Daily Reading

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah:

2 Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, / For Jehovah has spoken: / I have brought up children, and I have raised them; / And yet they have rebelled against Me.

3 The ox knows his owner, / And the donkey, his master’s manger; / But Israel does not know, / My people do not much consider.

4 Alas, sinful nation, / A people heavy with iniquity, / Seed of evildoers, / Children acting corruptly! / They have forsaken Jehovah; / They have despised the Holy One of Israel; / They have become estranged and have gone backward.

5 Where will you be stricken again? / Will you continue your apostasy? / The whole head has become sick, / And the whole heart faint;

6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, / There is no soundness in it, / Only bruises and blows / And raw wounds — / They have not been pressed out nor bound up / Nor softened with oil.

7 Your land is a desolation; / Your cities are burned with fire; / Your field — in your sight / Strangers devour it; / It is a desolation, like something overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left / Like a booth in a vineyard, / Like a hut in a cucumber field, / Like a besieged city.

9 Unless Jehovah of hosts / Had left to us a surviving few, / We would have been like Sodom, / We would have resembled Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of Jehovah, / You rulers of Sodom; / Hearken to the instruction of our God, / You people of Gomorrah.

11 What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? / Says Jehovah. / I have had My fill of burnt offerings of rams / And the fat of fed cattle; / The blood of bulls and lambs / And goats, I do not delight in.

12 When you come to appear before Me, / Who has required this of your hand, / To trample My courts?

13 Bring no more vain offerings; / Incense is an abomination to Me. / New moon and Sabbath, the calling of convocations — / I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn assembly.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts / My soul hates; / They have become a burden on Me; / I am weary of bearing them.

15 Thus, when you spread forth your hands, / I will hide My eyes from you; / Even though you multiply your prayers, / I will not hear. / Your hands are full of blood;

16 Wash yourselves; cleanse yourselves. / Turn away the evil of your deeds / From before My eyes. / Cease doing what is evil;

17 Learn to do good. / Seek justice; / Correct the ruthless. / Defend the orphan; / Plead for the widow.

18 Come now and let us reason together, / Says Jehovah. / Though your sins are like scarlet, / They will be as white as snow; / Though they are as red as crimson, / They will be like wool.

19 If you are willing and listen, / You will eat the good of the land;

20 But if you refuse and rebel, / You will be devoured by the sword; / For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

21 How the faithful city / Has become a harlot! / She who was full of justice, / She in whom righteousness once lodged, / But now murderers!

22 Your silver has become dross; / Your wine diluted with water;

23 Your rulers are rebellious / And companions of thieves; / They all love bribes / And chase after rewards; / They do not defend the orphan, / Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.

24 Hence, the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / The Mighty One of Israel, declares: / Ah, I will ease Myself of My adversaries, / And I will avenge Myself of My enemies;

25 And I will turn My hand against you. / I will thoroughly purge away your dross as with lye, / And I will remove all your alloy.

26 And I will restore your judges as at the first / And your counselors as at the beginning. / Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness, / The faithful city.

27 Zion will be ransomed with justice, / And her returning ones with righteousness.

28 And there will be the shattering of rebels and sinners together, / And those who forsake Jehovah will meet their end.

29 For you will be ashamed of the terebinths / That you have taken pleasure in; / And you will be embarrassed at the gardens / That you have chosen.

30 For you will be like a terebinth / Whose leaves are falling, / And like a garden / In which there is no water;

31 And the strong man will become tow, / And his work a spark; / And they will both burn together, / And there will be none to extinguish them.

1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 But in the last days / The mountain of the house of Jehovah will be established / On the top of the mountains; / And it will be lifted up above the hills; / And all the nations will stream to it,

3 And many peoples will come and say, / Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, / To the house of the God of Jacob, / That He may instruct us in His ways, / And that we may walk in His paths. / For from Zion will go forth instruction, / And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem;

4 And He will judge between the nations, / And will decide matters for many peoples. / And they will beat their swords into plowshares, / And their spears into pruning knives; / Nation will not lift up sword against nation, / Nor will they learn war anymore.

5 House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

6 For You have abandoned Your people, / The house of Jacob; / Because they are full of customs from the east, / And they are soothsayers like the Philistines, / And they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.

7 Their land is full of silver and gold, / And their treasures are limitless; / Their land is also full of horses, / And their chariots are limitless.

