Isaiah 1
1
Messages of Judgment
Quit Your Worship Charades
1The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2-4Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.
Listen to God’s case:
“I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
The ox knows who’s boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don’t know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Villainous gang,
band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
5-9“Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing’s working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10“Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11-12“Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”
God ’s asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13-17“Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
Let’s Argue This Out
18-20“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.
Those Who Walk Out on God
21-23Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
24-31This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
God’s right actions will restore her prodigals.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
‘The Strong Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke.”
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 1
1
Judah’s Rebellion
(2 Chronicles 28:5–15)
1This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“I have raised children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against Me.
3The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s manger,
but Israel does not know;
My people do not understand.”
4Alas, O sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
a brood of evildoers,
children of depravity!
They have forsaken the Lord;
they have despised the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on Him.
5Why do you want more beatings?
Why do you keep rebelling?
Your head has a massive wound,
and your whole heart is afflicted.
6From the sole of your foot to the top of your head,
there is no soundness—
only wounds and welts and festering sores
neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
7Your land is desolate;
your cities are burned with fire.
Foreigners devour your fields before you—
a desolation demolished by strangers.
8And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a shack in a cucumber field,
like a city besieged.
9Unless the Lord of Hosts
had left us a few survivors,#1:9 LXX had left us descendants
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have resembled Gomorrah.#1:9 Cited in Romans 9:29
Meaningless Offerings
10Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?”
says the Lord.
“I am full from the burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed cattle;
I take no delight in the blood of bulls
and lambs and goats.
12When you come to appear before Me,
who has required this of you—
this trampling of My courts?
13Bring your worthless offerings no more;
your incense is detestable to Me—
your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations.
I cannot endure iniquity
in a solemn assembly.
14I hate your New Moons
and your appointed feasts.
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
even though you multiply your prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood.
16Wash and cleanse yourselves.
Remove your evil deeds from My sight.
Stop doing evil!
17Learn to do right;
seek justice and correct the oppressor.#1:17 Or and encourage the oppressed
Defend the fatherless
and plead the case of the widow.”
18“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are as red as crimson,
they will become like wool.
19If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best of the land.
20But if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The Corruption of Zion
21See how the faithful city has become a harlot!
She once was full of justice;
righteousness resided within her,
but now only murderers!
22Your silver has become dross;
your fine wine is diluted with water.
23Your rulers are rebels,
friends of thieves.
They all love bribes
and chasing after rewards.
They do not defend the fatherless,
and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
24Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel, declares:
“Ah, I will be relieved of My foes
and avenge Myself on My enemies.
25I will turn My hand against you;
I will thoroughly purge your dross;
I will remove all your impurities.
26I will restore your judges as at first,
and your counselors as at the beginning.
After that you will be called the City of Righteousness,
the Faithful City.”
27Zion will be redeemed with justice,
her repentant ones with righteousness.
28But rebels and sinners will together be shattered,
and those who forsake the Lord will perish.
29Surely you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks
in which you have delighted;
you will be embarrassed by the gardens
that you have chosen.
30For you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered,
like a garden without water.
31The strong man will become tinder
and his work will be a spark;
both will burn together,
with no one to quench the flames.
The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain.