Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 On that day you will say:

“I thank you,Adonai,

because, although you were angry at me,

your anger is now turned away;

and you are comforting me.

2 “See! God is my salvation.

I am confident and unafraid;

forYahAdonaiis my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation!”

3 Then you will joyfully draw water

from the springs of salvation.

4 On that day you will say,

“Give thanks toAdonai! Call on his name!

Make his deeds known among the peoples,

declare how exalted is his name.

5 Sing toAdonai, for he has triumphed —

this is being made known throughout the earth.

6 Shout and sing for joy,

you who live in Tziyon;

for the Holy One of Isra’el

is with you in his greatness!”

1 This is a prophecy about Bavel, which Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz saw:

2 Hoist a banner on a high mountain,

shout to [the invaders];

beckon them to enter the Nobles’ Gate.

3 “I have ordered my holy ones,

summoned my heroes, eager and bold,

to execute my anger.”

4 Listen! A tumult on the mountains —

it sounds like a vast multitude!

Listen! The uproar of the kingdoms

of the nations gathering together!

Adonai-Tzva’otis mustering

an army for war.

5 They come from a distant land,

from beyond the horizon.

It’sAdonai, with the weapons of his rage,

to lay waste to all the earth.

6 Howl! for the Day ofAdonaiis at hand,

destruction coming fromShaddai.

7 This is why every arm will hang limp

and everyone’s courage melt away.

8 They will be gripped by panic,

seized with pain and agony,

writhing like a woman in labor,

looking aghast at each other, faces aflame.

9 Here comes the Day ofAdonai,

full of cruelty, rage and hot fury,

to desolate the earth

and destroy the sinners in it.

10 For the stars, the constellations in the sky,

will no longer give their light;

the sun will be dark when it rises;

and the moon will no longer shine.

11 “I will punish the world for its evil

and the wicked for their iniquity.

I will end the arrogance of the proud

and humble the insolence of tyrants.

12 I will make humans rarer than gold,

scarcer than Ofir’s pure gold.

13 This is why I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken from its place

at the wrath ofAdonai-Tzva’ot

on the day of his fierce anger.

14 Then, like a hunted gazelle,

like sheep with no one to gather them,

everyone will head back to his own people;

everyone will flee to his own land.

15 Anyone found will be pierced through;

anyone caught will fall by the sword,

16 their babies dashed to pieces before their eyes,

their houses looted, their wives raped.

17 I will stir up against them the Medes,

who cannot be tempted by silver

or bought off with gold.

18 Their bows will tear young men to pieces,

they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb,

their eye will not spare children.”

19 Thus Bavel, that jewel of kingdoms,

the pride and glory of the Kasdim,

will be like S’dom and ‘Amora

when overthrown by God.

20 It will never again be inhabited,

never lived in through all generations.

Arabs will not pitch tents there

nor shepherds bring their flocks.

21 But wildcats will lie there,

their houses will be full of owls,

ostriches will live there,

and wild goats will dance there.

22 Jackals will howl in their palaces

and wild dogs in their temples of delight.

Its time is close at hand,

its days will not last long.

1 ForAdonaiwill have compassion on Ya‘akov — he will once again choose Isra’el and resettle them in their own land, where foreigners will join them, attaching themselves to the house of Ya‘akov.

2 Peoples will take and escort them to their homeland, and the house of Isra’el will possess them in the land ofAdonaias male and female slaves. They will take their captors captive and rule over their oppressors.

3 Then, whenAdonaigives you rest from your suffering and trouble and from the hard service imposed on you,

4 you will take up this taunt-song against the king of Bavel:

“At last the oppressor is stilled,

his arrogance is ended!

5 Adonaihas broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers,

6 which furiously struck down peoples

with unceasing blows,

angrily beating down nations

with relentless persecution.

7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet.

They break into song.

8 The cypresses rejoice over you,

with the cedars of the L’vanon —

‘Now that you are laid low,

no one comes to cut us down.’

9 “Sh’ol below is stirred up

to meet you when you come.

It awakens for you the ghosts of the dead

who were leaders on earth;

it makes all the kings of the nations

arise from their thrones.

10 They all greet you with these words:

‘Now you are as weak as we are,

you have become like us!

11 Your pride has been brought down to Sh’ol

with the music of your lyres,

under you a mattress of maggots,

over you a blanket of worms.’

12 “How did you come to fall from the heavens,

morning star, son of the dawn?

How did you come to be cut to the ground,

conqueror of nations?

