Isaiah 1

¹ The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he received in the reigns ofUzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah.

² Listen, you heavens; earth, attend, for Yahweh is speaking, 'I have reared children and brought them up,but they have rebel ed against me.

³ The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; Israel does not know, my people do notunderstand.'

⁴ Disaster, sinful nation, people weighed down with guilt, race of wrong-doers, perverted children! Theyhave abandoned Yahweh, despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from him.

⁵ Where shal I strike you next, if you persist in treason? The whole head is sick, the whole heart isdiseased,

⁶ from the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy: only wounds, bruises and open sores notdressed, not bandaged, not soothed with ointment,

⁷ your country a desolation, your towns burnt down, your soil, foreigners lay it waste before your eyes, adesolation like devastation by foreigners.

⁸ The daughter of Zion is left like a shanty in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a citybesieged.

⁹ Had Yahweh Sabaoth not left us a few survivors, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same asGomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear what Yahweh says, you rulers of Sodom; listen to what our God teaches, you people ofGomorrah.

¹¹ 'What are your endless sacrifices to me?' says Yahweh. 'I am sick of burnt offerings of rams and the fatof calves. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

¹² When you come and present yourselves before me, who has asked you to trample through my courts?

¹³ Bring no more futile cereal offerings, the smoke from them fil s me with disgust. New Moons, Sabbaths,assemblies -- I cannot endure solemnity combined with guilt.

¹⁴ Your New Moons and your meetings I utterly detest; to me they are a burden I am tired of bearing.

¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands I turn my eyes away. You may multiply your prayers, I shal not belistening. Your hands are covered in blood,

¹⁶ wash, make yourselves clean. Take your wrong-doing out of my sight. Cease doing evil.

¹⁷ Learn to do good, search for justice, discipline the violent, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.

¹⁸ 'Come, let us talk this over,' says Yahweh. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shal be white assnow; though they are red as crimson, they shal be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing to obey, you shall eat the good things of the earth.

²⁰ But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shal eat you instead -- for Yahweh's mouth has spoken.'

²¹ The faithful city, what a harlot she has become! Zion, once ful of fair judgement, where saving justiceused to dwell, but now assassins!

²² Your silver has turned into dross, your wine is watered.

²³ Your princes are rebels, accomplices of brigands. Al of them greedy for presents and eager for bribes,they show no justice to the orphan, and the widow's cause never reaches them.

²⁴ Hence, the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth, the Mighty One of Israel, says this, 'Disaster, I shall get the better ofmy enemies, I shall avenge myself on my foes.

²⁵ 'I shal turn my hand against you, I shal purge your dross as though with potash, I shal remove al youral oy.

²⁶ 'And I shal restore your judges as at first, your counsel ors as in bygone days, after which you wil becal ed City of Saving Justice, Faithful City.'

²⁷ Zion wil be redeemed by fair judgement, and those who return, by saving justice.

²⁸ Rebels and sinners alike wil be destroyed, and those who abandon Yahweh wil perish.

²⁹ How ashamed you wil be of the terebinths which gave you such delight; and how you wil blush for thegardens which you chose!

³⁰ For you wil be like a terebinth with faded leaves, like a garden without water;

³¹ the strong wil become like tinder, his work like the spark; both wil go up in flames together, with no oneto put them out.