December 5, 2011, Reading

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah    35:  1-10

1:1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
1:2 Listen, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nurtured and raised children, but they have spurned me.
1:3 An ox knows his owner, and a donkey knows the manger of his lord, but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood.
1:4 Woe to a sinful nation, a people burdened by iniquity, a wicked offspring, accursed children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. They been taken away backwards.
1:5 For what reason shall I continue to strike you, as you increase transgressions? The entire head is feeble, and the entire heart is grieving.
1:6 From the sole of the foot, even to the top of the head, there is no soundness within. Wounds and bruises and swelling sores: these are not bandaged, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil.
1:7 Your land is desolate. Your cities have been set ablaze. Foreigners devour your countryside in your sight, and it will become desolate, as if devastated by enemies.
1:8 And the daughter of Zion will be left behind, like an arbor in a vineyard, and like a shelter in a cucumber field, and like a city being laid to waste.
1:9 If the Lord of hosts had not bequeathed us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been comparable to Gomorrah.
1:10 Listen to the Word of the Lord, you leaders of the people of Sodom. Listen closely to the law of our God, O people of Gomorrah.