13 You thought to yourself, ‘I will scale the heavens,

I will raise my throne above God’s stars.

I will sit on the Mount of Assembly

far away in the north.

14 I will rise past the tops of the clouds,

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15 “Instead you are brought down to Sh’ol,

to the uttermost depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you,

reflecting on what has become of you:

‘Is this the man who shook the earth,

who made kingdoms tremble,

17 who made the world a desert,

who destroyed its cities,

who would not set his prisoners free?’

18 “All other kings of the nations, all of them,

lie in glory, each in his tomb.

19 But you are discarded, unburied,

like a loathed branch,

clothed like the slain who were pierced by the sword,

then fall to the stones inside a pit,

like a corpse to be trampled underfoot.

20 You will not be joined with those kings in the grave,

because you destroyed your own land,

you have brought death to your own people.

The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.

21 Get ready to slaughter his sons

for the iniquity of their fathers;

so they won’t arise, take over the earth

and cover the world with their cities.”

22 “I will arise against them,”

saysAdonai-Tzva’ot.

“I will cut off from Bavel name and remnant,

offshoot and offspring,” saysAdonai.

23 “I will make it a haunt for hedgehogs,

it will become a swampy waste,

I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,”

saysAdonai-Tzva’ot.

24 Adonai-Tzva’othas sworn,

“Just as I thought it, it will occur;

just as I planned it, so it will be.

25 I will break Ashur in my land,

I will trample him down on my mountains.

Then his yoke will fall off them,

his burden be removed from their shoulders.”

26 This is the program planned for all the earth,

this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

27 Adonai-Tzva’othas made his decision.

Who is there that can stop him?

He has stretched out his hand.

Who can turn it back?

28 In the year that King Achaz died, this prophecy came:

29 Do not rejoice, P’leshet, any of you,

that the rod which struck you is broken;

for out of the snake’s root will come a viper,

and his offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.

30 While the firstborn of the poor graze

and the needy lie down in safety,

I will kill off your root with famine

and slaughter the rest of you.

31 Howl, gate! Cry, city!

Melt away, P’leshet, all of you!

For a smoke is coming from the north,

with not a straggler in its ranks.

32 And what is one to answer

the messengers of the nation?

ThatAdonaifounded Tziyon,

and there the poor of his people will find refuge.

1 This is a prophecy about Mo’av:

The night ‘Ar is sacked, Mo’av is ruined.

The night Kir is sacked, Mo’av is ruined.

2 He went up to the temple,

to Dibon and to the high places, to weep.

On N’vo and Meidva Mo’av is howling,

every head shaved bald, every beard cut off.

3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;

on their roofs and in their squares,

everyone howls and weeps profusely.

4 Heshbon and El‘aleh cry out,

they are heard as far as Yachatz.

Mo’av’s best troops cry aloud,

as their courage faints away.

5 My heart cries out for Mo’av!

Its fugitives flee to Tzo‘ar,

a calf three years old.

They ascend the slope of Luchit,

weeping as they go;

on their way to Horonayim,

they utter heartrending cries.

6 The waters of Nimrim are desolate,

the grass is dried up, the new growth fails,

nothing green is left.

7 Therefore they carry away their wealth,

everything they have put aside,

across theVadiof the Willows.

8 For the cry has circulated

throughout Mo’av’s territory —

its howling has reached Eglayim,

its howling has reached Be’er-Elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,

yet I have worse in store for Dimon —

a lion for those who escape from Mo’av

and for those who remain in its land.

1 Send lambs for the ruler of the land

from the crags toward the desert

to the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon.

2 The daughters of Mo’av at the fords of the Arnon

are like fluttering birds pushed from the nest.

3 “Give [us] counsel! Decide [to help]!

Make your shadow [over us]

like night in the middle of noonday.

Hide [our] outcasts! Don’t betray [our] fugitives!

4 Let our outcasts live with you!

Protect Mo’av from the attacks of robbers!”

For when the extorting ends, the spoiling ceases,

and those trampling on the land are destroyed,

5 a throne will be set up by grace,

and on it, in the tent of David,

will sit an honest judge,

seeking justice and pursuing righteousness.

6 We have heard about Mo’av’s pride,

how very proud they are;

about their haughty arrogance,

their insolence and bravado.

7 Therefore Mo’av will wail for Mo’av —

they will all wail!

You will sigh, stricken by grief,

for the raisin-cakes of Kir-Hareset.

8 For the grainfields of Heshbon are withering,

also the vineyards of Sibmah,

whose red grapes overpowered rulers of nations —

once they reached as far as Ya‘zer

and trailed out into the desert;

their spreading branches even crossed the sea.

