Isaiah 32

Read the chapter

¹Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him. ✦ ²Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a parched land. ✦ ³Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it. ✦ ⁴Even the hotheads will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer will speak out plainly. ✦ ⁵In that day ungodly fools will not be heroes. Scoundrels will not be respected. ✦ ⁶For fools speak foolishness and make evil plans. They practice ungodliness and spread false teachings about the Lord. They deprive the hungry of food and give no water to the thirsty. ✦ ⁷The smooth tricks of scoundrels are evil. They plot crooked schemes. They lie to convict the poor, even when the cause of the poor is just. ✦ ⁸But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity. ✦ ⁹Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug. ✦ ¹⁰In a short time—just a little more than a year— you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place. ✦ ¹¹Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief. ✦ ¹²Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines. ✦ ¹³For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone. ✦ ¹⁴The palace and the city will be deserted, and busy towns will be empty. Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze in the empty forts and watchtowers ✦ ¹⁵until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven. Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops. ✦ ¹⁶Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile field. ✦ ¹⁷And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. ✦ ¹⁸My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest. ✦ ¹⁹Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down, ✦ ²⁰the Lord will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

Isa 35 ·6 Isa 28 ·5 Isa 24 ·5 Isa 5 ·5 Isa 9 ·4 Isa 3 ·4 Isa 29 ·4 Acts 2 ·4

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 32 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 32YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 32David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 32Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

← Isaiah 31 Isaiah 33 →