Isaiah 3

²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

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.

¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

¹⁷So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

¹³“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,

¹³Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹²But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹⁴He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.

¹⁵Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

¹⁴So the Lord will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

¹²“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

³I will cut off the ruler of Moab and kill all the officials with him,” says the Lord.

⁵And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!

¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴against all the tall mountains, against all the high hills,

²¹Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

¹⁸Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.”

¹⁵So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

¹²He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

¹⁰“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do.

¹⁶Woe to you, O land whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning.

⁹Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God.

⁷And now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.

⁸Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

³“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

⁶⁵Then some of them began to spit on Him. They blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists, and said to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in His face.

¹²In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

¹In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”

⁶“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”

⁷Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”

¹⁵Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

¹Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

⁴⁰For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,

⁴You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

⁵Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven.

⁶And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay!

²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

⁹He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’

²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?

¹⁶They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

⁸They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.

¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the Lord.

²⁰Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

²¹I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.”

¹⁵Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.

¹³There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

³⁰Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him cheerfully, for he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

¹A song of ascents. Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways!

²For when you eat the fruit of your labor, blessings and prosperity will be yours.

¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁸The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

⁹He follows My statutes and faithfully keeps My ordinances. That man is righteous; surely he will live, declares the Lord God.

¹⁰Now suppose that man has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these things,

¹“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

²And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the Lord your God:

¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

³What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, with burning coals of the broom tree!

⁴Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.

¹²and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.

³¹So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

⁴“I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”

¹³Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.

¹⁵The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

¹⁶For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

²Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:

¹Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

⁵“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”

²²Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,

²³for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

⁴Is it for your reverence that He rebukes you and enters into judgment against you?

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

²the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder,

³the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

¹Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

²You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

³You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

⁵They crush Your people, O Lord; they oppress Your heritage.

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

⁵asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

⁶This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.

⁷They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.

²“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?

¹⁴Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

⁹Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.

¹⁰In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

⁴⁹Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.

⁵⁰Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

¹³There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

²⁸But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

⁴when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents;

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

²So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and loathsome, malignant sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.

⁴³The priest is to examine him, and if the swelling of the infection on his bald head or forehead is reddish-white like a skin disease,

⁴⁴the man is diseased; he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean because of the infection on his head.

¹¹Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.

²⁹If a man or woman has an infection on the head or chin,

³⁰the priest shall examine the infection, and if it appears to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it is yellow and thin, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is a scaly outbreak, an infectious disease of the head or chin.

²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.

²⁶The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian, and the chains from the necks of their camels.

¹¹I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.

³⁰As soon as he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and heard Rebekah’s words, “The man said this to me,” he went and found the man standing by the camels near the spring.

⁵³Then he brought out jewels of silver and gold, and articles of clothing, and he gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious gifts to her brother and her mother.

⁵⁰So we have brought to the Lord an offering of the gold articles each man acquired—armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”

²²So all who had willing hearts, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings, rings and necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry. And they all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.

¹⁸“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

²⁸as well as the turban of fine linen, the ornate headbands and undergarments of finely spun linen,

¹³I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she adorned herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the Lord.

⁴So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

¹²I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

²So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

⁴⁷Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,

⁴but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

¹²I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

⁴²Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

⁹Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,

¹⁰but with good deeds, as is proper for women who profess to worship God.

²²But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

⁸She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.

⁷I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city. They beat me and bruised me; they took away my cloak, those guardians of the walls.

⁸Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁴²Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

⁶⁵and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “It is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.

³¹They will shave their heads for you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and bitter mourning.

¹⁰The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

³In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,

¹⁶Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.

¹²On that day the Lord God of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

²⁰But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²¹Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

²²So this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

⁹For behold, this is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity.

⁷And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

²“Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

¹⁰The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.

¹³Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

⁴⁴They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

⁸And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.