The Lord who commands armies told me this: ¹  “Certainly this sin will not be forgiven as long as you live,” ²  says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

The sovereign master ¹  says, “These people say they are loyal to me; ²  they say wonderful things about me, ³  but they are not really loyal to me. ⁴  Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual. ⁵ 

For when they see their children, whom I will produce among them, ¹  they will honor ²  my name. They will honor the Holy One of Jacob; ³  they will respect ⁴  the God of Israel.

¹ Certainly you must have heard! ²  Long ago I worked it out, in ancient times I planned ³  it, and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp, I coo ¹  like a dove; my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. ²  O sovereign master, ³  I am oppressed; help me! ⁴ 

Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

¹ “Here is my servant whom I support, my chosen one in whom I take pleasure. I have placed my spirit on him; he will make just decrees ²  for the nations. ³ 

For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹  me.

I was angry at my people; I defiled my special possession and handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; ¹  you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ² 

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ¹  so that I know how to help the weary. ²  He wakes me up every morning; he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ³ 

No foreigner who becomes a follower of ¹  the Lord should say, ‘The Lord will certainly ²  exclude me from his people.’ The eunuch should not say, ‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ¹  that will be better than sons and daughters. I will set up a permanent monument ²  for them that will remain.

All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ¹  They will go up on my altar acceptably, ²  and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

“I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them ¹  in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage. Their juice splashed on my garments, and stained ²  all my clothes.

I looked, but there was no one to help; I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹  So my right arm accomplished deliverance; my raging anger drove me on. ² 

I brought you ¹  into a fertile land so you could enjoy ²  its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; ³  you made the land I call my own ⁴  loathsome to me.

(8:23) ¹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²  and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people ³  who have been killed.

The Lord says to the people of Judah, ¹  “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people? ²  Many of you have done wicked things. ³  Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings ⁴  that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them? ⁵ 

But you, Lord, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. ¹  Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed! ²