Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah recalls how he fell sick, called out to God, and was healed.

II. Photo
God sends Hezekiah a sign: “‘I am going to make the shadow on the steps, which has descended on the steps of Ahaz because of the sun, recede ten steps.’ And the sun[’s shadow] receded ten steps, the same steps as it had descended.” (v. 8 )

III. Important Verses
1: In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.”
2-3: Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. “Please, O LORD,” he said, “remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely.
4-8:  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I hereby add fifteen years to your life. I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city. And this is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that He has promised: I am going to make the shadow on the steps, which has descended on the dial of Ahaz because of the sun, recede ten steps.” And the sun[’s shadow] receded ten steps, the same steps as it had descended.
17: Truly, it was for my own good That I had such great bitterness: You saved my life From the pit of destruction, For You have cast behind Your back All my offenses.

IV. Outline

1a. Hezekiah falls ill
1b. Isaiah tells him to prepare for death
2-3. Hezekiah petitions God for help
4-8. God’s response
    4. God speaks to Isaiah
    5-8a. Oracle: God will heal Hezekiah, protect Jerusalem, and provide a sign
8b. A sign of assurance: the sun’s shadow recedes
9-20. Hezekiah’s thanksgiving psalm
    9. Historical introduction
    10-15. Recollection of misery and petition
        10-11. Fear of death
        12-14a. Torturous pain
        14b. Petition
        15. Hopelessness
    16. God’s act of healing
    17. God’s goodness in punishing people
    18. Only the living can praise God
    19. Gratefulness for life
    20. Music at the temple
21. Isaiah prepares to heal Hezekiah
22. Hezekiah asks for a sign

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://jonathangreenwald.com/pblog/images/20071125193509_stone_stairs.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hezekiah petitions God to save him, God guarantees him salvation, and an angel kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Sennacherib flees and is killed by his sons in Nineveh.

II. Photo
God has harsh words for Assyria: “Because you have raged against me, and your tumult has reached my ears, I will place my hook in your nose and my bit between your jaws; And I will make you go back by the road by which you came.” (v. 29)

III. Important Verses
1: When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the House of the LORD.
6-7: Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows: Thus said the LORD: Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria. I will delude him: He will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”
10-13: “Tell this to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God, on whom you are relying, mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria. You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have annihilated them; and can you escape? Were the nations that my predecessors destroyed — Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Bethedenites in Telassar — saved by their gods? Where is the king of Hamath? and the king of Arpad? and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
33-38: “Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city; He shall not shoot an arrow at it, Or advance upon it with a shield, Or pile up a siegemound against it. He shall go back By the way he came, He shall not enter this city — declares the LORD;  I will protect and save this city for My sake And for the sake of My servant David.” That night an angel of the LORD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses. So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh. While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he was struck down with the sword by his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

IV. Outline

1. Hezekiah’s distress
2-4. Hezekiah asks Isaiah to pray
5-7. Isaiah’s response
    5-6a. Introduction
    6b-7. Orcale #1: God will trick the Assyrians
8-9a. The Assyrians hear of an approaching Nubian army
9b-13. Sennacherib’s warning
14-20. Hezekiah’s prayer
    14-15. Introduction
    16. Invocation/praise
    17-19. Background information
    20. Petition for salvation
21-35. God’s response
    21. Isaiah delivers the message
    22-29. Oracle #2
        22a. Introduction
        22b-24a. The Assyrians have blasphemed God
        24b-25. Assyrian hubris
        26-27. Assyrian success was part of God’s plan
        28-29. God will punish the Assyrians and send them home
    30-32. Isaiah’s reassurance
    33-35. Oracle #3
        33a. Introduction
        33b-35. God will protect Jerusalem
36. God kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night
37-38. Sennacherib flees and is killed by his son

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/photofiles/list/2378/3106fishing_hook.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Sennacherib invades Judah and sends an officer to Jerusalem. The officer tells the people to surrender, but they do not respond.

II. Photo
The people of Jerusalem are urged to capitulate: “Make your peace with me and come out to me, so that you may all eat from your vines and your fig trees!” (v. 16)

III. Important Verses
1: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them.
4-7: The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah: Thus said the Great King, the king of Assyria: What makes you so confident? I suppose mere talk makes counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me? You are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it. That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. And if you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God, He is the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar!’
11-12: Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh replied, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall — who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.”
18-20: Beware of letting Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The LORD will save us.’ Did any of the gods of the other nations save his land from the king of Assyria? Where were the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvaim? And did they save Samaria from me? Which among all the gods of those countries saved their countries from me, that the LORD should save Jerusalem from me?”

