He said, Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but don’t understand, keep looking, but don’t acknowledge.’ Fatten this people’s mind, make its ears heavy, smear its eyes, So it doesn’t see with its eyes and listen with its ears, and its mind understands and it turns and there is healing for it. I said, ‘For how long, Lord?’ He said,
‘Until towns have crashed into ruins, so that there is no inhabitant, And houses so that there are no people, and the land crashes into ruins, a desolation.’ Yahweh will send the people away; vast will be the abandonment in the middle of the country. When there is still a tenth in it, it will again be for burning up. But like a terebinth or like an oak of which there’s a stump after their felling, the sacred seed will be its stump.
Goldingay, John;The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
God be in head and in my understanding; God be in my eyes and in my looking; God be in my mouth and in my speaking; God be in my heart and in my thinking; God be at my end and at my departing.
In the year King Uzziyyahu died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, with his train filling the palace. Seraphs were standing above him; each had six wings. With two it would cover its face, with two it would cover its feet, with two it would fly. One would call to another, ‘Sacred, sacred, sacred, Yahweh of Armies, his splendour is the filling of the entire earth.’ The doorposts on the sills shook at the sound of the one who called, while the house was filling with smoke.
I said, ‘Aagh me, because I’m ruined, because I’m a man polluted of lips, and I live among a people polluted of lips, because my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies.’ But one of the seraphs flew to me, in his hand a coal that he had taken with tongs from on the altar. He made it touch my mouth, and he said, ‘There, this has touched your lips, and you waywardness will depart, your wrongdoing will be expiated.’ I heard the Lord’s voice saying, ‘Whom shall I send, who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am, send me.’
Goldingay, John The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Hey, people adding house to house, who join field to field, Until there’s no room, and you’re made to live alone in the middle of the country. In my ears Yahweh of Armies [has said]: If many houses do not become desolation, big and good ones without inhabitant . . . Because ten acres of vineyard will make five gallons. Ten barrels of seed will make a barrel.
Hey, people who start early in the morning so they can chase liquor, Stay late in the dusk so wine can inflame them. There’ll be guitar and mandolin, tambourine and pipe and wine at their banquets. But Yahweh’s deed they don’t look to, the action of his hands they haven’t watched.
Two therefores
Therefore my people are going into exile because of not acknowledging. Its splendour – hungry people, its horde – parched with thirst.
Therefore She’ol has broadened its appetite, opened its mouth without limit. Its magnificence will go down, its horde and its din and the one who exults in it. Human beings bow down, individuals fall down, the eyes of the lofty fall down. And Yahweh of Armies is lofty in exercising authority; the sacred God shows himself sacred in faithfulness. Lambs will pasture as in their meadow, aliens will eat the fatlings’ wastes.
Four woes (Hey)
Hey, people who haul waywardness with cords of emptiness, and wrongdoing as with cart ropes, Who say, ‘He should hurry, he should speed up his action, in order that we may see. It should draw near and come about, the counsel of Yisra’el’s sacred one, so we may acknowledge.’
Hey, people who say about what is bad, ‘Good’, and about what is good, ‘Bad’, Who make darkness into light, and light into darkness, Who make bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter.
Hey, people who are smart in their eyes, who in their view are understanding.
Hey, strong men at drinking wine, forceful people at mixing a drink, Who declare a faithless person to be in the right in return for a bribe, And the faithfulness of the faithful people they remove from them.
Two therefores Therefore: like the consuming of straw in a tongue of fire, when hay sinks down in the flame, Their root will become veritable rot, and their blossom will go up like dust, Because they’ve rejected the instruction of Yahweh of Armies, spurned the word of Yisra’el’s sacred one.
Therefore Yahweh’s anger flared against his people; he stretched out his hand against it and struck it down. Mountains shook, and their corpses became like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this his anger did not turn back; his hand was still stretched out. He will lift a signal to the nations from afar, he will whistle to one from the end of the earth, and there – with speed, quick, it will come. There’s none weary, there’s none collapsing, in it; it doesn’t slumber, it doesn’t sleep. The belt on its waist doesn’t come loose, the thong on its boots doesn’t break. Its arrows are sharpened, all its bows are directed. Its horses’ hoofs are thought of like flint, its wheels like a whirlwind. Its roar is like a cougar’s; it roars like lions. It growls and seizes prey, and carries it off and there’s no one rescuing. It will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea; and he will look to the land, And there, darkness, pressure, and the light will have gone dark with its thunderclouds.
Goldingay, John; . The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art – Thou my best thought, by day or by night; Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
I want to sing a song for my friend, my love song about his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile ridge. He dug it and stoned it, and planted it with choice vine. He built a tower in the middle of it, and also hewed a press in it. He hoped it would make grapes, but it made rotten grapes.
