The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his
master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have
forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are
estranged and gone backward. Why will ye
be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the
foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds,
and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with oil. Your country is
desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it
in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a
vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very
small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto
Gomorrah. Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of
Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
What unto me is the multitude of your
sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye
come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample
my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense
is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of
assemblies,- I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul
hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide
mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your
hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do
evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve
the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith
Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the
good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye
shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
How is the faithful city become a harlot! she
that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with
water. Thy princes are rebellious, and
companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after
rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the
widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord,
Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine
adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; and
I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and
will take away all thy tin; and I will restore
thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning:
afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town.
Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her
converts with righteousness. But the destruction
of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and they that forsake
Jehovah shall be consumed. For they shall be
ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for
the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be
as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as
a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw
concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come
to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be
established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And
many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain
of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his
ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the
law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And
he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many
peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. O house of
Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.
For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of
Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and
are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with
the children of foreigners. And their land is
full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures;
their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their
chariots. Their land also is full of idols; they
worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have
made. And the mean man is bowed down, and the
great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not.
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust,
from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and
the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be
exalted in that day. For there shall be a day of
Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is
lifted up; and it shall be brought low; and upon
all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the
oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and
upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall,
and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all
pleasant imagery. And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and
Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. And
the idols shall utterly pass away. And men shall
go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from
before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he
ariseth to shake mightily the earth. In that day
men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which
have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into
the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and
from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the
earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his
nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?
For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth
take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of
bread, and the whole stay of water; the mighty
man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and
the elder; the captain of fifty, and the
honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the
skilful enchanter. And I will give children to be
their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by
another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself
proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.
When a man shall take hold of his brother in the
house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler,
and let this ruin be under thy hand; in that day
shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in
my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not make me ruler of the
people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is
fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to
provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their
countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as
Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto
themselves. Say ye of the righteous, that it
shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be
ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him.
As for my people, children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to
err, and destroy the way of thy paths. Jehovah
standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples.
Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders
of his people, and the princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the
vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses:
what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind
the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of
Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;
therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the
crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare
their secret parts. In that day the Lord will
take away the beauty of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents;
the pendants, and the bracelets, and the
mufflers; the headtires, and the ankle chains,
and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets;
the rings, and the nose-jewels;
the festival robes, and the mantles, and the
shawls, and the satchels; the hand-mirrors, and
the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils.
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet
spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and
instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of
sackcloth; branding instead of beauty. Thy men
shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she
shall be desolate and sit upon the ground.
And seven women shall take hold of one man in
that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel:
only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.
In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be
beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and
comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And
it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth
in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among
the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have
washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the
blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of justice, and
by the spirit of burning. And Jehovah will create
over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud
and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all
the glory shall be spread a covering. And
there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and
for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.
Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my
beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very
fruitful hill: and he digged it, and gathered out
the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a
tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he
looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and
men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And
now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the
hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall
thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will
lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain
upon it. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is
the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he
looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but,
behold, a cry. Woe unto them that join house to
house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to
dwell alone in the midst of the land! In mine
ears saith Jehovah of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be
desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till
wine inflame them! And the harp and the lute,
the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they
regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation
of his hands. Therefore my people are gone into
captivity for lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and
their multitude are parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its desire, and
opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude,
and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it.
And the mean man is bowed down, and the great
man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled:
but Jehovah of hosts is exalted in justice, and
God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture,
and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of
falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope;
that say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his
work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel
draw nigh and come, that we may know it! Woe
unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them
that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;
that justify the wicked for a bribe, and take
away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the
stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame, so their root
shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because
they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of
the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger
of Jehovah kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his
hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the mountains tremble, and
their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this
his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
And he will lift up an ensign to the nations
from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold,
they shall come with speed swiftly. None shall
be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither
shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes
be broken: whose arrows are sharp, and all their
bows bent; their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as flint, and their
wheels as a whirlwind: their roaring shall be
like a lioness, they shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar,
and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none
to deliver. And they shall roar against them in
that day like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land,
behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened in the
clouds thereof.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the
temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one
had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the
whole earth is full of his glory. And the
foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and
the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe
is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King,
Jehovah of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs
from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with
it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin forgiven. And I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I
said, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and
tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed,
but perceive not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they sea with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and
turn again, and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and
houses without man, and the land become utterly waste,
and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the
forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.
And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall
in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth,
when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son
of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria,
and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war
against it, but could not prevail against it. And
it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim.