IV. Outline
1. Historical note: Sennacherib marches on Judah
2-3. The Rabshakeh meets the leaders of Jerusalem
4-10. The Rabshakeh’s message: Join the Assyrian forces
11. The leaders wish to converse in Aramaic
12-20. The Rabshakeh urges Jerusalem’s inhabitants to surrender
21. The people remain silent
22. Hezekiah is informed of the Rabshakeh incident

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3575/3830697358_f9e87f7cb7_o.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The deserts will bloom, the sick will be healed, the people will walk righteously, and the exiles will return to Jerusalem.

II. Photo
God will heal the sick: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer!” (vv. 5-6a)

III. Important Verses
1-2: The arid desert shall be glad, The wilderness shall rejoice And shall blossom like a rose. It shall blossom abundantly, It shall also exult and shout. It shall receive the glory of Lebanon, The splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They shall behold the glory of the LORD, The splendor of our God.
5-6: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb shall shout aloud; For waters shall burst forth in the desert, Streams in the wilderness.
8-9: And a highway shall appear there, Which shall be called the Sacred Way. No one unclean shall pass along it, But it shall be for them. No traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, No ferocious beast shall set foot on it — These shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk it;
10: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come with shouting to Zion, Crowned with joy everlasting. They shall attain joy and gladness, While sorrow and sighing flee.

IV. Outline
1-2. The deserts will blossom
3-4. God will take revenge
5-6a. The sick will be healed
6b-7. The land will flourish
8-9. People will travel along the “sacred way”
10. The exiles will return

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_shNfb4kWu0g/SMEMsXeFZVI/AAAAAAAABM0/G6uXXhEP52I/s400/Deer-leaping-winter.png

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
God will punish the Edomites and turn their land into a desert.

II. Photo
Edom will become a wasteland: “There the arrow-snake shall nest and lay eggs, and shall brood and hatch in its shade.” (v. 15a)

III. Important Verses
1-3: Approach, O nations, and listen, Give heed, O peoples! Let the earth and those in it hear; The world, and what it brings forth. For the LORD is angry at all the nations, Furious at all their host; He has doomed them, consigned them to slaughter. Their slain shall be left lying, And the stench of their corpses shall mount; And the hills shall be drenched with their blood.
8: For it is the LORD’s day of retribution, The year of vindication for Zion’s cause.
9-12: Its streams shall be turned to pitch And its soil to sulfur. Its land shall become burning pitch, Night and day it shall never go out; Its smoke shall rise for all time. Through the ages it shall lie in ruins; Through the aeons none shall traverse it. Jackdaws and owls shall possess it; Great owls and ravens shall dwell there. He shall measure it with a line of chaos And with weights of emptiness. It shall be called, “No kingdom is there,” Its nobles and all its lords shall be nothing.
16: Search and read it in the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these shall be absent, Not one shall miss its fellow. For His mouth has spoken, It is His spirit that has assembled them,

IV. Outline

1. Call to the nations
2-4. God will punish the nations
5-17. The destruction of Edom
    5. Oracle: God’s sword will fall on Edom
    6-7. Edom’s animals will be slaughtered
    8. Zion will be avenged
    9. Edom will be burned
    10-15. Edom will become desolate
    16a. Guarantee
    16b-17. Conclusion

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.snakepictures.co.uk/images/snake_picture_049.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Isaiah praises God and describes a time when the righteous will prosper in their land.

II. Photo
Isaiah praises God: “At [Your] roaring, peoples have fled, before Your majesty nations have scattered; And spoil was gathered as locusts are gathered, it was amassed as grasshoppers are amassed.” (vv. 3-4)

III. Important Verses
1: Ha, you ravager who are not ravaged, You betrayer who have not been betrayed! When you have done ravaging, you shall be ravaged; When you have finished betraying, you shall be betrayed.
7-9: Hark! The Arielites cry aloud; Shalom’s messengers weep bitterly. Highways are desolate, Wayfarers have ceased. A covenant has been renounced, Cities rejected Mortal man despised. The land is wilted and withered; ¶ Lebanon disgraced and moldering, Sharon is become like a desert, And Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.
14-16: Sinners in Zion are frightened, The godless are seized with trembling: “Who of us can dwell with the devouring fire: Who of us can dwell with the never-dying blaze?” He who walks in righteousness, Speaks uprightly, Spurns profit from fraudulent dealings, Waves away a bribe instead of grasping it, Stops his ears against listening to infamy, Shuts his eyes against looking at evil — Such a one shall dwell in lofty security, With inaccessible cliffs for his stronghold, With his food supplied And his drink assured.
19: No more shall you see the barbarian folk, The people of speech too obscure to comprehend, So stammering of tongue that they are not understood.
24: And none who lives there shall say, “I am sick”; It shall be inhabited by folk whose sin has been forgiven.

