Book of Isaiah

Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

The Book of Isaiah (Hebrew: ספר ישעיה‎, Sefer Yeshayahu) presents the career of the prophet Isaiah. It is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in English Bibles. The oldest surviving manuscripts of Isaiah are two scrolls found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; dating from about 150 to 100 BCE, they are substantially identical with the Masoretic version which forms the basis of most modern English-language versions of the book.

Quotes

Easy-to-Read Version

• שָׂרַ֣יִךְ סֹורְרִ֗ים וְחַבְרֵי֙ גַּנָּבִ֔ים כֻּלֹּו֙ אֹהֵ֣ב שֹׁ֔חַד וְרֹדֵ֖ף שַׁלְמֹנִ֑ים יָתֹום֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁפֹּ֔טוּ וְרִ֥יב אַלְמָנָ֖ה לֹֽא־יָבֹ֥וא אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ פ
  • 1:23, Leningrad Codex.
  • Your rulers are rebels and friends of thieves.
    They demand bribes and accept money for doing wrong.
    They take money to cheat people, and they don’t speak up for widows and orphans.
    They will not even listen to their cries for help.
    • 1:23 ERV

New International Version

• Your rulers are rebels,
  partners with thieves;
  they all love bribes and chase after gifts.
  They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
  the widow’s case does not come before them.
  • 1:23

• The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

is based on merely human rules."

• 29:13

New Revised Standard Version

They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat.

• When you stretch out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

• 1:15-17

• I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever

in what I am creating;

for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,

and its people as a delight.

• 65:17-18

• They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat.

• 65:21-22

New World Translation

Jehovah of armies has sworn: Just as I have intended, so it will occur, and just as I have decided, that is what will come true.
~ 14:24
I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is no one like me.
From the beginning I foretell the outcome, and from long ago the things that have not yet been done. I say, ‘My decision will stand, and I will do whatever I please.
I have spoken, and I will bring it about. I have purposed it, and I will also carry it out.
~ 46:9-11, NWT

To the increase of his rulership and to peace, there will be no end.
~ 9:7, NWT

• I saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne, and the skirts of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were standing above him; each had six wings. Each covered his face with two and covered his feet with two, and each of them would fly about with two. And one called to the other: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory.
  • 6: 1-3

• To the increase of his rulership

And to peace, there will be no end.

• 9:7, NWT

• And he will find delight in the fear of Jehovah.

He will not judge by what appears to his eyes,

Nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear.

He will judge the lowly with fairness,

And with uprightness he will give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth

And put the wicked to death with the breath of his lips.

Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, And faithfulness the belt of his hips.

• 11:3-5

• Jehovah of armies has sworn: “Just as I have intended, so it will occur, and just as I have decided, that is what will come true.”
  • 14:24

• Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
  • 35:5

• “You are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “Yes, my servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and have faith in me and understand that I am the same One. Before me no God was formed, and after me there has been none ...
  • 43:10

• Remember the former things of long ago,

That I am God, and there is no other.

I am God, and there is no one like me.

From the beginning I foretell the outcome,

And from long ago the things that have not yet been done.

I say, ‘My decision will stand,

And I will do whatever I please.’

• 46: 9-10

• I am calling a bird of prey from the sunrise,

From a distant land the man to carry out my decision.

I have spoken, and I will bring it about.

I have purposed it, and I will also carry it out.

• 46: 11, NWT

• For just as the rain and the snow pour down from heaven

And do not return there until they saturate the earth, making it produce and sprout,

Giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

So my word that goes out of my mouth will be.

It will not return to me without results,

But it will certainly accomplish whatever is my delight,

And it will have sure success in what I send it to do.

• 55:10-11

• But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
  • 57:20-21, King James Version

• Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their dovecotes? For in me the islands will hope; the ships of Tar′shish are in the lead, to bring your sons from far away, along with their silver and their gold, to the name of Jehovah your God and to the Holy One of Israel, For he will glorify you.
  • 60:8-9

• The little one will become a thousand. And the small one a mighty nation. I myself, Jehovah, will speed it up in its own time.
  • 60:22

• And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
  • 61:9

• For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
  • 65:17

Variant:

• For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart.
  • 65:17, NWT

• The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
  • 65:25

• This is what Jehovah says: “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where, then, is the house that you could build for me, and where is my resting-place?”
  • 66:1

The Message

• Your leaders are turncoats
  who keep company with crooks.
  They sell themselves to the highest bidder
  and grab anything not nailed down.
  They never stand up for the homeless,
  never stick up for the defenseless.
  • 1:23

See also

• Isaiah