Good News Translation (GNT)

God Will Give His People Victory

1 A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah:

Our city is strong!

God himself defends its walls!

2 Open the city gates

and let the faithful nation enter,

the nation whose people do what is right.

3 You, Lord, give perfect peace

to those who keep their purpose firm

and put their trust in you.

4 Trust in the Lord forever;

he will always protect us.

5 He has humbled those who were proud;

he destroyed the strong city they lived in,

and sent its walls crashing into the dust.

6 Those who were oppressed walk over it now

and trample it under their feet.

7 Lord, you make the path smooth for good people;

the road they travel is level.

8 We follow your will and put our hope in you;

you are all that we desire.

9 At night I long for you with all my heart;

when you judge the earth and its people,

they will all learn what justice is.

10 Even though you are kind to the wicked,

they never learn to do what is right.

Even here in a land of righteous people

they still do wrong;

they refuse to recognize your greatness.

11 Your enemies do not know that you will punish them.

Lord, put them to shame and let them suffer;

let them suffer the punishment you have prepared.

Show them how much you love your people.

12 You will give us prosperity, Lord;

everything that we achieve

is the result of what you do.

13 Lord our God, we have been ruled by others,

but you alone are our Lord.

14 Now they are dead and will not live again;

their ghosts will not rise,

for you have punished them and destroyed them.

No one remembers them any more.

15 Lord, you have made our nation grow,

enlarging its territory on every side;

and this has brought you honor.

16 You punished your people, Lord,

and in anguish they prayed to you.

17 You, Lord, have made us cry out,

as a woman in labor cries out in pain.

18 We were in pain and agony,

but we gave birth to nothing.

We have won no victory for our land;

we have accomplished nothing.

19 Those of our people who have died will live again!

Their bodies will come back to life.

All those sleeping in their graves

will wake up and sing for joy.

As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth,

so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead.

Judgment and Restoration

20 Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God’s anger is over.

21 The Lord is coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.

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1 On that day the Lord will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monsterthat lives in the sea.

2 On that day the Lord will say of his pleasant vineyard,

3 “I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.

4 I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If there were thorns and briers to fight against, I would burn them up completely.

5 But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In the days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.

7 Israel has not been punished by the Lord as severely as its enemies nor lost as many people.

8 The Lord punished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.

9 But Israel’s sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.

10 The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze.

11 The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

12 On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the Lord will gather his people one by one, as threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.

13 When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.

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A Warning to the Northern Kingdom

1 The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk.

2 The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land.

3 The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot.

4 The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.

5 A day is coming when the Lord Almighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive.

6 He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.

Isaiah and the Drunken Prophets of Judah

7 Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

8 The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

9 They complain about me. They say, “Who does that man think he’s teaching? Who needs his message? It’s only good for babies that have just stopped nursing!

10 He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson.”

11 If you won’t listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson.

12 He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.

13 That is why the Lord is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.

A Cornerstone for Zion

14 Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the Lord is saying.

15 You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.

16 This, now, is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, ‘Faith that is firm is also patient.’

17 Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line.”

Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security.

18 The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome.

19 It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror!

20 You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in.

21 The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do—strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.

22 Don’t laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty’s decision to destroy the whole country.

God’s Wisdom

23 Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you.

24 Farmers don’t constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting.

25 Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley,and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain.

26 They know how to do their work, because God has taught them.

27 They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size.

28 They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.

29 All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.

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The Fate of Jerusalem

1 God’s altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals,

2 and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called “God’s altar.” There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood.

3 God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it.

4 Jerusalem will be like a ghost struggling to speak from under the ground, a muffled voice coming from the dust.

5 Jerusalem, all the foreigners who attack you will be blown away like dust, and their terrifying armies will fly away like straw. Suddenly and unexpectedly

6 the Lord Almighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send windstorms and raging fire;

7 then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God’s altar, all their weapons and equipment—everything—will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night.

8 All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.

Disregarded Warnings

9 Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop!

10 The Lord has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them.

11 The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can’t because it is sealed.

12 If you give it to someone who can’t read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn’t know how.

13 The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.

14 So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.”

Hope for the Future

15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing.

16 They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, “You didn’t make me”? Or can it say, “You don’t know what you are doing”?

17 As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.

18 When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see.

19 Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the Lord, the holy God of Israel, gives.

20 It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed.

21 God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest people from getting justice.

22 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame.

23 When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honor me and stand in awe of me.

24 Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught.”

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A Useless Treaty with Egypt

1 The Lord has spoken: “Those who rule Judah are doomed because they rebel against me. They follow plans that I did not make, and sign treaties against my will, piling one sin on another.

2 They go to Egypt for help without asking for my advice. They want Egypt to protect them, so they put their trust in Egypt’s king.

3 But the king will be powerless to help them, and Egypt’s protection will end in disaster.

4 Although their ambassadors have already arrived at the Egyptian cities of Zoan and Hanes,

5 the people of Judah will regret that they ever trusted that unreliable nation, a nation that fails them when they expect help.”

