This is the message Isaiah, son of Amoz, received about Judah and Jerusalem:
A Vision of the Last Days
In the last days, the Lord’s house will stand on the highest mountain. It will rise above the hills, and people from every nation will stream toward it. Crowds of people will say, 'Come on, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain—to the house of Jacob’s God. He’ll teach us how he wants us to live, and we’ll walk in his ways.' God’s law will go out from Zion, and his word will spread from Jerusalem. He’ll settle disputes between nations and correct many peoples. They’ll hammer their swords into plowshares and reshape their spears into pruning hooks. Nation won’t raise weapons against nation, and they’ll never train for war again.
A Call to Return
House of Jacob, come—let’s walk in the Lord’s light. Come back, because all of you have wandered off, each choosing your own wicked path.
Lord, you’ve turned away from your people, the house of Jacob. They’ve filled themselves with practices from the east. They listen to fortune-tellers like the Philistines do. They make alliances with foreigners. Their land overflows with silver and gold—endless treasures. Their land is packed with horses and chariots beyond counting. Their land is also full of idols. They bow down to things they made with their own hands—objects their own fingers shaped. The common person bows down, and the powerful refuse to humble themselves. Don’t forgive them.
The Day of the Lord
You wicked people, run into the rocks! Hide in the dirt! The Lord’s terror and his glorious majesty will strike you down. Human arrogance will be crushed, and the pride of people will be brought low. The Lord alone will be lifted high on that day.
The day of the Lord of Heaven’s armies is coming soon for all nations—for everyone. It’s coming for the proud and arrogant, for everyone who exalts themselves. They’ll be brought down. The Lord’s day will come against all the towering cedars of Lebanon and all the mighty oaks of Bashan. It will come against all the high mountains and hills, against all the nations that exalt themselves, against every people. It will come against every tall tower and every fortified wall. It will come against all the trading ships at sea, against the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful artwork.
Human arrogance will be crushed, and the pride of people will be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted on that day. And he will completely destroy every idol.
People will crawl into holes in the rocks and caves in the ground when the Lord’s terror comes upon them. His glorious majesty will strike them down when he rises to shake the earth. On that day, people will throw away their silver and gold idols—the ones they made to worship—and leave them to the moles and bats. They’ll flee into crevices in the rocks and onto jagged cliffs when the Lord’s terror comes and his glorious majesty strikes them down—when he rises to shake the earth.
Stop trusting in mere humans, who are here one breath and gone the next. What are they really worth?
Influences
- 12:2 — Isaiah 2:2 (KJV)And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
- 12:3 — Isaiah 2:3 (KJV)And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
- 12:4 — Isaiah 2:4 (KJV)And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
- 12:6 — Isaiah 2:6 (KJV)Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
- 12:7 — Isaiah 2:7 (KJV)Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
- 12:8 — Isaiah 2:8 (KJV)Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
- 12:9 — Isaiah 2:9 (KJV)And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
- 12:10 — Isaiah 2:10 (KJV)Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
- 12:11 — Isaiah 2:11 (KJV)The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
- 12:12 — Isaiah 2:12 (KJV)For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
- 12:13 — Isaiah 2:13 (KJV)And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
- 12:14 — Isaiah 2:14 (KJV)And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
- 12:17 — Isaiah 2:17 (KJV)And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
- 12:19 — Isaiah 2:19 (KJV)And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
- 12:20 — Isaiah 2:20 (KJV)In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
- 12:21 — Isaiah 2:21 (KJV)To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
- 12:22 — Isaiah 2:22 (KJV)Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?