So now, population of Yerushalaim, people of Yehudah, decide, please, between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, and I didn’t do in it? Why, when I hoped for it to make grapes, did it make rotten grapes?
So now I want to let you know, please, what I’m doing about my vineyard: Remove its hedge, so it will be for burning up, break down its wall so it will be for trampling, so that I make an end of it. It won’t be pruned and it won’t be hoed; briar and thorn will grow. I shall order the clouds not to send rain on it.
Because the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the household of Yisra’el. The people of Yehudah are the planting in which he took pleasure. He hoped for the exercise of authority, but there – blood pouring out; for faithfulness, but there – a cry.
Goldingay, John The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Lord, you have given me so much, I ask for one more thing – a grateful heart.
On that day, Yahweh’s shoot will be for beauty and for splendour, And the country’s fruit for majesty and for glory for Yisra’el’s escape group. What remains in Tsiyyon, what is left in Yerushalaim – ‘Sacred’ will be said of it, everyone who’s been written down for life in Yerushalaim.
If the Lord has washed away the filth of Tsiyyon’s daughters, And cleanses from within it the shed blood of Yerushalaim, By a spirit of the exercise of authority and by a spirit of burning away, Yahweh will create over the entire establishment of Mount Tsiyyon, and over its meeting place, A cloud by day, and smoke, and a brightness of flaming fire by night. Because over all the splendour will be a canopy, and it will be a bivouac, For shade by day from the heat, and for shelter and for a hiding place from storm and from rain.
Goldingay, John; Goldingay The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me Be thou a smooth path below me Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me Today – tonight -forever Amen.
Because there, the Lord Yahweh of Armies Is removing from Yerushalaim and from Yehudah supply and support: All supply of bread and all supply of water, Strong man and man of battle, leader and prophet, diviner and elder, Officer over 50, person held in high regard, counsellor, person smart with charms and understanding chants. I will make youths their officials; infants will rule over them.
The people will oppress one another, each his neighbour. The youth will be arrogant towards the elder, one who is slighted towards someone honourable.
Because a man will seize one of his brothers, his father’s household: ‘You have a coat, you will be a leader for us, this ruin will be under your hand.’ On that day he will shout, ‘I won’t be one to bind up. In my house there’s no bread and no coat – you won’t make me leader of the people.’
Because Yerushalaim has collapsed, Yehudah has fallen. Because their tongue and their practices have been towards Yahweh to be rebellious against his glorious eyes. The look on their face testifies against them; they declare their wrongdoing like Sedom and don’t hide it.
Aagh, for their lives, because they have dealt themselves bad fortune. Say of the faithful person, ‘It will be good’, because they will eat the fruit of their practices. Aagh, for the faithless person, ‘It will be bad’, because the dealing of his hands will be done to him.
My people ! – infants are their bosses, women rule over them. My people! – your guides make you wander; they’ve swallowed up the course of your paths. Yahweh is taking his stand to argue, he’s rising to give judgement for peoples. Yahweh will come in the exercise of authority with his people’s elders and its officials. ‘You – you’ve burned up the vineyard, the humble person’s plunder is in your houses. What do you mean that you crush my people, grind the faces of humble ones? (a declaration of the Lord Yahweh of Armies).’
Yahweh has said: Since Tsiyyon’s daughters are lofty, and walk outstretched with their neck, Flirting with their eyes, walking and mincing as they walk, and they jingle with their feet, The Lord will bare the crown of Tsiyyon’s daughters, Yahweh will expose their forehead. On that day the Lord will remove the splendour of the anklets, the bands and the necklaces, the earrings, the bracelets and the veils, the hats, the armlets, the scarves, the amulets and the charms, the rings and the nose rings, the dresses, the capes, the shawls, the purses, the gowns, the vests, the tiaras, the veils and the sashes.
Instead of perfume there will be a stench; instead of a wrap, a rope; Instead of a hairdo, a shorn head; instead of a robe, a wrapping of sack; branding instead of beauty.
Your men [Tsiyyon] will fall by the sword, your strength by battle. Her gateways will lament and mourn; she’ll be empty, she’ll sit on the ground. Seven women will take strong hold of one man on that day, Saying, ‘We’ll eat our bread, we’ll wear our clothes, Only may your name be called out over us – gather up our reviling.’
Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me. O Love, who redeemed me, fill up in me whatever part of your love has fallen into neglect within me. O Love, O God, who first loved me, grant that with my whole heart, and with my whole soul, and with my whole strength, I may love you.
Because you have left your people alone, Ya’aqob’s household. Because they are full from the east, yes, of diviners like the Pelishtites [Philistines], and they abound in children of foreigners. Its country’s full of silver and gold; there’s no end to its treasures. Its country’s full of horses; there’s no end to its chariots. Its country’s full of non-entities; they bow low to the making of their hands, to what their fingers made. …So humanity bows down, the individual falls down – may you not carry them.
