Hear the word of the Lord,
    you who tremble at his word;
‘Your own people who hate you,
    and exclude you because of my name, have said,
“Let the Lord be glorified,
    that we may see your joy!”
    Yet they will be put to shame.
6 Hear that uproar from the city,
    hear that noise from the temple!
It is the sound of the Lord
    repaying his enemies all they deserve.

The opening words of this section link with the second part of verse 2. But honouring God’s Word may get you into trouble (yes, even in the church) with other ‘professing believers’ who don’t see it as you do. They feel free to take liberties with God’s Book. It has to be said that religious persecution can be mean and nasty and cynical, and even violent.

‘What finally divides the true from the false in the church is faithfulness or unfaithfulness to the word of God. Clinging to the promises of God will always seem fanatical and foolish to those who have abandoned them…Religion that loses its anchorage in the word of God either becomes pathetically ineffective, or turns into a monster. Persecution is always ugly, religious persecution especially so, and ecclesiasticism is its native soil.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.247.

”I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” (Jesus: Jn.17:14).