But those who are decent plan noble things, and by noble deeds they stand."

Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

Days and a year ye are troubled, O confident ones, For consumed hath been harvest, The gathering cometh not.

Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

For breasts they are lamenting, For fields of desire, for the fruitful vine.

For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded city is abandoned. Hill and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness will live in the fertile field.

Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

The destroyer is as good as dead, you who have not been destroyed! The deceitful one is as good as dead, the one whom others have not deceived! When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed; when you finish deceiving, others will deceive you!

At the noise of the tumult the peoples are fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations are scattered.

Your spoil will be gathered as locusts are gathered;
people will swarm over it like an infestation of locusts.

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

Let truth and faithfulness be in her time: power, health, wisdom, knowledge and the fear of God are her treasure.

See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.

The highways are desolate, the wayfaring man ceaseth. He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

The land mourneth, it languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed, is withered; the Sharon is become as a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped.

And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.

Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.

The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil;

He high places doth inhabit, Strongholds of rock are his high tower, His bread hath been given, his waters stedfast.

See Zion, the city of our meetings, Thine eyes see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, A tent not taken down, Not removed are its pins for ever, And none of its cords are broken.

For the majestic One, our Lord, will be there,
a place of rivers and broad streams
where ships that are rowed will not go,
and majestic vessels will not pass.

Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.

And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood.

Of her nobles who should proclaim the kingdom, none are there; and all her princes shall be nought.

And gone up her palaces have thorns, Nettle and bramble are in her fortresses, And it hath been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich.

It shall blossom abundantly, and it shall rejoice indeed with rejoicing and exulting. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. {They are the ones who} shall see the glory of Yahweh, the majesty of our God.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

Then opened are eyes of the blind, And ears of the deaf are unstopped,

The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?

I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?

So now, exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them.

How, then, can you repulse even one officer from the least of my master's officials, when you are depending for yourselves on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

The LORD thy God, no doubt, hath well considered the words of Rabshakeh, whom his lord the king of the Assyrians hath sent, to defy and blaspheme the living God: with such words as the LORD thy God hath heard right well. And therefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that yet are left.'"

And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing.

This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

Did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed -- Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who are in Telassar?

Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'"

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

so as to put their gods into fire -- for they are no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone -- and they destroy them.

Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and fully realize that You alone, Lord, are God.”

This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

Have you not heard from afar? I made it from days of old, even I have formed it. Now I have caused it to come, and you are to cause fortified cities to crash into heaps, ruins.

And their inhabitants are feeble-handed, They were broken down, and are dried up. They have been the herb of the field, And the greenness of the tender grass, Grass of the roofs, And blasted corn, before it hath risen up.

And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit.

For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.

And a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred and eighty and five thousand; and men rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them are dead corpses.

In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Order your house, for you [are] about to die, and you shall not recover.'"

I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me.

“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirp;
I coo like a dove.
My eyes look wistfully upward;
O Lord, I am oppressed, take my side and be my security.

Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.

Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith Jehovah.

‘And some of your own sons (descendants) who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And call out to her, that her time of compulsory service in warfare is finished,
That her wickedness has been taken away [since her punishment is sufficient],
That she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double [punishment] for all her sins.”

A voice [is] saying, "Call!" And he said, "What shall I call?" All {humankind} [are] grass, and all his loyalty [is] like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Most certainly [all] the people are [like] grass.

See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those whom he has made safe go before him.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

Lebanon would not provide enough fuel, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

Do you [who worship idols] not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth [the omnipotence of God and the stupidity of bowing to idols]?

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely hath their stock taken root in the earth, but he also bloweth upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.

Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength, because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places.

Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?

He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy.

Even youths are wearied and fatigued, And young men utterly stumble,

But those expecting Jehovah pass to power, They raise up the pinion as eagles, They run and are not fatigued, They go on and do not faint!

Who hath wrought and performed, Calling the generations, in advance? I, Yahweh, who am First, And with them who are last, I, am the Same!

[The] coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near, and they have come.

But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendant of Abraham my friend.

You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled].

Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be put to shame and confounded: they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish.

Thou seekest them, and findest them not, The men who debate with thee, They are as nothing, yea, as nothing, The men who war with thee.

The poor and the needy are seeking water, And there is none, Their tongue with thirst hath failed, I, Jehovah do answer them, The God of Israel -- I forsake them not.

Let them bring forth, and declare unto us what shall happen: declare ye the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

"You are stirring up one from the north, and they are coming from the rising of the sun; and he will be called by his name. Rulers will arrive like mud; just like a potter, he will trample the clay.

I was the first to say to Zion:
Look! Here they are!
And I gave a herald of good news to Jerusalem.

Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark.

Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise from the end of the earth, Ye who are going down to the sea, and its fulness, Isles, and their inhabitants.

And I have caused the blind to go, In a way they have not known, In paths they have not known I cause them to tread, I make a dark place before them become light, And unlevelled places become a plain, These are the things I have done to them, And I have not forsaken them.

They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see.

Thou seest many things, but thou observest not; his ears are open, but he heareth not.

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

But now, this is what the Lord, your Creator says, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you [from captivity];
I have called you by name; you are Mine!