Come into the crag, bury yourself in the earth, Before the fearfulness of Yahweh, from the dreadfulness of his majesty. Lofty human eyes have fallen down, the exaltedness of individuals has bowed down. Yahweh alone will be on high on that day.
Because Yahweh of Armies has a day against all majesty and exaltedness, Against all that is high – and it will fall down, Against all the cedars of the Lebanon, exalted and high, against all the oaks of the Bashan, Against all the exalted mountains, against all the high hills, Against every lofty tower, against every fortified wall, Against every Tarshish ship, against all the impressive vessels. Human loftiness will bow down, people’s exaltedness will fall down. Yahweh alone will be on high on that day; non-entities – they will completely vanish. People will go into caves in the crags, into holes in the earth, From before the fearfulness of Yahweh, from the dreadfulness of his majesty, when he arises to terrify the country.
On that day humanity will throw away its silver non-entities and its gold non-entities, Which they made for themsleves to bow down to, to the moles and to the bats, To come into the clefts in the crags, into the crevices in the cliffs, Before the fearfulness of Yahweh, from the dreadfulness of his majesty. when he arises to terrify the earth, Get yourselves away from humanity, that has breath in its nostrils, because what is it to count for?
Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Cross section running from S to N through Jerusalem
The word that Yesha’yahu ben Amots beheld concerning Yehudah and Yerushalaim.
It will come about at the end of the time: The mountain of Yahweh’s house will have become established at the head of the mountains, and it will be lifted up higher than the hills. All the nations will stream to it; many peoples will come and say, ‘Come on, let’s go up to Yahweh’s mountain, to the house of Ya’aqob’s [Jacob’s] God, So he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.’
Because instruction will go out from Tsiyyon, Yahweh’s word from Yerushalaim. He will exercise authority among the nations, and issue reproof to many peoples. They’ll beat their swords into hoes, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not carry sword against nation; they will no more learn about battle. Ya’aqob’s household, come on, let’s walk by Yahweh’s light.
Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Cross section in 1C AD. City of David’s time is lower than Temple Mount, and further south. (Label Mt Zion is only true for later times, not Isaiah’s).
Grant, Lord, that we may hold to you without parting, worship you without wearying, serve you without failing; faithfully seek you, happily find you, and forever possess you, the only God,blessed now and for ever. Amen
Aagh, she’s become a whore, the trustworthy township, full of the exercise of authority. Faithfulness was lodging in it, but now murderers. Your silver has become slag, your drink is diluted with water. Your officers are defiant, the associates of thieves; every one of them loves a bribe, chases gifts. They don’t exercise authority for the orphan; the widow’s cause doesn’t come to them.
Therefore the declaration of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, Yisra’el’s champion, is: ‘Hey, I shall get relief from my adversaries, take redress from my enemies, turn back my hand against you.
But I shall smelt your slag as with lye, remove all your contamination. I shall restore your leaders as of old, your counsellors as at the beginning. Afterwards you will be called faithful town, trustworthy township.
Tsiyyon will find redemption through the exercise of authority, and the people in it who turn back, through faithfulness. But there will be a breaking of rebels and wrongdoers, all together, and the people who abandon Yahweh will be finished.
Because they’ll be shamed on account of the oaks that you desired; you will be confounded on account of the gardens that you chose. Because you’ll be like an oak wilting of foliage, like a garden for which there’s no water. The strong person will become tinder, his work a spark. The two of them will burn all together, and there will be no one quenching.
Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; . The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Thank you, dear Jesus, for all you have given me, for all you have taken away from me, for all you have left me.
Listen to Yahweh’s word, rulers of Sedom! Give ear to our God’s instruction, people of Amorah!
What use to me is the large number of your sacrifices? (Yahweh says). I’m full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fatlings. In the blood of bulls and lambs and goats I do not delight. When you come to appear to my face, who sought this from your hand? Trampling my courtyards – you will do it no more, bringing an empty offering. Incense is an offence to me, new month and sabbath, the calling of a convocation.
I cannot bear trouble and assembly; your new moons and your appointed times my entire being dislikes. They’ve become a burden to me that I’m weary of carrying.
And when you spread the palms of your hands, I shall lift up my eyes from you. Even when you offer many a plea, there will be no listening on my part. Your hands are full of bloodshed –
wash, get clean. Remove the badness of your practices from in front of my eyes. Stop dealing badly, learn doing good. Require the exercise of authority, put the oppressor right, exercise authority for the orphan, argue for the widow.
Come on, please, let’s argue it out (Yahweh says). If your wrongdoings are like scarlet, they’re to be white like snow. If they’re red like crimson, they’re to be like wool. If you’re willing and you listen, you will consume the good things of the country. But if you refuse and rebel, you’ll be consumed by the sword; because Yahweh’s mouth has spoken.
Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is discord, union; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy, For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen
