Isaiah 1-5
New Catholic Bible
The Book of Judgment[a]
Indictment of Israel and Judah[b]
Chapter 1
The Sins of Israel. 1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem which he received during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 [c]Listen, O heavens, and pay close attention, O earth,
for the Lord is speaking.
I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
3 An ox knows its owner
and the donkey its master’s stall,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.
4 You are a sinful nation,
a people weighed down with iniquity,
a race of evildoers
whose children are corrupt;
you have forsaken the Lord,
despised the Holy One of Israel,
and turned your backs on him.
5 [d]Why do you continue to seek further beatings?
Why do you persist in your rebellion?
Your entire head is sick
and your whole heart is faint.
6 From the sole of your foot to your head
there is not a single healthy area
nothing but bruises and welts and open sores
that have not been drained or bandaged
or soothed with ointment.
7 Your country is a desolate waste,
and fire has destroyed your cities.
Before your very eyes
foreigners have devoured your land
and left it as desolate
as Sodom after it had been overthrown.
8 Daughter Zion[e] is left
like a shack in a vineyard,
like a shed in a field of cucumbers,
like a besieged city.
9 If the Lord of hosts[f]
had not left us a few survivors,
we would have become like Sodom
and been like Gomorrah.
10 [g]Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom.
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah.
11 What do I care about your unceasing sacrifices?
says the Lord.
I am weary of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed animals.
I derive no delight in the blood
of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come into my presence,
who has asked you to present such offerings?
Never again trample my courts!
13 To bring me offerings is futile;
I regard your incense as loathsome.
New moons and Sabbaths and sacred assemblies—
I cannot tolerate your iniquity that accompanies them.
14 I loathe your new moons and your festivals;
they have become a burden to me
and I can no longer endure bearing them.
15 When you stretch out your hands,[h]
I will turn away my eyes from you.
Even if you pray endlessly,
I will not listen,
for your hands are covered with blood.
16 Wash yourselves and become clean;
remove your evil deeds
far from my sight.
Cease to do evil
17 and learn to do good.
Pursue justice and rescue the oppressed;
listen to the plea of the orphan[i]
and defend the widow.
18 Come now and let us discuss this,
says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow.
Though they are as red as crimson,
they shall become as white as wool.
19 If you are willing to obey,
you will eat the best food
that the land has to offer.
20 However, if you refuse and rebel,
the sword will devour you,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
21 How the faithful city
has become an adulteress,[j]
she who used to be a symbol of justice.
Righteousness used to dwell in her,
but now she is the abode of murderers.
22 Your silver has turned to dross,
and your wine is mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
All of them love bribes
and are eager to receive gifts.
They do not treat the orphan with justice,
and they refuse to listen to the pleas of widows.
24 Therefore, the Lord of hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel, says this:
I am determined to vent my anger upon my enemies
and wreak vengeance on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you
and refine your dross in the furnace,
purging all of your impurities.
26 And I will restore your judges
as in the days of old
and your counselors as at the beginning.
Then you will be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city.
27 Zion will be redeemed by judgment
and those who are repentant by righteousness.
28 But rebels and sinners alike will be destroyed,
and those who forsake the Lord will perish.
29 You will be ashamed of the sacred oaks[k]
which offered you such delight,
and you will blush when you behold the gardens
which you chose in their stead.
30 You will be like a tree whose leaves are withered,
like a garden without water.
31 The strong man will become like straw
and his work like a spark.
Both will burn together,
and no one will be able to quench the flames.
The Internal Decadence of a People
Chapter 2
Jerusalem, the Religious Center.[l] 1 This is the vision seen by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be established as the highest mountain
and raised high above the hills.
Then all the nations will stream toward it;
3 many peoples will come to it and say,
“Come, let us ascend the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion will go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and serve as an arbiter for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
One nation will not lift up a sword against another,
nor will they ever again be trained for war.
The Lord’s Triumph Will Come[m]
5 Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6 For you, O Lord, have abandoned your people,
the house of Jacob.
They are surrounded by fortune tellers
and by soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they are allying themselves with foreigners.[n]
7 Their land is full of silver and gold,
and their treasures are without limit.
Their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.[o]
8 Their land is full of idols;
they bow down before the work of their hands,
before what their own fingers have fashioned.
9 Therefore human nature has been humbled
and mankind has been brought low;
do not forgive them.
10 Let them conceal themselves among the rocks
and hide in the dust
in their terror of the Lord
and from the splendor of his majesty.
11 The haughty looks of men will be brought low
and human arrogance will be humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted
on that day.
