Concerning Judah and Jerusalem
The nations come voluntarily to learn our Father's ways and stop training for war. Then the view turns to Judah itself, full of silver, horses and idols, and everything tall is marked for leveling. The closing word is blunt: stop trusting in men, who are only breath.
2 1The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In the last days the mountain of our Father's house will be firmly established as the highest of the mountains, raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it. 3Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of God, to his house, so he can teach us his ways and we can walk in his paths." For instruction will go out from Zion, and the word of our Father from Jerusalem. 4He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. a a v4 Plowshares are the iron cutting blades of a plow; pruning hooks are curved blades for trimming vines — both are peaceful farming tools reshaped from weapons.
Walk in the Father's Light
5House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of our Father. 6For you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east and with fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they have made alliances with foreigners.
7Their land is full of silver and gold, with no end to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no end to their chariots. 8Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. 9So mankind is brought low, and everyone is humbled—do not forgive them. 10Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the dread of our Father and from the splendor of his majesty. 11The proud eyes of mankind will be brought low, and the arrogance of men will be humbled; our Father alone will be exalted in that day. 12For the Father of heaven's armies has a day in store against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, so that it will be brought low, b b v12 The Day of the LORD in the prophets is the day our Father rises to judge pride and rescue his children — not a day of arbitrary wrath, but a day of holy correction that ends with his alone being lifted up. 13against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan, 14against all the high mountains and against all the lofty hills, 15against every high tower and against every fortified wall, 16against all the ships of Tarshish and against every magnificent vessel. 17The arrogance of mankind will be humbled, and the pride of men brought low; our Father alone will be exalted in that day, 18and the idols will completely vanish. 19People will flee into the caves of the rocks and into holes in the ground from the dread of our Father and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. 20In that day people will throw away their idols of silver and their idols of gold to the moles and bats, which they made for themselves to worship. 21They will go into the clefts of the rocks and into the crevices of the cliffs from the dread of our Father and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. 22Stop trusting in mere man, who has only breath in his nostrils. What good is he?