And his heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the
forest tremble with the wind. Then said Jehovah
unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at
the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's
field; and say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet;
fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of
smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the
son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the
son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against thee, saying,
Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let
us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it,
even the son of Tabeel; thus saith the Lord
Jehovah, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head
of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim
be broken in pieces, so that is shall not be a people:
and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head
of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not
be established. And Jehovah spake again unto
Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy
God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I
tempt Jehovah. And he said, Hear ye now, O house
of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my
God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give
you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall
call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall
he eat, when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
For before the child shall know to refuse the
evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall
be forsaken. Jehovah will bring upon thee, and
upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come,
from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah-even the king of
Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day,
that Jehovah will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the
rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
And they shall come, and shall rest all of them
in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and upon all
thorn-hedges, and upon all pastures. In that day
will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the
River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the
feet; and it shall also consume the beard. And
it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young
cow, and two sheep; and it shall come to pass,
that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat
butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst
of the land. And it shall come to pass in that
day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand
silverlings, shall be for briers and thorns.
With arrows and with bow shall one come thither,
because all the land shall be briers and thorns.
And all the hills that were digged with the
mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns; but it
shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.
And Jehovah said unto me, Take thee a great
tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For
Maher-shalal-hash-baz; and I will take unto me
faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of
Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess; and
she conceived, and bare a son. Then said Jehovah unto me, Call his name
Maher-shalal-hash-baz. For before the child shall
have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus
and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.
And Jehovah spake unto me yet again, saying,
Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters
of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon
them the waters of the River, strong and many, even the king of
Assyria and all his glory: and it shall come up over all its channels, and
go over all its banks; and it shall sweep onward
into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the
neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of thy
land, O Immanuel. Make an uproar, O ye peoples,
and be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird
yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in
pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall be
brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with
us. For Jehovah spake thus to me with a strong
hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof
this people shall say, A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be in
dread thereof. Jehovah of hosts, him
shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone
of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a
gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be
broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind thou
up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth his
face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Behold, I and the children whom Jehovah hath
given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts,
who dwelleth in mount Zion. And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the
wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their
God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?
To the law and to the testimony! if they speak
not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
And they shall pass through it, sore distressed
and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry,
they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and
turn their faces upward: and they shall look
unto the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish;
and into thick darkness they shall be driven away.
But there shall be no gloom to her that was in
anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time hath he made it glorious,
by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a
great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the
nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to
the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his
shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of
Midian. For all the armor of the armed man in the
tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel
of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a
son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his
government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and
with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of
hosts will perform this. The Lord sent a word
into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. And
all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of
Samaria, that say in pride and in stoutness of heart,
The bricks are fallen, but we will build with
hewn stone; the sycomores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their
place. Therefore Jehovah will set up on high
against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies,
the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind;
and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is
not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Yet the people have not turned unto him that
smote them, neither have they sought Jehovah of hosts.
Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head
and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. The
elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth
lies, he is the tail. For they that lead this
people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their
young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for every one is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly.
For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out
still. For wickedness burneth as the fire; it
devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the
forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the
land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spareth his
brother. And one shall snatch on the right hand,
and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be
satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and
they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,
and to the writers that write perverseness; to
turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of
their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the
fatherless their prey! And what will ye do in
the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to
whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
They shall only bow down under the prisoners,
and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is stretched out still. Ho
Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine
indignation! I will send him against a profane
nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to
take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire
of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so,
neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to
cut off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not
my princes all of them kings? Is not Calno as
Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the
idols, whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and
her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the
Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I
will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the
glory of his high looks. For he hath said, By
the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have
understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have
robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down them
that sit on thrones: and my hand hath
found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathereth eggs that
are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved
the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped.
Shall the axe boast itself against him that
heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wieldeth
it? as if a rod should wield them that lift it up, or as if a staff
should lift up him that is not wood.
Therefore will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, send
among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a
burning like the burning of fire. And the light
of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will
burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
And he will consume the glory of his forest,
and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a
standard-bearer fainteth. And the remnant of
the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child may write them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
remnant of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall
no more again lean upon him that smote them, but shall lean upon Jehovah,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant
shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
For though thy people, Israel, be as the sand
of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return: a destruction
is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
For a full end, and that determined, will the
Lord, Jehovah of hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of
hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian,
though he smite thee with the rod, and lift up his staff against thee,
after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very
little while, and the indignation against thee shall be
accomplished, and mine anger shall be directed to his destruction.
And Jehovah of hosts will stir up against him a
scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod
will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his
burden shall depart from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck,
and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness.
He is come to Aiath, he is passed through
Migron; at Michmash he layeth up his baggage;
they are gone over the pass; they have taken up
their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembleth; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
Cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim!
hearken, O Laishah! O thou poor Anathoth!
Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of
Gebim flee for safety. This very day shall he
halt at Nob: he shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the
hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of
hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be
hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.
And he will cut down the thickets of the forest
with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
And there shall come forth a shoot out of the
stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.
