Isaiah

¹ Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed,

O traitor never betrayed!

When you have finished destroying,

you will be destroyed.

When you have finished betraying,

you will be betrayed.

² O LORD, be gracious to us!

We wait for You.

Be our strength every morning

and our salvation in time of trouble.

³ The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice;

the nations scatter when You rise.

⁴ Your spoil, O nations, ^[a] is gathered as by locusts;

like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.

⁵ The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;

He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times,

a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.

⁷ Behold, their valiant ones cry aloud in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

⁸ The highways are deserted;

travel has ceased.

The treaty ^[b] has been broken,

the witnesses ^[c] are despised,

and human life is disregarded.

⁹ The land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is ashamed and decayed.

Sharon is like a desert;

Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says the LORD.

“Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

¹¹ You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble.

Your breath is a fire that will consume you.

¹² The peoples will be burned to ashes,

like thorns cut down and set ablaze.

¹³ You who are far off, hear what I have done;

you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling grips the ungodly:

“Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire?

Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”

¹⁵ He who walks righteously

and speaks with sincerity,

who refuses gain from extortion,

whose hand never takes a bribe,

who stops his ears against murderous plots

and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

¹⁶ he will dwell on the heights;

the mountain fortress will be his refuge;

his food will be provided

and his water assured.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in His beauty

and behold a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸ Your mind will ponder the former terror:

“Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs?

Where is he who counts the towers?”

¹⁹ You will no longer see the insolent,

a people whose speech is unintelligible,

who stammer in a language you cannot understand.

²⁰ Look upon Zion,

the city of our appointed feasts.

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander;

its tent pegs will not be pulled up,

nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹ But there the Majestic One, our LORD,

will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals,

where no galley with oars will row,

and no majestic vessel will pass.

²² For the LORD is our Judge,

the LORD is our lawgiver,

the LORD is our King.

It is He who will save us.

²³ Your ropes are slack;

they cannot secure the mast or spread the sail.

Then an abundance of spoils will be divided,

and even the lame will carry off plunder.

²⁴ And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.”

The people who dwell there

will be forgiven of iniquity.