Isaiah 2-4

American Standard Version

2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established ^[a]on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³ And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth ^[b]the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he will judge ^[c]between the nations, and will decide concerning 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 ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. ⁶ For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. ⁷ And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. ⁸ Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. ⁹ And the mean man ^[d]is bowed down, and the great man ^[e]is brought low: therefore forgive them not. ¹⁰ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty. ¹¹ The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹² For ^[f]there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low; ¹³ and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, ¹⁴ and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, ¹⁵ and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall, ¹⁶ and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant ^[g]imagery. ¹⁷ And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away. ¹⁹ And men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the ^[h]earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. ²⁰ In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats; ²¹ to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. ²² Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

3 For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take 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 man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; ³ the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert ^[i]artificer, and the skilful enchanter. ⁴ And I will give children to be their princes, and ^[j]babes shall rule over them. ⁵ And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. ⁶ When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ^[k]ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand; ⁷ in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be ^[l]a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the people. ⁸ For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory. ^9 [m]The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves. ¹⁰ Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. ¹¹ Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him. ¹² As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and ^[n]destroy the way of thy paths.

¹³ Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the ^[o]peoples. ¹⁴ Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses: ¹⁵ what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁶ Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; ¹⁷ therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts. ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the ^[p]cauls, and the crescents; ¹⁹ the pendants, and the ^[q]bracelets, and the mufflers; ²⁰ the headtires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets; ²¹ the rings, and the nose-jewels; ²² the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels; ²³ the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils. ²⁴ And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty. ²⁵ Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy ^[r]mighty in the war. ²⁶ And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be ^[s]desolate and sit upon the ground. 4 ¹ And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.

² In that day shall the ^[t]branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the ^[u]land shall be ^[v]excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. ³ And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written ^[w]among the living in Jerusalem; ⁴ when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the ^[x]spirit of justice, and by the ^[y]spirit of burning. ⁵ And Jehovah will create over ^[z]the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. ⁶ And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.