The Message About Jerusalem

2 Isaiah son of Amoz saw this message about Judah and Jerusalem:

2  In the last days

the mountain on which the Lord’s Temple stands

will become the most important of all mountains.

It will be raised above the hills,

and people from all nations will come streaming to it.

3  Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the Temple of the God of Jacob.

Then God will teach us his ways,

and we will obey his teachings.”

His teachings will go out from Jerusalem;

the message of the Lord will go out from Jerusalem.

4  He will settle arguments among the nations

and will make decisions for many nations.

Then they will make their swords into plows

and their spears into hooks for trimming trees.

Nations will no longer fight other nations,

nor will they train for war anymore.

5  Come, family of Jacob,

and let us follow the way of the Lord.

A Terrible Day Is Coming

6  Lord, you have left your people,

the family of Jacob,

because they have become filled with wrong ideas from people in the East.

They try to tell the future like the Philistines,

and they have completely accepted those foreign ideas.

7  Their land has been filled with silver and gold;

there are a great many treasures there.

Their land has been filled with horses;

there are many chariots there.

8  Their land is full of idols.

The people worship these idols they made with their own hands

and shaped with their own fingers.

9  People will not be proud any longer

but will bow low with shame.

God, do not forgive them.

10  Go into the caves of the cliffs;

dig holes and hide in the ground

from the anger of the Lord

and from his great power!

11  Proud people will be made humble,

and they will bow low with shame.

At that time only the Lord will still be praised.

12  The Lord All-Powerful has a certain day planned

when he will punish the proud and those who brag,

and they will no longer be important.

13  He will bring down the tall cedar trees from Lebanon

and the great oak trees of Bashan,

14  all the tall mountains

and the high hills,

15  every tall tower

and every high, strong wall,

16  all the trading ships

and the beautiful ships.

17  At that time proud people will be made humble,

and they will bow low with shame.

At that time only the Lord will be praised,

18  but all the idols will be gone.

19  People will run to caves in the rocky cliffs

and will dig holes and hide in the ground

from the anger of the Lord

and his great power,

when he stands to shake the earth.

20  At that time people will throw away

their gold and silver idols,

which they made for themselves to worship;

they will throw them away to the bats and moles.

21  Then the people will hide in caves

and cracks in the rocks

from the anger of the Lord

and his great power,

when he stands to shake the earth.

22  You should stop trusting in people to save you,

because people are only human;

they aren’t able to help you.