12 For the Lord of hosts has ordained a day
against all those who are proud and haughty,
against all those who have been exalted and raised high,
13 against all the lofty and proud cedars of Lebanon
and against all the oaks of Bashan,
14 against all the soaring mountains
and all the towering hills,
15 against every high tower
and every fortified wall,
16 against all the ships of Tarshish[p]
and every stately vessel.
17 Human pride will be humbled
and human arrogance will be brought low.
On that day,
the Lord alone will be exalted.
18 The idols will completely disappear;
19 they will crawl into the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
fleeing from the terror of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty
when he arises to strike the world with terror.
20 On that day people will throw away
to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and gold
that they had made for themselves to worship.
21 They will crawl into the crevices of the rocks
and the clefts in the cliffs
to hide from the terror of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty
when he arises to terrify the earth.
22 Have nothing more to do with men
who have only the breath in their nostrils.
Of what value are they?
Chapter 3
Ruling against Judah and Jerusalem
1 Now the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
is about to deprive Jerusalem and Judah
of resources and provisions—
all supplies of bread and water—
2 warriors and soldiers,
judges and prophets,
fortune tellers and elders,
3 captains and dignitaries,
counselors, skilled magicians,
and expert enchanters.
4 I will appoint young boys as their princes,
mere lads to rule over them.
5 People will oppress one another,
each one ill-treated by his neighbor.
The young will be arrogant toward their elders,
as will the lowly toward the honorable.
6 A man will take hold of his brother
in their father’s house, saying,
“You have a cloak;
you will be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
will be under your rule.”
7 But on that day
the other will cry out, saying,
“I am not qualified to undertake this;
in my house there is neither bread nor clothing.
You will not make me leader of the people.”
8 Jerusalem has been brought low
and Judah has fallen
because by their words and their deeds
they turned against the Lord
and defied his glorious presence.
9 The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sins like Sodom
without any effort to conceal them.
Woe to them!
For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
10 Happy are the righteous,
for they will eat the fruit of their labors.
11 Woe to the wicked.
All will go ill with them.
They will be repaid
as their actions deserve.
12 O my people, children are oppressing you
and women have become your rulers.
O my people, your rulers are leading you astray
and putting you on the road to ruin.
13 The Lord has risen to argue his case;
he stands up to judge his people.
14 The Lord enters into judgment
against the elders and the princes of his people:
It is you who have ravaged the vineyard;
the spoils you have taken from the poor
are in your houses.
15 What right do you have to crush my people
and grind the faces of the poor?
says the Lord God of hosts.
16 The Lord said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
walking with their heads held high,
glancing wantonly with their eyes,
moving provocatively with mincing steps
and with their anklets tinkling,
17 the Lord will cover with scabs
the scalps of the daughters of Zion,
and he will lay bare their foreheads.
18 [q]On that day the Lord will take away their finery: anklets, headbands, and crescents; 19 pendants, bracelets, and shawls; 20 headdresses, bangles, necklaces, perfume boxes, and amulets; 21 signet rings and nose rings; 22 fine dresses, wraps, cloaks, and purses; 23 mirrors, linen garments, turbans, and veils.
24 Then instead of perfume there will be a stench,
and instead of a sash, a rope;
instead of a lovely hair setting, baldness,
instead of a rich gown, a sackcloth[r] dress,
and instead of beauty, branding marks.
25 O Zion, your men will fall by the sword
and your warriors will perish in battle.
26 Your gates will lament and mourn;
ravaged, you will sit desolate on the ground.
Chapter 4
1 On that day,
seven women will take hold of one man, saying,
“We will eat our own food
and provide for our own clothing.
Just let us bear your name.
Take away our disgrace.”
The Seed of the Lord[s]
2 On that day the branch of the Lord
will be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land
will be the pride and splendor
of the survivors of Israel.
3 Whoever is left in Zion
and whoever remains in Jerusalem
will be called holy,
everyone whose survival in Jerusalem was decreed.
4 When the Lord has washed away
the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst
by a spirit of judgment and of cleansing,
5 then the Lord will create
over every house on Mount Zion,
and over those who assemble there,
a cloud of smoke by day
and a bright flame of fire by night.
The glory of the Lord will be a canopy over all,
6 serving as a shade by day from the heat
and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and the rain.
Chapter 5
The Song of the Vineyard[t]
1 Now let me sing for my beloved
the song of my friend concerning his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice red vines.
In its midst he built a watchtower
and also hewed out a winepress.
He expected it to yield a rich crop of grapes,
but the only thing it brought forth was wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
I ask you to judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard
that I did not do?