And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah;
and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after
the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness
shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the
breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And
righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the
girdle of his loins. And the wolf shall dwell
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf
and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead
them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole
of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the
waters cover the sea. And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the
peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be
glorious. And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he
will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners
of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall
depart, and they that vex Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy
Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. And
they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west;
together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth
their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
And Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of
the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over
the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march
over dryshod. And there shall be a highway for
the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there
was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
And in that day thou shalt say, I will give
thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; for though thou wast angry with me, thine
anger is turned away and thou comfortest me.
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and
will not be afraid; for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and
song; and he is become my salvation. Therefore
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
And in that day shall ye say, Give thanks unto
Jehovah, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make
mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto
Jehovah; for he hath done excellent things: let this be known in all the
earth. Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of
Zion; for great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of
Amoz did see. Set ye up an ensign upon the bare
mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go
into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded
my consecrated ones, yea, I have called my mighty men for mine anger, even
my proudly exulting ones. The noise of a
multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of
the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is
mustering the host for the battle. They come
from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and
the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Wail ye; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; as
destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every
heart of man shall melt: and they shall be
dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be
in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at
another; their faces shall be faces of flame.
Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel, with
wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the
sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of
heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun
shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its
light to shine. And I will punish the world for
their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the
arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. I will make a man more rare than fine
gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble,
and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of
hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And
it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man
gathereth, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee
every man to his own land. Every one that is
found shall be thrust through; and every one that is taken shall fall by
the sword. Their infants also shall be dashed
in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives
ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes
against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not
delight in it. And their bows shall dash
the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the
womb; their eye shall not spare children. And
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall
be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to
generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall
shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall
dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
And wolves shall cry in their castles, and
jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her
days shall not be prolonged.
For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and
will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the sojourner
shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
And the peoples shall take them, and bring them
to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of
Jehovah for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive
whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
And it shall come to pass in the day that
Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and
from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve,
that thou shalt take up this parable against the
king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city
ceased! Jehovah hath broken the staff of the
wicked, the sceptre of the rulers; that smote
the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in
anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet:
they break forth into singing. Yea, the
fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon,
saying, Since thou art laid low, no hewer is come up against us.
Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet
thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief
ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of
the nations. All they shall answer and say unto
thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and
the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover
thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O
day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that
didst lay low the nations! And thou saidst in
thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the
uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the
uttermost parts of the pit. They that see thee
shall gaze at thee, they shall consider thee, saying, Is this the
man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
that made the world as a wilderness, and
overthrew the cities thereof; that let not loose his prisoners to their
home? All the kings of the nations, all of
them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house.
But thou art cast forth away from thy sepulchre
like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through
with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body
trodden under foot. Thou shalt not be joined
with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain
thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever.
Prepare ye slaughter for his children for the
iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up, and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities. And
I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from
Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son, saith Jehovah.
I will also make it a possession for the
porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of
destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts. Jehovah of
hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to
pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and
upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the
whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the
nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn
it back? In the year that king Ahaz died was
this burden. Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of
thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent's
root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying
serpent. And the first-born of the poor shall
feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root
with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain.
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou art melted
away, O Philistia, all of thee; for there cometh a smoke out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks. What
then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath
founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge.
The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is
laid waste, and brought to nought; for in a night Kir of Moab is
laid waste, and brought to nought. They
are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab
waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every
beard is cut off. In their streets they gird
themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places,
every one waileth, weeping abundantly. And
Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz:
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him.
My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles
flee unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith
with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of
destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be
desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there
is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they
have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over
the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone
round about the borders of Moab; the wailing thereof unto Eglaim, and the
wailing thereof unto Beer-elim. For the waters
of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion
upon them of Moab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land.
Send ye the lambs for the ruler of the land from
Selah to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a
scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the
Arnon. Give counsel, execute justice; make thy
shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray
not the fugitive. Let mine outcasts dwell with
thee; as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the destroyer.
For the extortioner is brought to nought, destruction ceaseth, the
oppressors are consumed out of the land. And a
throne shall be established in lovingkindness; and one shall sit thereon
in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to
do righteousness. We have heard of the pride of
Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogancy, and his pride,
and his wrath; his boastings are nought.
Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, every one
shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn, utterly
stricken. For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down
the choice branches thereof, which reached even unto Jazer, which wandered
into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the
sea. Therefore I will weep with the weeping of
Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon,
and Elealeh: for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the
battle shout is fallen. And gladness is
taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there
shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader shall tread out wine
in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease.
Wherefore my heart soundeth like a harp for
Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-heres. And
it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth
himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that
he shall not prevail. This is the word that
Jehovah spake concerning Moab in time past. But
now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a
hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his
great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is
taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be
for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and
the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the
glory of the children of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax
lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman
gathereth the standing grain, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall
be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as
the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the
uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree,
saith Jehovah, the God of Israel. In that day
shall men look unto their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the
Holy One of Israel. And they shall not look to
the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they have respect to
that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.
