Isaiah 2

This is the message that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

1The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

Note"Saw" is the ordinary Hebrew word for a prophet receiving a message: prophecy was described as something seen, not just heard, so a spoken oracle could still be called a vision. Judah was the southern kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital; the northern kingdom, called Israel or Ephraim, was a separate state in Isaiah's day.

2In the last days, the mountain where the LORD's house stands will be set up as the highest of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

2And 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.

Note"LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants usually written YHWH. Ancient Jewish practice was to avoid pronouncing it and to say "the Lord" instead, and English Bibles keep that substitution. "The mountain of the LORD's house" is the temple hill in Jerusalem, a modest ridge in a region of far higher ground. The picture of it becoming the tallest peak is deliberately impossible geography. "The last days" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning roughly "in the after-part of the days", the time still to come at the far end of things. It marks a distant future without fixing a date.

3Many peoples will go 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, and we will walk in his paths." For the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3And 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.

NoteJacob was the ancestor whose twelve sons gave their names to the tribes; "the house of Jacob" and "the God of Jacob" mean the people of Israel and their God. Zion was originally the name of the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem; by Isaiah's time it was used for the temple hill and for the city as a whole. "The law" here is Hebrew *torah*, which means teaching or instruction given by an authority, wider than a legal code.

4He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plow blades and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up a sword against nation, and they will not train for war anymore.

4And 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.

NoteA plowshare is the metal blade at the front of a plow that cuts the soil; a pruning hook is a curved blade on a handle for trimming vines. Both were made of the same worked iron as swords and spears, so the image is of weapons taken to the forge and reshaped into farm tools.

5People of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

6LORD, you have left your people, the house of Jacob, to themselves, because they are filled with practices brought in from the east. They tell fortunes like the Philistines, and they clasp hands in agreement with the children of foreigners.

6Therefore 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.

Note"Filled with practices from the east" refers to imported ways of consulting the supernatural, reading omens, divination and the like, associated with Mesopotamia. The Philistines, who lived on the coastal plain to the west and were Israel's long-standing rivals, were likewise known for fortune-telling. "Clasp hands" renders a Hebrew idiom for striking a bargain or sealing a deal by hand, the way a handshake closes a contract. Some read it instead as producing children with foreigners; the Hebrew is compressed and both senses have been argued.

7Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

7Their 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:

NoteHorses and chariots were not farm animals but the expensive core of an army, imported from Egypt and the north. Listing them alongside silver and gold marks them as accumulated wealth and military self-reliance.

8Their land is also full of idols. They bow down to what their own hands have made, to what their own fingers have shaped.

8Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

NoteThe Hebrew word used for idols here, *elilim*, sounds like the word for god, *el*, but means something like "worthless things", a deliberate pun that the English cannot carry.

9So humankind is brought low, and man is humbled. Do not forgive them.

9And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

NoteThe Hebrew verb translated "bows down" is the same one used a line earlier for bowing to idols, and it is also the ordinary word for being brought low. So the line can mean people of every rank bow before their images, or that everyone is humiliated; the ambiguity is in the original.

10Go into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, away from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty.

10Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

11The proud eyes of man will be brought low, and the arrogance of men will be bowed down. The LORD alone will be lifted high on that day.

11The 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.

12For the LORD of Hosts, the commander of armies, has a day set against everyone who is proud and lofty, and against everyone who is lifted up, and that person will be brought low.

12For 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:

Note"The day of the LORD" was already a familiar phrase to Isaiah's hearers, meaning a day when God acts decisively in public. Popular expectation seems to have been that it would fall on Israel's enemies; the prophets repeatedly turn it against Israel itself. "LORD of Hosts" is a title meaning commander of armies, either heavenly ones or Israel's.

13That day is against all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lifted high, and against all the oaks of Bashan,

13And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

NoteThe cedars of Lebanon were the tallest and most valuable timber in the region, used in palaces and temples; the oaks of the Bashan plateau, east of the Sea of Galilee, were the other proverbially great trees. Both stand here for anything conspicuously tall and admired.

14and against all the high mountains, and against all the hills that stand tall,

14And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

15and against every high tower, and against every fortified wall,

15And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,

NoteA fortified wall is a city wall built for defense, with towers set into it. Towers and walls were the visible measure of a city's security.

16and against all the ships of Tarshish, and against every fine vessel.

16And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

Note"Ships of Tarshish" were large deep-water merchant vessels, named for a distant trading port whose location is uncertain, possibly in Spain. The phrase came to mean ocean-going cargo ships generally, the symbol of long-distance wealth. The second phrase is obscure in Hebrew: it means something like "desirable craft" or "objects of delight," which is why translations differ between fine ships and fine works of art.

17The pride of man will be bowed down, and the arrogance of men will be made low. The LORD alone will be lifted high on that day,

17And 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.

18and he will do away with the idols completely.

18And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

19People will go into holes in the rocks and into caves in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth violently.

19And 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.

20On that day people will throw away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which each of them made for himself to worship.

20In 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;

NoteMoles and bats live in the dark holes and caves people are fleeing into. Throwing the images there means abandoning them in exactly the places their owners are crawling to hide.

21They will go into cracks in the rocks and into holes in the jagged cliffs, away from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth violently.

21To 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.

22Stop putting your trust in man, who has nothing but the breath in his nose. What is he worth?

22Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of ?

Note"Breath in his nostrils" is a Hebrew way of saying a human being is only a breathing creature, alive on borrowed air and easily stopped, set against the God just described. The closing question asks literally what he is to be reckoned or valued at.