When I expected it to yield choice grapes,
why did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 Now listen to me as I tell you
what I am planning to do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge
and use it for grazing.
I will knock down its wall
and let it be trampled upon.
6 I will let it go to waste;
it will be neither pruned nor hoed,
but left overgrown with briars and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
not to allow any rain to fall upon it.
7 The vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the plant he cherished.
He expected justice but found bloodshed;
he expected righteousness but heard cries of distress.
The Doom of Sinners
8 Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
until there is no further space remaining
and you are left to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
9 The Lord of hosts in my hearing
has sworn this solemn oath:
Many houses will be left desolate,
large and fine mansions
with no one to inhabit them.
10 For ten acres of vineyard
will yield only one barrel,
and ten bushels of seed
will yield only a single bushel.
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to imbibe strong drink,
and who linger far into the night
inflamed with wine.
12 Their feasts are marked with harps and lyres,
tambourines and flutes and wine.
But they never give thought to the deeds of the Lord,
or note what his hands have accomplished.
13 Therefore, my people shall end up in exile
because they have no knowledge of my deeds.
Their nobles are dying of hunger
and their masses are parched with thirst.
14 As a result, the netherworld has increased its appetite
and opened its jaws to an immeasurable extent,
swallowing the nobility of Jerusalem and her masses,
her throngs and all who exult in her.
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by his judgment,
and by righteousness the holy God has displayed his holiness.
17 Lambs will graze there as in their pasture,
and yearlings will feed among the ruins.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along
with the cords of perversity,
and who drag sin along
as though with cart ropes;
19 woe to those who say, “Let the Lord make haste
and speed up his work that we may see it;
let the Holy One of Israel
be brought to fulfillment
so that we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call good what is evil
and call evil what is good,
who classify as darkness what is light
and designate as light what is darkness,
who make sweet what is bitter
and make bitter what is sweet.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and consider themselves to be prudent.
22 Woe to those who are unmatched in their consumption of wine
and unsurpassed in mixing drinks,
23 who accept bribes to acquit the guilty
and deny justice to the innocent.
24 As tongues of fire devour the stubble,
and as dry grass shrivels in the flames,
so their root will decay
and their blossoms will be scattered like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore, the anger of the Lord
blazed forth against his people;
he raised his hand against them
and struck them down.
The mountains quaked,
and their corpses lay like refuse in the streets.
But despite all this
his anger has not been sated,
and his hand is still stretched out.
Deliverance[u]
26 He will deliver a signal to a far-distant nation
and summon them from the ends of the earth;
they will respond swiftly without any delay.[v]
27 None of them are weary, none of them stumble,
no one slumbers or sleeps.
None of them have their belts unfastened
or sandals with a broken strap.
28 Their arrows are sharpened
and all their bows are bent.
The hoofs of their horses seem like flint,
and their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like that of a lion;
they growl like young lions.
They roar as they seize their prey,
and no one can prevent them from carrying it off.
30 They will roar over it on that day,
similar to the roaring of the sea.
And if anyone looks at the land,
he will behold only darkness and distress,
with the light fading at the approaching clouds.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 1:1 This first part of the Book presents Isaiah himself and his message, although some sections are clearly from a later date, such as chapters 24–27; 34–35, which are often called “the Isaiah apocalypses.” But the oracles in the collection do not follow a strict chronological order.
In the midst of political upheaval, Isaiah proclaimed the greatness of God, the “Holy One of Israel,” who governs the world. He opposed King Ahaz, who nonetheless called on Assyria for help and came under its control; he opposed Hezekiah, who wanted to defy Assyria by allying himself with Egypt. Such insecure and shifting alliances could do nothing to change the fate of the people of God; the nation would, however, be safe if it learned to emphasize above all else its covenant with God, in which justice was a supreme value. Judah should have found within itself the courage for a moral renewal. Yet the people of the covenant remain strong thanks above all to their faith. - Isaiah 1:1 The vision of Isaiah: thus begins the book; Isaiah in fact remains an unparalleled seer in the history of humanity. The title, “Vision,” applies above all to the first twelve chapters. Nothing, whether the powers of this world, or external events, or domestic intrigues, can turn the prophet’s gaze from the holiness of God, before whom everything else disappears. In this entire body of oracles, we can distinguish several collections: oracles uttered in the most diverse circumstances during fifty years of prophetic ministry from the last days of Uzziah (740 B.C.) to the death of Hezekiah (687 B.C.).
