1The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.H2377H3470H1121H531H2372H3063H3389H3117H5818H3147H271H3169H4428H3063 2Heaven and earth, you're the jury. Listen to GOD's case: "I had children and raised them well, and they turned on me.H8085H8064H238H776H3068H1696H1431H7311H1121H6586 3The ox knows who's boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not Israel. My people don't know up from down.H7794H3045H7069H2543H1167H18H3478H3045H5971H995 4Shame! Misguided GOD-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals— My people have walked out on me, their GOD, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back.H1945H2398H1471H5971H3515H5771H2233H7489H1121H7843H5800H853H3068H5006H853H6918H3478H5006H2114H268 5"Why bother even trying to do anything with you when you just keep to your bullheaded ways? You keep beating your heads against brick walls. Everything within you protests against you.H5221H5627H3254H7218H2483H3824H1742 6From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores— untended, unwashed, unbandaged.H3709H7272H7218H4974H6482H2250H2961H4347H2115H2280H7401H8081 7Your country is laid waste, your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch, reduced to rubble by barbarians.H776H8077H5892H8313H784H127H2114H398H8077H4114H2114 8Daughter Zion is deserted— like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.H1323H6726H3498H5521H3754H4412H4750H5341H5892 9If GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.H3884H3068H6635H3498H4592H8300H1961H5467H1819H6017 10"Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God's revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.H8085H1697H3068H7101H5467H238H8451H430H5971H6017 11"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?" GOD's asking. "Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don't you think I've had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?H4100H7230H2077H559H3068H7646H5930H352H2459H4806H2654H1818H6499H3532H6260 12When you come before me, who ever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that— all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?H935H7200H6440H1245H3027H7429H2691 13"Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings— meetings, meetings, meetings—I can't stand one more!H935H3254H7723H4503H7004H8441H2320H7676H7121H4744H3201H205H6116 14Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You've worn me out! I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning.H2320H4150H5315H8130H2960H3811H5375 15When you put on your next prayer-performance, I'll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.H6566H3709H5956H5869H7235H8605H8085H3027H4390H1818 16Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.H7364H2135H5493H7455H4611H5048H5869H2308H7489 17Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.H3925H3190H1875H4941H833H2541H8199H3490H7378H490 18"Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out." This is GOD's Message: "If your sins are blood-red, they'll be snow-white. If they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool.H3212H3198H559H3068H2399H8144H3835H7950H119H8438H6785 19If you'll willingly obey, you'll feast like kings.H14H8085H398H2898H776 20But if you're willful and stubborn, you'll die like dogs." That's right. GOD says so.H3985H4784H398H2719H6310H3068H1696 21Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city has become a whore! She was once all justice, everyone living as good neighbors, And now they're all at one another's throats.H539H7151H2181H4392H4941H6664H3885H7523 22Your coins are all counterfeits. Your wine is watered down.H3701H5509H5435H4107H4325 23Your 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.H8269H5637H2270H1590H157H7810H7291H8021H8199H3490H7379H490H935 24This Decree, therefore, of the Master, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Strong One of Israel: "This is it! I'll get my oppressors off my back. I'll get back at my enemies.H5002H113H3068H6635H46H3478H1945H5162H6862H5358H341 25I'll give you the back of my hand, purge the junk from your life, clean you up.H7725H3027H1253H6884H5509H5493H913 26I'll set honest judges and wise counselors among you just like it was back in the beginning. Then you'll be renamed City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City."H7725H8199H7223H3289H8462H310H7121H5892H6664H539H7151 27GOD's right ways will put Zion right again. GOD's right actions will restore her penitents.H6726H6299H4941H7725H6666 28But it's curtains for rebels and GOD-traitors, a dead end for those who walk out on GOD.H7667H6586H2400H3162H5800H3068H3615 29"Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines will leave you looking mighty foolish, All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens that you thought was the latest thing.H954H352H2530H2659H1593H977 30You'll end up like an oak tree with all its leaves falling off, Like an unwatered garden, withered and brown.H424H5929H5034H1593H4325 31'The Big Man' will turn out to be dead bark and twigs, and his 'work,' the spark that starts the fire That exposes man and work both as nothing but cinders and smoke."H2634H5296H6467H5213H8147H1197H3162H3518
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