Isaiah 2
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 750 BC – 735 BC · Divided kingdom · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
22 verses · 511 words · ~3 min read · ~3 min listen
The Mountain of the House of the LORD
1This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord
will be established as the chief of the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3And many peoples will come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us His ways
so that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4Then He will judge between the nations
and arbitrate for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation,
nor train anymore for war.
The Day of Reckoning
5Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6For You have abandoned Your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are filled
with influences from the east;
they are soothsayers like the Philistines;
they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
7Their land is full of silver and gold,
with no limit to their treasures;
their land is full of horses,
with no limit to their chariots.
8Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.
9So mankind is brought low,
and man is humbled—
do not forgive them!
10Go into the rocks
and hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord
and the splendor of His majesty.
11The proud look of man will be humbled,
and the loftiness of men brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
12For the Day of the Lord of Hosts
will come against all the proud and lofty,
against all that is exalted—
it will be humbled—
13against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up,
against all the oaks of Bashan,
14against all the tall mountains,
against all the high hills,
15against every high tower,
against every fortified wall,
16against every ship of Tarshish,
and against every stately vessel.
17So the pride of man will be brought low,
and the loftiness of men will be humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
18and the idols will vanish completely.
19Men will flee to caves in the rocks
and holes in the ground,
away from the terror of the Lord
and from the splendor of His majesty,
when He rises to shake the earth.
20In that day men will cast away
to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and gold—
the idols they made to worship.
21They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and crevices in the cliffs,
away from the terror of the Lord
and from the splendor of His majesty,
when He rises to shake the earth.
22Put no more trust in man,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
Of what account is he?
Footnotes (1)
- a v16 Or every ship of trade
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated
Swords into plowshares
Isaiah and Micah picture all nations streaming to the LORD's mountain to learn his ways, beating swords into plowshares and learning war no more. Christians and Jews agree it describes God's ultimate peace, but disagree on when and how it comes about.
When: Isaiah and Micah, c. 740–700 BC.
Ways people read this (4)
- Fulfilled in part as the gospel goes out from Jerusalem to the nations (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:47) and will be completed at Christ's return.
- Fulfilled in a future earthly kingdom or millennium, with Jerusalem as a center of worship.
- A poetic picture of the age to come (the new creation), not tied to a specific earthly stage.
- Jewish tradition reads it as a messianic age of universal peace, yet to come.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.