1:1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw
about
Judah and Jerusalem,
in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of
Judah.
1:2 Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which
the
Lord has said: I have
taken care of my children till they
became men, but their
hearts have been turned away from me.
1:3 Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of
the
place where its
master puts its food: but Israel has no
knowledge, my people
give no thought to me.
1:4 O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime,
a
generation of
evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have
gone away from the
Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One
of Israel, their
hearts are turned back from him.
1:5 Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on
in
your evil ways? Every
head is tired and every heart is feeble.
1:6 The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a
mass
of open wounds, marks
of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of
blood has not been stopped,
and no oil has been put on the
wounds.
1:7 Your country has become waste; your towns are burned
with
fire; as for your
land, it is overturned before your eyes, made
waste and overcome by
men from strange lands.
1:8 And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a
vine-garden, like a
watchman's house in a field of fruit, like
a town shut in by
armies.
1:9 If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us
safe,
we would have been
like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would
have been ours.
1:10 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom;
let
your hearts be turned
to the law of our God, you people of
Gomorrah.
1:11 What use to me is the number of the offerings which you
give me? says the
Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the
best parts of fat
cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no
pleasure in the blood
of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
1:12 At whose request do you come before me, making my house
unclean with your
feet?
1:13 Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning
flesh
is disgusting to me,
so are your new moons and Sabbaths and
your holy meetings.
1:14 Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to
my
soul: they are a
weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.
1:15 And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes
will
be turned away from
you: even though you go on making prayers,
I will not give ear:
your hands are full of blood.
1:16 Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your
doings from before my
eyes; let there be an end of sinning;
1:17 Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright,
keep
down the cruel, give
a right decision for the child who has no
father, see to the
cause of the widow.
1:18 Come now, and let us have an argument together, says
the
Lord: how may your
sins which are red like blood be white as
snow? how may their
dark purple seem like wool?
1:19 If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good
things
of the land will be
yours;
1:20 But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send
destruction on you by
the sword; so the Lord has said.
1:21 The upright town has become untrue; there was a time
when
her judges gave right
decisions, when righteousness had a
resting-place in her,
but now she is full of those who take
men's lives.
1:22 Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed
with water.
1:23 Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have
become
friends of thieves;
every one of them is looking for profit and
going after rewards;
they do not give right decisions for the
child who has no
father, and they do not let the cause of the
widow come before
them.
1:24 For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the
Strong
One of Israel, has
said, I will put an end to my haters, and
send punishment on
those who are against me;
1:25 And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is
unclean as with soap,
and taking away all your false metal;
1:26 And I will give you judges again as at the first, and
wise
guides as in the
past; then you will be named, The Town of
Righteousness, the
true town.
1:27 Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness,
and
by righteousness will
men be living there.
1:28 But a common destruction will overtake sinners and
evil-doers together,
and those who have gone away from the Lord
will be cut off.
1:29 For you will be put to shame because of the trees of
your
desire, and because
of the gardens of your pleasure.
1:30 For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become
dry,
and like a garden
without water.
1:31 And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his
work
as a flame; and they
will be burned together, with no one to
put out the fire.
2:1 The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw about Judah
and
Jerusalem.
2:2 And it will come about in the last days, that the
mountain
of the Lord will be
placed on the top of the mountains, and be
lifted up over the
hills; and all nations will come to it.
2:3 And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob: and he
will give us
knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided by
his word; for out of
Zion the law will go out, and the word of
the Lord from
Jerusalem.
2:4 And he will be the judge between the nations, and the
peoples will be ruled
by his decisions: and their swords will
be turned into
plough-blades, and their spears into
vine-knives: no
longer will the nations be turning their swords
against one another,
and the knowledge of war will be gone for
ever.
2:5 O family of Jacob, come, and let us go in the light of
the
Lord.
2:6 For you, O Lord, have given up your people, the family
of
Jacob, because they
are full of the evil ways of the east, and
make use of secret
arts like the Philistines, and are friends
with the children of
strange countries.
2:7 And their land is full of silver and gold, and there is
no
end to their stores;
their land is full of horses, and there is
no end to their
carriages.
2:8 Their land is full of images; they give worship to the
work
of their hands, even
to that which their fingers have made.
2:9 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes
down
on his face: for this
cause there will be no forgiveness for
their sin.
2:10 Go into a hole in the rock, covering yourselves with
dust,
in fear of the Lord,
before the glory of his power.
2:11 The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the
pride
of men will be made
low, and only the Lord will be lifted up in
that day.
2:12 For the day of the Lord of armies is coming on all the
pride of men, and on
all who are high and lifted up;
2:13 And on all the high trees of Lebanon, and on all the
strong
trees of Bashan;
2:14 And on all the high mountains, and on all the hills which
are lifted up;
2:15 And on every high tower, and on every strong wall;
2:16 And on all the ships of Tarshish, and on all the fair
boats.
2:17 And the high looks of man will be put to shame, and the
pride of men will be
made low: and only the Lord will be lifted
up in that day.
2:18 And the images will never be seen again.
2:19 And men will go into cracks of the rocks, and into
holes of
the earth, for fear
of the Lord, and before the glory of his
power, when he comes
out of his place, shaking the earth with
his strength.
2:20 In that day men will put their images of silver and of
gold, which they made
for worship, in the keeping of the beasts
of the dark places;
2:21 To take cover in the cracks of the rocks, and in the
holes
of the hills, for fear
of the Lord, and before the glory of his
power, when he comes
out of his place, shaking the earth with
his strength.
2:22 Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a
breath,
for he is of no
value.
3:1 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away
from
Jerusalem and from
Judah all their support; their store of
bread and of water;
3:2 The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the
prophet; the man who
has knowledge of secret arts, and the man
who is wise because
of his years;
3:3 The captain of fifty, and the man of high position, and
the
wise guide, and the
wonder-worker, and he who makes use of
secret powers.
3:4 And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones
will
have rule over them.
3:5 And the people will be crushed, every one by his
neighbour;
the young will be
full of pride against the old, and those of
low position will be
lifted up against the noble.
3:6 When one man puts his hand on another in his father's
house,
and says, You have
clothing, be our ruler and be responsible
for us in our sad
condition:
3:7 Then he will say with an oath, I will not be a helper,
for
in my house there is
no bread or clothing: I will not let you
make me a ruler of
the people.
3:8 For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has
come on
Judah, because their
words and their acts are against the Lord,
moving the eyes of
his glory to wrath.
3:9 Their respect for a man's position is a witness against
them; and their sin
is open to the view of all; like that of
Sodom, it is not
covered. A curse on their soul! for the
measure of their sin
is full.
3:10 Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the
fruit
of his ways.
3:11 Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil
doings
will come on him.
3:12 As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child,
and
those who have
authority over them are women. O my people, your
guides are the cause
of your wandering, turning your footsteps
out of the right way.
3:13 The Lord is ready to take up his cause against his
people,
and is about to come
forward as their judge.
3:14 The Lord comes to be the judge of their responsible men
and
of their rulers: it
is you who have made waste the vine-garden,
and in your houses is
the property of the poor which you have
taken by force.
3:15 By what right are you crushing my people, and putting a
bitter yoke on the
necks of the poor? This is the word of the
Lord, the Lord of
armies.
3:16 Again, the Lord has said, Because the daughters of Zion
are
full of pride, and go
with outstretched necks and wandering
eyes, with their
foot-chains sounding when they go:
3:17 The Lord will send disease on the heads of the
daughters of
Zion, and the Lord
will let their secret parts be seen.
3:18 In that day the Lord will take away the glory of their
foot-rings, and their
sun-jewels, and their moon-ornaments,
3:19 The ear-rings, and the chains, and the delicate
clothing,
3:20 The head-bands, and the arm-chains, and the worked
bands,
and the
perfume-boxes, and the jewels with secret powers,
3:21 The rings, and the nose-jewels,
3:22 The feast-day dresses, and the robes, and the wide
skirts,
and the handbags,
3:23 The looking-glasses, and the fair linen, and the high
head-dresses, and the
veils.
3:24 And in the place of sweet spices will be an evil smell,
and
for a fair band a
thick cord; for a well-dressed head there
will be the
cutting-off of the hair, and for a beautiful robe
there will be the
clothing of sorrow; the mark of the prisoner
in place of the
ornaments of the free.
3:25 Your men will be put to the sword, and your men of war
will
come to destruction
in the fight.
3:26 And in the public places of her towns will be sorrow
and
weeping; and she will
be seated on the earth, waste and
uncovered.
4:1 And in that day seven women will put their hands on one
man,
saying, There will be
no need for you to give us food or
clothing, only let us
go under your name, so that our shame may
be taken away.
4:2 In that day will the young growth of the Lord be
beautiful
in glory, and the
fruit of the earth will be the pride of those
who are still living
in Israel.
4:3 And it will come about that the rest of the living in
Zion,
and of those who have
been kept from destruction in Jerusalem,
will be named holy,
even everyone who has been recorded for
life in Jerusalem:
4:4 When Zion has been washed from her sin by the Lord, and
Jerusalem made clean
from her blood by a judging and a burning
wind.
4:5 And over every living-place on Mount Zion, all over all
her
meetings, the Lord
will make a cloud and smoke by day, and the
shining of a flaming
fire by night, for over all, the glory of
the Lord will be a
cover and a tent;
4:6 And a shade in the daytime from the heat, and a safe
cover
from storm and from
rain.
5:1 Let me make a song about my loved one, a song of love
for
his vine-garden. My
loved one had a vine-garden on a fertile
hill:
5:2 And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took
away
its stones, and put
in it a very special vine; and he put up a
watchtower in the
middle of it, hollowing out in the rock a
place for the
grape-crushing; and he was hoping that it would
give the best grapes,
but it gave common grapes.
5:3 And now, you people of Jerusalem and you men of Judah,
be
the judges between me
and my vine-garden.
5:4 Is there anything which might have been done for my
vine-garden which I
have not done? why then, when I was hoping
for the best grapes
did it give me common grapes?
5:5 And now, this is what I will do to my vine-garden: I
will
take away the circle
of thorns round it, and it will be burned
up; its wall will be
broken down and the beasts of the field
will go through it;
5:6 And I will make it waste; its branches will not be
touched
with the knife, or
the earth worked with the spade; but
blackberries and
thorns will come up in it: and I will give
orders to the clouds
not to send rain on it.
5:7 For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people
of
Israel, and the men
of Judah are the plant of his delight: and
he was looking for
upright judging, and there was blood; for
righteousness, and
there was a cry for help.
5:8 Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and
putting
field to field, till
there is no more living-space for any but
themselves in all the
land!
5:9 The Lord of armies has said to me secretly, Truly,
numbers
of great and fair
houses will be waste, with no one living in
them.
5:10 For ten fields of vines will only give one measure of
wine,
and a great amount of
seed will only give a small measure of
grain.
5:11 Cursed are those who get up early in the morning to
give
themselves up to
strong drink; who keep on drinking far into
the night till they
are heated with wine!
5:12 And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine
are in
their feasts: but
they give no thought to the work of the Lord,
and they are not
interested in what his hands are doing.
5:13 For this cause my people are taken away as prisoners
into
strange countries for
need of knowledge: and their rulers are
wasted for need of
food, and their loud-voiced feasters are dry
for need of water.
5:14 For this cause the underworld has made wide its throat,
opening its mouth
without limit: and her glory, and the noise
of her masses, and
her loud-voiced feasters, will go down into
it.
5:15 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes
down on his face, and
the eyes of pride are put to shame:
5:16 But the Lord of armies is lifted up as judge, and the
Holy
God is seen to be
holy in righteousness.
5:17 Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands,
and
the fat cattle will
be feasting in the waste places.
5:18 Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling
the
evil thing, and the
bands of a young ox for their sin!
5:19 Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it
sudden, so that we
may see it: let the design of the Holy One
of Israel come near,
so that it may be clear to us.
5:20 Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and
of
evil to what is good:
who make light dark, and dark light: who
make bitter sweet,
and sweet bitter!
5:21 Cursed are those who seem wise to themselves, and who
take
pride in their
knowledge!
5:22 Cursed are those who are strong to take wine, and great
in
making mixed drinks!
5:23 Who for a reward give support to the cause of the
sinner,
and who take away the
righteousness of the upright from him.
5:24 For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up
by
tongues of fire, and
as the dry grass goes down before the
flame, so their root
will be like the dry stems of grain, and
their flower will go
up in dust: because they have gone against
the law of the Lord
of armies, and have given no honour to the
word of the Holy One
of Israel.
5:25 For this reason the wrath of the Lord has been burning
against his people,
and his hand has been stretched out against
them in punishment,
and the hills were shaking, and their dead
bodies were like waste
in the open places of the town.
5:26 And he will let a flag be lifted up as a sign to a
far-off
nation, whistling to
them from the ends of the earth: and they
will come quickly and
suddenly.
5:27 There is no weariness among them, and no man is
feeble-footed: they
come without resting or sleeping, and the
cord of their shoes
is not broken.
5:28 Their arrows are sharp, and every bow is bent: the feet
of
their horses are like
rock, and their wheels are like a rushing
storm.
5:29 The sound of their armies will be like the voice of a
lion,
and their war-cry
like the noise of young lions: with loud
cries they will come
down on their food and will take it away
safely, and there
will be no one to take it out of their hands.
5:30 And his voice will be loud over him in that day like
the
sounding of the sea:
and if a man's eyes are turned to the
earth, it is all dark
and full of trouble; and the light is
made dark by thick
clouds.
6:1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated
in
his place, high and
lifted up, and the Temple was full of the
wide skirts of his
robe.
6:2 Over him were the winged ones: every one had six wings;
two
for covering his
face, two for covering his feed, and two for
flight.
6:3 And one said in a loud voice to another, Holy, holy,
holy,
is the Lord of
armies: all the earth is full of his glory.
6:4 And the bases of the door-pillars were shaking at the
sound
of his cry, and the
house was full of smoke.
6:5 Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is
destruction;
for I am a man of
unclean lips, living among a people of
unclean lips; for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
armies.
6:6 Then a winged one came to me with a burning coal in his
hand, which he had
taken from off the altar with the
fire-spoon.
6:7 And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your
lips
have been touched
with this; and your evil is taken away, and
you are made clean
from sin.
6:8 And the voice of the Lord came to my ears, saying, Whom
am I
to send, and who will
go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send
me.
6:9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You will go on
hearing, but learning
nothing; you will go on seeing, but
without getting
wiser.
6:10 Make the hearts of this people fat, and let their ears
be
stopped, and their
eyes shut; for fear that they may see with
their eyes, and be
hearing with their ears, and their heart may
become wise, and they
may be turned to me and made well.
6:11 Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer,
Till
the towns are waste
and unpeopled, and the houses have no men,
and the land becomes
completely waste,
6:12 And the Lord has taken men far away, and there are wide
waste places in the
land.
6:13 And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will
again be burned, like
a tree of the woods whose broken end is
still in the earth
after the tree has been cut down (the holy
seed is the broken
end).
7:1 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of
Jotham,
the son of Uzziah,
king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Aram,
and Pekah, the son of
Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to
Jerusalem to make war
against it, but were not able to overcome
it.
7:2 And word came to the family of David that Aram had put
up
its tents in Ephraim.
And the king's heart, and the hearts of
his people, were
moved, like the trees of the wood shaking in
the wind.
7:3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now, you and
Shear-jashub, your
son, and you will come across Ahaz at the
end of the stream
flowing from the higher pool, in the highway
of the washerman's
field;
7:4 And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear,
and do
not let your heart be
feeble, because of these two ends of
smoking fire-wood,
because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and
Aram, and of the son
of Remaliah.
7:5 Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying,
7:6 Let us go up against Judah, troubling her, and forcing
our
way into her, and let
us put up a king in her, even the son of
Tabeel:
7:7 This is the word of the Lord God: This design will not
come
about or be effected.
7:8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of
Damascus
is Rezin (and in
sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be
broken, and will no
longer be a people):
7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of
Samaria
is Remaliah's son. If
you will not have faith, your kingdom
will be broken.
7:10 And Isaiah said again to Ahaz,
7:11 Make a request to the Lord your God for a sign, a sign
in
the deep places of
the underworld, or in the high heavens.
7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not put the Lord to the test by
making such a
request.
7:13 And he said, Give ear now, O family of David: is it not
enough that you are
driving men to disgust? will you do the
same to my God?
7:14 For this cause the Lord himself will give you a sign; a
young woman is now
with child, and she will give birth to a
son, and she will
give him the name Immanuel.
7:15 Butter and honey will be his food, when he is old
enough to
make a decision
between evil and good.
7:16 For before the child is old enough to make a decision
between evil and
good, the land whose two kings you are now
fearing will have
become waste.
7:17 The Lord is about to send on you, and on your people,
and
on your father's
house, such a time of trouble as there has not
been from the days of
the separating of Ephraim from Judah;
even the coming of
the king of Assyria.
7:18 And it will be in that day that the Lord will make a
piping
sound for the fly
which is in the end of the rivers of Egypt,
and for the bee which
is in the land of Assyria.
7:19 And they will come, covering all the waste valleys, and
the
holes of the rocks,
and the thorns, and all the
watering-places.
7:20 In that day will the Lord take away the hair of the
head
and of the feet, as
well as the hair of the face, with a blade
got for a price from
the other side of the River; even with the
king of Assyria.
7:21 And it will be in that day that a man will give food to
a
young cow and two sheep;
7:22 And they will give so much milk that he will be able to
have butter for his
food: for butter and honey will be the food
of all who are still
living in the land.
7:23 And it will be in that day that in every place where
before
there were a thousand
vines valued at a thousand shekels of
silver, there will be
nothing but blackberries and thorns.
7:24 Men will come there with bows and arrows, because all
the
land will be full of
blackberries and thorns.
7:25 And they will send out the oxen and the sheep on all
the
hills which before
were worked with the spade, ... fear of
blackberries and
thorns.
8:1 And the Lord said to me, Take a great writing-board, and
on
it put down in common
letters, Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
8:2 And take true witnesses to the writing, Uriah the
priest,
and Zechariah, the
son of Jeberechiah.
8:3 And I went in to my wife, and she became with child, and
gave birth to a son.
Then the Lord said to me, Give him the
name Maher-shalal-hash-baz,
8:4 For before the child is able to say, Father, or, Mother,
the
wealth of Damascus
and the goods of Samaria will be taken away
by the king of
Assyria.
8:5 And the Lord said again to me,
8:6 Because this people will have nothing to do with the
softly-flowing waters
of Shiloah, and have fear of Rezin and
Remaliah's son;
8:7 For this cause the Lord is sending on them the waters of
the
River, deep and
strong, even the king of Assyria and all his
glory: and it will
come up through all its streams, overflowing
all its edges:
8:8 And it will come on into Judah; rushing on and
overflowing,
till the waters are
up to the neck; *** and his outstretched
wings will be
covering the land from side to side: for God is
with us.
8:9 Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all
you
far-off parts of the
earth:
8:10 Let your designs be formed, and they will come to
nothing;
give your orders, and
they will not be effected: for God is
with us.
8:11 For the Lord, controlling me with a strong hand, gave
me
orders not to go in
the way of this people, saying,
8:12 Do not say, It is holy, about everything of which this
people says, It is
holy; and do not be in fear of what they go
in fear of.