9 Therefore I will weep for Sibmah’s vine

as I weep for Ya‘zer;

I will water you with my tears,

Heshbon and El‘aleh;

because the shouts of battle are falling

on your summer fruits and harvest;

10 gladness and joy are removed

from the fruitful fields.

No revelry in the vineyards,

no happy shouting,

no one treading grapes in the wine presses —

I have silenced the vintage-cheers.

11 This is why my heart throbs

like a lyre for Mo’av,

and everything in me

for Kir-Heres.

12 Even when Mo’av is seen growing weary

of worshipping on the high places

and entering their sanctuaries to pray,

they will have accomplished nothing.

13 This is the wordAdonaispoke against Mo’av in the past.

14 But nowAdonaihas said, “Within three years [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Mo’av will be brought into contempt, despite its large population; and the surviving remnant will be few and feeble.”

1 This is a prophecy about Dammesek:

“Dammesek will soon stop being a city;

it will become a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of ‘Aro‘er will be abandoned,

given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.

3 Efrayim will have no defenses,

Dammesek will cease to rule,

and Aram’s survivors will share the fate

of Isra’el’s finest sons,”

saysAdonai-Tzva’ot.

4 “When that day comes, Ya‘akov’s glory will wane,

and his full body grow thin,

5 as when the harvester collects the standing grain,

reaping the ears of grain with his arm;

yes, as when they glean the grain

in the Refa’im Valley.

6 Yet gleanings will be left,

as when beating an olive tree —

two or three olives at the very top,

four or five on its fruitful branches,”

saysAdonai, the God of Isra’el.

7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker

and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra’el.

8 He will pay no heed to the altars

made with his own hands,

he will not turn toward what his fingers made,

the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.

9 When that day comes, his strong cities,

which others abandoned when Isra’el advanced,

will be like abandoned woods and forests;

they will be laid waste.

10 For you have forgotten the God who saved you,

failed to remember the Rock of your strength;

so you plant pagan-style gardens

and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.

11 Though you make them grow on the day you plant them,

and in the morning your seedlings flower;

the crop will vanish the day disease comes,

a day of incurable pain.

12 Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples,

roaring like the roar of the seas,

and the rushing about of nations,

rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!

13 Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean,

but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee,

driven like chaff by a mountain wind,

like whirling dust in advance of the storm.

14 As evening falls, you can see terror;

before sunrise, they have ceased to be.

This is the lot of those who plunder us,

the fate of those who prey on us.

1 Woe to the land of whirring wings

beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

2 they send ambassadors by sea,

across the water in papyrus-reed boats!

Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed,

to a people feared far and near,

to a strong and conquering nation

whose land is divided by rivers!

3 All you inhabitants of the world,

you who live on the earth:

when a banner is hoisted on the mountains, look!

When theshofaris blown, listen!

4 ForAdonaihas said this to me:

“I will look on from my place and do nothing,

like heat shimmering in the sun,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5 For before the harvest, when the flowering is over,

and the bud becomes a ripening grape,

he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives,

lop off the twigs and take them away.

6 They will all be left to the vultures in the mountains

and to the wild animals in the fields;

the vultures will feed on them in summer,

and the wild animals of the fields in winter.

7 At that time tribute will be brought

toAdonai-Tzva’ot

from a nation tall and bronzed,

from a people feared far and near,

from a strong and conquering nation

whose land is divided by rivers,

to the place where the name ofAdonai-Tzva’ot

lives, Mount Tziyon.

1 This is a prophecy about Egypt:

Look!Adonaiis riding a swift cloud,

on his way to Egypt.

Before him Egypt’s idols tremble,

Egypt’s courage melts within them.

2 “I will incite Egypt against Egypt,

brother will fight against brother,

friend against friend, city against city,

kingdom against kingdom.

3 The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it,

I will reduce its counsel to confusion.

They will consult idols and mediums,

ghosts and spirits.

4 I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master.

A harsh king will rule them,”

says the Lord,Adonai-Tzva’ot.

5 The water will ebb from the sea,

the river will be drained dry.

6 The rivers will become foul,

the canals of Egypt’s Nile will dwindle and dry up,

the reeds and rushes will wither.

7 The river-plants on the banks of the Nile

and everything sown near the Nile

will dry up, blow away and be no more.

8 Fishermen too will lament,

all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn,

those who spread nets on the water lose heart.

