Lexicon :: Strong's H1961 - hāyâ

If the LORD of hosts

Had not left us a few survivors,

We would be like Sodom,

We would be like Gomorrah.

“I hate [the hypocrisy of] your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts.

They have become a burden to Me;

I am weary of bearing them.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the LORD.

“[fn]Though your sins are like scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be like wool.

How the faithful city has become a prostitute [idolatrous, despicable],

She who was full of justice!

Right standing with God once lodged in her,

But now murderers.

For you will be like an oak whose leaf withers and dies

And like a garden that has no water.

Now it will come to pass that

In the last days

The mountain of the house of the LORD

Will be [firmly] established as the [fn]highest of the mountains,

And will be exalted above the hills;

And all the nations will stream to it.

When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,

“You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler,

And this pile of ruins will be under your control,”

Now it will come to pass that instead of the sweet fragrance of spices there will be [the stench of] rottenness;

Instead of a belt, a rope;

Instead of well-set hair, baldness;

Instead of fine clothes, a robe of sackcloth;

And branding [of captives by the scorching heat] instead of beauty.

In that day the Branch of the LORD will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be excellent and lovely to those of Israel who have survived.

Now let me sing for my greatly Beloved [LORD]

A song of my Beloved about His vineyard (His chosen people).

My greatly Beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile slope (the promised land, Canaan).

“So now let me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:

I will take away its thorn-hedge, and it will be burned up;

I will break down its [fn]stone wall and it will be trampled down [by enemies].

In my ears the LORD of hosts said, “Be assured that many houses will become desolate,

Even great and beautiful ones will be unoccupied.

They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts;

But they do not regard nor even pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,

Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble [from straw]

And the dry grass collapses into the flame,

So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away like fine dust;

Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts

And despised and discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.

“And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land,

It will again be subject to destruction [consumed and burned],

Like a massive terebinth tree or like an oak

Whose stump remains when it is chopped down.

The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel].”

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of [fn]Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.

In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the [fn]mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

Now in that day [because of the poverty caused by the invaders] a man will keep alive only a young milk cow and two sheep;

“Then it will [fn]sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through [the hills],

Reaching even to the neck [of which Jerusalem is the head],

And its outstretched wings (the armies of Assyria) will fill the width of Your land, O Immanuel.

“Then He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred, indestructible shelter for those who fear and trust Him];

But to both the houses of Israel [both the northern and southern kingdoms—Israel and Judah, He will be] a stone on which to stumble and a rock on which to trip,

A trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

For every boot of the marching warrior in the battle tumult,

And [every soldier’s] garment rolled in blood, will be used for burning, fuel for the fire.

For those who lead this people are causing them to go astray;

And those who are led [astray] by them are swallowed up.

By the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up,

And the people are like fuel for the fire;

No man spares his brother.

So as to deprive the needy of justice

And rob the poor of My people of rightful claims,

So that widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the fatherless.

So when the Lord has completed all His work [of judgment] on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit [the thoughts, the declarations, and the actions] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the haughtiness of his pride.”

“My hand has found the wealth of the people like a nest,

And as one gathers eggs that are abandoned, so I have gathered all the earth;

And there was not one that flapped its wing, or that opened its beak and chirped.”

And the Light of Israel will become a fire and His Holy One a flame,

And it will [fn]burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and briars in a single day.

For though your people, O Israel, may be as the sand of the sea,

Only a remnant within them will return;

The destruction is determined [it is decided and destined for completion], overflowing with justice (righteous punishment).

And righteousness will be the belt around His loins,

And faithfulness the belt around His waist.

Then in that day

The nations will make supplications to the Root of Jesse

Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;

And His resting place will be glorious.

And there will be a highway from Assyria

For the remnant of His people who will be left,

Just as there was for Israel

In the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt.

“Behold, God, my salvation!

I will trust and not be afraid,

For the LORD GOD is my strength and song;

Yes, He has become my salvation.”