8:13 But let the Lord of armies be holy to you, and go in
fear
of him, giving honour
to him.
8:14 And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of
falling
and a rock of trouble
to the two houses of Israel, and to the
men of Jerusalem, for
a net in which they may be taken.
8:15 And numbers of them, falling on the stone, will be
broken,
and will be taken in
the net.
8:16 Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given
to my
disciples only.
8:17 And I will be waiting for the Lord, whose face is veiled
from the house of
Jacob, and I will be looking for him.
8:18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me, are
for
signs and for wonders
in Israel from the Lord of armies, whose
resting-place is in
Mount Zion.
8:19 And when they say to you, Make request for us to those
who
have control of
spirits, and to those wise in secret arts, who
make hollow bird-like
sounds; is it not right for a people to
make request to their
gods, to make request for the living to
the dead?
8:20 Then say to them, Put your faith in the teaching and
the
witness. ... If they
do not say such things. ... For him there
is no dawn. ...
8:21 And he will go through the land in bitter trouble and
in
need of food; and
when he is unable to get food, he will become
angry, cursing his
king and his God, and his eyes will be
turned to heaven on
high;
8:22 And he will be looking down on the earth, and there
will be
trouble and dark
clouds, black night where there is no seeing.
9:1 In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the
land of
Naphtali of small
value, but after that he gave it glory, by
the way of the sea,
on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the
nations.
9:2 The people who went in the dark have seen a great light,
and
for those who were
living in the land of the deepest night, the
light is shining.
9:3 You have made them very glad, increasing their joy. They
are
glad before you as
men are glad in the time of getting in the
grain, or when they
make division of the goods taken in war.
9:4 For by your hand the yoke on his neck and the rod on his
back, even the rod of
his cruel master, have been broken, as in
the day of Midian.
9:5 For every boot of the man of war with his sounding step,
and
the clothing rolled
in blood, will be for burning, food for the
fire.
9:6 For to us a child has come, to us a son is given; and
the
government has been
placed in his hands; and he has been named
Wise Guide, Strong
God, Father for ever, Prince of Peace.
9:7 Of the increase of his rule and of peace there will be
no
end, on the seat of
David, and in his kingdom; to make it
strong, supporting it
with wise decision and righteousness, now
and for ever. By the
fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this
will be done.
9:8 The Lord has sent a word to Jacob, and it has come on
Israel;
9:9 And all the people will have experience of it, even
Ephraim
and the men of
Samaria, who say in the pride of their uplifted
hearts,
9:10 The bricks have come down, but we will put up buildings
of
cut stone in their
place: the sycamores are cut down, but they
will be changed to
cedars.
9:11 For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of
Israel, driving them
on to make war against him;
9:12 Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who
have
come against Israel
with open mouths. For all this his wrath is
not turned away, but
his hand is stretched out still.
9:13 But the heart of the people was not turned to him who
sent
punishment on them,
and they made no prayer to the Lord of
armies.
9:14 For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and
tail, high and low,
in one day.
9:15 The man who is honoured and responsible is the head,
and
the prophet who gives
false teaching is the tail.
9:16 For the guides of this people are the cause of their
wandering from the
right way, and those who are guided by them
come to destruction.
9:17 For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their
young men, and no
pity on their widows and the children without
fathers: for they are
all haters of God and evil-doers, and
foolish words come
from every mouth. For all this his wrath is
not turned away, but
his hand is stretched out still.
9:18 For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and
thorns were burned
up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up in
dark clouds of smoke.
9:19 The land was dark with the wrath of the Lord of armies:
the
people were like
those who take men's flesh for food.
9:20 On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still
in
need; on the left a
man took a meal but had not enough; no man
had pity on his
brother; every man was making a meal of the
flesh of his
neighbour.
9:21 Manasseh was making a meal of Ephraim, and Ephraim of
Manasseh; and
together they were attacking Judah. For all this
his wrath is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out
still.
10:1 Cursed are those who make evil decisions, and the
writers
who make the records
of their cruel acts:
10:2 Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away
the
right of the crushed
among my people, so that they may have the
property of widows,
and get under their power those who have no
father.
10:3 And what will you do in the day of punishment, and in
the
destruction which is
coming from far? to whom will you go for
help, and what will
become of your glory?
10:4 ... For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his
hand
is stretched out
still.
10:5 Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my
punishment!
10:6 I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and
against
the people of my
wrath I will give him orders, to take their
wealth in war,
crushing them down like the dust in the streets.
10:7 But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not
his
design; but his
purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of
more and more
nations.
10:8 For he says, Are not all my captains kings?
10:9 Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish?
is
not Hamath as Arpad?
is not Samaria as Damascus?
10:10 As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images,
whose
pictured images were
more in number than those of Jerusalem and
Samaria;
10:11 So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will
do to
Jerusalem and her
images.
10:12 For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of
the
Lord against Mount
Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will send
punishment on the
pride of the heart of the king of Assyria,
and on the glory of
his uplifted eyes.
10:13 For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done
it, and by my
knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away
the limits of the
peoples' lands, and the stores of their
wealth have become
mine; and I have made towns low in the dust,
sending destruction
on those living in them;
10:14 And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples,
as
on the place where a
bird has put her eggs; and as a man may
take the eggs from
which a bird has gone, so I have taken all
the earth for myself:
and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth
gave out a sound.
10:15 Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who
is
using it, or the
blade be full of pride against him who is
cutting with it? As
if a rod had the power of shaking him who
is using it, or as if
a stick might take up him who is not
wood.
10:16 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make
his
fat become wasted;
and in his inner parts a fire will be
lighted like a
burning flame.
10:17 And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his
Holy
One for a flame:
wasting and burning up his thorns in one day.
10:18 And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and
of
his planted fields,
soul and body together; and it will be as
when a man is wasted
by disease.
10:19 And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in
number, so that a
child may put them down in writing.
10:20 And it will be in that day that the rest of Israel,
and
those of Jacob who
have come safely through these troubles,
will no longer go for
help to him whose rod was on their back,
but their faith will
be in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
10:21 The rest, even the rest of Jacob, will come back to
the
Strong God.
10:22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of
the
sea, only a small
number will come back: for the destruction is
fixed, overflowing in
righteousness.
10:23 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to make
destruction complete
in all the land.
10:24 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, says, O
my
people living in
Zion, have no fear of the Assyrian, even if
his rod comes on your
back, and his stick is lifted up as in
Egypt.
10:25 For in a very short time my passion will be over, and
my
wrath will be turned
to their destruction.
10:26 And the Lord of armies will be shaking a whip against
him,
as when he overcame
Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod
will be lifted up
against them as it was against the Egyptians.
10:27 And in that day the weight which he put on your back
will
be taken away, and
his yoke broken from off your neck.
10:28 He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon, he has come to Aiath;
he
has gone past Migron,
at Michmash he puts his forces in order.
10:29 They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our
resting-place
tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear;
Gibeah of Saul has
gone in flight.
10:30 Give a loud cry, daughter of Gallim; let Laishah give
ear;
let Anathoth give
answer to her.
10:31 Madmenah has gone; the men of Gebim are putting their
goods in a safe
place.
10:32 This very day he is stopping at Nob; he is shaking his
hand against the
mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of
Jerusalem.
10:33 See, the Lord, the Lord of armies, is cutting off his
branches with a great
noise, and his strong ones are falling
and his high ones are
coming down.
10:34 And he is cutting down the thick places of the wood
with
an axe, and Lebanon
with its tall trees is coming down.
11:1 And there will come a rod out of the broken tree of
Jesse,
and a branch out of
his roots will give fruit.
11:2 And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the
spirit of wisdom and
good sense, the spirit of wise guiding and
strength, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
11:3 And he will not be guided in his judging by what he
sees,
or give decisions by
the hearing of his ears:
11:4 But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give
wise decisions for
those in the land who are in need; and the
rod of his mouth will
come down on the cruel, and with the
breath of his lips he
will put an end to the evil-doer.
11:5 And righteousness will be the cord of his robe, and
good
faith the band round
his breast.
11:6 And the wolf will be living with the lamb, and the
leopard
will take his rest
with the young goat; and the lion will take
grass for food like
the ox; and the young lion will go with the
young ones of the
herd; and a little child will be their guide.
11:7 And the cow and the bear will be friends while their
young
ones are sleeping
together.
11:8 And the child at the breast will be playing by the hole
of
the snake, and the
older child will put his hand on the bright
eye of the
poison-snake.
11:9 There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my
holy mountain: for
the earth will be full of the knowledge of
the Lord as the sea
is covered by the waters.
11:10 And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be
turned to
the root of Jesse
which will be lifted up as the flag of the
peoples; and his
resting-place will be glory.
11:11 And in that day the hand of the Lord will be stretched
out
the second time to
get back the rest of his people, from
Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and
from Elam, and from
Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
sea-lands.
11:12 And he will put up a flag as a sign to the nations,
and he
will get together
those of Israel who had been sent away, and
the wandering ones of
Judah, from the four ends of the earth.
11:13 And the envy of Ephraim will be gone, and those who
make
trouble for Judah
will come to an end: Ephraim will have no
more envy of Judah,
and there will be an end of Judah's hate
for Ephraim.
11:14 And they will be united in attacking the Philistines
on
the west, and
together they will take the goods of the children
of the east: their
hand will be on Edom and Moab; and the
children of Ammon
will be under their rule.
11:15 And the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea
completely dry; and
with his burning wind his hand will be
stretched out over
the River, and it will be parted into seven
streams, so that men
may go over it with dry feet.
11:16 And there will be a highway for the rest of his people
from Assyria; as
there was for Israel in the day when he came
up out of the land of
Egypt.
12:1 And in that day you will say I will give praise to you,
O
Lord; for though you
were angry with me, your wrath is turned
away, and I am
comforted.
12:2 See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the
Lord,
without fear: for the
Lord Jah is my strength and song; and he
has become my
salvation.
12:3 So with joy will you get water out of the springs of
salvation.
12:4 And in that day you will say, Give praise to the Lord,
let
his name be honoured,
give word of his doings among the
peoples, say that his
name is lifted up.
12:5 Make a song to the Lord; for he has done noble things:
give
news of them through
all the earth.
12:6 Let your voice be sounding in a cry of joy, O daughter
of
Zion, for great is
the Holy One of Israel among you.
13:1 The word of the Lord about Babylon which Isaiah, the
son of
Amoz, saw.
13:2 Put up a flag on a clear mountain-top, make a loud
outcry
to them, give
directions with the hand, so that they may go
into the doors of the
great ones.
13:3 I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my
men
of war, those of mine
who take pride in their power, to give
effect to my wrath.
13:4 The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the
noise
of a strong people!
The noise of the kingdoms of the nations
meeting together! The
Lord of armies is numbering his forces
for war.
13:5 They come from a far country, from the farthest part of
heaven, even the Lord
and the instruments of his wrath, with
destruction for all
the land.
13:6 Send out a cry of grief; for the day of the Lord is
near;
it comes as
destruction from the Most High.
13:7 For this cause all hands will be feeble, and every
heart of
man be turned to
water;
13:8 Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows
will
overcome them; they
will be in pain like a woman in childbirth;
they will be shocked
at one another; their faces will be like
flames.
13:9 See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath
and
burning passion: to
make the land a waste, driving the sinners
in it to destruction.
13:10 For the stars of heaven and its bright armies will not
give their light: the
sun will be made dark in his journey
through the heaven,
and the moon will keep back her light.
13:11 And I will send punishment on the world for its evil,
and
on the sinners for
their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to
all pride, and will
make low the power of the cruel.
13:12 I will make men so small in number, that a man will be
harder to get than
gold, even the best gold of Ophir.
13:13 For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the
earth
will be moved out of its
place, in the wrath of the Lord of
armies, and in the
day of his burning passion.
13:14 And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like
wandering sheep, they
will go every man to his people and to
his land.
13:15 Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put
through
him, and everyone who
goes in flight will be put to the sword.
13:16 Their young children will be broken up before their
eyes;
their goods will be
taken away, and their wives made the
property of others.
13:17 See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no
value
on silver and have no
pleasure in gold.
13:18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel,
violently putting the
young men to death, and crushing the
young women; they
have no pity for children, and no mercy for
the fruit of the
body.
13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town
which is the pride of
the Chaldaeans, will be like God's
destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah.
13:20 People will never be living in it again, and it will
have
no more men from
generation to generation: the Arab will not
put up his tent
there; and those who keep sheep will not make
it a resting-place
for their flocks.
13:21 But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes
there; and the houses
will be full of crying jackals, and
ostriches will have
their place there, and evil spirits will be
dancing there.
13:22 And wolves will be answering one another in their
towers,
and jackals in their
houses of pleasure: her time is near, and
her days of power
will quickly be ended.
14:1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will again
make
Israel his special
people, and will put them in their land; and
the man from a
strange country will take his place among them
and be joined to the
family of Jacob.
14:2 And the people will take them with them to their place:
and
the children of
Israel will give them a heritage in the Lord's
land as men-servants
and women-servants, making them prisoners
whose prisoners they
were; and they will be rulers over their
masters.
14:3 And it will be, in the day when the Lord gives you rest
from your sorrow, and
from your trouble, and from the hard yoke
which they had put on
you,
14:4 That you will take up this bitter song against the king
of
Babylon, and say, How
has the cruel overseer come to an end! He
who was lifted up in
pride is cut off;
14:5 The stick of the evil-doers, the rod of the rulers, is
broken by the Lord;
14:6 He whose rod was on the peoples with an unending wrath,
ruling the nations in
passion, with an uncontrolled rule.
14:7 All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are
bursting
into song.
14:8 Even the trees of the wood are glad over you, the trees
of
Lebanon, saying, From
the time of your fall no wood-cutter has
come up against us
with an axe.
14:9 The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of
the
dead are awake before
you, even the strong ones of the earth;
all the kings of the
world have got up from their seats.
14:10 They all make answer and say to you, Have you become
feeble like us? have
you been made even as we are?
14:11 Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the
noise of your
instruments of music; the worms are under you,
and your body is
covered with them.
14:12 How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son
of
the morning! How are
you cut down to the earth, low among the
dead bodies!
14:13 For you said in your heart, I will go up to heaven, I
will
make my seat higher
than the stars of God; I will take my place
on the mountain of
the meeting-place of the gods, in the inmost
parts of the north.
14:14 I will go higher than the clouds; I will be like the
Most
High.
14:15 But you will come down to the underworld, even to its
inmost parts.
14:16 Those who see you will be looking on you with care,
they
will be in deep
thought, saying, Is this the troubler of the
earth, the shaker of
kingdoms?
14:17 Who made the world a waste, overturning its towns; who
did
not let his prisoners
loose from the prison-house.
14:18 All the kings of the earth are at rest in glory, every
man
in his house,
14:19 But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched
out
with no resting-place
in the earth; clothed with the bodies of
the dead who have
been put to the sword, who go down to the
lowest parts of the
underworld; a dead body, crushed under
foot.
14:20 As for your fathers, you will not be united with them
in
their resting-place,
because you have been the cause of
destruction to your
land, and of death to your people; the seed
of the evil-doer will
have no place in the memory of man.
14:21 Make ready a place of death for his children, because
of
the evil-doing of
their father; so that they may not come up
and take the earth
for their heritage, covering the face of the
world with waste
places.
14:22 For I will come up against them, says the Lord of
armies,
cutting off from
Babylon name and offspring, son and son's son,
says the Lord.
14:23 And I will make you a heritage for the hedgehog, and
pools
of water: and I will
go through it with the brush of
destruction, says the
Lord of armies.
14:24 The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will
certainly come about,
and my purpose will be effected:
14:25 To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed
under foot on my mountains:
there will his yoke be taken away
from them, and his
rule over them come to an end.
14:26 This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the
hand stretched out
over all nations.
14:27 For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who
will
make it of no effect?
when his hand is stretched out, by whom
may it be turned
back?
14:28 In the year of the death of King Ahaz this word came
to
the prophet:
14:29 Be not glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod
which was on you is
broken: for out of the snake's root will
come a poison-snake,
and its fruit will be a winged
poison-snake.
14:30 And the poorest of the land will have food, and those
in
need will be given a
safe resting-place: but your seed will
come to an end for
need of food, and the rest of you will be
put to the sword.
14:31 Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town!
All
your land has come to
nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a
smoke out of the
north, and everyone keeps his place in the
line.
14:32 What answer, then, will my people give to the
representatives of
the nation? That the Lord is the builder of
Zion, and she will be
a safe place for the poor of his people.
15:1 The word about Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab has become
waste, and is seen no
longer; for in a night Kir of Moab has
become waste, and is
seen no longer.
15:2 The daughter of Dibon has gone up to the high places,
weeping: Moab is
sounding her cry of sorrow over Nebo, and over
Medeba: everywhere
the hair of the head and of the face is cut
off.
15:3 In their streets they are covering themselves with
haircloth: on the
tops of their houses, and in their public
places, there is
crying and bitter weeping.
15:4 Heshbon is crying out, and Elealeh; their voice is
sounding
even to Jahaz: for
this cause the heart of Moab is shaking; his
soul is shaking with
fear.
15:5 My heart is crying out for Moab; her people go in
flight to
Zoar, and to
Eglath-shelishiyah: for they go up with weeping by
the slope of Luhith;
on the way to Horonaim they send up a cry
of destruction.
15:6 The waters of Nimrim will become dry: for the grass is
burned up, the young
grass is coming to an end, every green
thing is dead.
15:7 For this cause they will take away their wealth, and
the
stores they have got
together, over the stream of the
water-plants.
15:8 For the cry has gone round the limits of Moab; as far
as to
Eglaim and Beer-elim.
15:9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: and I'm
sending
even more on Moab, a
lion on those of Moab who go in flight,
and on the rest of
the land.
16:1 And they will send ... to the mountain of the daughter
of
Zion.
16:2 For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds,
like a place from
which the young birds have gone in flight, at
the ways across the
Arnon.
16:3 Give wise directions, make a decision; let your shade
be as
night in full day:
keep safe those who are in flight; do not
give up the wandering
ones.
16:4 Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a
resting-place with
you; be a cover to them from him who is
making waste their
land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and
wasting has come to
an end, and those who take pleasure in
crushing the poor are
gone from the land.
16:5 Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will
be
seated on it in the
tent of David for ever; judging uprightly,
and quick to do
righteousness.
16:6 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is;
how
he is lifted up in
pride and passion: his high words about
himself are false.
16:7 For this cause everyone in Moab will give cries of
grief
for Moab: crushed to
the earth, they will be weeping for the
men of Kir-hareseth.
16:8 For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah
is
dead; the lords of
nations were overcome by the produce of her
vines; her
vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even to
the waste land; her
branches were stretched out to the sea.
16:9 For this cause my sorrow for the vine of Sibmah will be
like the weeping for
Jazer: my eyes are dropping water on you,
O Heshbon and
Elealeh! For they are sounding the war-cry over
your summer fruits
and the getting in of your grain;
16:10 And all joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the
fertile field; and in
the vine-gardens there are no songs or
sounds of joy: the
crushing of grapes has come to an end, and
its glad cry has been
stopped.
16:11 For this cause the cords of my heart are sounding for
Moab, and I am full
of sorrow for Kir-heres.
