean.

9 “Whom dwill he teach knowledge?

And whom will he make to understand the message?

Those just weaned from milk?

Those just drawn from the breasts?

10 eFor precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,

Line upon line, line upon line,

Here a little, there a little.”

11 For with fstammering lips and another tongue

He will speak to this people,

12 To whom He said, “This is the grest with which

You may cause the weary to rest,”

And, “This is the refreshing”;

Yet they would not hear.

13 But the word of the Lord was to them,

“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

Line upon line, line upon line,

Here a little, there a little,”

That they might go and fall backward, and be broken

And snared and caught.

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,

Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,

And with Sheol we are in agreement.

When the overflowing scourge passes through,

It will not come to us,

hFor we have made lies our refuge,

And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

A Cornerstone in Zion

16 Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I lay in Zion ia stone for a foundation,

A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;

Whoever believes will not act hastily.

17 Also I will make justice the measuring line,

And righteousness the plummet;

The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

And the waters will overflow the hiding place.

18 Your covenant with death will be annulled,

And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

When the overflowing scourge passes through,

Then you will be trampled down by it.

19 As often as it goes out it will take you;

For morning by morning it will pass over,

And by day and by night;

It will be a terror just to understand the report.”

20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,

And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.

21 For the Lord will rise up as at Mount jPerazim,

He will be angry as in the Valley of kGibeon—

That He may do His work, lHis awesome work,

And bring to pass His act, His 3unusual act.

22 Now therefore, do not be mockers,

Lest your bonds be made strong;

For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,

mA 4destruction determined even upon the whole earth.

Listen to the Teaching of God

23 Give ear and hear my voice,

Listen and hear my speech.

24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?

Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

25 When he has leveled its surface,

Does he not sow the black cummin

And scatter the cummin,

Plant the wheat in rows,

The barley in the appointed place,

And the 5spelt in its place?

26 For He instructs him in right judgment,

His God teaches him.

27 For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;

But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,

And the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread flour must be ground;

Therefore he does not thresh it forever,

Break it with his cartwheel,

Or crush it with his horsemen.

29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts,

nWho is wonderful in counsel and excellent in 6guidance.

Woe to Jerusalem

29 “Woe ato 1Ariel, to Ariel, the city bwhere David dwelt!

Add year to year;

Let feasts come around.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel;

There shall be heaviness and sorrow,

And it shall be to Me as Ariel.

3 I will encamp against you all around,

I will lay siege against you with a mound,

And I will raise siegeworks against you.

4 You shall be brought down,

You shall speak out of the ground;

Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;

Your voice shall be like a medium’s, cout of the ground;

And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

5 “Moreover the multitude of your dfoes

Shall be like fine dust,

And the multitude of the terrible ones

Like echaff that passes away;

Yes, it shall be fin an instant, suddenly.

6 gYou will be punished by the Lord of hosts

With thunder and hearthquake and great noise,

With storm and tempest

And the flame of devouring fire.

7 iThe multitude of all the nations who fight against 2Ariel,

Even all who fight against her and her fortress,

And distress her,

Shall be jas a dream of a night vision.

8 kIt shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,

And look—he eats;

But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;

Or as when a thirsty man dreams,

And look—he drinks;

But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,

And his soul still craves:

So the multitude of all the nations shall be,

Who fight against Mount Zion.”

The Blindness of Disobedience

9 Pause and wonder!

Blind yourselves and be blind!

lThey are drunk, mbut not with wine;

They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.

10 For nthe Lord has poured out on you

The spirit of deep sleep,

And has oclosed your eyes, namely, the prophets;

And He has covered your heads, namely, pthe seers.

11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a 3book qthat is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

rAnd he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

12 Then the book is delivered to one who 4is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

13 Therefore the Lord said:

s“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths

And honor Me twith their lips,

But have removed their hearts far from Me,

And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

14 uTherefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work

Among this people,

A marvelous work and a wonder;

vFor the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

15 wWoe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,

And their works are in the dark;

xThey say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”

16 Surely you have things turned around!

Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;

For shall the ything made say of him who made it,

“He did not make me”?

Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

17 Is it not yet a very little while

Till zLebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?

18 aIn that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,

And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

19 bThe humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,

And cthe poor among men shall rejoice

In the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the 5terrible one is brought to nothing,

dThe scornful one is …