The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 2 -

(Micah 4:1–5)

The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared at the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.(a)

(b)

And many peoples will go, and they will say: “Let us approach and ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he will judge the nations, and he will rebuke many peoples. And they shall forge their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they continue to train for battle.(c)

The Day of Reckoning

O house of Jacob, let us approach and walk in the light of the Lord.

For you have cast aside your people, the house of Jacob, because they have been filled up, as in past times, and because they have had soothsayers as the Philistines have, and because they have joined themselves to foreign servants.

Their land has been filled with silver and gold. And there is no end to their storehouses.

And their land has been filled with horses. And their four-horse chariots are innumerable. And their land has been filled with idols. They have adored the work of their hands, which their own fingers have made.

And man has bowed himself down, and so man has become debased. Therefore, you should not forgive them.

Enter into the rock, and hide in a ditch in the soil, from the presence of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

The lofty eyes of man have been humbled, and the haughtiness of men will be bowed down. Then the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

For the day of the Lord of hosts will prevail over all the proud and self-exalted, and over all the arrogant, and each one shall be humbled,

and over all the straight and tall cedars of Lebanon, and over all the oaks of Bashan;

and over all the lofty mountains, and over all the elevated hills;

and over every lofty tower, and over every fortified wall;

and over all the ships of Tarshish, and over all the beauty that may be seen.

And the loftiness of men will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men will be brought low. And the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

And idols will be thoroughly crushed.(d)

And they will go into the caves of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

In that day, man shall cast aside his idols of silver and his images of gold, which he had made for himself, as if to reverence the moles and the bats.(e)

And so he will go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of stone, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

Therefore, rest away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he considers himself to be exalted.

Footnotes

(a)2:2 The last days:The whole time of the new law, from the coming of Christ till the end of the world, is called in the scripture the last days; because no other age or time shall come after it, but only eternity.(Challoner)

(b)2:2 On the top of mountains, etc:This shows the perpetual visibility of the church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of mountains cannot be hid.(Challoner)

(d)2:18 Idols shall be utterly destroyed:or utterly pass away. This was verified by the establishment of Christianity. And by this and other texts of the like nature, the wild system of some modern sectaries is abundantly confuted, who charge the whole Christian church with worshipping idols, for many ages.(Challoner)

(e)2:20 The last phrase is figurative. Mankind puts aside idols of the past, only to hide in the rocks and the ground, like moles and bats. So, it is as if mankind is appealing to the moles and the bats, instead of the Lord.(Conte)