16:12 And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes
prayer
in the house of his
god, it will have no effect.
16:13 This is the word which the Lord said about Moab in the
past.
16:14 But now the Lord has said, In three years, the years
of a
servant working for
payment, the glory of Moab, all that great
people, will be
turned to shame, and the rest of Moab will be
very small and
without honour.
17:1 The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a
town no longer; it
has become a waste place.
17:2 Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take
their rest in peace,
without fear.
17:3 The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus: the
rest of Aram will come to destruction, and
be made like the
glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord
of armies.
17:4 And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will
be
made small, and the
strength of his body will become feeble.
17:5 And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his
grain,
pulling together the
heads of the grain with his arm; even as
when they get in the
grain in the valley of Rephaim.
17:6 But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree,
something
will still be there,
two or three berries on the top of the
highest branch, four
or five on the outside branches of a
fertile tree, says
the Lord, the God of Israel.
17:7 In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker,
and
his eyes to the Holy
One of Israel.
17:8 He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his
hands, or to the wood
pillars or to the sun-images which his
fingers have made.
17:9 In that day your towns will be like the waste places of
the
Hivites and the
Amorites which the children of Israel took for
a heritage, and they
will come to destruction.
17:10 For you have not given honour to the God of your
salvation, and have
not kept in mind the Rock of your strength;
for this cause you
made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the
vine-cuttings of a
strange god;
17:11 In the day of your planting you were watching its
growth,
and in the morning
your seed was flowering: but its fruit is
wasted away in the
day of grief and bitter sorrow.
17:12 Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of
the
seas, and the thundering
of great nations rushing on like the
bursting out of
waters!
17:13 But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in
flight
far away, driving
them like the waste of the grain on the tops
of the mountains
before the wind, and like the circling dust
before the storm.
17:14 In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they
are
gone. This is the
fate of those who take our goods, and the
reward of those who
violently take our property for themselves.
18:1 Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of
the
rivers of Ethiopia:
18:2 Which sends its representatives by the sea, even in
ships
of papyrus on the
waters. Go back quickly, O representatives,
to a nation tall and
smooth, to a people causing fear through
all their history; a
strong nation, crushing down its haters,
whose land is cut
through by rivers.
18:3 All you peoples of the world, and you who are living on
the
earth, when a flag is
lifted up on the mountains, give
attention; and when
the horn is sounded, give ear.
18:4 For this is what the Lord has said to me: I will be
quiet,
watching from my
place; like the clear heat when the sun is
shining, like a mist
of dew in the heat of summer.
18:5 For before the time of getting in the grapes, after the
opening of the bud, when
the flower has become a grape ready
for crushing, he will
take away the small branches with knives,
cutting down and
taking away the wide-stretching branches.
18:6 They will be for the birds of the mountains, and for
the
beasts of the earth:
the birds will come down on them in the
summer, and the
beasts of the earth in the winter.
18:7 In that time an offering will be made to the Lord of
armies
from a people tall
and smooth, causing fear through all their
history; a strong
nation, crushing down its haters, whose land
is cut through by
rivers, an offering taken to the place of the
name of the Lord of
armies, even Mount Zion.
19:1 The word about Egypt. See, the Lord is seated on a
quick-moving cloud,
and is coming to Egypt: and the false gods
of Egypt will be
troubled at his coming, and the heart of Egypt
will be turned to
water.
19:2 And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians:
and
they will be fighting
every one against his brother, and every
one against his
neighbour; town against town, and kingdom
against kingdom.
19:3 And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I
will
make her decisions
without effect: and they will be turning to
the false gods, and
to those who make hollow sounds, and to
those who have
control of spirits, and to those who are wise in
secret arts.
19:4 And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel
lord; and a hard king
will be their ruler, says the Lord, the
Lord of armies.
19:5 And the waters of the sea will be cut off, and the
river
will become dry and
waste:
19:6 And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of
Egypt
will become small and
dry: all the water-plants will come to
nothing.
19:7 The grass-lands by the Nile, and everything planted by
the
Nile, will become
dry, or taken away by the wind, and will come
to an end.
19:8 The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put
fishing-lines into
the Nile will be full of grief, and those
whose nets are
stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in
their hearts.
19:9 And all the workers in linen thread, and those who make
cotton cloth, will be
put to shame.
19:10 And the makers of twisted thread will be crushed, and
those who ... will be
sad in heart.
19:11 The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest
guides of Pharaoh
have become like beasts: how do you say to
Pharaoh, I am the son
of the wise, the offspring of early
kings?
19:12 Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to
you, let them give
you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord of
armies for Egypt.
19:13 The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of
Noph
are tricked, the
heads of her tribes are the cause of Egypt's
wandering out of the
way.
19:14 The Lord has sent among them a spirit of error: and by
them Egypt is turned
out of the right way in all her doings, as
a man overcome by
wine is uncertain in his steps.
19:15 And in Egypt there will be no work for any man, head
or
tail, high or low, to
do.
19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women: and the
land
will be shaking with
fear because of the waving of the Lord's
hand stretched out
over it.
19:17 And the land of Judah will become a cause of great
fear to
Egypt; whenever its
name comes to mind, Egypt will be in fear
before the Lord of
armies because of his purpose against it.
19:18 In that day there will be five towns in the land of
Egypt
using the language of
Canaan, and making oaths to the Lord of
armies; and one of
them will be named, The Town of the Sun.
19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the
middle of the land of
Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at the
edge of the land.
19:20 And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of
armies
in the land of Egypt:
when they are crying out to the Lord
because of their
cruel masters, then he will send them a
saviour and a strong
one to make them free.
19:21 And the Lord will give the knowledge of himself to
Egypt,
and the Egyptians
will give honour to the Lord in that day;
they will give him
worship with offerings and meal offerings,
and will take an oath
to the Lord and give effect to it.
19:22 And the Lord will send punishment on Egypt, and will
make
them well again; and
when they come back to the Lord he will
give ear to their
prayer and take away their disease.
19:23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and Assyria
will come into Egypt, and Egypt will come
into Assyria; and the
Egyptians will give worship to the Lord
together with the
Assyrians.
19:24 In that day Israel will be the third together with
Egypt
and Assyria, a
blessing in the earth:
19:25 Because of the blessing of the Lord of armies which he
has
given them, saying, A
blessing on Egypt my people, and on
Assyria the work of
my hands, and on Israel my heritage.
20:1 In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by
Sargon,
king of Assyria, and
made war against it and took it;
20:2 At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the
son
of Amoz, saying, Go,
and take off your robe, and your shoes
from your feet; and
he did so, walking unclothed and without
shoes on his feet.
20:3 And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone
unclothed
and without shoes for
three years as a sign and a wonder to
Egypt and Ethiopia,
20:4 So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of
Egypt and those
forced out of Ethiopia, young and old,
unclothed and without
shoes, and with backs uncovered, to the
shame of Egypt.
20:5 And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have
faith in Ethiopia
which was their hope, or in Egypt which was
their glory.
20:6 And those living by the sea will say in that day, See
the
fate of our hope to
whom we went for help and salvation from
the king of Assyria:
what hope have we then of salvation?
21:1 The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the
South
go rushing through,
it comes from the waste land, from the land
greatly to be feared.
21:2 A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of
deceit
goes on in his false
way, and the waster goes on making waste.
Up! Elam; to the
attack! Media; I have put an end to her
sorrow.
21:3 For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like
the
pains of a woman in
childbirth have come on me: I am bent down
with sorrow at what
comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I
see.
21:4 My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening
of
my desire has been
turned into shaking for me.
21:5 They make ready the table, they put down the covers,
they
take food and drink.
Up! you captains; put oil on your
breastplates.
21:6 For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be
placed; let him give
word of what he sees:
21:7 And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos,
war-carriages with
asses, war-carriages with camels, let him
give special
attention.
21:8 And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on
the
watchtower all day,
and am placed in my watch every night:
21:9 See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by
twos:
and in answer he
said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and
all her images are
broken on the earth.
21:10 O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given
you
the word which came
to me from the Lord of armies, the God of
Israel.
21:11 The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir,
Watchman, how far
gone is the night? how far gone is the night?
21:12 The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is
still to come: if you
have questions to put, put them, and come
back again.
21:13 The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia
will
be your night's
resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites!
21:14 Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread,
O
men of the land of
Tema, to those in flight.
21:15 For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the
bent
bow, and from the
trouble of war.
21:16 For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the
years of
a servant working for
payment, all the glory of Kedar will come
to an end:
21:17 And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the
children
of Kedar, will be
small in number: for the Lord, the God of
Israel, has said it.
22:1 The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your
people gone up to the
house-tops?
22:2 You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries,
given
up to joy; your dead
men have not been put to the sword, or
come to their death
in war.
22:3 All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your
strong
ones have gone far
away.
22:4 For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned
away
from me in my bitter
weeping; I will not be comforted for the
wasting of the
daughter of my people.
22:5 For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of
destruction from the
Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of
vision; ...
22:6 And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on
horseback;
and the breastplate
of Kir was uncovered.
22:7 And your most fertile valleys were full of
war-carriages,
and the horsemen took
up their positions in front of the town.
22:8 He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you
were
looking with care at
the store of arms in the house of the
woods.
22:9 And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the
town
of David: and you got
together the waters of the lower pool.
22:10 And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling
down
the houses to make
the wall stronger.
22:11 And you made a place between the two walls for storing
the
waters of the old
pool: but you gave no thought to him who had
done this, and were
not looking to him by whom it had been
purposed long before.
22:12 And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was
looking
for weeping, and
cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and
putting on the
clothing of grief:
22:13 But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen
and
sheep were being made
ready for food, there was feasting and
drinking: men said,
Now is the time for food and wine, for
tomorrow death comes.
22:14 And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly,
this
sin will not be taken
from you till your death, says the Lord,
the Lord of armies.
22:15 The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person
in
authority, this
Shebna, who is over the house; who has made
himself a
resting-place on high, cutting out a place for
himself in the rock,
and say,
22:16 Who are you, and by what right have you made for
yourself
a resting-place here?
22:17 See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently
away,
gripping you with
force,
22:18 Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send
you
out into a wide
country: there you will come to your end, and
there will be the
carriages of your pride, O shame of your
lord's house!
22:19 And I will have you forced out of your place of
authority,
and pulled down from
your position.
22:20 And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim,
the
son of Hilkiah:
22:21 And I will put your robe on him, and put your band
about
him, and I will give
your authority into his hand: and he will
be a father to the
men of Jerusalem, and to the family of
Judah.
22:22 And I will give the key of the family of David into
his
care; and what he
keeps open will be shut by no one, and what
he keeps shut no one
will make open.
22:23 And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he
will be for a seat of
glory to his father's family.
22:24 And all the glory of his father's family will be
hanging
on him, all their
offspring, every small vessel, even the cups
and the basins.
22:25 In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail
fixed
in a safe place give
way; and it will be cut down, and in its
fall the weight
hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has
said it.
23:1 The word about Tyre. Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships
of
Tarshish, because
your strong place is made waste; on the way
back from the land of
Kittim the news is given to them.
23:2 Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land,
traders
of Zidon, who go over
the sea, whose representatives are on
great waters;
23:3 Who get in the seed of Shihor, whose wealth is the trade
of
the nations.
23:4 Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of
the
sea has said, I have
not been with child, or given birth; I
have not taken care
of young men, or kept watch over the growth
of virgins.
23:5 When the news comes to Egypt they will be bitterly
pained
at the fate of Tyre.
23:6 Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the
sea-land.
23:7 Is this the town which was full of joy, whose start
goes
back to times long
past, whose wanderings took her into far-off
countries?
23:8 By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning
town,
whose traders are
chiefs, whose business men are honoured in
the land?
23:9 It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride
to
shame, to make sport
of the glory of those who are honoured in
the earth.
23:10 Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of
Tarshish; there is no
longer any harbour.
23:11 His hand is stretched out over the sea, the kingdoms
are
shaking: the Lord has
given orders about Canaan, to make waste
its strong places.
23:12 And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed
virgin daughter of
Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there you
will have no rest.
23:13 ...
23:14 Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish:
because
your strong place is
made waste.
23:15 And it will be in that day that Tyre will go out of
mind
for seventy years,
that is, the days of one king: after the end
of seventy years it
will be for Tyre as in the song of the
loose woman.
23:16 Take an instrument of music, go about the town, O
loose
woman who has gone
out from the memory of man; make sweet
melody with songs, so
that you may come back to men's minds.
23:17 And it will be after the end of seventy years, that
the
Lord will have mercy
on Tyre, and she will go back to her
trade, acting as a
loose woman with all the kingdoms of the
world on the face of
the earth.
23:18 And her goods and her trade will be holy to the Lord:
they
will not be kept back
or stored up; for her produce will be for
those living in the
Lord's land, to give them food for their
needs, and fair
clothing.
24:1 See, the Lord is making the earth waste and unpeopled,
he
is turning it upside
down, and sending the people in all
directions.
24:2 And it will be the same for the people as for the
priest;
for the servant as
for his master; and for the woman-servant as
for her owner; the
same for the one offering goods for a price
as for him who takes
them; the same for him who gives money at
interest and for him
who takes it; the same for him who lets
others have the use
of his property as for those who make use
of it.
24:3 The earth will be completely waste and without men; for
this is the word of
the Lord.
24:4 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away, the world is
full
of grief and wasting
away, the high ones of the earth come to
nothing.
24:5 The earth has been made unclean by those living in it;
because the laws have
not been kept by them, the orders have
been changed, and the
eternal agreement has been broken.
24:6 For this cause the earth is given up to the curse, and
those in it are
judged as sinners: for this cause those living
on the earth are
burned up, and the rest are small in number.
24:7 The new wine is thin, the vine is feeble, and all the
glad-hearted make
sounds of grief.
24:8 The pleasing sound of all instruments of music has come
to
an end, and the
voices of those who are glad.
24:9 There is no more drinking of wine with a song; strong
drink
will be bitter to
those who take it.
24:10 The town is waste and broken down: every house is shut
up,
so that no man may
come in.
24:11 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine;
there is an end of
all delight, the joy of the land is gone.
24:12 In the town all is waste, and in the public place is
destruction.
24:13 For it will be in the heart of the earth among the
peoples, like the
shaking of an olive-tree, as the last of the
grapes after the
getting-in is done.
24:14 But those will be making sounds of joy; they will be
crying loudly from
the sea for the glory of the Lord.
24:15 Give praise to the Lord in the east, to the name of
the
Lord, the God of
Israel, in the sea-lands.
24:16 From the farthest part of the earth comes the sound of
songs, glory to the
upright. But I said, I am wasting away,
wasting away, the
curse is on me! The false ones go on in their
false way, yes, they
go on acting falsely.
24:17 Fear, and death, and the net, are come on you, O
people of
the earth.
24:18 And it will be that he who goes in flight from the
sound
of fear will be
overtaken by death; and he who gets free from
death will be taken
in the net: for the windows on high are
open, and the bases
of the earth are shaking.
24:19 The earth is completely broken, it is parted in two,
it is
violently moved.
24:20 The earth will be moving uncertainly, like a man
overcome
by drink; it will be
shaking like a tent; and the weight of its
sin will be on it,
crushing it down so that it will not get up
again.
24:21 And in that day the Lord will send punishment on the
army
of the high ones on
high, and on the kings of the earth on the
earth.
24:22 And they will be got together, like prisoners in the
prison-house; and
after a long time they will have their
punishment.
24:23 Then the moon will be veiled, and the sun put to
shame;
for the Lord of
armies will be ruling in Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem, and before
his judges he will let his glory be seen.
25:1 O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I
will
give honour to your
name; for you have done great acts of
power; your purposes
in the past have been made true and
certain in effect.
25:2 For you have made a town a waste place: a strong town a
mass of broken walls;
the tower of the men of pride has come to
an end; it will never
be put up again.
25:3 For this cause will the strong people give glory to
you,
the town of the cruel
ones will be in fear of you.
25:4 For you have been a strong place for the poor and the
crushed in their
trouble, a safe place from the storm, a shade
from the heat, when
the wrath of the cruel ones is like a
winter storm.
25:5 As heat by the shade of a cloud, the noise of the men
of
pride has been made
quiet by you; as heat by the shade of a
cloud, the song of
the cruel ones has been stopped.
25:6 And in this mountain will the Lord of armies make for
all
peoples a feast of
good things, a feast of wines long stored,
of good things sweet
to the taste, of wines long kept and
tested.
25:7 And in this mountain he will put an end to the shade
covering the face of
all peoples, and the veil which is
stretched over all
nations.
25:8 He has put an end to death for ever; and the Lord God
will
take away all
weeping; and he will put an end to the shame of
his people in all the
earth: for the Lord has said it.
25:9 And in that day it will be said, See, this is our God;
we
have been waiting for
him, and he will be our saviour: this is
the Lord in whom is
our hope; we will be glad and have delight
in his salvation.
25:10 For in this mountain will the hand of the Lord come to
rest, and Moab will
be crushed down in his place, even as the
dry stems of the
grain are crushed under foot in the waste
place.
25:11 And if he puts out his hands, like a man stretching
out
his hands in
swimming, the Lord will make low his pride,
however expert his
designs.
25:12 And the strong tower of your walls has been broken by
him,
made low, and crushed
even to the dust.
26:1 In that day will this song be made in the land of
Judah: We
have a strong town;
he will make salvation our walls and
towers.
26:2 Let the doors be open, so that the upright nation which
keeps faith may come
in.
26:3 The man whose heart is unmoved you will keep in peace,
because his hope is
in you.
26:4 Let your hope be in the Lord for ever: for the Lord Jah
is
an unchanging Rock.
26:5 For he has made low those who are lifted up, all the
people
of the town of pride:
he makes it low, crushing it down to the
earth; he makes it
low in the dust.
26:6 It will be crushed under the feet of the poor and the
steps
of those who are in
need.
26:7 The way of the good man is straight; the road of the
upright is made
smooth by you.
26:8 We have been waiting for you, O Lord; the desire of our
soul is for the
memory of your name.
26:9 In the night the desire of my soul has been for you;
early
will my spirit be
searching for you; for when your punishments
come on the earth,
the people of the world will get the
knowledge of
righteousness.
26:10 Even if you are kind to the evil-doer, he will not go
after righteousness;
even in the land of the upright he will
still go on in his
wrongdoing, and will not see the glory of
the Lord.
26:11 Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see: let
them see ... yes,
your haters will be burned up in the fire.
26:12 Lord, you will give us peace: for all our works are
the
outcome of your
purpose.
26:13 O Lord, our God, other lords than you have had rule
over
us; but in you only
is our salvation, and no other name will we
take on our lips.
26:14 The dead will not come back to life: their spirits
will
not come back to
earth; for this cause you have sent
destruction on them,
so that the memory of them is dead.
26:15 You have made the nation great, O Lord, you have made
it
great; glory is
yours: you have made wide the limits of the
land.
26:16 Lord, in trouble our eyes have been turned to you, we
sent
up a prayer when your
punishment was on us.
26:17 As a woman with child, whose time is near, is
troubled,
crying out in her
pain; so have we been before you, O Lord.
26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have
given birth to wind;
no salvation has come to the earth through
us, and no children
have come into the world.
26:19 Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come
to
life again. Those in
the dust, awaking from their sleep, will
send out a song; for
your dew is a dew of light, and the earth
will give birth to
the shades.