IV. Outline

1. Prophetic curse: the ravaging city will be ravaged
2. Petition for divine protection
3-6. Hymnic praise: God is mighty and righteous
7-9. Lament: the land has become desolate
10-13. Oracle: God will burn the people like straw
14-16. Only the righteous will survive God’s wrath
17-24. Prophetic blessings
    17-19. The land will be populated and peaceful
    20-21. Glorious Zion 
    22-23. Salvation and spoils of war
    24. Health

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/photogalleries/locust-swarm-theory-serotonin/images/primary/090130-04-swarm-theory-desert-locusts-461.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The land will become desert and the cities will be abandoned. A righteous government will usher in an era of justice and prosperity.

II. Photo
Justice will prevail: “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and ministers shall govern with justice; Every one of them shall be… like the shade of a massive rock in a languishing land.” (vv. 1-2)

III. Important Verses
1-2: Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, And ministers shall govern with justice; Every one of them shall be Like a refuge from gales, A shelter from rainstorms; Like brooks of water in a desert, Like the shade of a massive rock In a languishing land.
5: No more shall a villain be called noble, Nor shall “gentleman” be said of a knave.
9-10: You carefree women, Attend, hear my words! You confident ladies, Give ear to my speech! In little more than a year, You shall be troubled, O confident ones, When the vintage is over And no ingathering takes place.
15-19: Till a spirit from on high is poured out on us, And wilderness is transformed into farm land, While farm land rates as mere brush. Then justice shall abide in the wilderness And righteousness shall dwell on the farm land. For the work of righteousness shall be peace, And the effect of righteousness, calm and confidence forever. Then my people shall dwell in peaceful homes, In secure dwellings, In untroubled places of rest. And the brush shall sink and vanish, Even as the city is laid low.

IV. Outline

1-8. Prophetic blessing
    1-2. A righteous government will rule
    3-8. The people will realize right from wrong
9-20. Prophetic curse and blessing
    9. Address to the women
    10. The crops will not yield fruit
    11-14. Exhortation to lament the coming distress
    15-19. Righteousness will heal the land
    20. Beatitude

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dsomaya/2006/img/medium/dadly_cordero_the_rock_tree_md.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Isaiah rebukes those who seek Egyptian protection and urges the people to return to God.

II. Photo
Isaiah cuts the Egyptians down to size: “The Egyptians are man, not God! Their horses are flesh, not spirit!” (v. 3a)

III. Important Verses
1: Ha! Those who go down to Egypt for help And rely upon horses! They have put their trust in abundance of chariots, In vast numbers of riders, And they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel, They have not sought the LORD.
3: For the Egyptians are man, not God, And their horses are flesh, not spirit; And when the LORD stretches out His arm, The helper shall trip And the helped one shall fall, And both shall perish together.
6-9: Return, O children of Israel, to Him to whom they have been so shamefully false; for in that day everyone will reject his idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have made for your guilt. Then Assyria shall fall, Not by the sword of man; A sword not of humans shall devour him. He shall shrivel before the sword, And his young men pine away. His rock shall melt with terror, And his officers shall collapse from weakness — Declares the LORD, who has a fire in Zion, Who has an oven in Jerusalem.

IV. Outline
1-3. Admonition: those who seek Egyptian help shall fall
4-5. Basis for admonition: God will protect Jerusalem
6. Exhortation: return to God
7-9. Basis for exhortation: repentance will bring the downfall of Assyria

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/914/10016756.JPG

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Isaiah rebukes the people for rejecting God and turning to the Egyptians for help. He comforts them by describing the halcyon days to come.

