Chapter 1

  The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw about Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.  

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  Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.  

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  Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no knowledge, my people give no thought to me.  

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  O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.  

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  Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.  

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  The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds.  

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  Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.  

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  And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a town shut in by armies.  

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  If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours.  

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  Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.  

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  What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats.  

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  At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet?  

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  Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings.  

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  Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.  

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  And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.  

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  Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning;  

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  Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.  

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  Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?  

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  If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours;  

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  But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.  

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  The upright town has become untrue; there was a time when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who take men's lives.  

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  Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed with water.  

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  Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.  

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  For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me;  

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  And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal;  

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  And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of Righteousness, the true town.  

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  Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and by righteousness will men be living there.  

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  But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.  

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  For you will be put to shame because of the trees of your desire, and because of the gardens of your pleasure.  

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  For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.  

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  And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to put out the fire.  

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