In that day shall their strong cities be as the
forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken
from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation.
For thou hast forgotten the God of thy
salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength;
therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange
slips. In the day of thy planting thou hedgest
it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest
fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
Ah, the uproar of many peoples, that roar like
the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the
rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall
rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they
shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains
before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.
At eventide, behold, terror; and before
the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that despoil us, and
the lot of them that rob us.
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that sendeth
ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters,
saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a
people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and
treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide! All
ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign
is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear
ye. For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will
be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in
sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
For before the harvest, when the blossom is
over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs
with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away
and cut down. They shall be left together
unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth;
and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them. In that time shall
a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and
smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation
that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the
place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.
The burden of Egypt. Behold, Jehovah rideth upon
a swift cloud, and cometh unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall tremble
at his presence; and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
And I will stir up the Egyptians against the
Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every
one against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against
kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in
the midst of it; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall
seek unto the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar
spirits, and to the wizards. And I will give
over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall
rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the
river shall be wasted and become dry. And the
rivers shall become foul; the streams of Egypt shall be diminished and
dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither away.
The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the
Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, shall become dry, be driven
away, and be no more. And the fishers shall
lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they
that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
Moreover they that work in combed flax, and they
that weave white cloth, shall be confounded.
And the pillars of Egypt shall be broken
in pieces; all they that work for hire shall be grieved in soul.
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the
counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye
unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Where then are thy wise men? and let them tell
thee now; and let them know what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed concerning
Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools,
the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray,
that are the corner-stone of her tribes.
Jehovah hath mingled a spirit of perverseness
in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work
thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work,
which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.
In that day shall the Egyptians be like unto
women; and they shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand
of Jehovah of hosts, which he shaketh over them.
And the land of Judah shall become a terror
unto Egypt; every one to whom mention is made thereof shall be afraid,
because of the purpose of Jehovah of hosts, which he purposeth against it.
In that day there shall be five cities in the
land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Jehovah of
hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.
In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah
in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to
Jehovah. And it shall be for a sign and for a
witness unto Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry
unto Jehovah because of oppressors, and he will send them a saviour, and a
defender, and he will deliver them. And Jehovah
shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day;
yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and oblation, and shall vow a vow
unto Jehovah, and shall perform it. And Jehovah
will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto Jehovah,
and he will be entreated of them, and will heal them.
In that day shall there be a highway out of
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian
into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians.
In that day shall Israel be the third with
Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;
for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them,
saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and
Israel mine inheritance.
In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, when
Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took
it; at that time Jehovah spake by Isaiah the son
of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put
thy shoe from off thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
And Jehovah said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath
walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning
Egypt and concerning Ethiopia; so shall the king
of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia,
young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the
shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and
confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their
glory. And the inhabitant of this coast-land
shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled
for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and we, how shall we
escape?
The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As
whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it cometh from the wilderness, from
a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared
unto me; the treacherous man dealeth treacherously, and the destroyer
destroyeth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have
I made to cease. Therefore are my loins filled
with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in
travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot
see. My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted
me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.
They prepare the table, they set the watch, they
eat, they drink: rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a
watchman: let him declare what he seeth: and
when he seeth a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of
camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.
And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand
continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward
whole nights; and, behold, here cometh a troop
of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is
Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.
O thou my threshing, and the grain of my floor!
that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I
declared unto you. The burden of Dumah. One
calleth unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what
of the night? The watchman said, The morning
cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: turn ye, come.
The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia
shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.
Unto him that was thirsty they brought water;
the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their
bread. For they fled away from the swords, from
the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a
year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall
fail; and the residue of the number of the
archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be few; for
Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth
thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
O thou that art full of shoutings, a tumultuous
city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slain with the sword, neither are
they dead in battle. All thy rulers fled away
together, they were bound by the archers; all that were found of thee were
bound together; they fled afar off. Therefore
said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading
down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of
vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.
And Elam bare the quiver, with chariots of men
and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys
were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the
gate. And he took away the covering of Judah;
and thou didst look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.
And ye saw the breaches of the city of David,
that they were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower
pool; and ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
and ye brake down the houses to fortify the wall;
ye made also a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the old pool. But ye looked not unto him that had done
this, neither had ye respect unto him that purposed it long ago.
And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts,
call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with
sackcloth: and behold, joy and gladness,
slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. And
Jehovah of hosts revealed himself in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall
not be forgiven you till ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, Go, get
thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the house, and
say, What doest thou here? and whom has
thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out here a sepulchre? hewing him out
a sepulchre on high, graving a habitation for himself in the rock!
Behold, Jehovah, like a strong man, will
hurl thee away violently; yea, he will wrap thee up closely.