26:20 Come, my people, into your secret places, and let your
doors be shut: keep
yourself safe for a short time, till his
wrath is over.
26:21 For the Lord is coming out of his place to send
punishment
on the people of the
earth for their evil-doing: the earth will
let the blood drained
out on her be seen, and will keep her
dead covered no
longer.
27:1 In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and
cruel
sword, will send
punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving
snake, and on
Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to
death the dragon
which is in the sea.
27:2 In that day it will be said, A vine-garden of delight,
make
a song about it.
27:3 I, the Lord, am watching it; I will give it water at
all
times: I will keep it
night and day, for fear that any damage
comes to it.
27:4 My passion is over: if the thorns were fighting against
me,
I would make an
attack on them, and they would be burned up
together.
27:5 Or let him put himself under my power, and make peace
with
me.
27:6 In days to come Jacob will take root: Israel will put
out
buds and flowers; and
the face of the world will be full of
fruit.
27:7 Is his punishment like the punishment of those who
overcame
him? or are his dead
as great in number as those he put to the
sword?
27:8 Your anger against her has been made clear by driving
her
away; he has taken
her away with his storm-wind in the day of
his east wind.
27:9 So by this will the sin of Jacob be covered, and this
is
all the fruit of taking
away his punishment; when all the
stones of the altar
are crushed together, so that the wood
pillars and the
sun-images will not be put up again.
27:10 For the strong town is without men, an unpeopled
living-place; and she
has become a waste land: there the young
ox will take his
rest, and its branches will be food for him.
27:11 When its branches are dry they will be broken off; the
women will come and
put fire to them: for it is a foolish
people; for this
cause he who made them will have no mercy on
them, and he whose
work they are will not have pity on them.
27:12 And it will be in that day that the Lord will get
together
his grain, from the
River to the stream of Egypt, and you will
be got together with
care, O children of Israel.
27:13 And it will be in that day that a great horn will be
sounded; and those
who were wandering in the land of Assyria,
and those who had
been sent away into the land of Egypt, will
come; and they will
give worship to the Lord in the holy
mountain at
Jerusalem.
28:1 Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in
Ephraim, and the dead
flower of his glory which is on the head
of those who are
overcome by strong drink!
28:2 See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain
of
ice, a storm of
destruction, like the overflowing of a strong
river, he will
violently overcome them.
28:3 The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in
Ephraim will be
crushed under foot;
28:4 And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head
of
the fertile valley,
will be like the first early fruit before
the summer; which a
man takes and puts in his mouth the minute
he sees it.
28:5 In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of
glory,
and a fair ornament,
to the rest of his people;
28:6 And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to
those
who keep back the
attackers at the door of the town.
28:7 And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have
gone out of the right
way through strong drink: the priest and
the prophet are
uncertain through strong drink, they are
overcome by wine,
they have gone out of the way through strong
drink; their vision
is false, they go wrong in their decisions.
28:8 For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so
that there is not a
clean place.
28:9 To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he
make
clear the word? Will
it be to those who have newly given up
milk, and who have
only now been taken from the breast?
28:10 For it is one rule after another; one line after
another;
here a little, there
a little.
28:11 No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue,
he
will give his word to
this people:
28:12 To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him
who is
tired; and by this
you may get new strength; but they would not
give ear.
28:13 For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them
rule
after rule, line
after line, here a little, there a little; so
that they may go on
their way, and falling back may be broken,
and taken in the net.
28:14 Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of
pride,
the rulers of this
people in Jerusalem:
28:15 Because you have said, We have made death our friend,
and
with the underworld
we have made an agreement; when the
overflowing waters
come through they will not come near us; for
we are looking to
false words for help, taking cover in what is
untrue:
28:16 For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in
Zion as a base, a
stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which
is certain and of
great value: and he who has faith will not
give way.
28:17 And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and
righteousness the
weight: and the ice-storm will take away the
safe place of false
words, and the secret place will be covered
by the flowing
waters.
28:18 And the help you were looking for from death will come
to
nothing, and your
agreement with the underworld will be broken;
when the overflowing
waters come through, then you will be
overcome by them.
28:19 Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for
they will come
through morning after morning, by day and by
night: and the news
will be nothing but fear.
28:20 For the bed is not long enough for a man to be
stretched
out on: and the cover
is not wide enough for him to be covered
with.
28:21 For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will
be
moved to wrath as in
the valley of Gibeon; so that he may do
his work--strange is
his work; and give effect to his
act--unnatural is his
act.
28:22 And now, take care that you do not make sport of him,
or
your bands will be
made strong; for I have had word from the
Lord, the Lord of
armies, of an end, of a complete end, which
is to come on all the
land.
28:23 Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to
what
I say.
28:24 Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get
the
earth ready and
broken up for the seed?
28:25 When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he
not
put in the different
sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and
the barley in its
place, and the spelt at the edge?
28:26 For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge
of
these things.
28:27 For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp
instrument,
and a cart-wheel is
not rolled over the cummin; but the grain
of the fitches is
hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin
with a rod.
28:28 Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on
crushing
it for ever, but he
lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over
it without crushing
it.
28:29 This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders,
and
wise in all his acts.
29:1 Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made
war;
put year to year, let
the feasts come round:
29:2 And I will send trouble on Ariel, and there will be
weeping
and cries of grief;
and she will be to me as Ariel.
29:3 And I will make war on you like David, and you will be
shut
in by earthworks, and
I will make towers round you.
29:4 And you will be made low, and your voice will come out
of
the earth, and your
words will be low out of the dust; and your
voice will come out
of the earth like that of a spirit, making
bird-like noises out
of the dust.
29:5 And the army of your attackers will be like small dust,
and
all the cruel ones
like dry stems gone before the wind;
suddenly it will come
about.
29:6 The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and
earth-shaking and
great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and
the flame of burning
fire.
29:7 And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those
who
are fighting against
her and shutting her in with their towers,
will be like a dream,
like a vision of the night.
29:8 And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming
that
he is feasting; but
when he is awake there is nothing in his
mouth: or like a man
in need of water, dreaming that he is
drinking; but when he
is awake he is feeble and his soul is
full of desire: so
will all the nations be which make war on
Mount Zion.
29:9 Be surprised and full of wonder; let your eyes be
covered
and be blind: be
overcome, but not with wine; go with uncertain
steps, but not
because of strong drink.
29:10 For the Lord has sent on you a spirit of deep sleep;
and
by him your eyes, the
prophets, are shut, and your heads, the
seers, are covered.
29:11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the
words of a book which
is shut, which men give to one who has
knowledge of writing,
saying, Make clear to us what is in the
book: and he says, I
am not able to, for the book is shut:
29:12 And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make
clear to us what is
in the book: and he says, I have no
knowledge of writing.
29:13 And the Lord said, because this people come near to me
with their mouths,
and give honour to me with their lips, but
their heart is far
from me, and their fear of me is false, a
rule given them by
the teaching of men;
29:14 For this cause I will again do a strange thing among
this
people, a thing to be
wondered at: and the wisdom of their wise
men will come to
nothing, and the sense of their guides will no
longer be seen.
29:15 Cursed are those who go deep to keep their designs
secret
from the Lord, and
whose works are in the dark, and who say,
Who sees us? and who
has knowledge of our acts?
29:16 You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth
the
same to you as the
one who is forming it? will the thing made
say of him who made
it, He made me not: or the thing formed say
of him who gave it
form, He has no knowledge?
29:17 In a very short time Lebanon will become a fertile
field,
and the fertile field
will seem like a wood.
29:18 And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be
hearing the words of
the book; and the eyes of the blind will
see through the mist
and the dark.
29:19 And the poor will have their joy in the Lord
increased,
and those in need
will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
29:20 For the cruel one has come to nothing; and those who
make
sport of the Lord are
gone; and those who are watching to do
evil are cut off:
29:21 Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a
net
for the feet of him
who gives decisions in the public place,
taking away a man's
right without cause.
29:22 For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says
about the family of
Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to shame,
or his face be
clouded with fear.
29:23 But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of
my
hands among them,
they will give honour to my name; yes, they
will give honour to
the Holy One of Jacob, and go in fear of
the God of Israel.
29:24 Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get
knowledge, and those
who made an outcry against him will give
attention to his
teaching.
30:1 Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give
effect
to a purpose which is
not mine, and who make an agreement, but
not by my spirit,
increasing their sin:
30:2 Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without
authority
from me; who are
looking to the strength of Pharaoh for help,
and whose hope is in
the shade of Egypt.
30:3 And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and
your
hope in the shade of
Egypt will come to nothing.
30:4 For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives
have
come to Hanes.
30:5 For they have all come with offerings to a people of no
use
to them, in whom is
no help or profit, but only shame and a bad
name.
30:6 The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the
land of
trouble and grief,
the land of the she-lion and the voice of
the lion, of the
snake and the burning winged snake, they take
their wealth on the
backs of young asses, and their stores on
camels, to a people
in whom is no profit.
30:7 For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so
I
have said about her,
She is Rahab, who has come to an end.
30:8 Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and
make
a record of it in a
book, so that it may be for the future, a
witness for all time
to come.
30:9 For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who
will not give ear to
the teaching of the Lord:
30:10 Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do
not
give us word of what
is true, but say false things to give us
pleasure:
30:11 Get out of the good way, turning from the right road;
do
not keep the Holy One
of Israel before our minds.
30:12 For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because
you
will not give ear to
this word, and are looking for help in
ways of deceit and
evil, and are putting your hope in them:
30:13 This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall,
causing its fall
suddenly and in a minute.
30:14 And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is
broken: it will be
smashed to bits without mercy; so that there
will not be a bit in
which one may take fire from the
fireplace, or water
from the spring.
30:15 For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet
and
rest is your
salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but
you would not have it
so.
30:16 Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you
will certainly go in
flight: and, We will go on the backs of
quick-running beasts;
so those who go after you will be
quick-footed.
30:17 A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five
you will go in
flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on
the top of a
mountain, and like a flag on a hill.
30:18 For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he
may be
kind to you; and he
will be lifted up, so that he may have
mercy on you; for the
Lord is a God of righteousness: there is
a blessing on all
whose hope is in him.
30:19 O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping
will
be ended; he will
certainly have mercy on you at the sound of
your cry; when it
comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.
30:20 And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble
and
the water of grief,
you will no longer put your teacher on one
side, but you will
see your teacher:
30:21 And at your back, when you are turning to the right
hand
or to the left, a
voice will be sounding in your ears, saying,
This is the way in
which you are to go.
30:22 And you will make unclean what is covering your
pictured
images of silver, and
the plating of your images of gold: you
will send them away
as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!
30:23 And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may
put
it in the earth; and
you will have bread from the produce of
the earth, good and
more than enough for your needs: in that
day the cattle will
get their food in wide grass-lands.
30:24 And the oxen and the young asses which are used for
ploughing, will have
salted grain which has been made free from
the waste with fork
and basket.
30:25 And there will be rivers and streams of water on every
tall mountain and on
every high hill, in the day when great
numbers are put to
the sword, when the towers come down.
30:26 And the light of the moon will be as the light of the
sun,
and the light of the
sun will be seven times greater, as the
light of seven days,
in the day when the Lord puts oil on the
wounds of his people,
and makes them well from the blows they
have undergone.
30:27 See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning
with
his wrath, with thick
smoke going up: his lips are full of
passion, and his
tongue is like a burning fire:
30:28 And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up
even
to the neck, shaking
the nations for their destruction, like
the shaking of grain
in a basket: and he will put a cord in the
mouths of the people,
turning them out of their way.
30:29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy
feast is
kept; and you will be
glad in heart, as when they go with music
of the pipe to the
mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.
30:30 And the Lord will send out the sound of his great
voice,
and they will see his
arm stretched out, with the heat of his
wrath, and the flame
of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and
storm, and a rain of
ice.
30:31 For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be
broken, and the
Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.
30:32 And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the
Lord will send on
him, will be with the sound of music: and
with the waving of
his sword the Lord will make war against
him.
30:33 For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has
been
made ready for the
king; he has made it deep and wide: it is
massed with fire and
much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a
stream of fire, puts
a light to it.
31:1 Cursed are those who go down to Egypt for help, and who
put
their faith in
horses; looking to war-carriages for salvation,
because of their
numbers; and to horsemen, because they are
very strong; but they
are not looking to the Holy One of
Israel, or turning
their hearts to the Lord;
31:2 Though he is wise, and able to send evil, and his
purpose
will not be changed;
but he will go against the house of the
evil-doers, and
against those to whom they are looking for
help.
31:3 For the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their
horses
are flesh, and not
spirit: and when the Lord's hand is
stretched out, the
helper and he who is helped will come down
together.
31:4 For the Lord has said to me, As a lion, or a young
lion,
makes an angry noise
over his food, and if a band of herdsmen
come out against him,
he will not be in fear of their voices,
or give up his food
for their noise: so the Lord of armies will
come down to make war
against Mount Zion and its hill.
31:5 Like birds with outstretched wings, so will the Lord of
armies be a cover to
Jerusalem; he will be a cover and
salvation for it,
going over it he will keep it from danger.
31:6 Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against
by
the children of
Israel.
31:7 For in that day they will all give up their images of
silver and of gold,
the sin which they made for themselves.
31:8 Then the Assyrian will come down by the sword, but not
of
man; the sword, not
of men, will be the cause of his
destruction: and he
will go in flight from the sword, and his
young men will be put
to forced work.
31:9 And his rock will come to nothing because of fear, and
his
chiefs will go in
flight from the flag, says the Lord, whose
fire is in Zion, and
his altar in Jerusalem.
32:1 See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs
will give right
decisions.
32:2 And a man will be as a safe place from the wind, and a
cover from the storm;
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shade of a great rock
in a waste land.
32:3 And the eyes of those who see will not be shut, and
those
who have hearing will
give ear to the word.
32:4 The man of sudden impulses will become wise in heart,
and
he whose tongue is
slow will get the power of talking clearly.
32:5 The foolish man will no longer be named noble, and they
will not say of the
false man that he is a man of honour.
32:6 For the foolish man will say foolish things, having
evil
thoughts in his
heart, working what is unclean, and talking
falsely about the
Lord, to keep food from him who is in need of
it, and water from
him whose soul is desiring it.
32:7 The designs of the false are evil, purposing the
destruction of the
poor man by false words, even when he is in
the right.
32:8 But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by
these
he will be guided.
32:9 Give ear to my voice, you women who are living in
comfort;
give attention to my
words, you daughters who have no fear of
danger.
32:10 In not much more than a year, you, who are not looking
for
evil, will be
troubled: for the produce of the vine-gardens
will be cut off, and
there will be no getting in of the grapes.
32:11 Be shaking with fear, you women who are living in comfort;
be troubled, you who
have no fear of danger: take off your
robes and put on
clothing of grief.
32:12 Have sorrow for the fields, the pleasing fields, the
fertile vine;
32:13 And for the land of my people, where thorns will come
up;
even for all the
houses of joy in the glad town.
32:14 For the fair houses will have no man living in them;
the
town which was full
of noise will become a waste; the hill and
the watchtower will
be unpeopled for ever, a joy for the asses
of the woods, a place
of food for the flocks;
32:15 Till the spirit comes on us from on high, and the
waste
land becomes a
fertile field, and the fertile field is changed
into a wood.
32:16 Then in the waste land there will be an upright rule,
and
righteousness will
have its place in the fertile field.
32:17 And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the
effect of an upright
rule will be to take away fear for ever.
32:18 And my people will be living in peace, in houses where
there is no fear, and
in quiet resting-places.
32:19 But the tall trees will come down with a great fall,
and
the town will be low
in a low place.
32:20 Happy are you who are planting seed by all the waters,
and
sending out the ox
and the ass.
33:1 Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you
waste;
acting falsely to
those who were not false to you. When you
have come to an end
of wasting, you will be made waste, and
after your false
acts, they will do the same to you.
33:2 O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for
your
help: be our strength
every morning, our salvation in time of
trouble.
33:3 At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at
your
coming up the nations
have gone in all directions.
33:4 And the goods taken in war will be got together like
the
massing of young
locusts; men will be rushing on them like the
rushing of locusts.
33:5 The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has
made
Zion full of
righteousness and true religion.
33:6 And she will have no more fear of change, being full of
salvation, wisdom,
and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her
wealth.
33:7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town:
those
who came looking for
peace are weeping bitterly.
33:8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the
agreement is broken,
he has made sport of the towns, he has no
thought for man.
33:9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put
to
shame and has become
waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in
Bashan and Carmel the
leaves are falling.
33:10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be
lifted up; now will
my power be seen.
33:11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect
will
be nothing: you will
be burned up by the fire of my breath.
33:12 And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as
thorns cut down,
which are burned in the fire.
33:13 Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done:
see my
power, you who are
near.
33:14 The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of
God
are shaking with
wonder. Who among us may keep his place before
the burning fire? who
among us may see the eternal burnings?
33:15 He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright;
he
who gives no thought
to the profits of false acts, whose hands
have not taken
rewards, who will have no part in putting men to
death, and whose eyes
are shut against evil;
33:16 He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut
in by
the high rocks: his
bread will be given to him; his waters will
be certain.
33:17 Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be
looking on a
far-stretching land.
33:18 Your heart will give thought to the cause of your
fear:
where is the scribe,
where is he who made a record of the
payments, where is he
by whom the towers were numbered?
33:19 Never again will you see the cruel people, a people
whose
tongue has no sense
for you; whose language is strange to you.
33:20 Let your eyes be resting on Zion, the town of our holy
feasts: you will see
Jerusalem, a quiet resting-place, a tent
which will not be
moved, whose tent-pins will never be pulled
up, and whose cords
will never be broken.
33:21 But there the Lord will be with us in his glory, ...
wide
rivers and streams;
where no boat will go with blades, and no
fair ship will be
sailing.
33:22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver,
the
Lord is our king; he
will be our saviour.
33:23 Your cords have become loose; they were not able to
make
strong the support of
their sails, the sail was not stretched
out: then the blind
will take much property, the feeble-footed
will make division of
the goods of war.
33:24 And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its
people
will have forgiveness
for their sin.
34:1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you
peoples: let the
earth and everything in it give ear; the world
and all those living
in it.
34:2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his
wrath
is burning against
all their armies: he has put them to the
curse, he has given
them to destruction.
34:3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the
earth,
and their smell will
come up, and the mountains will be flowing
with their blood, and
all the hills will come to nothing.
34:4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll
of a
book: and all their
army will be gone, like a dead leaf from
the vine, or a dry
fruit from the fig-tree.
34:5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is
coming
down on Edom, in punishment
on the people of my curse.
34:6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with
the
best of the meat,
with the blood of lambs and goats, with the
best parts of the
sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah,
and much cattle will
be put to death in the land of Edom.
34:7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with
the
smaller cattle.
34:8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he
gives
payment for the
wrongs done to Zion.
34:9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and
its
dust into burning
stone, and all the land will be on fire.
34:10 It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go
up
for ever: it will be
waste from generation to generation; no
one will go through
it for ever.
34:11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place
there; it will be a
heritage for the bittern and the raven: and
it will be measured
out with line and weight as a waste land.
34:12 The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be
gone; they will say,
There is no longer a kingdom there, and
all her chiefs will
have come to an end.
