Song of Solomon 8; Isaiah 1-2

1O that you were to me like a brother who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.

2I would lead you and bring you to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.

3His left hand is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

4O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

5Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? The Bride I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.

6Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all.

7Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.

8We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

9If she is a wall, we will build a tower of silver upon her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

10I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. So I have become in his eyes like one who brings peace.

11Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.

12But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

13You who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice. Let me hear it!

14Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

1This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.

3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

4Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

6From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

7Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you— a desolation demolished by strangers.

8And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.

9Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.

10Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

11“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

12When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you— this trampling of My courts?

13Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.

14I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

16Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

17Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

19If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

20But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

21See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

22Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.

23Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

24Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.

25I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.

26I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

27Zion will be redeemed with justice, her repentant ones with righteousness.

28But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.

29Surely you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be embarrassed by the gardens that you have chosen.

30For you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered, like a garden without water.

31The strong man will become tinder and his work will be a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the flames.

1This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

3And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.

5Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

6For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

7Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots.

8Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

9So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled— do not forgive them!

10Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty.

11The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

12For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted— it will be humbled—

13against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan,

14against all the tall mountains, against all the high hills,

15against every high tower, against every fortified wall,

16against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel.

17So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

18and the idols will vanish completely.

19Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.

20In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold— the idols they made to worship.

21They will flee to caverns in the rocks and crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.

22Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?