He will surely wind thee round and round,
and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou
die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of thy
lord's house. And I will thrust thee from thine
office; and from thy station shalt thou be pulled down.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I
will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
and I will cloth him with thy robe, and
strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his
hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the
house of Judah. And the key of the house of
David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall
shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure
place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house.
And they shall hang upon him all the glory of
his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from
the cups even to all the flagons. In that day,
saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place
give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was
upon it shall be cut off; for Jehovah hath spoken it.
The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish;
for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the
land of Kittim it is revealed to them. Be still,
ye inhabitants of the coast, thou whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass
over the sea, have replenished. And on great
waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue;
and she was the mart of nations. Be thou
ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea hath spoken, the stronghold of the sea,
saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished
young men, nor brought up virgins. When the
report cometh to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
Pass ye over to Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants
of the coast. Is this your joyous city,
whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to
sojourn? Who hath purposed this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are
the honorable of the earth? Jehovah of hosts
hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth. Pass through
thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any
more. He hath stretched out his hand over the
sea, he hath shaken the kingdoms: Jehovah hath given commandment
concerning Canaan, to destroy the strongholds thereof.
And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou
oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon: arise, pass over to Kittim; even there
shalt thou have no rest. Behold, the land of
the Chaldeans: this people was not; the Assyrian founded it for them that
dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the
palaces thereof; they made it a ruin. Howl, ye
ships of Tarshish; for your stronghold is laid waste.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that
Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king:
after the end of seventy years it shall be unto Tyre as in the song of the
harlot. Take a harp, go about the city, thou
harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that
thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to
pass after the end of seventy years, that Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she
shall return to her hire, and shall play the harlot with all the kingdoms
of the world upon the face of the earth. And
her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to Jehovah: it shall not be
treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell
before Jehovah, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
Behold, Jehovah maketh the earth empty, and
maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with
the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the
seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of
interest, so with the giver of interest to him.
The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly
laid waste; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world
languisheth and fadeth away, the lofty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants
thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath
the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found
guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men
left. The new wine mourneth, the vine
languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh. The
mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy
of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine
with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
The waste city is broken down; every house is
shut up, that no man may come in. There is a
crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth
of the land is gone. In the city is left
desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
For thus shall it be in the midst of the earth
among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive-tree, as the gleanings when
the vintage is done. These shall lift up their
voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of Jehovah they cry aloud from
the sea. Wherefore glorify ye Jehovah in the
east, even the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the isles of the
sea. From the uttermost part of the earth have
we heard songs: Glory to the righteous. But I said, I pine away, I pine
away, woe is me! the treacherous have dealt treacherously; yea, the
treacherous have dealt very treacherously.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon
thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall
come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall
into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be
taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the
foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is
utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently.
The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and
shall sway to and fro like a hammock; and the transgression thereof shall
be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that
Jehovah will punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of
the earth upon the earth. And they shall be
gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut
up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited.
Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed; for Jehovah of hosts will reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem;
and before his elders shall be glory.
O Jehovah, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I
will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, even
counsels of old, in faithfulness and truth.
For thou hast made of a city a heap, of a
fortified city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never
be built. Therefore shall a strong people
glorify thee; a city of terrible nations shall fear thee.
For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a
stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade
from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against
the wall. As the heat in a dry place wilt thou
bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud,
the song of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
And in this mountain will Jehovah of hosts make
unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of
fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of
the covering that covereth all peoples, and the veil that is spread over
all nations. He hath swallowed up death for
ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and
the reproach of his people will he take away from off all the earth: for
Jehovah hath spoken it. And it shall be said in
that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save
us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice
in his salvation. For in this mountain will the
hand of Jehovah rest; and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as
straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-hill.
And he shall spread forth his hands in the
midst thereof, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to
swim; but Jehovah will lay low his pride together with the craft of
his hands. And the high fortress of thy walls
hath he brought down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the
dust.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land
of Judah: we have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for walls and
bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous
nation which keepeth faith may enter in. Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee; because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in Jehovah for ever; for in Jehovah,
even Jehovah, is an everlasting rock. For
he hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city: he layeth it
low, he layeth it low even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of
the poor, and the steps of the needy. The way of
the just is uprightness: thou that art upright dost direct the path of the
just. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O
Jehovah, have we waited for thee; to thy name, even to thy memorial
name, is the desire of our soul. With my
soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will
I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the
inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he
not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal
wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.
Jehovah, thy hand is lifted up, yet they see
not: but they shall see thy zeal for the people, and be put to
shame; yea, fire shall devour thine adversaries.
Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for
thou hast also wrought all our works for us. O
Jehovah our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but
by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
They are dead, they shall not live;
they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited
and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish.
Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou
hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the
borders of the land. Jehovah, in trouble have
they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was
upon them. Like as a woman with child, that
draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain and crieth out in her
pangs; so we have been before thee, O Jehovah.