34:13 And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste
plants in her strong
towers: and foxes will make their holes
there, and it will be
a meeting-place for ostriches.
34:14 And the beasts of the waste places will come together
with
the jackals, and the
evil spirits will be crying to one
another, even the
night-spirit will come and make her
resting-place there.
34:15 The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there,
and get her young
together under her shade: there the hawks
will come together by
twos.
34:16 See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all
these
will be there, not
one without the other: the mouth of the Lord
has given the order,
and his spirit has made them come
together.
34:17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand
it
has been measured out
to them: it will be theirs for ever,
their resting-place
from generation to generation.
35:1 The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the
lowland
will have joy and be
full of flowers.
35:2 It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of
delight and songs;
the glory of Lebanon will be given to it;
the pride of Carmel
and Sharon: they will see the glory of the
Lord, the power of
our God.
35:3 Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the
shaking
knees.
35:4 Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take
heart: see, your God
will give punishment; the reward of God
will come; he himself
will come to be your saviour.
35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which
are
stopped will be open.
35:6 Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and
the
voice which was
stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste
land streams will be
bursting out, and waters in the dry
places.
35:7 And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry
earth
springs of waters:
the fields where the sheep take their food
will become wet land,
and water-plants will take the place of
grass.
35:8 And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy
Way; the unclean and
the sinner may not go over it, and those
who go on it will not
be turned out of the way by the foolish.
35:9 No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not
be
seen there; but those
for whom the Lord has given a price,
35:10 Even those whom he has made free, will come back
again;
they will come with
songs to Zion; on their heads will be
eternal joy; delight
and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and
sounds of grief will
be gone for ever.
36:1 And it came about in the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah
that Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, came up against all the
walled towns of Judah
and took them.
36:2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from
Lachish to
Jerusalem to King
Hezekiah with a strong force, and he took up
his position by the
stream of the higher pool, by the highway
of the washerman's
36:3 And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah,
who
was over the house,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of
Asaph, the recorder.
36:4 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah,
These
are the words of the
great king, the king of Assyria: In what
are you placing your
hope?
36:5 You say you have a design and strength for war, but
these
are only words: now
to whom are you looking for support, that
you have gone against
my authority?
36:6 See, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of
Egypt,
which will go into a
man's hand if he makes use of it for a
support; for so is
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their
faith in him.
36:7 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God;
is
it not he whose high
places and altars Hezekiah has taken away,
saying to Judah and
Jerusalem that worship may only be given
before this altar?
36:8 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of
Assyria,
and I will give you
two thousand horses, if you are able to put
horsemen on them.
36:9 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's
servants? and you
have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages
and horsemen:
36:10 And have I now come to send destruction on this land
without the Lord's
authority? It was the Lord himself who said
to me, Go up against
this land and make it waste.
36:11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the
Rab-shakeh,
Please make use of
the Aramaean language in talking to your
servants, for we are
used to it, and do not make use of the
Jews' language in the
hearing of the people on the wall.
36:12 But the Rab-shakeh said, Is it to your master or to
you
that my master has
sent me to say these words? has he not sent
me to the men seated
on the wall? for they are the people who
will be short of food
with you when the town is shut in.
36:13 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice
in
the Jews' language,
Give ear to the words of the great king,
the king of Assyria:
36:14 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by
Hezekiah,
for there is no
salvation for you in him.
36:15 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the
Lord, saying, The
Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this
town will not be
given into the hands of the king of Assyria.
36:16 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king
of
Assyria says, Make
peace with me, and come out to me; and
everyone will be free
to take the fruit of his vine and of his
fig-tree, and the
water of his spring;
36:17 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a
land
of grain and wine, a
land of bread and vine-gardens.
36:18 Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The
Lord will keep us
safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations
kept his land from
falling into the hands of the king of
Assyria?
36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are
the
gods of Sepharvaim?
where are the gods of Samaria? and have
they kept Samaria out
of my hand?
36:20 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept
their
country from falling
into my hand, to give cause for the
thought that the Lord
will keep Jerusalem from falling into my
hand?
36:21 But they kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the
king's
order was, Give him
no answer.
36:22 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
house,
and Shebna the
scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to
Hezekiah with their clothing parted as a sign
of grief, and gave
him an account of what the Rab-shakeh had
said.
37:1 And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on
haircloth and went
into the house of the Lord.
37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna
the
scribe, and the chief
priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah
the prophet, the son
of Amoz.
37:3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day
of
trouble and
punishment and shame: for the children are ready to
come to birth, but
there is no strength to give birth to them.
37:4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the
words
of the Rab-shakeh,
whom the king of Assyria, his master, has
sent to say evil
things against the living God, and will make
his words come to
nothing: so make your prayer for the rest of
the people.
37:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
37:6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to
your master: The Lord
says, Be not troubled by the words which
the servants of the
king of Assyria have said against me in
your hearing.
37:7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will
come
to his ears, and he
will go back to his land; and there I will
have him put to
death.
37:8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the
king
of Assyria was making
war against Libnah: for it had come to
his ears that the
king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish.
37:9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of
Ethiopia,
had made an attack on
him, ... And he sent representatives to
Hezekiah, king of
Judah, saying,
37:10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of
Judah:
Let not your God, in
whom is your faith, give you a false hope,
saying, Jerusalem
will not be given into the hands of the king
of Assyria.
37:11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the
kings
of Assyria have done
to all lands, putting them to the curse:
and will you be kept
safe from their fate?
37:12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my
fathers sent
destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the
children of Eden who
were in Telassar?
37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad,
and
the king of the town
of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva?
37:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those
who
had come with it; and
after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the
house of the Lord,
opening the letter there before the Lord,
37:15 And he made prayer to the Lord, saying,
37:16 O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between
the
winged ones, you only
are the God of all the kingdoms of the
earth; you have made
heaven and earth.
37:17 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be
open, O Lord, and
see: take note of all the words of
Sennacherib who has
sent men to say evil against the living
God.
37:18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste
all
the nations and their
lands,
37:19 And have given their gods to the fire: for they were
no
gods, but wood and
stone, the work of men's hands; so they have
given them to
destruction.
37:20 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his
hand,
so that it may be
clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that
you, and you only,
are the Lord.
37:21 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah,
saying,
The Lord, the God of
Israel, says, The prayer you have made to
me against
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.
37:22 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In
the
eyes of the virgin
daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed
at; the daughter of
Jerusalem has made sport of you.
37:23 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and
against whom has your
voice been loud and your eyes lifted up?
even against the Holy
One of Israel.
37:24 You have sent your servants with evil words against
the
Lord, and have said,
With all my war-carriages I have come up
to the top of the
mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon;
and its tall cedars
will be cut down, and the best trees of its
woods: I will come up
into his highest places, into his thick
woods.
37:25 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and
with
my foot I have made
all the rivers of Egypt dry.
37:26 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before,
purposing it in times
long past? Now I have given effect to my
design, so that by
you strong towns might be turned into masses
of broken walls.
37:27 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were
broken
and put to shame;
they were like the grass of the field, or a
green plant; like the
grass on the house-tops, which a cold
wind makes waste.
37:28 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your
resting,
of your going out and
your coming in.
37:29 Because your wrath against me and your pride have come
to
my ears, I will put
my hook in your nose and my cord in your
lips, and I will make
you go back by the way you came.
37:30 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your
food
this year from what
comes up of itself, and in the second year
from the produce of
the same; and in the third year you will
put in your seed, and
get in the grain, and make vine-gardens,
and take of their
fruit.
37:31 And those of Judah who are still living will again
take
root in the earth,
and give fruit.
37:32 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will
go
out, and those who
are still living will go out of Mount Zion:
by the fixed purpose
of the Lord of armies this will be done.
37:33 For this cause the Lord says about the king of
Assyria, He
will not come into
this town, or send an arrow against it; he
will not come before
it with arms, or put up an earthwork
against it.
37:34 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not
get
into this town.
37:35 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for
the
honour of my servant
David.
37:36 And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in
the
army of the Assyrians
a hundred and eighty-five thousand men:
and when the people
got up early in the morning, there was
nothing to be seen
but dead bodies.
37:37 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place
at
Nineveh.
37:38 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the
house of
Nisroch his god, that
his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him
to death with the
sword, and they went in flight into the land
of Ararat. And
Esar-haddon, his son, became king in his place.
38:1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And
Isaiah
the prophet, the son
of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The
Lord says, Put your
house in order; for your death is near.
38:2 And Hezekiah, turning his face to the wall, made his
prayer
to the Lord, saying,
38:3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with
all
my heart, and have
done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah
gave way to bitter
weeping.
38:4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,
38:5 Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David,
your
father, says, Your
prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen
your weeping: see, I
will give you fifteen more years of life.
38:6 And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands
of
the king of Assyria:
and I will keep watch over this town.
38:7 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give
you,
that he will do what
he has said:
38:8 See, I will make the shade which has gone down on the
steps
of Ahaz with the sun,
go back ten steps. So the shade went back
the ten steps by
which it had gone down.
38:9 The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had
been
ill, and had got
better from his disease.
38:10 I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into
the
underworld: the rest
of my years are being taken away from me.
38:11 I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the
land
of the living: I will
not see man again or those living in the
world.
38:12 My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me
like
a herdsman's tent: my
life is rolled up like a linen-worker's
thread; I am cut off
from the cloth on the frame: from day even
to night you give me
up to pain.
38:13 I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as
if a
lion was crushing all
my bones.
38:14 I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief
like
a dove: my eyes are
looking up with desire; O Lord, I am
crushed, take up my
cause.
38:15 What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done
it:
all my time of
sleeping I am turning from side to side without
rest.
38:16 O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest
to
my spirit: make me
well again, and let me come back to life.
38:17 See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but
you
have kept back my
soul from the underworld; for you have put
all my sins out of
your memory.
38:18 For the underworld is not able to give you praise,
death
gives you no honour:
for those who go down into the underworld
there is no hope in
your mercy.
38:19 The living, the living man, he will give you praise,
as I
do this day: the
father will give the story of your mercy to
his children.
38:20 O Lord, quickly be my saviour; so we will make my
songs to
corded instruments
all the days of our lives in the house of
the Lord.
38:21 And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs, and put
it
on the diseased
place, and he will get well.
38:22 And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up
to
the house of the
Lord?
39:1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king
of
Babylon, sent letters
with an offering to Hezekiah, because he
had news that
Hezekiah had been ill, and was well again.
39:2 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming, and let them see
all
his store of wealth,
the silver and the gold and the spices and
the oil, and all the
house of his arms, and everything there
was in his stores:
there was nothing in all his house or his
kingdom which he did
not let them see.
39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said
to
him, What did these
men say, and where did they come from? And
Hezekiah said, They
came from a far country, even from Babylon.
39:4 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And
Hezekiah said in
answer, They saw everything in my house: there
is nothing among my
stores which I did not let them see.
39:5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of
the
Lord of armies:
39:6 Truly, the days are coming when everything in your
house,
and whatever your
fathers have put in store till this day, will
be taken away to
Babylon: all will be gone.
39:7 And your sons, even your offspring, will they take away
to
be unsexed servants
in the house of the king of Babylon.
39:8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the
Lord
which you have said.
And he said in his heart, There will be
peace and quiet in my
days.
40:1 Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your
God.
40:2 Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to
her
that her time of
trouble is ended, that her punishment is
complete; that she
has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice
over for all her
sins.
40:3 A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the
way
of the Lord, make
level in the lowland a highway for our God.
40:4 Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and
hill
be made low, and let
the rough places become level, and the
hilltops become a
valley,
40:5 And the glory of the Lord will be made clear, and all
flesh
will see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has said it.
40:6 A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is
my
cry to be? All flesh
is grass, and all its strength like the
flower of the field.
40:7 The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the
breath of the Lord
goes over it: truly the people is grass.
40:8 The grass is dry, the flower is dead; but the word of
our
God is eternal.
40:9 You who give good news to Zion, get up into the high
mountain; you who
give good news to Jerusalem, let your voice
be strong; let it be
sounding without fear; say to the towns of
Judah, See, your God!
40:10 See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in
power: see, those
made free by him are with him, and those whom
he has made safe go
before him.
40:11 He will give food to his flock like a keeper of sheep;
with his arm he will
get it together, and will take up the
lambs on his breast,
gently guiding those which are with young.
40:12 In the hollow of whose hand have the waters been
measured?
and who is able to
take the heavens in his stretched-out
fingers? who has got
together the dust of the earth in a
measure? who has
taken the weight of the mountains, or put the
hills into the
scales?
40:13 By whom has the spirit of the Lord been guided, or who
has
been his teacher?
40:14 Who gave him suggestions, and made clear to him the
right
way? who gave him
knowledge, guiding him in the way of wisdom?
40:15 See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a
bucket, and like the
small dust in the scales: he takes up the
islands like small
dust.
40:16 And Lebanon is not enough to make a fire with, or all
its
cattle enough for a
burned offering.
40:17 All the nations are as nothing before him; even less
than
nothing, a thing of
no value.
40:18 Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will
you
put forward as a
comparison with him?
40:19 The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts
gold
plates over it, and
makes silver bands for it.
40:20 The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree
of
the offering, a wood
which will not become soft; so that the
image may be fixed to
it and not be moved.
40:21 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your
ears?
has not news of it
been given to you from the first? has it not
been clear to you
from the time when the earth was placed on
its base?
40:22 It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and
the
people in it are as
small as locusts; by him the heavens are
stretched out like an
arch, and made ready like a tent for a
living-place.
40:23 He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the
earth
are of no value.
40:24 They have only now been planted, and their seed put
into
the earth, and they
have only now taken root, when he sends out
his breath over them
and they become dry, and the storm-wind
takes them away like
dry grass.
40:25 Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy
One.
40:26 Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has
made
these? He who sends
out their numbered army: who has knowledge
of all their names:
by whose great strength, because he is
strong in power, all
of them are in their places.
40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O
Israel,
The Lord's eyes are
not on my way, and my God gives no
attention to my
cause?
40:28 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your
ears?
The eternal God, the
Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth,
is never feeble or
tired; there is no searching out of his
wisdom.
40:29 He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength
of
him who has no force.
40:30 Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and
the
best of them will
come to the end of his strength;
40:31 But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new
strength; they will
get wings like eagles: running, they will
not be tired, and
walking, they will have no weariness.
41:1 Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the
peoples
get together their
strength: let them come near; then let them
say what they have to
say: let us put forward our cause against
one another.
41:2 Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he
goes? he gives the
nations into his hands, and makes him ruler
over kings; he gives
them as the dust to his sword, as dry
stems before the wind
to his bow.
41:3 He goes after them safely, not touching the road with
his
feet.
41:4 Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the
generations from the
start. I the Lord, the first, and with the
last, I am he.
41:5 The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the
earth were shaking:
they came near.
41:6 They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone
said
to his brother, Take
heart!
41:7 So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and
he
who was hammering the
metal smooth said kind words to the
iron-worker, saying
of the plate, It is ready: and he put it
together with nails,
so that there might be no slipping.
41:8 But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob,
whom I
have taken for
myself, the seed of Abraham my friend:
41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and
sent
for from its farthest
parts, saying to you, You are my servant,
whom I have taken for
myself, and whom I have not given up:
41:10 Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking
about
in trouble, for I am
your God; I will give you strength, yes, I
will be your helper;
yes, my true right hand will be your
support.
41:11 Truly, all those who are angry with you will be made
low
and put to shame:
those desiring to do you wrong will come to
nothing and never
again be seen.
41:12 You will make search for your haters but they will not
be
there; those who make
war against you will be as nothing and
will come to
destruction.
41:13 For I, the Lord your God, have taken your right hand
in
mine, saying to you,
Have no fear; I will be your helper.
41:14 Have no fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I
will be your helper,
says the Lord, even he who takes up your
cause, the Holy One
of Israel.
41:15 See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing
instrument
with teeth, crushing
the mountains small, and making the hills
like dry stems.
41:16 You will send the wind over them, and it will take
them
away; they will go in
all directions before the storm-wind: you
will have joy in the
Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of
Israel.
41:17 The poor and crushed are looking for water where no
water
is, and their tongue
is dry for need of it: I the Lord will
give ear to their
prayer, I the God of Israel will not give
them up.
41:18 I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and
fountains
in the valleys: I
will make the waste land a pool of water, and
the dry land springs
of water.
41:19 I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia,
the
myrtle, and the
olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted
the fir-tree, the
plane, and the cypress together:
41:20 So that they may see and be wise and give their mind
to
it, and that it may
be clear to them all that the hand of the
Lord has done this,
and that the Holy One of Israel has made
it.
41:21 Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong
argument come out,
says the King of Jacob.
41:22 Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of
the
past things, so that
we may give thought to them; or of the
things to come, so
that we may see if they are true.
41:23 Give us word of what will be after this, so that we
may be
certain that you are
gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that we
may all see it and be
surprised.
41:24 But you are nothing, and your work is of no value:
foolish
is he who takes you
for his gods.
41:25 I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn
he
has come; in my name
he will get rulers together and go against
them; they will be
like dust, even as the wet earth is stamped
on by the feet of the
potter.
41:26 Who has given knowledge of it from the first, so that
we
may be certain of it?
and from the start, so that we may say,
His word is true?
There is no one who gives news, or says
anything, or who
gives ear to your words.
41:27 I was the first to give word of it to Zion, and I gave
the
good news to
Jerusalem.
41:28 And I saw that there was no man, even no wise man
among
them, who might give
an answer to my questions.
41:29 Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing
and of
no value: their metal
images are of no more use than wind.
42:1 See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in
whom
I take delight: I
have put my spirit on him; he will give the
knowledge of the true
God to the nations.
42:2 He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his
words
will not come to
men's ears in the streets.
42:3 He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he
will
not let a feebly
burning light be put out: he will go on
sending out the true
word to the peoples.
42:4 His light will not be put out, and he will not be
crushed,
till he has given the
knowledge of the true God to the earth,
and the sea-lands
will be waiting for his teaching.
42:5 God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring
them
out on high;
stretching out the earth, and giving its produce;
he who gives breath
to the people on it, and life to those who
go about on it, says:
42:6 I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I
have
taken you by the
hand, and kept you safe, and I have given you
to be an agreement to
the people, and a light to the nations:
42:7 To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners
from
the prison, to let
out those who are shut up in the dark.
42:8 I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my
glory to
another, or my praise
to pictured images.
42:9 See, the things said before have come about, and now I
give
word of new things:
before they come I give you news of them.
42:10 Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be
sounded
from the end of the
earth; you who go down to the sea, and
everything in it, the
sea-lands and their people.
42:11 Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the
tent-circles of
Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad
cry, from the top of
the mountains let them make a sound of
joy.
42:12 Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise
in
the sea-lands.
42:13 The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved
to
wrath like a
fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will
give a loud cry; he
will go against his attackers like a man of
war.
42:14 I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done
nothing: now I will
make sounds of pain like a woman in
childbirth, breathing
hard and quickly.
42:15 I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all
their
plants; and I will
make rivers dry, and pools dry land.
42:16 And I will take the blind by a way of which they had
no
knowledge, guiding
them by roads strange to them: I will make
the dark places light
before them, and the rough places level.
