Introduction
This post is the first part of a long-term project of mine: translating the Bible into a book that modern, secular, scientific people could actually read and understand.
I believe the Bible is one of the foundational texts of Western civilization, carrying real insight into how people behave, why societies rise and fall, and what it takes to live well together. But that insight comes wrapped in the culture of the Middle Eastern Bronze and Iron Age: tribal kings, animal sacrifice, and a supernatural being issuing commands from the sky. For most readers today, it is thus completely inaccessible.
This translation aims to keep the structure, the voice, the powerful metaphors, and the moral force of the text, while replacing the supernatural beings, the ancient political geography, and the rituals nobody today has context for.
The book of Isaiah thus becomes a timeless warning against a society that has lost its way, one that mistakes gestures for substance and tries to sell its universal self-interest as virtue.
Book 1
1 This is the vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, which he saw concerning the West, in the days of Blair, Merkel, Clinton, and Biden, kings of the free world.
2 Listen, you satellites, and you, data networks, record this! For Reality has spoken: “Children I have raised in peace and plenty”, she says. “I have raised them high, yet they revolted against me.”
3 “A dog knows its master, and even a cow knows its feeding trough, but the West does not know me. My children do not understand, they do not stop to think.”
4 Woe, sinning nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, who themselves act corruptly! They have forsaken Reality, they have despised her Laws, they have lost all common sense.
5 “Where can I even strike them again?” Reality asks herself, “and why should I even? Every blow only drives them further into their rebellion. Their whole perception is skewed and they have no strength of will left to change.”
6 “From the sole of their feet even to their heads, no part remains sound, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, and not one of them cleans them, stitches them, or dresses them properly.”
7 Soon, therefore, your land will be desolate, your cities destroyed, and strangers will devour your resources in front of your eyes.
8 They will flow through your lands like a never-ending stream and leave nothing but a bare wilderness behind. And you, you will sit in your small corner and watch your nations crumble.
9 Were total annihilation not so hard to achieve, truly, we would end like Sodom, we would become like Gomorrah.
10 Remember therefore the Laws of Reality, you rulers of Sodom, and listen to her instructions, you people of Gomorrah.
11 “What are your multiplied summits to me?” says Reality. “I have had enough declarations of intent, press conferences, and closing communiques. I take no pleasure in your special funds and strategy papers.”
12 “Who has required all these words and gestures of you, when you appear before the cameras?”
13 “Bring your worthless declarations no longer! Your PR is an abomination to me. Action days, hashtags, and profile frames — I cannot endure your iniquity alongside your solemn demeanor.”
14 “I hate your national holidays and your milestone celebrations. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.”
15 “Therefore I will turn my face away from you, when you formulate your plans, and I will not help you. Yes, even though you strategize and consult all you want, your plans will fail. Your hands are covered with blood.”
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil.”
17 “Learn to do good. Seek justice, prosecute the exploiters, defend the driver and the builder, and help the homeless obtain justice.”
18 “Come now, and let us reason together”, says Reality, “though your sins are tattooed all over your bodies, your skin shall be like a newborn’s; though they are recorded on every server, they shall be deleted without a trace.”
19 “If you are willing and obey my Laws, you will live in peace and plenty.”
20 “But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. These are my Laws, and they hold whether you believe in them or not.”
But alas the free world did not change… Enter:
21 How the free world has become a whore, she who was once full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers.
22 Your currency has become worthless, your shining wares are junk inside.
23 Your rulers are lawbreakers and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe and chases after kickbacks. They do not defend the driver and the builder, nor do they help the homeless obtain justice.
24 Therefore Reality, the mighty force behind all things, declares: “At last, I will rid myself of you, you obstacles to human flourishing. I will avenge myself against you, you adversaries of human beings.”
25 “I will turn my hand against you and run you through the smelter. I will throw you into the furnace and burn away all your impurities and all the falseness that cloaks you.”
26 “Then I will restore your judges as at first, and your institutions as at the beginning, and you will once again be called the free world.”
27 The West will thus be redeemed through the rule of law, and those of you who return to Reality’s Commandments and follow them will be redeemed with righteousness.
28 But exploiters and sinners will be crushed and consumed, and all who turn their backs on Reality will come to an end.
29 Then you will be ashamed of the Teslas you coveted, and blush for the villas you chose over the homeless.
30 For you will become like a gutted car, left on cinder blocks, like an abandoned and decaying mansion.
31 And the strong among you will be like lithium batteries, and their own works like a spark, and they will both burn together, and there will be no one there to quench them.