The first five chapters perhaps correspond most closely to the beginning of Isaiah’s activity; the remainder belong to the course of the Syro-Ephraimite war against Judah in 732 B.C. It is true that some of the verses look more to the northern kingdom (9:7) and to Assyria (10:5), but on the whole, the oracles are addressed to the people of Judah. The “Book of Immanuel” that begins in chapter 6 is doubtless the jewel of Isaiah’s work and has won him the title of supreme prophetic foreteller of the coming of Jesus. The Advent liturgy draws upon these chapters. - Isaiah 1:2 Isaiah must denounce decadence and open the eyes of those who no longer want to see. He first takes on himself the suffering involved in the fate of his country by remaining in solidarity with the very people whom he accuses and even severely indicts.
- Isaiah 1:5 The enemy, perhaps Sennacherib (in 701 B.C.), has ravaged the realm and taken many inhabitants captive. The country has suffered a deadly blow. Only Jerusalem, the Daughter Zion, has been spared.
- Isaiah 1:8 Daughter Zion: a personification of Jerusalem. Shack: huts for keeping the grapes were built among the vines during the grape harvest.
- Isaiah 1:9 Lord of hosts: literally, “Lord of armies (Hebrew, sabaoth),” indicates that the God of Israel is master of everything, from the armed hosts of Israel to the stars and every celestial power. Sodom and Gomorrah are cities constantly recalled (even in Mt 10:15) as an example of moral depravity that calls down punishment from God (see Gen 18:16—19:29).
- Isaiah 1:10 Right in the temple of Jerusalem, young Isaiah raises his voice in denunciation of hypocrisy in worship. He compares the leaders and people to the most dissolute sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:16—19:29). The diatribe against hypocritical worship occurs frequently in the Bible (Pss 40:6-8; 50:5-15; Jer 6:20; Am 5:21-27; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:5-8). We already think of the scathing words of Jesus against Pharisaism (Mt 7:21) and of his forceful action against the sellers in the temple (Lk 19:45-46; Jn 2:13-22).
- Isaiah 1:15 Hands: the habitual manner of praying was to extend the hands with the palms open upwards.
- Isaiah 1:17 Orphan, widow: these were the people most defenseless and most exposed to injustice in the social order of the time. This is why they are constantly mentioned in ethical passages of the Bible.
- Isaiah 1:21 Adulteress: the term signifies infidelity to God, inasmuch as the covenant between God and his people had its most appropriate image in the bond of conjugal love. This allegory recurs constantly.
- Isaiah 1:29 Sacred oaks: a reference to places of idolatrous worship, which was practiced for the most part in sacred groves on high places.
- Isaiah 2:1 This theme, which returns often in the third part of the Book (Isa 56:6-8; 60:11-14) and in the Psalms of Zion, especially Ps 48, prepares the way for the expectation of a Messianic city in which all human beings are invited to share the joy of Christ (Heb 12:22; Rev 14:1; 21:10-26).
- Isaiah 2:5 Isaiah is probably referring here to the northern kingdom and its capital, Samaria, which were boasting of their prosperity at the very time when Assyrian invaders were already on the move (722 B.C.).
- Isaiah 2:6 Despite Israelite law and the preaching of the prophets, divination was widely practiced even in Palestine, as in the whole of the East.
- Isaiah 2:7 Chariots: war chariots, the use of which in Palestine went back to Solomon.
- Isaiah 2:16 Ships of Tarshish: Tarshish was perhaps Tartessos in Spain; the name was used for ships capable of lengthy voyages.
- Isaiah 3:18 Of these various garments and jewels some would have had a magical or idolatrous significance.
- Isaiah 3:24 Sackcloth: a coarse cloth of which sacks were made.
- Isaiah 4:2 The name branch will be given to the future Messiah because he will be the true Son of David, and from him will spring a new people (Jer 23:5; Zec 3:8; 6:12). The promise will stir and direct the hope of the faithful amid the conflicts and failures of coming centuries. John, the seer of Patmos, will see the new Jerusalem in which the promise will find its complete fulfillment (Rev 21).
- Isaiah 5:1 The image of the beloved vineyard that is ravaged is often used by the prophets (Jer 2:21; Ezek 15:1-8; etc.). Jesus, too, will like this comparison (Mt 21:33-34) and will describe himself as the true vine whose branches will be tended by the vinedresser, his Father (Jn 15).
- Isaiah 5:26 The Assyrian invaders arrive; the forces assembled under the banner of the lion, the emblem of Assyria (see v. 29), are irresistible.
- Isaiah 5:26 To summon warriors, a banner was raised on the top of a hill and a horn was sounded.