II. Photo
God will punish the Assyrians: “[They will be thrown into] a firepit that has been made both wide and deep, with plenty of fire and firewood, and with the breath of the Lord burning in it like a stream of sulfur.” (v. 33)

III. Important Verses
1-3: Oh, disloyal sons! — declares the LORD — Making plans Against My wishes, Weaving schemes Against My will, Thereby piling Guilt on guilt — Who set out to go down to Egypt Without asking Me, To seek refuge with Pharaoh, To seek shelter under the protection of Egypt. The refuge with Pharaoh shall result in your shame; The shelter under Egypt’s protection, in your chagrin.
7: For the help of Egypt Shall be vain and empty. Truly, I call this, “They are a threat that has ceased.”
9-11: For it is a rebellious people, Faithless children, Children who refused to heed The instruction of the LORD; Who said to the seers, “Do not see,” To the prophets, “Do not prophesy truth to us; Speak to us falsehoods, Prophesy delusions. Leave the way! Get off the path! Let us hear no more About the Holy One of Israel!”
25b-28: On a day of heavy slaughter, when towers topple. And the light of the moon shall become like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall become sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, when the LORD binds up His people’s wounds and heals the injuries it has suffered. Behold the LORD Himself Comes from afar In blazing wrath, With a heavy burden — His lips full of fury, His tongue like devouring fire, And his breath like a raging torrent Reaching halfway up the neck — To set a misguiding yoke upon nations And a misleading bridle upon the jaws of peoples,
33: The Topheth has long been ready for [Assyria]; He too is destined for Melech — His firepit has been made both wide and deep, With plenty of fire and firewood, And with the breath of the LORD Burning in it like a stream of sulfur.

IV. Outline

1-5. Oracle #1 - The futility of Egyptian help
    1a. Introduction
    1b-2. God’s anger towards those who seek Egypt's help
    3-5. Egypt’s strentgh is superficial
6-7. “The beasts of the Negev” pronouncement
    6a. Introduction
    6b-7. Paying for Egyptian aid is futile
8. Directive to put the pronouncement to writing
9-11. The defiance of the people
12-14. Oracle #2 - God will punish those who rejected him
    12a. Introduction
    12b. Sin: rejecting God and relying on others
    13-14. Punishment: being shattered like a jug
15-17. Prophetic warning
    15-16a. Sin: the people rejected God’s message
    16b-17. Punishment: the people will flee before their enemies
18-25a. Prophetic blessing
    18. God will pardon the people
    19. God will listen to the people’s cry
    20a. The needy will be fed
    20b-21. The people will be led on the correct path
    22. The idols will be removed
    23-25a. The material prosperity to come
    25b-28. God will oppress the other nations
    29. The people will rejoice
    30-33. The punishment of the Assyrians

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://audubonmagazine.org/features0611/images/photoEssayExtra3.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Jerusalem will outlast its enemies, its sinners will be eradicated, and the people will enjoy an idyllic future.

II. Photo
God will cure blindness: “In that day, the deaf shall hear even written words, and the eyes of the blind shall see even in darkness and obscurity!” (v. 18)

III. Important Verses
1: Ah, Ariel, Ariel, City where David camped! Add year to year, Let festivals come in their cycles!
5b-8: And suddenly, in an instant, She shall be remembered of the LORD of Hosts With roaring, and shaking, and deafening noise, Storm, and tempest, and blaze of consuming fire. Then, like a dream, a vision of the night, Shall be the multitude of nations That war upon Ariel, And all her besiegers, and the siegeworks against her, And those who harass her. Like one who is hungry And dreams he is eating, But wakes to find himself empty; And like one who is thirsty And dreams he is drinking, But wakes to find himself faint And utterly parched — So shall be all the multitude of nations That war upon Mount Zion.
10-12: For the LORD has spread over you A spirit of deep sleep, And has shut your eyes, the prophets, And covered your heads, the seers; So that all prophecy has been to you Like the words of a sealed document. If it is handed to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t, because it is sealed”; and if the document is handed to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”
15-16: Ha! Those who would hide their plans Deep from the LORD! Who do their work in dark places And say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?” How perverse of you! Should the potter be accounted as the clay? Should what is made say of its Maker, “He did not make me,” And what is formed say of Him who formed it, “He did not understand?”

IV. Outline

1. Wish for Jerusalem
2-4. The siege of Jerusalem
5-8. The impotence of the enemy
9-14. God baffles the enemy’s leaders
    9-10. Depriving the leaders of their senses
    11-12. Example: reading a letter
    13. Sin: the people serve God by rote
    14. Punishment: the leaders lose their wisdom
15-16. Foolish beliefs
17-21. Prophecies
    17. Clearing the forests of Lebanon
    18. The deaf and blind will be cured
    19. The lowly will be raised up
    20-21. Evil men will perish
22-24. Oracle: A strong, holy, and enlightened future for Israel

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/GERMAN/braille.jpg