6 This is God’s message about the animals of the southern desert: “The ambassadors travel through dangerous country, where lions live and where there are poisonous snakes and flying dragons. They load their donkeys and camels with expensive gifts for a nation that cannot give them any help.

7 The help that Egypt gives is useless. So I have nicknamed Egypt, ‘The Harmless Dragon.’”

The Disobedient People

8 God told me to write down in a book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are.

9 They are always rebelling against God, always lying, always refusing to listen to the Lord’s teachings.

10 They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, “Don’t talk to us about what’s right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions.

11 Get out of our way and stop blocking our path. We don’t want to hear about your holy God of Israel.”

12 But this is what the holy God of Israel says: “You ignore what I tell you and rely on violence and deceit.

13 You are guilty. You are like a high wall with a crack running down it; suddenly you will collapse.

14 You will be shattered like a clay pot, so badly broken that there is no piece big enough to pick up hot coals with or to dip water from a cistern.”

15 The Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says to the people, “Come back and quietly trust in me. Then you will be strong and secure.” But you refuse to do it.

16 Instead, you plan to escape from your enemies by riding fast horses. And you are right—escape is what you will have to do! You think your horses are fast enough, but those who pursue you will be faster!

17 A thousand of you will run away when you see one enemy soldier, and five soldiers will be enough to make you all run away. Nothing will be left of your army except a lonely flagpole on the top of a hill.

18 And yet the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you. He is ready to take pity on you because he always does what is right. Happy are those who put their trust in the Lord.

God Will Bless His People

19 You people who live in Jerusalem will not weep any more. The Lord is compassionate, and when you cry to him for help, he will answer you.

20 The Lord will make you go through hard times, but he himself will be there to teach you, and you will not have to search for him any more.

21 If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, “Here is the road. Follow it.”

22 You will take your idols plated with silver and your idols covered with gold, and will throw them away like filth, shouting, “Out of my sight!”

23 Whenever you plant your crops, the Lord will send rain to make them grow and will give you a rich harvest, and your livestock will have plenty of pasture.

24 The oxen and donkeys that plow your fields will eat the finest and best fodder.

25 On the day when the forts of your enemies are captured and their people are killed, streams of water will flow from every mountain and every hill.

26 The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter than usual, like the light of seven days in one. This will all happen when the Lord bandages and heals the wounds he has given his people.

God Will Punish Assyria

27 The Lord’s power and glory can be seen in the distance. Fire and smoke show his anger. He speaks, and his words burn like fire.

28 He sends the wind in front of him like a flood that carries everything away. It sweeps nations to destruction and puts an end to their evil plans.

29 But you, God’s people, will be happy and sing as you do on the night of a sacred festival. You will be as happy as those who walk to the music of flutes on their way to the Temple of the Lord, the defender of Israel.

30 The Lord will let everyone hear his majestic voice and feel the force of his anger. There will be flames, cloudbursts, hailstones, and torrents of rain.

31 The Assyrians will be terrified when they hear the Lord’s voice and feel the force of his punishment.

32 As the Lord strikes them again and again, his people will keep time with the music of drums and harps. God himself will fight against the Assyrians.

33 Long ago a place was prepared where a huge fire will burn the emperor of Assyria. It is deep and wide, and piled high with wood. The Lord will breathe out a stream of flame to set it on fire.

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God Will Protect Jerusalem

1 Those who go to Egypt for help are doomed! They are relying on Egypt’s vast military strength—horses, chariots, and soldiers. But they do not rely on the Lord, the holy God of Israel, or ask him for help.

2 He knows what he is doing! He sends disaster. He carries out his threats to punish evil people and those who protect them.

3 The Egyptians are not gods—they are only human. Their horses are not supernatural. When the Lord acts, the strong nation will crumble, and the weak nation it helped will fall. Both of them will be destroyed.

4 The Lord said to me, “No matter how shepherds yell and shout, they can’t scare away a lion from an animal that it has killed; in the same way, there is nothing that can keep me, the Lord Almighty, from protecting Mount Zion.

5 Just as a bird hovers over its nest to protect its young, so I, the Lord Almighty, will protect Jerusalem and defend it.”

6 God said, “People of Israel, you have sinned against me and opposed me. But now, come back to me!

7 A time is coming when all of you will throw away the sinful idols you made out of silver and gold.

8 Assyria will be destroyed in war, but not by human power. The Assyrians will run from battle, and their young men will be made slaves.

9 Their emperor will run away in terror, and the officers will be so frightened that they will abandon their battle flags.” The Lord has spoken—the Lord who is worshiped in Jerusalem and whose fire burns there for sacrifices.

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A King with Integrity

1 Some day there will be a king who rules with integrity, and national leaders who govern with justice.

2 Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind and a place to hide from storms. They will be like streams flowing in a desert, like the shadow of a giant rock in a barren land.

3 Their eyes and ears will be open to the needs of the people.

4 They will not be impatient any longer, but they will act with understanding and will say what they mean.

5 No one will think that a fool is honorable or say that a scoundrel is honest.

6 A fool speaks foolishly and thinks up evil things to do. What he does and what he says are an insult to the Lord, and he never feeds the hungry or gives thirsty people anything to drink.

