¹ THE vision of Isaias the son of Amos I which he saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda

² Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me.

³ The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.

⁴ Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.

⁵ For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.

⁶ From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.

⁷ Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies.

⁸ And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid waste.

⁹ Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.

¹¹ To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats.

¹² When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

¹³ Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination tome. The new moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals I will not abide, your assemblies are wicked.

¹⁴ My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵ And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely,

¹⁷ Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.

¹⁸ And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.

¹⁹ if you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.

²⁰ But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

²¹ How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.

²² Thy silver is turned into dress: thy wine is mingled with water.

²³ Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, the run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow's cometh not in to them.

²⁴ Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies.

²⁵ And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dress, and I will take away all thy tin.

²⁶ And I will restore thy judges se they were before, and thy counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city.

²⁷ Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice.

²⁸ And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.

²⁹ For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which they have sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen.

³⁰ When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a garden without water.

³¹ And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark: and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it.

³ A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.