Isaiah 2 Contemporary English Version

Peace That Lasts Forever

2 This is the message^[a] I was given about Judah and Jerusalem:

²In the future, the mountain
with the Lord's temple
    will be the highest of all.
It will reach above the hills;
    every nation will rush to it.
³Many people will come and say,
    “Let's go to the mountain
of the Lord God of Jacob
    and worship in his temple.”

The Lord will teach us his Law
from Jerusalem,
    and we will obey him.
⁴^(A) He will settle arguments
    between nations.
They will pound their swords
and their spears
    into rakes and shovels;
they will never make war
    or attack one another.
⁵People of Israel, let's live
    by the light of the Lord.

Following Sinful Customs

⁶Our Lord, you have deserted
    your people, Israel,
because they follow customs
    of nations from the east.
They worship Philistine gods
and are close friends
    of foreigners.^[b]
⁷They have endless treasures
    of silver and gold;
they have countless horses
    and war chariots.
⁸Everywhere in the country
they worship the idols
    they have made.
⁹And so, all of them
will be ashamed and disgraced.
    Don't forgive them!

A Day of Judgment

¹⁰^(B) Every one of you,
go hide among the rocks
    and in the ground,
because the Lord is fearsome,
    marvelous, and glorious.
¹¹When the Lord comes,
everyone who is proud
    will be made humble,
and the Lord alone
    will be honored.
¹²The Lord All-Powerful
    has chosen a day
when those who are proud
and conceited
    will be put down.

¹³The tall and towering
cedars of Lebanon
    will be destroyed.
So will the oak trees of Bashan,
¹⁴all high mountains and hills,
¹⁵    every strong fortress,
¹⁶all the seagoing ships,^[c]
    and every beautiful boat.
¹⁷When that day comes,
everyone who is proud
    will be put down.
Only the Lord will be honored.
¹⁸    Idols will be gone for good.

¹⁹You had better hide
    in caves and holes—
the Lord will be fearsome,
    marvelous, and glorious
when he comes to terrify
    people on earth.

²⁰On that day everyone will throw
    to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and gold
    they made to worship.
²¹The Lord will be fearsome,
    marvelous, and glorious
when he comes to terrify
    people on earth—
they will hide in caves
    and in the hills.

²²Stop trusting the power
of humans.
They are all going to die,
so how can they help?

Footnotes

2.1 message: See the note at 1.1.
2.6 because … foreigners: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
2.16 seagoing ships: The Hebrew text has “ships of Tarshish,” which may have been a Phoenician city in Spain. “Ships of Tarshish” probably means large, seagoing ships.