Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.
Isaiah 4
And seven women shall grasp at one man on that day, saying,
"We will eat our own bread,
and we will wear our own clothing;
only let us be called by your name!
Take away our disgrace!"
On that day the branch of Yahweh shall become beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land shall become the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.
And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion
and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,
everyone written for life in Jerusalem,
when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst
by a spirit of judgment
and by a spirit of burning.
Then Yahweh will create over all of the site of Mount Zion
and over her assembly a cloud by day
and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night.
Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,
and it will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day,
and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.
Isaiah 5
Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thornbushes.
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send rain down upon it.
For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,
but look! Bloodshed!
For righteousness,
but look! A cry of distress!
Ah! Those who join house with house,
they join field together with field
until there is no place
and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:
Surely many houses shall become a desolation,
large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,
and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.
Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,
they pursue strong drink.
Those who linger in the evening,
wine inflames them.
And there will be lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute,
and wine at their feasts,
but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,
and their nobles will be men of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,
and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,
and her nobles will go down, and her multitude,
her tumult and those who revel in her.
And humankind is bowed down,
and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.
But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and fatlings, kids will eat among the sites of ruins.
Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood
and sin as with rope of the cart,
those who say,
"Let him make haste;
let him hurry his work
so that we may see it
and let it draw near
and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come
so that we may know it!"
Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,
those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their view!
Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,
and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe
and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become like the stench,
and their blossom will go up like the dust.
For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,
and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
and the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse in the middle of the streets.
In all of this his anger has not turned back,
and still his hand is stretched out.
And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar,
and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.
And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!
None is weary,
and none among him stumbles;
none slumbers and none sleeps.
And no loincloth on his waist is opened,
and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.
Whose arrows are sharp,
and all of his bows are bent.
The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,
and his wheels like the storm wind.
His roaring is like the lion,
and he roars like young lions.
And he growls and seizes his prey,
and he carries it off,
and not one can rescue it.
And he will roar over him on that day
like the roaring of the sea,
and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!
And the light grows dark with its clouds.
Isaiah 6
In the year of the death of Uzziah the king, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne, and the hem of his robe was filling the temple. Seraphs were standing above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And the one called to the other and said,
"Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts!
The whole earth is full of his glory."
And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
And I said, "Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I am living among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
And he touched my mouth, and he said,
"Look! This has touched your lips
and has removed your guilt,
and your sin is annulled."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?"
And I said,
"I am here!
Send me!"
And he said, "Go and say to this people,
‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend!
And keep on looking and do not understand!’
Make the heart of this people insensitive,
and make its ears unresponsive,
and shut its eyes
so that it may not look with its eyes
and listen with its ears
and comprehend with its mind
and turn back, and it may be healed for him."
Then I said, "Until when, Lord?"
And he said,
"Until the cities lie wasted without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is ruined and a waste,
and Yahweh sends the people far away,
and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.
And even if only a tenth part remain, again she will be destroyed
like a terebinth or like an oak,
which although felled, a tree stump remains in them.
The seed of holiness will be her tree stump."
Matthew 23
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. Therefore do and observe everything that they tell you, but do not do as they do, for they tell others to do something and do not do it themselves. And they tie up heavy burdens and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing with their finger to move them. And they do all their deeds in order to be seen by people, for they make their phylacteries broad and make their tassels long. And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people. But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because one is your teacher, and you are all brothers, And do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your heavenly Father. And do not be called teachers, because one is your teacher, the Christ. And the greatest among you will be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you shut the kingdom of heaven before people! For you do not enter, nor permit those wanting to go in to enter.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you travel around the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are!
"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.’ Fools and blind people! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy? And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound by his oath.’ Blind people! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? Therefore the one who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything that is on it. And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And the one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the more important matters of the law—justice and mercy and faithfulness! It was necessary to do these things while not neglecting those. Blind guides who filter out a gnat and swallow a camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean! In the same way, on the outside you also appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets!’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets! And you—fill up the measure of your fathers! Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the condemnation to hell? For this reason, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will pursue from town to town, so that upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation!
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How many times I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her young together under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house has been left to you desolate! For I tell you, you will never see me from now on until you say,
‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’"