Isaiah introduces the chapter as part of the prophetic vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:1-5
1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
The nations will stream to the LORD’s house, receive his instruction, and live under his righteous judgment and peace.
2 It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law shall go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
The house of Jacob is summoned to live now according to the light of the future hope.
5 House of Jacob, come, and let’s walk in the light of Yahweh.
Judah is filled with foreign practices, wealth, military strength, and idols, showing that the people have become shaped by what they should have rejected.
Isaiah 2:6-9
6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
8 Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
9 Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.
The day of the LORD will bring down all arrogance, every lofty symbol, and every false confidence.
Isaiah 2:10-22
10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the arrogance of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,
15 for every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,
16 for all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the arrogance of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 The idols shall utterly pass away.
When the LORD rises to shake the earth, idols will be discarded as worthless and human trust will be exposed as folly.
19 Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,
21 to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?