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The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath
spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have
rebelled against me.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but
Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the
LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
they are gone away backward.
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and
more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores:
they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire:
your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is
desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant,
we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto
Gomorrah.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto
the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?
saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and
the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto
me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I
cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they
are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from
you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your
hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land:
But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the
sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of
judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every
one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not
the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto
them.
Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of
Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me
of mine enemies:
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy
dross, and take away all thy tin:
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy
counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be
called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness.
And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners
shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be
consumed.
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired,
and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden
that hath no water.
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark,
and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain
of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all
nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and
he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the
LORD.
Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob,
because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers
like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the
children of strangers.
Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there
any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses,
neither is there any end of their chariots:
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of
their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth
himself: therefore forgive them not.
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the
LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of
men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in
that day.
For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that
is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and
he shall be brought low:
And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted
up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that
are lifted up,
And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant
pictures.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the
haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall
be exalted in that day.
And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the
caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of
his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols
of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to
the moles and to the bats;
To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the
ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein
is he to be accounted of?
For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from
Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay
of bread, and the whole stay of water,
The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet,
and the prudent, and the ancient,
The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the
counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall
rule over them.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and
every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself
proudly against the ancient, and the base against the
honourable.
When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his
father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let
this ruin be under thy hand:
In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer;
for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a
ruler of the people.
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their
tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the
eyes of his glory.
The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and
they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto
their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for
they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward
of his hands shall be given him.
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule
over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err,
and destroy the way of thy paths.
The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the
people.
The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his
people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the
vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the
faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are
haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with
their feet:
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head
of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their
secret parts.
In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their
tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their
round tires like the moon,
The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands,
and the tablets, and the earrings,
The rings, and nose jewels,
The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the
wimples, and the crisping pins,
The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there
shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of
well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of
sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate
shall sit upon the ground.
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,
We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let
us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and
glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and
comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he
that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every
one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters
of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the
midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of
burning.
And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount
Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and
the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory
shall be a defence.
And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime
from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from
storm and from rain.
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful
hill:
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the
midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked
that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I
pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not
done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I
will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged;
but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command
the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for
judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold
a cry.
Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to
field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in
the midst of the earth!
In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses
shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed
of an homer shall yield an ephah.
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may
follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine
inflame them!
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are
in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD,
neither consider the operation of his hands.
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have
no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their
multitude dried up with thirst.
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth
without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and
their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man
shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God
that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste
places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin
as it were with a cart rope:
That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may
see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh
and come, that we may know it!
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in
their own sight!
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of
strength to mingle strong drink:
Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the
righteousness of the righteous from him!
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame
consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and
their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away
the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy
One of Israel.
Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people,
and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath
smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases
were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger
is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will
hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they
shall come with speed swiftly:
None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber
nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,
nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses'
hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a
whirlwind:
Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young
lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and
shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring
of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and
sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the
LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried,
and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched
thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but
understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert,
and be healed.
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate,
And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great
forsaking in the midst of the land.
But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall
be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in
them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be
the substance thereof.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the
son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and
Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward
Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is
confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the
heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with
the wind.
Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz,
thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the
upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;
And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be
fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for
the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of
Remaliah.
Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken
evil counsel against thee, saying,
Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a
breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even
the son of Tabeal:
Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it
come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be
broken, that it be not a people.
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is
Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be
established.
Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the
depth, or in the height above.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing
for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel.
Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the
evil, and choose the good.
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose
the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of
both her kings.
The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon
thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that
Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of
Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate
valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns,
and upon all bushes.
In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is
hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of
Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also
consume the beard.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish
a young cow, and two sheep;
And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they
shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall
every one eat that is left in the land.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall
be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand
silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all
the land shall become briers and thorns.
And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there
shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it
shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of
lesser cattle.
Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and
write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.
And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the
priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a
son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name
Mahershalalhashbaz.
For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father,
and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria
shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.
