Read the Bible

¹ THE vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah:

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken, I have reared and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.³ The ox knows its owner, and the ass its masters crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.⁴ Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, an offspring of evildoers, children that are corrupt; you have forsaken the LORD, you have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, you have gone away backward.⁵ Why should you be stricken any more, and be chastised? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and swelling sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, nor softened with oil.⁷ Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.⁸ And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.⁹ Except the LORD of hosts had left to us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.¹¹ Of what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the LORD; I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.¹² When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?¹³ Bring no more vain offerings to me; their savour is an abomination to me; in the new moons and sabbaths, you call an assembly; I do not eat that which is obtained wrongfully, and taken by force.¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are a burden to me; I am weary to bear them.¹⁵ And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil;¹⁷ Learn to do good; seek justice, do good to the oppressed, plead for the fatherless, plead for the widows.¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool.¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;²⁰ But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

²¹ How is the faithful city become a harlot! For once it was full of justice; and righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.²² Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.²³ Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; every one of them loves a bribe and runs after rewards; they plead not the cause of the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come before them.²⁴ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will avenge myself of my adversaries, I will take vengeance upon my enemies;²⁵ And I will turn my hand against you, and purge away your rebellious men, and remove all your iniquities;²⁶ And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning; afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.²⁷ Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her captivity with righteousness.²⁸ And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and those who have forsaken the LORD shill perish.²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the idols which they have desired, and they shall be confounded by the witchcraft which they have chosen.³⁰ For they shall be like an oak whose leaves have fallen, and like a garden that has no water.³¹ And their strength shall be like cotton, and their works like a spark, and they shall both burn together, and there shall be none to quench them.