7 A stupid person is evil and does evil things; he plots to ruin the poor with lies and to keep them from getting their rights.

8 But an honorable person acts honestly and stands firm for what is right.

Judgment and Restoration

9 You women who live an easy life, free from worries, listen to what I am saying.

10 You may be satisfied now, but this time next year you will be in despair because there will be no grapes for you to gather.

11 You have been living an easy life, free from worries; but now, tremble with fear! Strip off your clothes and tie rags around your waist.

12 Beat your breasts in grief because the fertile fields and the vineyards have been destroyed,

13 and thorn bushes and briers are growing on my people’s land. Weep for all the houses where people were happy and for the city that was full of life.

14 Even the palace will be abandoned and the capital city totally deserted. Homes and the forts that guarded them will be in ruins forever. Wild donkeys will roam there, and sheep will find pasture there.

15 But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

16 Everywhere in the land righteousness and justice will be done.

17 Because everyone will do what is right, there will be peace and security forever.

18 God’s people will be free from worries, and their homes peaceful and safe.

19 (But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.)

20 How happy everyone will be with plenty of water for the crops and safe pasture everywhere for the donkeys and cattle.

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A Prayer for Help

1 Our enemies are doomed! They have robbed and betrayed, although no one has robbed them or betrayed them. But their time to rob and betray will end, and they themselves will become victims of robbery and treachery.

2 Lord, have mercy on us. We have put our hope in you. Protect us day by day and save us in times of trouble.

3 When you fight for us, nations run away from the noise of battle.

4 Their belongings are pounced upon and taken as loot.

5 How great the Lord is! He rules over everything. He will fill Jerusalem with justice and integrity

6 and give stability to the nation. He always protects his people and gives them wisdom and knowledge. Their greatest treasure is their reverence for the Lord.

7 The brave are calling for help. The ambassadors who tried to bring about peace are crying bitterly.

8 The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more.

9 The land lies idle and deserted. The forests of Lebanon have withered, the fertile valley of Sharon is like a desert, and in Bashan and on Mount Carmel the leaves are falling from the trees.

The Lord Warns His Enemies

10 The Lord says to the nations, “Now I will act. I will show how powerful I am.

11 You make worthless plans and everything you do is useless. My spirit is like a fire that will destroy you.

12 You will crumble like rocks burned to make lime, like thorns burned to ashes.

13 Let everyone near and far hear what I have done and acknowledge my power.”

14 The sinful people of Zion are trembling with fright. They say, “God’s judgment is like a fire that burns forever. Can any of us survive a fire like that?”

15 You can survive if you say and do what is right. Don’t use your power to cheat the poor and don’t accept bribes. Don’t join with those who plan to commit murder or to do other evil things.

16 Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink.

The Glorious Future

17 Once again you will see a king ruling in splendor over a land that stretches in all directions.

18 Your old fears of foreign tax collectors and spies will be only a memory.

19 You will no longer see any arrogant foreigners who speak a language that you can’t understand.

20 Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals. Look at Jerusalem! What a safe place it will be to live in! It will be like a tent that is never moved, whose pegs are never pulled up and whose ropes never break.

21 The Lord will show us his glory. We will live beside broad rivers and streams, but hostile ships will not sail on them.

22-23 All the rigging on those ships is useless; the sails cannot be spread! We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies, and there will be so much that even the lame can get a share. The Lord himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us.

24 No one who lives in our land will ever again complain of being sick, and all sins will be forgiven.

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God Will Punish His Enemies

1 Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen.

2 The Lord is angry with all the nations and all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction.

3 Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood.

4 The sun, moon, and stars will crumble to dust. The sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up, and the stars will fall like leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree.

5 The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction.

6 His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat.

8 This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.

9 The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

10 It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again.

11 Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation.

12 There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone.

13 Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

14 Wild animals will roam there, and demons will call to each other. The night monsterwill come there looking for a place to rest.

15 Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.

16 Search in the Lord’s book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together.

17 It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.

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The Road of Holiness

1 The desert will rejoice,

and flowers will bloom in the wastelands.

2 The desert will sing and shout for joy;

it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains

and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon.

Everyone will see the Lord’s splendor,

see his greatness and power.

3 Give strength to hands that are tired

and to knees that tremble with weakness.

4 Tell everyone who is discouraged,

“Be strong and don’t be afraid!

God is coming to your rescue,

coming to punish your enemies.”

5 The blind will be able to see,

and the deaf will hear.

6 The lame will leap and dance,

and those who cannot speak will shout for joy.

Streams of water will flow through the desert;

7 the burning sand will become a lake,

and dry land will be filled with springs.

Where jackals used to live,

marsh grass and reeds will grow.

8 There will be a highway there,

called “The Road of Holiness.”

No sinner will ever travel that road;

no fools will mislead those who follow it.

9 No lions will be there;

no fierce animals will pass that way.

Those whom the Lord has rescued

will travel home by that road.

10 They will reach Jerusalem with gladness,

singing and shouting for joy.

They will be happy forever,

forever free from sorrow and grief.

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