8 And their land is full of idols; / They bow down to the work of their hands, / To that which their fingers have made.

9 Thus the ordinary man is humbled, and the man of distinction is abased — / But do not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock, / And hide in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty.

11 Man’s haughty look will be abased, / And the loftiness of men will be humbled; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day.

12 For Jehovah of hosts will have a day / Over everything proud and lofty, / And over everything lifted up that it may be abased;

13 Over all the cedars of Lebanon, / Which are lofty and lifted up, / And over all the oaks of Bashan;

14 Over all the lofty mountains, / And over all the hills that are lifted up;

15 Over every high tower, / And over every fortified wall;

16 Over all the ships of Tarshish, / And over all their pleasant artifacts.

17 And the haughtiness of the ordinary man will be humbled, / And the loftiness of the men of distinction will be abased; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day.

18 And the idols will vanish completely.

19 And men will go into caves in the rocks / And into holes in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble.

20 In that day a man will cast / His idols of silver and his idols of gold, / Which they made for themselves to bow down to, / To the moles and to the bats,

21 So that they may go into the crevices of the rocks / And into the clefts of the cliffs, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble.

22 Stop regarding man, / Whose life breath is in his nostrils. / For of what value is he considered to be?

1 For now the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah / Every kind of support — / All the support of bread / And all the support 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 highly regarded; / And the counselor, the wise magician, and the knowledgeable enchanter.

4 And I will make youths their rulers, / And capriciousness will rule over them.

5 And the people will be oppressed, each by the other, / And each by his neighbor. / The youth will be arrogant to the elder, / And the contemned one to the one who is honored.

6 When a man takes hold of his brother / In his father’s house and says, / You have clothing, you be our ruler, / And these ruins will be under your hand;

7 He will solemnly say, / I will not be the one who binds your wounds, / For in my house there is no food or clothing; / Do not appoint me as ruler of the people.

8 For Jerusalem stumbles, / And Judah falls, / Because their speech and their actions are against Jehovah, / To rebel against the eyes of His glory.

9 The countenance of their faces witnesses against them, / And they declare their sin like Sodom; / They do not hide it. / Woe to their soul! / For they have brought evil upon themselves.

10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, / For they will eat the fruit of their actions.

11 Woe to the wicked man! It will go badly with him; / For the result of his deeds will be done to him.

12 My people — their oppressors are children, / And women rule over them. / O My people, those who lead you are leading you astray; / And the path for your ways they have hidden.

13 Jehovah stands firm to contend, / And He stands to judge the people.

14 Jehovah will enter into judgment / With the elders of His people and their rulers. / It is you who have consumed the vineyard; / The spoil of the poor is in your houses.

15 What do you mean by crushing My people / And grinding the faces of the poor? / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.

16 Moreover Jehovah said, / Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, / And walk around with outstretched necks / And lusting eyes, / And trip along with quick, little steps, / And rattle the anklets on their feet;

17 The Lord will strike the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, / And Jehovah will expose their secret parts.

18 In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, and crescents;

19 The ear pendants, the bracelets, and the costly veils;

20 The headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the bottles of aromas, and the amulets;

21 The finger rings and the nose rings;

22 The formal gowns, the frocks, the wraps, and the purses;

23 The mirrors, the fine linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

24 And instead of a sweet smell there will be rottenness; / And instead of a belt, an encircling rope; / Instead of well-set hair, baldness; / And instead of fine garments, the girding of oneself with sackcloth; / A brand instead of beauty.

25 Your men will fall by the sword, / And your mighty, in battle;

26 Then her gates will mourn and lament, / And she, being desolated, will sit on the ground.

1 And seven women will grasp / One man in that day, / Saying, We will eat our own bread / And wear our own clothes; / Just let us bear your name; / Take away our reproach.

2 In that day the Shoot of Jehovah will be beauty and glory, and the fruit of the earth, excellence and splendor, to those of Israel who have escaped.

3 And he who is left over in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been written down in Jerusalem for life;

4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and has cleansed away the bloodstains of Jerusalem from her midst, by the judging Spirit and the burning Spirit.

5 Jehovah will create over the entire region of Mount Zion and over all her convocations a cloud of smoke by day, and the brightness of a fiery flame by night; for the glory will be a canopy over all.

