“‘Now I will arise.’
Says Yahweh.
‘Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
You conceive chaff!
You bring forth stubble!
Your breath is a fire
That will consume you.
The people will be
As if burned to lime,
Like thorns cut down,
That are burned in the fire.’”
Isaiah has Yahweh speak directly to everyone. Yahweh was going to rise up. He was going to lift himself up. He wanted to be exalted and acknowledged. He did not like what they were bringing to him, since he considered it only chaff and stubble, like useless left over things. Their breath was like a fire that would consume them. It would burn them as if they were lime. They would be like cut down like thorn bushes burning in a fire.