Isaiah 2

God’s Universal Reign

¹The word [from God] which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [in a vision] concerning [the nation of] Judah and [its capital city] Jerusalem.

²¶Now it will come to pass that

In the last days

The mountain of the house of the Lord

Will be [firmly] established as the highest of the mountains,

And will be exalted above the hills;

And all the nations will stream to it.

³And many peoples shall come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord ,

To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob;

That He may teach us His ways

And that we may walk in His paths.”

For the law will go out from Zion

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴And He will judge between the nations,

And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples;

And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not lift up the sword against nation,

And never again will they learn war. [Mic 4:1-3]

⁵¶O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord .

⁶Most certainly [Lord ] You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob,

Because they are filled with influences from the east,

And they are soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines;

Also they strike bargains with the children of foreigners (pagans). [Deut 18:9-12]

⁷Their land has also been filled with silver and gold

And there is no end to their treasures;

Their land has also been filled with horses

And there is no end to their chariots. [Deut 17:14-17]

⁸Their land has also been filled with idols;

They worship the work of their hands,

That which their own fingers have made.

⁹So the common man has been humbled [before idols]

And the man of importance has been degraded,

Therefore do not forgive them [O Lord ].

¹⁰Go among the rocks and hide in the dust

From the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.

¹¹The proud look of man will be degraded

And the arrogance of men will be humbled,

And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

A Day of Reckoning Coming

¹²¶For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning

Against all who are proud and arrogant

And against all who are lifted up,

That they may be degraded. [Zeph 2:3; Mal 4:1]

¹³And the wrath of God will be against all the cedars of Lebanon [west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up,

Against all the oaks of Bashan [east of the Jordan],

¹⁴Against all the high mountains,

Against all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵Against every high tower,

Against every fortified wall,

¹⁶Against all the ships of Tarshish

And against all the beautiful craft.

¹⁷Then the pride of man will be humbled

And the arrogance of men will be degraded;

The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,

¹⁸And the idols will completely vanish (be abolished).

¹⁹They [the stricken, deprived of all in which they had trusted] will go into the caves of the rocks

And into the holes of the ground [fleeing]

From the terror and dread of the Lord

And from the splendor of His majesty,

When He arises to terrify the earth. [Luke 23:30]

²⁰In that day men will throw away to the moles and to the bats

Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

Which they made for themselves [as objects] to worship,

²¹To go into the caverns of the rocks and into the clefts of the [ragged] cliffs [as they flee]

From the terror and dread of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,

When He arises to terrify the earth.

²²Stop regarding man, whose breath [of life] is in his nostrils [for so little time];

For why should he be esteemed?