6 And there will be a tabernacle as a daytime shade from the heat and as a refuge and a cover from storm and rain.

1 Let me sing of my Beloved, / A song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. / My Beloved had a vineyard / On a fertile hill.

2 And He dug it up and cleared away its stones, / And He planted it with the choicest vine. / Then He built a tower in the middle of it, / And hewed out a wine vat in it. / And He looked for it to produce grapes, / But it produced only wild grapes.

3 So then, you inhabitants of Jerusalem / And you men of Judah, / Judge between Me / And My vineyard.

4 What more could I have done for My vineyard / That I have not already done for it? / Why then, when I looked for it to produce grapes, / Did it produce only wild grapes?

5 And now I will make known to you / What I will now do to My vineyard: / I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; / I will break down its wall, and it will become a trampled place.

6 And I will make it a waste; / It will not be pruned, nor will it be hoed; / But thorns and thistles will come on it. / And I will command the clouds / Not to rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, / And the men of Judah, the plant of His good pleasure; / And He expected justice, but instead, bloodshed! / He expected righteousness, but instead, an outcry of distress!

8 Woe to those who join house to house, / Who lay field to field, / Till there is no place left, / And you dwell alone in the midst of the land!

9 In my ears Jehovah of hosts has sworn: / Many houses shall indeed become desolate; / Great ones and fine ones shall be without inhabitants.

10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce a mere bath of wine, / And a homer of seed will produce an ephah of grain.

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning / That they may run after liquor, / To those who linger into the evening / That wine may inflame them!

12 Lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, / And wine are the essence of their banquets; / And they do not consider what has been done by Jehovah, / Nor do they regard the work of His hands.

13 Hence, my people go into exile / For lack of knowledge; / Their nobility become famished men, / And their multitudes, parched with thirst.

14 Hence, Sheol enlarges its appetite / And opens its mouth wide, without limit, / And Jerusalem’s splendor descends, and her din / And her uproar and the jubilant within her.

15 Thus the ordinary man is humbled, and the man of distinction is abased; / And the eyes of the haughty are abased;

16 But Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgment, / And the holy God shows Himself holy in righteousness.

17 Then lambs will graze there as in their pasture, / And strangers will eat the wastelands of fat men.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with ropes of vanity, / And sin as with cart ropes;

19 Who say, He should hurry up; / He should hasten His work, / So that we may see it; / And the counsel of the Holy One of Israel / Should draw near and happen, / So that we may know it!

20 Woe to those who call evil good, / And good evil; / Who put darkness for light, / And light for darkness; / Who put bitter for sweet, / And sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, / And prudent in their own sight!

22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, / And men of valor in mixing liquor;

23 Who acquit the criminal as a result of a bribe, / But refuse righteousness to the righteous!

24 Therefore as a tongue of fire consumes the stubble, / And the chaff sinks in flames, / Their root will be like decay, / And their bud will disappear like dust; / For they have rejected the instruction of Jehovah of hosts / And despised the speaking of the Holy One of Israel.

25 For this reason the anger of Jehovah burns against His people, / And He stretches out His hand over them and strikes them. / And the mountains quake, and their corpses are / Like garbage in the middle of the street. / In spite of all this His anger is not turned away; / Rather, His hand is still stretched out.

26 He also lifts up a standard to a distant nation, / And whistles to it from the ends of the earth; / And indeed it comes with swift speed.

27 None of them is weary, and none stumbles among them; / No one slumbers or sleeps; / And their belts are not loosened at their waists, / Nor are their sandal thongs broken.

28 The arrows of these are sharpened, / And all their bows are drawn; / The hooves of their horses are considered to be like flint, / And their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

29 Their roar is like a lion’s, / And they roar like young lions; / When they growl and seize prey, / They carry it away safe, and there is none to rescue it.

30 And they will growl over it in that day, / Like the roaring of the sea. / When one will look upon the land, indeed, there will be darkness and distress, / And the light will be darkened with its clouds.

1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins,

2 In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience;

3 Among whom we also all conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest;

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

6 And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,

7 That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;

9 Not of works that no one should boast.

10 For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, those who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands,

12 That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ.

14 For He Himself is our peace, He who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity,

15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace,

16 And might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.

17 And coming, He announced peace as the gospel to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near,

18 For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

20 Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone;

21 In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.