These things will I
do and will not give them up.
42:17 They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put
their hope in
pictured images, who say to metal images, You are
our gods.
42:18 Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes
be
open, you blind, so
that you may see.
42:19 Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears
stopped,
but he whom I send?
who is blind as my true one, or who has his
ears shut like the
Lord's servant?
42:20 Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are
open, but there is no
hearing.
42:21 It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his
righteousness,
to make the teaching
great and give it honour.
42:22 But this is a people whose property has been taken
away
from them by force;
they are all taken in holes, and shut up in
prisons: they are
made prisoners, and no one makes them free;
they are taken by
force and no one says, Give them back.
42:23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who
will
give attention to it
for the time to come?
42:24 Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods,
and
Israel to his
attackers? Did not the Lord? he against whom they
did wrong, and in
whose ways they would not go, turning away
from his teaching.
42:25 For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his
wrath,
and his strength was
like a flame; and it put fire round about
him, but he did not
see it; he was burned, but did not take it
to heart.
43:1 But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your
life-giver, O Israel:
have no fear, for I have taken up your
cause; naming you by
your name, I have made you mine.
43:2 When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and
through the rivers,
they will not go over you: when you go
through the fire, you
will not be burned; and the flame will
have no power over
you.
43:3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
your
saviour; I have given
Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and
Seba for you.
43:4 Because of your value in my eyes, you have been
honoured,
and loved by me; so I
will give men for you, and peoples for
your life.
43:5 Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed
from
the east, and get you
together from the west;
43:6 I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the
south, Do
not keep them back;
send back my sons from far, and my
daughters from the
end of the earth;
43:7 Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made
for
my glory, who has
been formed and designed by me.
43:8 Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who
have
ears, but they are
shut.
43:9 Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples
be
present: who among
them is able to make this clear, and give us
word of earlier
things? let their witnesses come forward, so
that they may be seen
to be true, and that they may give ear,
and say, It is true.
43:10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant
whom I
have taken for
myself: so that you may see and have faith in
me, and that it may
be clear to you that I am he; before me
there was no God
formed, and there will not be after me.
43:11 I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but
me.
43:12 I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no
strange god among
you: for this reason you are my witnesses,
says the Lord.
43:13 From time long past I am God, and from this day I am
he:
there is no one who
is able to take you out of my hand: when I
undertake a thing, by
whom will my purpose be changed?
43:14 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of
Israel, says, Because
of you I have sent to Babylon, and made
all their seers come
south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in
the ships.
43:15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel,
your
King.
43:16 This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the
sea,
and a road through
the deep waters;
43:17 Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the
army
with all its force;
they have come down, they will not get up
again; like a feebly
burning light they are put out.
43:18 Give no thought to the things which are past; let the
early times go out of
your minds.
43:19 See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will
you
not take note of it?
I will even make a way in the waste land,
and rivers in the dry
country.
43:20 The beasts of the field will give me honour, the
jackals
and the ostriches:
because I send out waters in the waste land,
and rivers in the dry
country, to give drink to the people whom
I have taken for
myself:
43:21 Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my
praise.
43:22 But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you
have
given no thought to
me, O Israel.
43:23 You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or
given
me honour with your
offerings of beasts; I did not make you
servants to give me
an offering, and I did not make you tired
with requests for
perfumes.
43:24 You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your
money,
or given me pleasure
with the fat of your offerings: but you
have made me a
servant to your sins, and you have made me tired
with your evil
doings.
43:25 I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will
no
longer keep your evil
doings in mind.
43:26 Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause
between
us: put forward your
cause, so that you may be seen to be in
the right.
43:27 Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have
gone
against my word.
43:28 Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have
made Jacob a curse,
and Israel a thing of shame.
44:1 And now, give ear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom
I
have taken for
myself:
44:2 The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's
body,
the Lord, your
helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my servant,
and you, Jeshurun,
whom I have taken for myself.
44:3 For I will send water on the land needing it, and
streams
on the dry earth: I
will let my spirit come down on your seed,
and my blessing on
your offspring.
44:4 And they will come up like grass in a well-watered
field,
like water-plants by
the streams.
44:5 One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will give
himself the name,
Jacob; another will put a mark on his hand, I
am the Lord's, and
another will take the name of Israel for
himself.
44:6 The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies
who
has taken up his
cause, says, I am the first and the last, and
there is no God but
me.
44:7 If there is one like me, let him come forward and say
it,
let him make it clear
and put it in order before me: who has
made clear in the
past the things to come? let him make clear
the future to me.
44:8 Have no fear, be strong in heart; have I not made it
clear
to you in the past,
and let you see it? and you are my
witnesses. Is there
any God but me, or a Rock of whom I have no
knowledge?
44:9 Those who make a pictured image are all of them as
nothing,
and the things of
their desire will be of no profit to them:
and their servants
see not, and have no knowledge; so they will
be put to shame.
44:10 Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image in
which there is no
profit.
44:11 Truly, all those who make use of secret arts will be
put
to shame, and their
words of power are only words of men: let
them all come forward
together; they will all be in fear and be
put to shame.
44:12 The iron-worker is heating the metal in the fire,
giving
it form with his
hammers, and working on it with his strong
arm: then for need of
food his strength gives way, and for need
of water he becomes
feeble.
44:13 The woodworker is measuring out the wood with his
line,
marking it out with
his pencil: after smoothing it with his
plane, and making
circles on it with his instrument, he gives
it the form and glory
of a man, so that it may be placed in the
house.
44:14 He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak
and
lets it get strong
among the trees of the wood; he has an
ash-tree planted, and
the rain gives it growth.
44:15 Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may
get
warm; he has the oven
heated with it and makes bread: he makes
a god with it, to
which he gives worship: he makes a pictured
image out of it, and
goes down on his face before it.
44:16 With part of it he makes a fire, and on the fire he
gets
meat cooked and takes
a full meal: he makes himself warm, and
says, Aha! I am warm,
I have seen the fire:
44:17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his
pictured
image: he goes down
on his face before it, giving worship to
it, and making prayer
to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you are
my god.
44:18 They have no knowledge or wisdom; for he has put a
veil
over their eyes, so
that they may not see; and on their hearts,
so that they may not
give attention.
44:19 And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or
wisdom to say, I have
put part of it in the fire, and made
bread on it; I have
had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and
am I now to make the
rest of it into a false god? am I to go
down on my face
before a bit of wood?
44:20 As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he
has
been turned from the
way by a twisted mind, so that he is
unable to keep
himself safe by saying, What I have here in my
hand is false.
44:21 Keep these things in mind, O Jacob; and you Israel,
for
you are my servant: I
have made you; you are my servant; O
Israel, I will not
let you go out of my memory.
44:22 I have put your evil doings out of my mind like a
thick
cloud, and your sins
like a mist: come back to me; for I have
taken up your cause.
44:23 Make a song, O heavens, for the Lord has done it: give
a
loud cry, you deep
parts of the earth: let your voices be loud
in song, you
mountains, and you woods with all your trees: for
the Lord has taken up
the cause of Jacob, and will let his
glory be seen in
Israel.
44:24 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave
you
life in your mother's
body, says, I am the Lord who makes all
things; stretching
out the heavens by myself, and giving the
earth its limits; who
was with me?
44:25 Who makes the signs of those who give word of the
future
come to nothing, so
that those who have knowledge of secret
arts go off their
heads; turning the wise men back, and making
their knowledge
foolish:
44:26 Who makes the word of his servants certain, and gives
effect to the
purposes of his representatives; who says of
Jerusalem, Her people
will come back to her; and of the towns
of Judah, I will give
orders for their building, and will make
her waste places
fertile again:
44:27 Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your
rivers
dry:
44:28 Who says of Cyrus, He will take care of my sheep, and
will
do all my pleasure:
who says of Jerusalem, I will give the word
for your building;
and of the Temple, Your bases will be put in
place.
45:1 The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus,
whom I
have taken by the
right hand, putting down nations before him,
and taking away the
arms of kings; making the doors open before
him, so that the ways
into the towns may not be shut;
45:2 I will go before you, and make the rough places level:
the
doors of brass will
be broken, and the iron rods cut in two:
45:3 And I will give you the stores of the dark, and the
wealth
of secret places, so
that you may be certain that I am the
Lord, who gave you
your name, even the God of Israel.
45:4 Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have
taken
for myself, I have
sent for you by name, giving you a name of
honour, though you
had no knowledge of me.
45:5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God
but
me: I will make you
ready for war, though you had no knowledge
of me:
45:6 So that they may see from the east and from the west
that
there is no God but
me: I am the Lord, and there is no other.
45:7 I am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing
blessing, and sending
troubles; I am the Lord, who does all
these things.
45:8 Let righteousness come down, O heavens, from on high,
and
let the sky send it
down like rain: let the earth be open to
give the fruit of
salvation, causing righteousness to come up
with it; I the Lord
have made it come about.
45:9 Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the
pot
which has an argument
with the Potter! Will the wet earth say
to him who is working
with it, What are you doing, that your
work has nothing by
which it may be gripped?
45:10 Cursed is he who says to a father, To what are you
giving
life? or to a woman,
What are you in birth-pains with?
45:11 The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, says,
Will you put a
question to me about the things which are to
come, or will you
give me orders about my sons, and the work of
my hands?
45:12 I have made the earth, forming man on it: by my hands
the
heavens have been
stretched out, and all the stars put in their
ordered places.
45:13 I have sent him out to overcome the nations, and I
will
make all his ways
straight: I will give him the work of
building my town, and
he will let my prisoners go free, without
price or reward, says
the Lord of armies.
45:14 The Lord says, The workmen of Egypt, and the traders
of
Ethiopia, and the
tall Sabaeans, will come over the sea to you,
and they will be
yours; they will go after you; in chains they
will come over: and
they will go down on their faces before
you, and will make
prayer to you, saying, Truly, God is among
you; and there is no
other God.
45:15 Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a
Saviour!
45:16 All those who have gone against him will be put to
shame;
the makers of images
will be made low.
45:17 But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal
salvation: you will
not be put to shame or made low for ever
and ever.
45:18 For this is the word of the Lord who made the heavens;
he
is God; the maker and
designer of the earth; who made it not to
be a waste, but as a
living-place for man: I am the Lord, and
there is no other.
45:19 I have not given my word in secret, in a place in the
underworld; I did not
say to the seed of Jacob, Go into a waste
land to make request
of me: I the Lord say what is true, my
word is
righteousness.
45:20 Come together, even come near, you nations who are
still
living: they have no
knowledge who take up their image of wood,
and make prayer to a
god in whom is no salvation.
45:21 Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a
discussion together:
who has given news of this in the past?
who made it clear in
early times? did not I, the Lord? and
there is no God but
me; a true God and a saviour; there is no
other.
45:22 Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have
salvation, all the
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there
is no other.
45:23 By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone
from
my mouth, and will
not be changed, that to me every knee will
be bent, and every
tongue will give honour.
45:24 Only in the Lord will Jacob overcome and be strong:
together all those
who were angry with him will be put to shame
and come to
destruction.
45:25 In the Lord will all the seed of Israel get their
rights,
and they will give
glory to him.
46:1 Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on
the
beasts and on the
cattle: the things which you took about have
become a weight to
the tired beast.
46:2 They are bent down, they are falling together: they
were
not able to keep
their images safe, but they themselves have
been taken prisoner.
46:3 Give ear to me, O family of Jacob, and all the rest of
the
people of Israel, who
have been supported by me from their
birth, and have been
my care from their earliest days:
46:4 Even when you are old I will be the same, and when you
are
grey-haired I will
take care of you: I will still be
responsible for what
I made; yes, I will take you and keep you
safe.
46:5 Who in your eyes is my equal? or what comparison will
you
make with me?
46:6 As for those who take gold out of a bag, and put silver
in
the scales, they give
payment to a gold-worker, to make it into
a god; they go down
on their faces and give it worship.
46:7 They put him on their backs, and take him up, and put
him
in his fixed place,
from which he may not be moved; if a man
gives a cry for help
to him, he is unable to give an answer, or
get him out of his
trouble.
46:8 Keep this in mind and be shamed; let it come back to
your
memory, you sinners.
46:9 Let the things which are past come to your memory: for
I am
God, and there is no
other; I am God, and there is no one like
me;
46:10 Making clear from the first what is to come, and from
past
times the things
which have not so far come about; saying, My
purpose is fixed, and
I will do all my pleasure;
46:11 Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the
man
of my purpose from a
far country; I have said it, and I will
give effect to it;
the thing designed by me will certainly be
done.
46:12 Give ear to me, you feeble-hearted, who have no faith
in
my righteousness:
46:13 My righteousness is near, it is not far off; salvation
will come quickly;
and I will make Zion free, and give Israel
my glory.
47:1 Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter
of
Babylon; come down
from your seat of power, and take your place
on the earth, O
daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never
again seem soft and
delicate.
47:2 Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take
off
your veil, put away
your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go
through the rivers.
47:3 The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all:
I will give
punishment without mercy,
47:4 Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of
armies is
his name, the Holy
One of Israel.
47:5 Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the
Chaldaeans: for you
will no longer be named, The Queen of
Kingdoms.
47:6 I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage,
and
gave them into your
hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a
cruel yoke on those
who were old;
47:7 And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not
give
attention to these
things, and did not keep in mind what would
come after.
47:8 So now take note of this, you who are given up to
pleasure,
living without fear
of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and
there is no one like
me; I will never be a widow, or have my
children taken from
me.
47:9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one
day,
the loss of children
and of husband: in full measure they will
come on you, for all
your secret arts, and all your wonders.
47:10 For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one
sees me; by your
wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out
of the way: and you
have said in your heart, I am, and there is
no other.
47:11 Because of this evil will come on you, which may not
be
turned away for any
price: and trouble will overtake you, from
which no money will
give salvation: destruction will come on
you suddenly, without
your knowledge.
47:12 Go on now with your secret arts, and all your
wonder-working, to
which you have given yourself up from your
earliest days; it may
be that they will be of profit to you, or
by them you may put
fear into your attackers.
47:13 But your mind is troubled by the number of your
guides:
let them now come
forward for your salvation: the measurers of
the heavens, the watchers
of the stars, and those who are able
to say from month to
month what things are coming on you.
47:14 Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been
burned in the fire;
they are not able to keep themselves safe
from the power of the
flame: it is not a coal for warming them,
or a fire by which a
man may be seated.
47:15 Small profit have you had from those who, from your
earliest days, got
great profit out of you; they have gone in
flight, every one
straight before him, and you have no saviour.
48:1 Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named
by
the name of Israel,
and have come out of the body of Judah; who
take oaths by the
name of the Lord, and make use of the name of
the God of Israel,
but not truly and not in good faith.
48:2 For they say that they are of the holy town, and put
their
faith in the God of
Israel: the Lord of armies is his name.
48:3 I gave word in the past of the things which came about;
they came from my
mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did
them, and they came
about.
48:4 Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your
neck
was an iron cord, and
your brow brass;
48:5 For this reason I made it clear to you in the past,
before
it came I gave you
word of it: for fear that you might say, My
god did these things,
and my pictured and metal images made
them come about.
48:6 All this has come to your ears and you have seen it;
will
you not give witness
to it? I am now making clear new things,
even secret things,
of which you had no knowledge.
48:7 They have only now been effected, and not in the past:
and
before this day they
had not come to your ears; for fear that
you might say, I had
knowledge of them.
48:8 Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no
news of them in the
past had come to your ears; because I saw
how false was your
behaviour, and that your heart was turned
against me from your
earliest days.
48:9 Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my
praise I will keep
myself from cutting you off.
48:10 See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I
have put you through
the fire of trouble.
48:11 For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for
I
will not let my name
be shamed; and my glory I will not give to
another.
48:12 Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am
he,
I am the first and I
am the last.
48:13 Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and
by
my right hand the
heavens were stretched out; at my word they
take up their places.
48:14 Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you
has
given news of these
things? the Lord's loved one will do his
pleasure with
Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans.
48:15 I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I
have made him come,
and have given effect to his undertakings.
48:16 Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start
I
did not keep it
secret; from the time of its coming into
existence I was
there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and
given me his spirit.
48:17 The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of
Israel,
says, I am the Lord
your God, who is teaching you for your
profit, guiding you
by the way in which you are to go.
48:18 If only you had given ear to my orders, then your
peace
would have been like
a river, and your righteousness as the
waves of the sea:
48:19 Your seed would have been like the sand, and your
offspring like the
dust: your name would not be cut off or come
to an end before me.
48:20 Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans;
with
the sound of song
make it clear, give the news, let the word go
out even to the end
of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up
the cause of his
servant Jacob.
48:21 They had no need of water when he was guiding them
through
the waste lands: he
made water come out of the rock for them:
the rock was parted
and the waters came flowing out.
48:22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.
49:1 Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you
peoples
from far: I have been
marked out by the Lord from the first;
when I was still in
my mother's body, he had my name in mind:
49:2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the
shade
of his hand he has
kept me; and he has made me like a polished
arrow, keeping me in
his secret place;
49:3 And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom
my
glory will be seen;
49:4 And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I
have
given my strength for
no purpose or profit: but still the Lord
will take up my
cause, and my God will give me my reward.
49:5 And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I
was
still in my mother's
body, so that I might make Jacob come back
to him, and so that
Israel might come together to him: and I
was honoured in the
eyes of the Lord, and my God became my
strength.
49:6 It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the
tribes of Jacob again
in their place, and to get back those of
Israel who have been
sent away: my purpose is to give you as a
light to the nations,
so that you may be my salvation to the
end of the earth.
49:7 The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy
One,
says to him whom men
make sport of, who is hated by the
nations, a servant of
rulers: Kings will see and get up from
their places, and
chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord
who keeps faith; even
the Holy One of Israel who has taken you
for himself.
49:8 This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you
at a
good time, and I have
been your helper in a day of salvation:
and I will keep you
safe, and will make you a glory for the
people, putting the
land in order, and giving them the
heritages which now
are waste;
49:9 Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those
who
are in the dark, Come
out into the light. They will get food by
the way wherever they
go, and have grass-lands on all the dry
mountain-tops.
49:10 They will not be in need of food or drink, or be
troubled
by the heat or the
sun: for he who has mercy on them will be
their guide, taking
them by the springs of water.
49:11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my
highways
will be lifted up.
49:12 See, these are coming from far; and these from the
north
and the west; and
these from the land of Sinim.
49:13 Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be
glad, O
earth; make sounds of
joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given
comfort to his
people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones.
49:14 But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone
from
his memory.
49:15 Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she
be
without pity for the
fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I
will not let you go
out of my memory.
49:16 See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are
ever
before me.
49:17 Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and
those
who made you waste
will go out of you.
49:18 Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they
are
all coming together
to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly
you will put them all
on you as an ornament, and be clothed
with them like a
bride.
49:19 For though the waste places of your land have been
given
to destruction, now
you will not be wide enough for your
people, and those who
made you waste will be far away.
49:20 The children to whom you gave birth in other lands
will
say in your ears, The
place is not wide enough for me: make
room for me to have a
resting-place.
49:21 Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all
these children? when
my children had been taken from me, and I
was no longer able to
have others, who took care of these? when
I was by myself,
where then were these?
49:22 This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a
sign
with my hand to the
nations, and put up my flag for the
peoples; and they
will take up your sons on their beasts, and
your daughters on
their backs.