We have been with child, we have been in pain,
we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the
indignation be overpast. For, behold, Jehovah
cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more
cover her slain.
In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and
strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the
crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.
In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing ye unto
it. I Jehovah am its keeper; I will water it
every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Wrath is not in me: would that the briers and
thorns were against me in battle! I would march upon them, I would burn
them together. Or else let him take hold of my
strength, that he may make peace with me; yea, let him make peace
with me. In days to come shall Jacob take root;
Israel shall blossom and bud; and they shall fill the face of the world
with fruit. Hath he smitten them as he smote
those that smote them? or are they slain according to the slaughter of
them that were slain by them? In measure, when
thou sendest them away, thou dost contend with them; he hath removed
them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be
forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he maketh
all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder,
so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more.
For the fortified city is solitary, a
habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness: there shall the
calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
When the boughs thereof are withered, they
shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is
a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have
compassion upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that
Jehovah will beat off his fruit from the flood of the River unto
the brook of Egypt; and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of
Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day,
that a great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come that were ready
to perish in the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts in the land
of Egypt; and they shall worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of
Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the
head of the fat valley of them that are overcome with wine!
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one;
as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of mighty waters
overflowing, will he cast down to the earth with the hand.
The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
shall be trodden under foot: and the fading
flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley,
shall be as the first-ripe fig before the summer; which when he that
looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
In that day will Jehovah of hosts become a crown
of glory, and a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people;
and a spirit of justice to him that sitteth in
judgment, and strength to them that turn back the battle at the gate.
And even these reel with wine, and stagger with
strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are
swallowed up of wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision,
they stumble in judgment. For all tables are
full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place
clean. Whom will he teach knowledge? and
whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the
milk, and drawn from the breasts? For it is
precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon
line; here a little, there a little. Nay, but
by men of strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to
this people; to whom he said, This is the rest,
give ye rest to him that is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they
would not hear. Therefore shall the word of
Jehovah be unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, and
fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Wherefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye
scoffers, that rule this people that is in Jerusalem:
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant
with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner
-stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste.
And I will make justice the line, and
righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
And your covenant with death shall be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
As often as it passeth through, it shall take
you; for morning by morning shall it pass through, by day and by night:
and it shall be nought but terror to understand the message.
For the bed is shorter than that a man can
stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap
himself in it. For Jehovah will rise up as in
mount Perazim, he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do
his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your
bonds be made strong; for a decree of destruction have I heard from the
Lord, Jehovah of hosts, upon the whole earth.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and
hear my speech. Doth he that ploweth to sow
plow continually? doth he continually open and harrow his ground?
When he hath levelled the face thereof, doth he
not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in the wheat
in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the
border thereof? For his God doth instruct him
aright, and doth teach him. For the
fitches are not threshed with a sharp threshing instrument, neither
is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten
out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
Bread grain is ground; for he will not
be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses
scatter it, he doth not grind it. This also
cometh forth from Jehovah of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and
excellent in wisdom.
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
add ye year to year; let the feasts come round:
then will I distress Ariel, and there shall be
mourning and lamentation; and she shall be unto me as Ariel.
And I will encamp against thee round about, and
will lay siege against thee with posted troops, and I will raise siege
works against thee. And thou shalt be brought
down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out
of the dust; and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit,
out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
But the multitude of thy foes shall be like
small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones as chaff that passeth
away: yea, it shall be in an instant suddenly.
She shall be visited of Jehovah of hosts with
thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest,
and the flame of a devouring fire. And the
multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight
against her and her stronghold, and that distress her, shall be as a
dream, a vision of the night. And it shall be as
when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and
his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he
drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath
appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against
mount Zion. Tarry ye and wonder; take your
pleasure and be blind: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger,
but not with strong drink. For Jehovah hath
poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes,
the prophets; and your heads, the seers, hath he covered.
And all vision is become unto you as the words
of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned,
saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed:
and the book is delivered to him that is not
learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned.
And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people
draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips to
honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me
is a commandment of men which hath been taught them;
therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a
marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of
their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them
that hide deep their counsel from Jehovah, and whose works are in the
dark, and that say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Ye turn things upside down! Shall the potter be
esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him that made it, He
made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no
understanding? Is it not yet a very little
while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful
field shall be esteemed as a forest? And in
that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the
blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
The meek also shall increase their joy in
Jehovah, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and
the scoffer ceaseth, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off;
that make a man an offender in his
cause, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside
the just with a thing of nought. Therefore thus
saith Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob
shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
But when he seeth his children, the work of my
hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name; yea, they shall
sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall stand in awe of the God of
Israel. They also that err in spirit shall come
to understanding, and they that murmur shall receive instruction.
Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah,
that take counsel, but not of me; and that make a league, but not of my
Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, that set
out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen
themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of
Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh
be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
For their princes are at Zoan, and their
ambassadors are come to Hanes. They shall all be
ashamed because of a people that cannot profit them, that are not a help
nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
The burden of the beasts of the South. Through
the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the
lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the
shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to
a people that shall not profit them. For
Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her
Rahab that sitteth still. Now go, write it
before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the
time to come for ever and ever. For it is a
rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of
Jehovah; that say to the seers, See not; and to
the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth
things, prophesy deceits, get you out of the
way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy
One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and
perverseness, and rely thereon; therefore this
iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high
wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant.
And he shall break it as a potter's vessel is
broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be
found among the pieces thereof a sherd wherewith to take fire from the
hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.
For thus said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of
Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength. And ye would not:
but ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses;
therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall
they that pursue you be swift. One thousand
shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall ye
flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an
ensign on a hill. And therefore will Jehovah
wait, that he may be gracious unto you; and therefore will he be exalted,
that he may have mercy upon you: for Jehovah is a God of justice; blessed
are all they that wait for him. For the people
shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more; he will surely
be gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear, he will
answer thee. And though the Lord give you the
bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers
be hidden anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers;
and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,
saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; when ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left. And ye shall
defile the overlaying of thy graven images of silver, and the plating of
thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as an unclean thing;
thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. And he
will give the rain for thy seed, wherewith thou shalt sow the ground; and
bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In
that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures;
the oxen likewise and the young asses that till
the ground shall eat savory provender, which hath been winnowed with the
shovel and with the fork. And there shall be
upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, brooks and
streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers
fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as
the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth up the hurt of
his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of
indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;
and his breath is as an overflowing stream,
that reacheth even unto the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of
destruction: and a bridle that causeth to err shall be in the jaws
of the peoples. Ye shall have a song as in the
night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth
with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.
And Jehovah will cause his glorious voice to be
heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of
his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and
tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice
of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he smite
him. And every stroke of the appointed
staff, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, shall be with the sound of
tabrets and harps; and in battles with the brandishing of his arm
will he fight with them. For a Topheth is
prepared of old; yea, for the king it is made ready; he hath made it deep
and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah,
like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and
rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in
horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One
of Israel, neither seek Jehovah! Yet he also is
wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words, but will
arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of them
that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men,
and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and when Jehovah
shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he
that is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As the lion and
the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds be
called forth against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase
himself for the noise of them: so will Jehovah of hosts come down to fight
upon mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof. As
birds hovering, so will Jehovah of hosts protect Jerusalem; he will
protect and deliver it, he will pass over and preserve it.
Turn ye unto him from whom ye have deeply
revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day
they shall cast away every man his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,
which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of
man; and the sword, not of men, shall devour him; and he shall flee from
the sword, and his young men shall become subject to taskwork.
And his rock shall pass away by reason of
terror, and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, saith Jehovah,
whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and
princes shall rule in justice. And a man shall
be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as
streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary
land. And the eyes of them that see shall not be
dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
And the heart of the rash shall understand
knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak
plainly. The fool shall be no more called noble,
nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the fool
will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise
profaneness, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of
the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
And the instruments of the churl are evil: he
deviseth wicked devices to destroy the meek with lying words, even when
the needy speaketh right. But the noble deviseth
noble things; and in noble things shall he continue.
Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and
hear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech.
For days beyond a year shall ye be troubled, ye
careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not
come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be
troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird
sackcloth upon your loins. They shall
smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns
and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous
city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for
ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
until the Spirit be poured upon us from on
high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
be esteemed as a forest. Then justice shall
dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful
field. And the work of righteousness shall be
peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever.
And my people shall abide in a peaceable
habitation, and in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
But it shall hail in the downfall of the
forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.
Blessed are yet that sow beside all waters,
that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.
Woe to thee that destroyest, and thou wast not
destroyed; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously
with thee! When thou hast ceased to destroy, thou shalt be destroyed; and
when thou hast made an end of dealing treacherously, they shall deal
treacherously with thee. O Jehovah, be gracious
unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou our arm every morning, our
salvation also in the time of trouble. At the
noise of the tumult the peoples are fled; at the lifting up of thyself the
nations are scattered. And your spoil shall be
gathered as the caterpillar gathereth: as locusts leap shall men leap upon
it. Jehovah is exalted; for he dwelleth on high:
he hath filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
And there shall be stability in thy times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of Jehovah is thy
treasure. Behold, their valiant ones cry
without; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man
ceaseth: the enemy hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the
cities, he regardeth not man. The land mourneth
and languisheth; Lebanon is confounded and withereth away; Sharon is like
a desert; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will I
lift up myself; now will I be exalted. Ye shall
conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath is a fire that
shall devour you. And the peoples shall be as
the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.
Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done;
and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling hath
seized the godless ones: Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire?
who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh
uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his
hands from taking a bribe, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood,
and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil:
He shall dwell on high; his place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks; his bread shall be given him; his
waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the
king in his beauty: they shall behold a land that reacheth afar.
Thy heart shall muse on the terror: Where is he
that counted, where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he
that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see the
fierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not comprehend,
of a strange tongue that thou canst not understand.
Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities:
thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not
be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall
any of the cords thereof be broken. But there
Jehovah will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams,
wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass
thereby. For Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is
our lawgiver, Jehovah is our king; he will save us.
Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not
strengthen the foot of their mast, they could not spread the sail: then
was the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame took the prey.
And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick:
the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye
peoples: let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all
things that come forth from it. For Jehovah hath
indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he
hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
Their slain also shall be cast out, and the
stench of their dead bodies shall come up; and the mountains shall be
melted with their blood. And all the host of
heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a
scroll; and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fadeth from off
the vine, and as a fading leaf from the fig-tree.
For my sword hath drunk its fill in heaven:
behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment. The sword of Jehovah is filled with
blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Jehovah hath a sacrifice in
Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
And the wild-oxen shall come down with them, and
the bullocks with the bulls: and their land shall be drunken with blood,
and their dust made fat with fatness. For
Jehovah hath a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of
Zion. And the streams of Edom shall be
turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land
thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall
not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever;
from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through
it for ever and ever. But the pelican and the
porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein:
and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of
emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof
to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be
nothing. And thorns shall come up in its
palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a
habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet
with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, the
night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest.
There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and
lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yea, there shall the kites be
gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out
of the book of Jehovah, and read: no one of these shall be missing, none
shall want her mate; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his Spirit, it
hath gathered them. And he hath cast the lot
for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall
possess it for ever; from generation to generation shall they dwell
therein.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even
with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the
excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, the
excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak
hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will
come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; he will
come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the
tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break
out, and streams in the desert. And the glowing
sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the
habitation of jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and
rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way,
and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass
over it; but it shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea
fools, shall not err therein. No lion
shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not
be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and
come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their
heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall
flee away.
Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of
king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the
fortified cities of Judah, and took them. And
the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king
Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool
in the highway of the fuller's field. Then came
forth unto him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder.
And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence
is this wherein thou trustest? I say, thy
counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom dost thou
trust, that thou hast rebelled against me?
Behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this
bruised reed, even upon Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his
hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust on him.
But if thou say unto me, We trust in Jehovah our
God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath
taken away, and hath said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship
before this altar? Now therefore, I pray thee,
give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two
thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
How then canst thou turn away the face of one
captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt
for chariots and for horsemen? And am I now
come up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said unto
me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto
Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language;
for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the
ears of the people that are on the wall. But
Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to
speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit
upon the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with
you? Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a
loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great
king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king,
Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you:
neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah,
saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to
Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and
come out to me; and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his
fig-tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
until I come and take you away to a land like
your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and
vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you,
saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations
delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where
are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my
hand? Who are they among all the gods of these
countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah
should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But
they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's
commandment was, saying, Answer him not. Then
came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna
the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with
their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard
it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went
into the house of Jehovah. And he sent Eliakim,
who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the
priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah,
This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely; for the
children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of
Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to defy the
living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard:
wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to
your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast
heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall
hear tidings, and shall return unto his own land; and I will cause him to
fall by the sword in his own land. So Rabshakeh
returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had
heard that he was departed from Lachish. And he
heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight
against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah,
saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of
Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying,
Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of
Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou
be delivered? Have the gods of the nations
delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and
Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of
Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand
of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of
Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. And
Hezekiah prayed unto Jehovah, saying, O Jehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel, that sittest above the cherubim, thou
art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast
made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O
Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the
words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to defy the living God.
Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have
laid waste all the countries, and their land,
and have cast their gods into the fire: for
they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore
they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O
Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that thou art Jehovah, even thou only.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah,
saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to
me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is
the word which Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of
Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom
hast thou defied and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy
voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One
of Israel. By thy servants hast thou defied the
Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the
height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut
down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof; and I will
enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field;
I have digged and drunk water, and with the
sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
Hast thou not heard how I have done it long
ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that
it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small
power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the
field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as a
field of grain before it is grown up.
But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out,
and thy coming in, and thy raging against me.
Because of thy raging against me, and because
thine arrogancy is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in
thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way
by which thou camest. And this shall be the
sign unto thee: ye shall eat this year that which groweth of itself, and
in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year
sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of
Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant,
and out of mount Zion they that shall escape. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts
will perform this. Therefore thus saith Jehovah
concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come unto this city, nor
shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor
cast up a mound against it. By the way that he
came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this city,
saith Jehovah. For I will defend this city to
save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
And the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote
in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand;
and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead
bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria
departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.