Isaiah had proclaimed the day of judgment with more earnestness than any prophet before him. None of them had set himself with such force to take away every support from the feeling of self-confidence. The Jews were to look forward with fear and trembling to the day of judgment, that they might learn to trust in Jehovah alone, and from this renovation of the heart might spring into blossom the new and better time--the new kingdom. When all splendour and wealth is destroyed; when the chiefs and the warriors are overthrown; when "the sinners in Zion quake, and trembling seizes the godless;" when "the Lord has thus washed away the lewdness of the daughter of Zion,"[295] and "purged away the dross as with lye," then "he will be very gracious to his people which dwelleth in Zion, at the voice of her cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee."[296] But Isaiah had not proclaimed the coming judgment for Judah only; he had announced without ceasing, that no earthly power, however great and proud it might be, could stand before Jehovah. In his lofty conception the judgment over Israel became a judgment over the whole world, from the cleansing punishment of which would arise the new and true religion for all, a new life in the fear of God and in piety, in righteousness and peace. "The day of the Lord of hosts," he says, "shall be upon every thing that is proud and lofty, and upon every thing that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, and all the oaks of Bashan, upon all the high mountains, and lofty towers, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and all costly pictures. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men, and their idols of silver and gold they shall cast down to the moles and the bats, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day."[297] Thus Egypt and Ethiopia also will be smitten, and at length the line will reach even the scourge with which Jehovah has punished the sins of the others, even the Assyrians. This great day of judgment, "which avenges their misdeeds on the inhabitants of the earth," is followed by the restoration, for Jehovah "smites and heals."[298] As the exiles of Israel shall return from Asshur and the lost from Egypt (the Israelites who had fled thither before Sargon), and Israel's power shall be restored, so will Assyria and Egypt be restored, and Jehovah will say: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."[299] The standard of Jehovah will be planted on the hill of Zion, and under this banner the people shall assemble. "All nations shall come to the mount of Jehovah to learn the way of Jehovah, and walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Then will Jehovah judge among the nations, and the work of righteousness is peace, and the fruit of righteousness is rest, so that the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not raise up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.[300] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The cow and the lioness shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox; the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp."[301] But in order that this happy time, "which shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea," may be brought on, Jehovah's worship must be maintained by a remnant of the people which he has chosen, to which he announced his will since the days of the patriarchs. Isaiah was, therefore, firmly convinced that Zion and the temple of Jehovah, "in which he had founded a precious corner-stone," could not perish;--that "from Jerusalem a remnant would go forth, and the ransomed from Mount Zion." As Jehovah had punished Israel only in measure[302] by carrying the people away into captivity, but had turned aside the complete annihilation of the people, so Isaiah firmly believed that in the present instance also Judah would not be entirely destroyed, that Jerusalem would not be taken, and the judgment of Jehovah would be accomplished by the harrying and devastation of the whole land by the Assyrians, and the capture of the remaining cities. This hope was in him the more surely founded as Hezekiah worshipped Jehovah with zeal and earnestness.