49:23 And kings will take care of you, and queens will give
you
their milk: they will
go down on their faces before you,
kissing the dust of
your feet; and you will be certain that I
am the Lord, and that
those who put their hope in me will not
be shamed.
49:24 Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or
the
prisoners of the
cruel one be let go?
49:25 But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong
will
be taken from him,
and the cruel made to let go his goods: for
I will take up your
cause against your haters, and I will keep
your children safe.
49:26 And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by
themselves for food;
and they will take their blood for drink,
as if it was sweet
wine: and all men will see that I the Lord
am your saviour, even
he who takes up your cause, the Strong
One of Jacob.
50:1 This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement
which
I gave your mother
when I put her away? or to which of my
creditors have I
given you for money? It was for your sins that
you were given into
the hands of others, and for your
evil-doing was your
mother put away.
50:2 Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to
give answer to my
voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it
is unable to take up
your cause? or have I no power to make you
free? See, at my word
the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a
waste land: their
fish are dead for need of water, and make an
evil smell.
50:3 By me the heavens are clothed with black, and I make
haircloth their robe.
50:4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are
experienced, so that
I may be able to give the word a special
sense for the feeble:
every morning my ear is open to his
teaching, like those
who are experienced:
50:5 And I have not put myself against him, or let my heart
be
turned back from him.
50:6 I was offering my back to those who gave me blows, and
my
face to those who
were pulling out my hair: I did not keep my
face covered from
marks of shame.
50:7 For the Lord God is my helper; I will not be put to
shame:
so I have made my
face like a rock, and I am certain that he
will give me my
right.
50:8 He who takes up my cause is near; who will go to law
with
me? let us come
together before the judge: who is against me?
let him come near to
me.
50:9 See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a
decision
against me? truly,
all of them will become old like a robe;
they will be food for
the worm.
50:10 Who among you has the fear of the Lord, giving ear to
the
voice of his servant
who has been walking in the dark and has
no light? Let him put
his faith in the name of the Lord,
looking to his God
for support.
50:11 See, all you who make a fire, arming yourselves with
burning branches: go
in the flame of your fire, and among the
branches you have put
a light to. This will you have from my
hand, you will make
your bed in sorrow.
51:1 Give ear to me, you who are searching for
righteousness,
who are looking for
the Lord: see the rock from which you were
cut out, and the hole
out of which you were taken.
51:2 Let your thoughts be turned to Abraham, your father,
and to
Sarah, who gave you
birth: for when he was but one, my voice
came to him, and I
gave him my blessing, and made him a great
people.
51:3 For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made
glad
all her broken walls;
making her waste places like Eden, and
changing her dry land
into the garden of the Lord; joy and
delight will be
there, praise and the sound of melody.
51:4 Give attention to me, O my people; and give ear to me,
O my
nation; for teaching
will go out from me, and the knowledge of
the true God will be
a light to the peoples.
51:5 Suddenly will my righteousness come near, and my
salvation
will be shining out
like the light; the sea-lands will be
waiting for me, and
they will put their hope in my strong arm.
51:6 Let your eyes be lifted up to the heavens, and turned
to
the earth which is
under them: for the heavens will go in
flight like smoke,
and the earth will become old like a coat,
and its people will
come to destruction like insects: but my
salvation will be for
ever, and my righteousness will not come
to an end.
51:7 Give ear to me, you who have knowledge of
righteousness, in
whose heart is my
law; have no fear of the evil words of men,
and give no thought
to their curses.
51:8 For like a coat they will be food for the insect, the
worm
will make a meal of
them like wool: but my righteousness will
be for ever, and my
salvation to all generations.
51:9 Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord,
awake! as
in the old days, in
the generations long past. Was it not by
you that Rahab was
cut in two, and the dragon Wounded?
51:10 Did you not make the sea dry, the waters of the great
deep? did you not
make the deep waters of the sea a way for the
Lord's people to go through?
51:11 Those whom the Lord has made free will come back with
songs to Zion; and on
their heads will be eternal joy: delight
and joy will be
theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be
gone for ever.
51:12 I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart
as
to be in fear of man
who will come to an end, and of the son of
man who will be like
grass?
51:13 And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker,
by
whom the heavens were
stretched out, and the earth placed on
its base; and you
went all day in fear of the wrath of the
cruel one, when he
was making ready for your destruction. And
where is the wrath of
the cruel one?
51:14 The prisoner, bent under his chain, will quickly be
made
free, and will not go
down into the underworld, and his bread
will not come to an
end.
51:15 For I am the Lord your God, who makes the sea calm
when
its waves are
thundering: the Lord of armies is his name.
51:16 And I have put my words in your mouth, covering you
with
the shade of my hand,
stretching out the heavens, and placing
the earth on its
base, and saying to Zion, You are my people.
51:17 Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken from
the
Lord's hand the cup
of his wrath; tasting in full measure the
wine which overcomes.
51:18 She has no one among all her children to be her guide;
not
one of the sons she
has taken care of takes her by the hand.
51:19 These two things have come on you; who will be weeping
for
you? wasting and
destruction; death from need of food, and from
the sword; how may
you be comforted?
51:20 Your sons are overcome, like a roe in a net; they are
full
of the wrath of the
Lord, the punishment of your God.
51:21 So now give ear to this, you who are troubled and
overcome, but not
with wine:
51:22 This is the word of the Lord your master, even your
God
who takes up the
cause of his people: See, I have taken out of
your hand the cup
which overcomes, even the cup of my wrath; it
will not again be
given to you:
51:23 And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters,
and
of those whose yoke
has been hard on you; who have said to your
soul, Down on your
face! so that we may go over you: and you
have given your backs
like the earth, even like the street, for
them to go over.
52:1 Awake! awake! put on your strength, O Zion; put on your
beautiful robes, O
Jerusalem, the holy town: for from now there
will never again come
into you the unclean and those without
circumcision.
52:2 Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the
seat of
your power, O
Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose, O
prisoned daughter of
Zion.
52:3 For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you
will
be made free without
price.
52:4 For the Lord God says, My people went down at first
into
Egypt, to get a place
for themselves there: and the Assyrian
put a cruel yoke on
them without cause.
52:5 Now then, what have I here? says the Lord, for my
people
are taken away
without cause; they are made waste and give
cries of sorrow, says
the Lord, and all the day the nations put
shame on my name.
52:6 For this cause I will make my name clear to my people;
in
that day they will be
certain that it is my word which comes to
them; see, here am I.
52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who
comes with good news,
who gives word of peace, saying that
salvation is near;
who says to Zion, Your God is ruling!
52:8 The voice of your watchmen! their voices are loud in
song
together; for they
will see him, eye to eye, when the Lord
comes back to Zion.
52:9 Give sounds of joy, make melody together, waste places
of
Jerusalem: for the
Lord has given comfort to his people, he has
taken up the cause of
Jerusalem.
52:10 The Lord has let his holy arm be seen by the eyes of
all
nations; and all the
ends of the earth will see the salvation
of our God.
52:11 Away! away! go out from there, touching no unclean
thing;
go out from among
her; be clean, you who take up the vessels of
the Lord.
52:12 For you will not go out suddenly, and you will not go
in
flight: for the Lord
will go before you, and the God of Israel
will come after you
to keep you.
52:13 See, my servant will do well in his undertakings, he
will
be honoured, and
lifted up, and be very high.
52:14 As peoples were surprised at him, And his face was not
beautiful, so as to
be desired: his face was so changed by
disease as to be
unlike that of a man, and his form was no
longer that of the
sons of men.
52:15 So will nations give him honour; kings will keep quiet
because of him: for
what had not been made clear to them they
will see; and they
will give their minds to what had not come
to their ears.
53:1 Who would have had faith in the word which has come to
our
ears, and to whom had
the arm of the Lord been unveiled?
53:2 For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before
him, and like a root
out of a dry place: he had no grace of
form, to give us
pleasure;
53:3 Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a
man
of sorrows, marked by
disease; and like one from whom men's
faces are turned
away, he was looked down on, and we put no
value on him.
53:4 But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put
on
him: while to us he
seemed as one diseased, on whom God's
punishment had come.
53:5 But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our
evil
doings he was
crushed: he took the punishment by which we have
peace, and by his
wounds we are made well.
53:6 We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us
after his desire; and
the Lord put on him the punishment of us
all.
53:7 Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as
a
lamb taken to its
death, and as a sheep before those who take
her wool makes no
sound, so he said not a word.
53:8 They took away from him help and right, and who gave a
thought to his fate?
for he was cut off from the land of the
living: he came to
his death for the sin of my people.
53:9 And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and
his
last resting-place
was with the evil-doers, though he had done
no wrong, and no
deceit was in his mouth.
53:10 And the Lord was pleased ... see a seed, long life,
...
will do well in his
hand. ...
53:11 ... made clear his righteousness before men ... had
taken
their sins on
himself.
53:12 For this cause he will have a heritage with the great,
and
he will have a part
in the goods of war with the strong,
because he gave up
his life, and was numbered with the
evil-doers; taking on
himself the sins of the people, and
making prayer for the
wrongdoers.
54:1 Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without
children;
make melody and
sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for
the children of her
who had no husband are more than those of
the married wife,
says the Lord.
54:2 Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains
of
your house be
stretched out without limit: make your cords
long, and your
tent-pins strong.
54:3 For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and
on
the left; and your
seed will take the nations for a heritage,
and make the waste
towns full of people.
54:4 Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without
hope:
you will not be put
to shame, for the shame of your earlier
days will go out of
your memory, and you will no longer keep in
mind the sorrows of
your widowed years.
54:5 For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is
his
name: and the Holy
One of Israel is he who takes up your cause;
he will be named the
God of all the earth.
54:6 For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife
who
has been sent away in
grief of spirit; for one may not give up
the wife of one's
early days.
54:7 For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies
I
will take you back
again.
54:8 In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a
minute, but I will
have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who
takes up your cause.
54:9 For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took
an
oath that the waters
of Noah would never again go over the
earth, so have I
taken an oath that I will not again be angry
with you, or say
bitter words to you.
54:10 For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be
moved out of their
places, but my love will not be taken from
you, or my agreement
of peace broken, says the Lord, who has
had mercy on you.
54:11 O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your
stones will be framed
in fair colours, and your bases will be
sapphires.
54:12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of
carbuncles, and the
wall round you will be of all sorts of
beautiful stones.
54:13 And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord;
and
great will be the
peace of your children.
54:14 All your rights will be made certain to you: have no
fear
of evil, and
destruction will not come near you.
54:15 See, they may be moved to war, but not by my
authority:
all those who come
together to make an attack on you, will be
broken against you.
54:16 See, I have made the iron-worker, blowing on the
burning
coals, and making the
instrument of war by his work; and I have
made the waster for
destruction.
54:17 No instrument of war which is formed against you will
be
of any use; and every
tongue which says evil against you will
be judged false. This
is the heritage of the servants of the
Lord, and their
righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.
55:1 Ho! everyone in need, come to the waters, and he who
has no
strength, let him get
food: come, get bread without money; wine
and milk without
price.
55:2 Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and
the
fruit of your work
for what will not give you pleasure? Give
ear to me, so that
your food may be good, and you may have the
best in full measure.
55:3 Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that
your
souls may have life:
and I will make an eternal agreement with
you, even the certain
mercies of David.
55:4 See, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a
ruler
and a guide to the
nations.
55:5 See, you will send for a nation of which you had no
knowledge, and those
who had no knowledge of you will come
running to you,
because of the Lord your God, and because of
the Holy One of
Israel, for he has given you glory.
55:6 Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer
to
him while he is near:
55:7 Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his
purpose: and let him
come back to the Lord, and he will have
mercy on him; and to
our God, for there is full forgiveness
with him.
55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my
ways, says the Lord.
55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
55:10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
and
does not go back
again, but gives water to the earth, and makes
it fertile, giving
seed to the planter, and bread for food;
55:11 So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will
not
come back to me with
nothing done, but it will give effect to
my purpose, and do
that for which I have sent it.
55:12 For you will go out with joy, and be guided in peace:
the
mountains and the
hills will make melody before you, and all
the trees of the
fields will make sounds of joy.
55:13 In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and
in
place of the
blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord
for a name, for an
eternal sign which will not be cut off.
56:1 The Lord says, Let your way of life be upright, and let
your behaviour be
rightly ordered: for my salvation is near,
and my righteousness
will quickly be seen.
56:2 Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man
whose
behaviour is so
ordered; who keeps the Sabbath holy, and his
hand from doing any
evil.
56:3 And let not the man from a strange country, who has
been
joined to the Lord,
say, The Lord will certainly put a division
between me and his
people: and let not the unsexed man say,
See, I am a dry tree.
56:4 For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my
Sabbaths,
and give their hearts
to pleasing me, and keep their agreement
with me:
56:5 I will give to them in my house, and inside my walls, a
place and a name
better than that of sons and daughters; I will
give them an eternal
name which will not be cut off.
56:6 And as for those from a strange country, who are joined
to
the Lord, to give
worship to him and honour to his name, to be
his servants, even
everyone who keeps the Sabbath holy, and
keeps his agreement
with me:
56:7 I will make them come to my holy mountain, and will
give
them joy in my house
of prayer; I will take pleasure in the
burned offerings
which they make on my altar: for my house will
be named a house of
prayer for all peoples.
56:8 The Lord God, who gets together the wandering ones of
Israel, says, I will
get together others in addition to those
of Israel who have
come back.
56:9 All you beasts of the field, come together for your
meat,
even all you beasts
of the wood.
56:10 His watchmen are blind, they are all without
knowledge;
they are all dogs
without tongues, unable to make a sound;
stretched out
dreaming, loving sleep.
56:11 Yes, the dogs are for ever looking for food; while
these,
the keepers of the
sheep, are without wisdom: they have all
gone after their
pleasure, every one looking for profit; they
are all the same.
56:12 Come, they say, I will get wine, and we will take
strong
drink in full
measure; and tomorrow will be like today, full of
pleasure.
57:1 The upright man goes to his death, and no one gives a
thought to it; and
god-fearing men are taken away, and no one
is troubled by it;
for the upright man is taken away because of
evil-doing, and goes
into peace.
57:2 They are at rest in their last resting-places, every
one
going straight before
him.
57:3 But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret
arts,
the seed of her who
is false to her husband, and of the loose
woman.
57:4 Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your mouth
open
wide and your tongue
put out? are you not uncontrolled
children, a false
seed,
57:5 You who are burning with evil desire among the oaks,
under
every green tree;
putting children to death in the valleys,
under the cracks of
the rocks?
57:6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your heritage;
they, even they, are
your part: even to them have you made a
drink offering and a
meal offering. Is it possible for such
things to be
overlooked by me?
57:7 You have put your bed on a high mountain: there you went
up
to make your
offering.
57:8 And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you
have
put your sign: for
you have been false to me with another; you
have made your bed
wide, and made an agreement with them; you
had a desire for
their bed where you saw it
57:9 And you went to Melech with oil and much perfume, and
you
sent your
representatives far off, and went as low as the
underworld.
57:10 You were tired with your long journeys; but you did
not
say, There is no
hope: you got new strength, and so you were
not feeble.
57:11 And of whom were you in fear, so that you were false,
and
did not keep me in
mind, or give thought to it? Have I not been
quiet, keeping myself
secret, and so you were not in fear of
me?
57:12 I will make clear what your righteousness is like and
your
works; you will have
no profit in them.
57:13 Your false gods will not keep you safe in answer to
your
cry; but the wind
will take them, they will be gone like a
breath: but he who
puts his hope in me will take the land, and
will have my holy
mountain as his heritage.
57:14 And I will say, Make it high, make it high, get ready
the
way, take the stones
out of the way of my people.
57:15 For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up,
whose resting-place
is eternal, whose name is Holy: my
resting-place is in
the high and holy place, and with him who
is crushed and poor
in spirit, to give life to the spirit of
the poor, and to make
strong the heart of the crushed.
57:16 For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry
without end: for from
me breath goes out; and I it was who made
the souls.
57:17 I was quickly angry with his evil ways, and sent
punishment on him,
veiling my face in wrath: and he went on,
turning his heart
from me.
57:18 I have seen his ways, and I will make him well: I will
give him rest,
comforting him and his people who are sad.
57:19 I will give the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to
him
who is near and to
him who is far off, says the Lord; and I
will make him well.
57:20 But the evil-doers are like the troubled sea, for
which
there is no rest, and
its waters send up earth and waste.
57:21 There is no peace, says my God, for the evil-doers.
58:1 Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be
sounding like a horn,
and make clear to my people their evil
doings, and to the
family of Jacob their sins.
58:2 Though they make prayer to me every day, and take
pleasure
in the knowledge of
my ways: like a nation which has done
righteousness, and
has not given up the rules of their God,
they make requests to
me for the right orders, it is their
delight to come near
to God.
58:3 They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you
do
not see it? why have
we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you
take no note of it?
If, in the days when you keep from food,
you take the chance
to do your business, and get in your debts;
58:4 If keeping from food makes you quickly angry, ready for
fighting and giving
blows with evil hands; your holy days are
not such as to make
your voice come to my ears on high.
58:5 Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for
keeping yourselves
from pleasure? is it only a question of the
bent head, of putting
on haircloth, and being seated in the
dust? is this what
seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to
the Lord?
58:6 Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders:
to
let loose those who
have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo
the bands of the
yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and
every yoke be broken?
58:7 Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to
let
the poor who have no
resting-place come into your house? to put
a robe on the
unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep
your eyes shut for
fear of seeing his flesh?
58:8 Then will light be shining on you like the morning, and
your wounds will
quickly be well: and your righteousness will
go before you, and
the glory of the Lord will come after you.
58:9 Then at the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an
answer; at your cry
he will say, Here am I. If you take away
from among you the
yoke, the putting out of the finger of
shame, and the evil
word;
58:10 And if you give your bread to those in need of it, so
that
the troubled one may
have his desire; then you will have light
in the dark, and your
night will be as the full light of the
sun:
58:11 And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry
places he will give
you water in full measure, and will make
strong your bones;
and you will be like a watered garden, and
like an ever-flowing
spring.
58:12 And your sons will be building again the old waste
places:
you will make strong
the bases of old generations: and you will
be named, He who puts
up the broken walls, and, He who makes
ready the ways for
use.
58:13 If you keep the Sabbath with care, not doing your
business
on my holy day; and
if the Sabbath seems to you a delight, and
the new moon of the
Lord a thing to be honoured; and if you
give respect to him
by not doing your business, or going after
your pleasure, or
saying unholy words;
58:14 Then the Lord will be your delight; and I will put you
on
the high places of
the earth; and I will give you the heritage
of Jacob your father:
for the mouth of the Lord has said it.
59:1 Truly, the Lord's hand has not become short, so that he
is
unable to give
salvation; and his ear is not shut from hearing:
59:2 But your sins have come between you and your God, and
by
your evil doings his
face has been veiled from you, so that he
will give you no
answer.
59:3 For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers
with sin; your lips
have said false things, and your tongue
gives out deceit.
59:4 No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true
decision: their hope
is in deceit, and their words are false;
they are with child
with sin, and give birth to evil.
59:5 They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's
threads:
whoever takes their
eggs for food comes to his death, and the
egg which is crushed
becomes a poison-snake.
59:6 Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their
works will give them
nothing for covering themselves: their
works are works of
sin, and violent acts are in their hands.
59:7 Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in
the
death of the upright;
their thoughts are thoughts of sin;
wasting and
destruction are in their ways.
59:8 They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there
is no
sense of what is
right in their behaviour: they have made for
themselves ways which
are not straight; whoever goes in them
has no knowledge of
peace.
59:9 For this cause our right is far from us, and
righteousness
does not overtake us:
we are looking for light, but there is
only the dark; for
the shining of the sun, but our way is in
the night.
59:10 We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall,
even like those who
have no eyes: we are running against things
in daylight as if it
was evening; our place is in the dark like
dead men.
59:11 We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds
like
doves: we are looking
for our right, but it is not there; for
salvation, but it is
far from us.
59:12 For our evil doings are increased before you, and our
sins
give witness against
us: for our evil doings are with us, and
we have knowledge of
our sins:
59:13 We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him,
turning away from our
God, our words have been uncontrolled,
and in our hearts are
thoughts of deceit.
59:14 And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far
away: for good faith
is not to be seen in the public places,
and upright behaviour
may not come into the town.
59:15 Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from
evil
comes into the power
of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he
was angry that there
was no one to take up their cause.
59:16 And he saw that there was no man, and was surprised
that
there was no one to
take up their cause: so his arm gave
salvation, and he
made righteousness his support.
59:17 Yes, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and
salvation as a
head-dress; and he put on punishment as
clothing, and wrath
as a robe.
59:18 He will give them the right reward of their doings,
wrath
to his attackers,
punishment to his haters, and even on the
sea-lands he will
send punishment.
59:19 So they will see the name of the Lord from the west,
and
his glory from the
east: for he will come like a rushing
stream, forced on by
a wind of the Lord.
59:20 And as a saviour he will come to Zion, turning away
sin
from Jacob, says the
Lord.
59:21 And as for me, this is my agreement with them, says
the
Lord: my spirit which
is on you, and my words which I have put
in your mouth, will
not go away from your mouth, or from the
mouth of your seed,
or from the mouth of your seed's seed, says
the Lord, from now
and for ever.
60:1 Up! let your face be bright, for your light has come,
and
the glory of the Lord
is shining on you.
60:2 For truly, the earth will be dark, and the peoples
veiled
in blackest night;
but the Lord will be shining on you, and his
glory will be seen
among you.
60:3 And nations will come to your light, and kings to your
bright dawn.
60:4 Let your eyes be lifted up, and see: they are all
coming
together to you: your
sons will come from far, and your
daughters taken with
loving care.
60:5 Then you will see, and be bright with joy, and your
heart
will be shaking with
increase of delight: for the produce of
the sea will be
turned to you, the wealth of the nations will
come to you.
60:6 You will be full of camel-trains, even the young camels
of
Midian and Ephah; all
from Sheba will come, with gold and
spices, giving word
of the great acts of the Lord.
60:7 All the flocks of Kedar will come together to you, the
sheep of Nebaioth
will be ready for your need; they will be
pleasing offerings on
my altar, and my house of prayer will be
beautiful.
60:8 Who are these coming like a cloud, like a flight of
doves
to their windows?
60:9 Vessels of the sea-lands are waiting for me, and the
ships
of Tarshish first, so
that your sons may come from far, and
their silver and gold
with them, to the place of the name of
the Lord your God,
and to the Holy One of Israel, because he
has made you
beautiful.
60:10 And men from strange countries will be building up
your
walls, and their
kings will be your servants: for in my wrath I
sent punishment on
you, but in my grace I have had mercy on
you.
60:11 Your doors will be open at all times; they will not be
shut day or night; so
that men may come into you with the
wealth of the
nations, with their kings at their head.
60:12 For the nation or kingdom which will not be your
servant
will come to destruction;
such nations will be completely
waste.
60:13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress,
the
plane, and the
sherbin-tree together, to make my holy place
beautiful; and the
resting-place of my feet will be full of
glory.
60:14 And the sons of those who were cruel to you will come
before you with bent
heads; and those who made sport of you
will go down on their
faces at your feet; and you will be
named, The Town of
the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of
Israel.
60:15 And though you were turned away from, and hated, and
had
no helper, I will
make you a pride for ever, a joy from
generation to
generation.
60:16 And you will take the milk of the nations, flowing
from
the breast of kings;
and you will see that I, the Lord, am your
saviour, and he who
takes up your cause, the Strong One of
Jacob.
60:17 In place of brass, I will give gold, and for iron
silver,
and for wood brass,
and for stones iron: and I will make Peace
your judge, and
Righteousness your overseer.
60:18 Violent acts will no longer be seen in your land,
wasting
or destruction in
your limits; but your walls will be named,
Salvation, and your
doors Praise.
60:19 The sun will not be your light by day, and the moon
will
no longer be bright
for you by night: but the Lord will be to
you an eternal light,
and your God your glory.
60:20 Your sun will never again go down, or your moon keep
back
her light: for the
Lord will be your eternal light, and the
days of your sorrow
will be ended.
60:21 Your people will all be upright, the land will be
their
heritage for ever;
the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands, to be for my
glory.
60:22 The smallest of their families will become a thousand,
and
a small one a strong
nation: I, the Lord, will make it come
quickly in its time.
61:1 The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked
out by
him to give good news
to the poor; he has sent me to make the
broken-hearted well,
to say that the prisoners will be made
free, and that those
in chains will see the light again;
61:2 To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good
pleasure
has come, and the day
of punishment from our God; to give
comfort to all who
are sad;
61:3 To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the
oil of
joy in place of the
clothing of grief, praise in place of
sorrow; so that they
may be named trees of righteousness, the
planting of the Lord,
and so that he may have glory.
61:4 And they will be building again the old broken walls,
and
will make new the old
waste places, and will put up again the
towns which have been
waste for long generations.
61:5 And men from strange countries will be your herdsmen,
and
those who are not
Israelites will be your ploughmen and
vine-keepers.
61:6 But you will be named the priests of the Lord, the
servants
of our God: you will
have the wealth of the nations for your
food, and you will be
clothed with their glory.
61:7 As they had twice as much grief, and marks of shame
were
their heritage, so in
their land they will be rewarded twice
over, and will have
eternal joy.
61:8 For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I
will
not put up with the
violent taking away of right; and I will
certainly give them
their reward, and I will make an eternal
agreement with them.
61:9 And their seed will be noted among the nations, and
their
offspring among the
peoples: it will be clear to all who see
them that they are
the seed to which the Lord has given his
blessing.
61:10 I will be full of joy in the Lord, my soul will be
glad in
my God; for he has
put on me the clothing of salvation,
covering me with the
robe of righteousness, as the husband puts
on a fair head-dress,
and the bride makes herself beautiful
with jewels.
61:11 For as the earth puts out buds, and as the garden
gives
growth to the seeds
which are planted in it, so the Lord will
make righteousness
and praise to be flowering before all the
nations.
62:1 Because of Zion I will not keep quiet, and because of
Jerusalem I will take
no rest, till her righteousness goes out
like the shining of
the sun, and her salvation like a burning
light.
62:2 And the nations will see your righteousness, and all
kings
your glory: and you
will have a new name, given by the mouth of
the Lord.
62:3 And you will be a fair crown in the hand of the Lord,
and a
king's head-dress in
the hand of your God.
62:4 You will not now be named, She who is given up; and
your
land will no longer
be named, The waste land: but you will have
the name, My pleasure
is in her, and your land will be named,
Married: for the Lord
has pleasure in you, and your land will
be married.
62:5 For as a young man takes a virgin for his wife, so will
your maker be married
to you: and as a husband has joy in his
bride, so will the
Lord your God be glad over you.
62:6 I have put watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they
will
not keep quiet day or
night: you who are the Lord's recorders,
take no rest,
62:7 And give him no rest, till he puts Jerusalem in her
place
to be praised in the
earth.
62:8 The Lord has taken an oath by his right hand, and by
the
arm of his strength,
Truly, I will no longer give your grain to
be food for your
haters; and men of strange countries will not
take the wine for
which your work has been done:
62:9 But those who have got in the grain will have it for
their
food, and will give
praise to the Lord; and those who have got
in the grapes will
take the wine of them in the open places of
my holy house.
62:10 Go through, go through the doors; make ready the way
of
the people; let the
highway be lifted up; let the stones be
taken away; let a
flag be lifted up over the peoples.
62:11 The Lord has sent out word to the end of the earth,
Say to
the daughter of Zion,
See, your saviour comes; those whom he
has made free are
with him, and those to whom he has given
salvation go before
him.
62:12 And they will be named, The holy people, Those whose
cause
has been taken up by
the Lord: and you will be named, Desired,
A town not given up.
63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with blood-red robes
from
Bozrah? he whose
clothing is fair, stepping with pride in his
great strength? I
whose glory is in the right, strong for
salvation.
63:2 Why is your clothing red, and why are your robes like
those
of one who is
crushing the grapes?
63:3 I have been crushing the grapes by myself, and of the
peoples there was no
man with me: in my wrath and in my
passion, they were
crushed under my feet; and my robes are
marked with their
life-blood, and all my clothing is red.
63:4 For the day of punishment is in my heart, and the year
for
the payment of the
price for my people has come.
63:5 And I saw that there was no helper, and I was wondering
that no one gave them
support: so my arm did the work of
salvation, and my
wrath was my support.
63:6 And in my passion the peoples were crushed under my
feet,
and broken in my
wrath, and I put down their strength to the
earth.
63:7 I will give news of the mercies of the Lord, and his
great
acts, even all the
things the Lord has done for us, in his
great grace to the
house of Israel; even all he has done for us
in his unnumbered
mercies.
63:8 For he said, Truly they are my people, children who
will
not be false: so he
was their saviour out of all their trouble.
63:9 It was no sent one or angel, but he himself who was
their
saviour: in his love
and in his pity he took up their cause,
and he took them in
his arms, caring for them all through the
years.
63:10 But they went against him, causing grief to his holy
spirit: so he was
turned against them, and made war on them.
63:11 Then the early days came to their minds, the days of
Moses
his servant: and they
said, Where is he who made the keeper of
his flock come up
from the sea? where is he who put his holy
spirit among them,
63:12 He who made the arm of his glory go at the right hand
of
Moses, by whom the
waters were parted before them, to make
himself an eternal
name;
63:13 He who made them go through the deep waters, like a
horse
in the waste land?
63:14 Like the cattle which go down into the valley, they
went
without falling, the
spirit of the Lord guiding them: so you
went before your
people, to make yourself a great name.
63:15 Let your eyes be looking down from heaven, from your
holy
and beautiful house:
where is your deep feeling, the working of
your power? do not
keep back the moving of your pity and your
mercies:
63:16 For you are our father, though Abraham has no
knowledge of
us, and Israel gives
no thought to us: you, O Lord, are our
father; from the
earliest days you have taken up our cause.
63:17 O Lord, why do you send us wandering from your ways,
making our hearts
hard, so that we have no fear of you? Come
back, because of your
servants, the tribes of your heritage.
63:18 Why have evil men gone over your holy place, so that
it
has been crushed
under the feet of our haters?
63:19 We have become as those who were never ruled by you,
on
whom your name was not
named.
64:1 O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that
the
mountains may be
shaking before you,
64:2 As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when
water
is boiling from the
heat of the fire: to make your name feared
by your haters, so
that the nations may be shaking before you;
64:3 While you do acts of power for which we are not
looking,
and which have not
come to the ears of men in the past.
64:4 The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any
God
but you, working for
the man who is waiting for him.
64:5 Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in
doing
righteousness, even
on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly
you were angry, and
we went on doing evil, and sinning against
you in the past.
64:6 For we have all become like an unclean person, and all
our
good acts are like a
dirty robe: and we have all become old
like a dead leaf, and
our sins, like the wind, take us away.
64:7 And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or
who
is moved to keep true
to you: for your face is veiled from us,
and you have given us
into the power of our sins.
64:8 But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth,
and
you are our maker;
and we are all the work of your hand.
64:9 Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in
mind
for ever: give ear to
our prayer, for we are all your people.
64:10 Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a
waste, Jerusalem is a
mass of broken walls.
64:11 Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave
praise to you, is
burned with fire; and all the things of our
desire have come to
destruction.
64:12 In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O
Lord?
will you keep quiet,
and go on increasing our punishment?
65:1 I have been ready to give an answer to those who did
not
make prayer to me; I
have been offering myself to those who
were not searching
for me; I said, Here am I, here am I, to a
nation which gave no
respect to my name.
65:2 All day my hands have been stretched out to an
uncontrolled
people, who go in an
evil way, after the purposes of their
hearts;
65:3 A people who make me angry every day, making offerings
in
gardens, and burning
perfumes on bricks.
65:4 Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and
by
night are in the secret
places; who take pig's flesh for food,
and have the liquid
of disgusting things in their vessels.
65:5 Who say, Keep away, do not come near me, for fear that
I
make you holy: these
are a smoke in my nose, a fire burning all
day.
65:6 See, it is recorded before me, says the Lord: I will
not
keep back my hand,
till I have sent punishment,
65:7 For their sins and the sins of their fathers, who were
burning perfumes on
the mountains, and saying evil things
against me on the
hills: so I will take the measure of their
sins, and will send
the punishment for them into their breast.
65:8 This is the word of the Lord: As the new wine is seen
in
the grapes, and they
say, Do not send destruction on it, for a
blessing is in it: so
will I do for my servants, in order that
I may not put an end
to them all.
65:9 And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah
one
who will have my
mountains for a heritage: and the people I
have taken to be mine
will have it for themselves, and my
servants will have
their resting-place there.
65:10 And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and
the
valley of Achor a
resting-place for the herds: for my people
whose hearts have
been turned back to me.
65:11 But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no
care for my holy
mountain, who get ready a table for Chance,
and make offerings of
mixed wine to Fate;
65:12 Your fate will be the sword, and you will all go down
to
death: because when
my voice came to you, you made no answer;
you did not give ear
to my word; but you did what was evil in
my eyes, desiring
what was not pleasing to me.
65:13 For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will
have
food, but you will be
in need of food: my servants will have
drink, but you will
be dry: my servants will have joy, but you
will be shamed:
65:14 My servants will make songs in the joy of their
hearts,
but you will be
crying for sorrow, and making sounds of grief
from a broken spirit.
65:15 And your name will become a curse to my people, and
the
Lord God will put you
to death, and give his servants another
name:
65:16 So that he who is requesting a blessing will make use
of
the name of the true
God, and he who takes an oath will do so
by the true God;
because the past troubles are gone out of
mind, and because
they are covered from my eyes.
65:17 For see, I am making a new heaven and a new earth: and
the
past things will be
gone completely out of mind.
65:18 But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I
am
making; for I am
making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a
joy.
65:19 And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my
people: and the voice
of weeping will no longer be sounding in
her, or the voice of
grief.
65:20 No longer will there be there a child whose days are
cut
short, or an old man
whose days have not come to their full
measure: for the
young man at his death will be a hundred years
old, and he whose
life is shorter than a hundred years will
seem as one cursed.
65:21 And they will be building houses and living in them;
planting vine-gardens
and getting the fruit of them.
65:22 They will no longer be building for the use of others,
or
planting for others
to have the fruit: for the days of my
people will be like
the days of a tree, and my loved ones will
have joy in full
measure in the work of their hands.
65:23 Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not
give
birth to children for
destruction; for they are a seed to whom
the Lord has given
his blessing, and their offspring will be
with them.
65:24 And before they make their request I will give an
answer,
and while they are
still making prayer to me, I will give ear.
65:25 The wolf and the lamb will take their food together,
and
the lion will make a
meal of grass like the ox: but dust will
be the snake's food.
There will be no cause of pain or
destruction in all my
holy mountain, says the Lord.
66:1 The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and
earth is
the resting-place for
my feet: what sort of house will you make
for me, and what
place will be my resting-place?
66:2 For all these things my hand has made, and they are
mine,
says the Lord; but to
this man only will I give attention, to
him who is poor and
broken in spirit, fearing my word.
66:3 He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who
makes an offering of
a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a
meal offering makes
an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an
offering of perfumes
for a sign gives worship to an image: as
they have gone after
their desires, and their soul takes
pleasure in their
disgusting things;
66:4 So I will go after trouble for them, and will send on
them
what they are
fearing: because no one made answer to my voice,
or gave ear to my
word; but they did what was evil in my eyes,
going after that in
which I took no pleasure.
66:5 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you who are in fear
at
his word: your
countrymen, hating you, and driving you out
because of my name,
have said, Let the Lord's glory be made
clear, so that we may
see your joy; but they will be put to
shame.
66:6 There is a noise of war from the town, a sound from the
Temple, the voice of
the Lord giving punishment to his haters.
66:7 Before her pains came, she gave birth; before her
pains,
she gave birth to a
man-child.
66:8 When has such a story come to men's ears? who has seen
such
things? will a land
come to birth in one day? will a nation be
given birth in a
minute? For when Zion's pains came on her, she
gave birth to her
children straight away.
66:9 Will I by whom the birth was started, not make it
complete?
says the Lord. Will I
who make children come to birth, let them
be kept back? says
your God.
66:10 Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you
her
lovers: take part in
her joy, all you who are sorrowing for
her:
66:11 So that you may take of the comfort flowing from her
breasts, and be
delighted with the full measure of her glory.
66:12 For the Lord says, See, I will make her peace like a
river, and the glory
of the nations like an overflowing stream,
and she will take her
children in her arms, gently caring for
them on her knees.
66:13 As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I
give
you comfort: and you
will be comforted in Jerusalem.
66:14 And you will see it and your heart will be glad, and
your
bones will get new
strength, like young grass: and the hand of
the Lord will be seen
at work for his servants, and his wrath
against his haters.
66:15 For the Lord is coming with fire, and his
war-carriages
will be like the
storm-wind; to give punishment in the heat of
his wrath, and his
passion is like flames of fire.
66:16 For with fire and sword will the Lord come, judging
all
the earth, and his
sword will be on all flesh: and great
numbers will be put
to death by him.
66:17 As for those who keep themselves separate, and make
themselves clean in
the gardens, going after one in the middle,
taking pig's flesh
for food, and other disgusting things, such
as the mouse: their
works and their thoughts will come to an
end together, says
the Lord.
66:18 And I am coming to get together all nations and
tongues:
and they will come
and will see my glory.
66:19 And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those
who are still living
to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud,
Meshech and Rosh,
Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far away,
who have not had word
of me, or seen my glory; and they will
give the knowledge of
my glory to the nations.
66:20 And they will take your countrymen out of all the
nations
for an offering to
the Lord, on horses, and in carriages, and
in carts, and on
asses, and on camels, to my holy mountain
Jerusalem, says the
Lord, as the children of Israel take their
offering in a clean
vessel into the house of the Lord.
66:21 And some of them will I take for priests and Levites,
says
the Lord.
66:22 For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will
make
will be for ever
before me, says the Lord, so will your seed
and your name be for
ever.
66:23 And it will be, that from new moon to new moon, and
from
Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh will come to give worship before
me, says the Lord.
66:24 And they will go out to see the dead bodies of the men
who
have done evil
against me: for their worm will ever be living,
and their fire will
never be put out, and they will be a thing
of fear to all flesh.