9 The linen-workers will be in despair,

along with the weavers of white cotton;

10 the spinners will be crushed,

the hired workers dejected.

11 The princes of Tzo‘an are utter fools,

Pharaoh’s wisest counselors give stupid advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I’m a sage, descended from kings of old.”

12 Where are they, then, those sages of yours?

Let them tell you, so all can know

whatAdonai-Tzva’othas planned against Egypt!

13 The princes of Tzo‘an have been fooled,

the princes of Nof have been duped,

Egypt’s clan chiefs have led her astray.

14 Adonaihas mixed up their minds

with a spirit that distorts judgment,

so they make Egypt stagger in whatever she does,

like a drunk staggering in his vomit.

15 Nobody in Egypt

will find work to do —

neither head nor tail,

neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.

16 On that day Egypt will be like women trembling with fear, becauseAdonai-Tzva’otis shaking his fist at them.

17 Just mentioning the land of Y’hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of whatAdonai-Tzva’othas planned for them.

18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Kena‘an and swear loyalty toAdonai-Tzva’ot; one of them will be called the City of Destruction.*

19 On that day there will be an altar toAdonaiin the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone forAdonaiat its border.

20 It will be a sign and witness toAdonai-Tzva’otin the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out toAdonaifor help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them.

21 Adonaiwill make himself known to Egypt;

on that day, the Egyptians will knowAdonai.

They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings,

they will make vows toAdonaiand keep them.

22 YetAdonaiwill strike Egypt, both striking and healing,

so they will return toAdonai.

He will listen to their prayers,

and he will heal them.

23 On that day there will be a highway

from Egypt to Ashur.

Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur,

and Egypt will worship with Ashur.

24 On that day Isra’el will be a third partner

with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;

25 forAdonai-Tzva’othas blessed him:

“Blessed be Egypt my people,

Ashur the work of my hands

and Isra’el my heritage.”

1 In the year that Sargon the king of Ashur sent his commander-in-chief to attack Ashdod, he captured it.

2 It was at that time thatAdonai, speaking through Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz, said, “Go and unwind the sackcloth from around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet.” So he did it, going about unclothed and barefoot.

3 In time,Adonaisaid,

“Just as my servant Yesha‘yahu

has gone about unclothed and barefoot

for three years as a sign and portent

against Egypt and Ethiopia,

4 so will the king of Ashur lead away

the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia,

young and old, unclothed and barefoot,

with their buttocks exposed, to the shame of Egypt.

5 They will be dismayed and ashamed

because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their pride.

6 On that day, the people living

along this coast will say,

‘Look what happened to the people

to whom we fled for help,

hoping they would rescue us

from the king of Ashur!

How will we escape now?’”

1 A prophecy about the coastal desert:

Like whirlwinds sweeping over the Negev,

it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.

2 A dire vision has been shown to me:

the betrayer betrays, and the spoiler spoils.

‘Eilam, advance! Madai, lay siege!

I will end all groaning.

3 This is why my insides are racked with pain;

I am seized by pangs, like a woman in labor;

wrenched by what I hear,

aghast at what I see.

4 My mind reels, shuddering assails me.

The twilight I longed for terrifies me.

5 They set the table, light the lamps,

eat and drink —

“Get going, princes! Oil the shields!”

6 For this is whatAdonaisaid to me:

“Go, post a watchman to report what he sees!

7 If he sees the cavalry, horsemen in pairs,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

he must be on alert, on full alert!”

8 He calls out like a lion: “My lord,

I stand on the watchtower all day long,

I stay at my post all night.”

9 Then, as they appeared — the cavalry,

horsemen in pairs — he spoke these words:

“She has fallen! She has fallen — Bavel!

All the carved images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground.”

10 My people, who have been threshed,

grain trodden down on my threshing-floor:

I am telling you what I have heard

fromAdonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el.

11 A prophecy about Dumah:

Someone is calling to me from Se‘ir:

“Watchman, how much longer is it night?

Watchman, how much longer is it night?”

12 The watchman answers:

“Morning is coming, but also the night.

If you want to ask, ask! Come back again!”

13 A prophecy about Arabia:

You caravans of D’danim will camp

in the desert growth of Arabia.

14 Bring water to the thirsty, you who live in Teima,

greet the fugitives with food;

15 because they are fleeing the sword, the drawn sword,

the bent bow and the press of battle.

16 For this is whatAdonaihas told me: “Within a year [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Kedar will come to an end.

17 Few of Kedar’s valiant archers will be left. ”Adonaithe God of Isra’el has spoken.