The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go
softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the
waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria,
and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels,
and go over all his banks:
And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over,
he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his
wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in
pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves,
and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall
be broken in pieces.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the
word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and
instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people,
saying,
Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people
shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be
afraid.
Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear,
and let him be your dread.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a
gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and
be snared, and be taken.
Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the
house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for
signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which
dwelleth in mount Zion.
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have
familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter:
should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the
dead?
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them.
And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and
it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they
shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and
look upward.
And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and
darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to
darkness.
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her
vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of
Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more
grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in
Galilee of the nations.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
hath the light shined.
Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy:
they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as
men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of
his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of
Midian.
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and
garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and
fuel of fire.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no
end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order
it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
perform this.
The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon
Israel.
And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant
of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones:
the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into
cedars.
Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin
against him, and join his enemies together;
The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall
devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither
do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail,
branch and rush, in one day.
The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet
that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that
are led of them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,
neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for
every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth
speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but
his hand is stretched out still.
For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers
and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and
they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened,
and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall
spare his brother.
And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he
shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied:
they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together
shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
grievousness which they have prescribed;
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the
right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their
prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the
desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for
help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they
shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand
is mine indignation.
I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the
people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil,
and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of
the streets.
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but
it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not
Samaria as Damascus?
As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose
graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do
to Jerusalem and her idols?
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath
performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I
will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of
Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by
my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of
the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put
down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and
as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the
earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the
mouth, or peeped.
Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?
or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as
if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or
as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat
ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
like the burning of a fire.
And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One
for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his
briers in one day;
And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful
field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a
standardbearer fainteth.
And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a
child may write them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of
Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no
more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon
the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the
mighty God.
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a
remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall
overflow with righteousness.
For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even
determined, in the midst of all the land.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that
dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite
thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee,
after the manner of Egypt.
For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease,
and mine anger in their destruction.
And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according
to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod
was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of
Egypt.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be
taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy
neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he
hath laid up his carriages:
They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their
lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard
unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves
to flee.
As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand
against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of
Jerusalem.
Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with
terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and
the haughty shall be humbled.
And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and
Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the
LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his
lips shall he slay the wicked.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall
lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie
down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set
his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his
people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of
Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah
shall not vex Ephraim.
But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward
the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they
shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of
Ammon shall obey them.
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian
sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the
river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go
over dryshod.
And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people,
which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in
the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee:
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortedst me.
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is
become my salvation.
Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of
salvation.
And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his
name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that
his name is exalted.
Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is
known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the
Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice
unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of
the nobles.
I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my
mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my
highness.
The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great
people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered
together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the
LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole
land.
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall
melt:
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of
them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they
shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and
fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy
the sinners thereof out of it.
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall
not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to
cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than
the golden wedge of Ophir.
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove
out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the
day of his fierce anger.
And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man
taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and
flee every one into his own land.
Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one
that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their
eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not
regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they
shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall
not spare children.
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there,
and satyrs shall dance there.
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is
near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose
Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall
be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of
Jacob.
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place:
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the
LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them
captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over
their oppressors.
And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give
thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard
bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of
Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden
city ceased!
The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre
of the rulers.
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he
that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none
hindereth.
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into
singing.
Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon,
saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against
us.
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming:
it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of
the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings
of the nations.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become
weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy
viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the
pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider
thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake kingdoms;
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities
thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
every one in his own house.
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch,
and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with
a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase
trodden under feet.
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast
destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers
shall never be renowned.
Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their
fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill
the face of the world with cities.
For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and
cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and
nephew, saith the LORD.
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith
the LORD of hosts.
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my
mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and
this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that
smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come
forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying
serpent.
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall
lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and
he shall slay thy remnant.
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art
dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and
none shall be alone in his appointed times.
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That
the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall
trust in it.
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid
waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab
is laid waste, and brought to silence;
He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to
weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their
heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on
the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall
howl, weeping abundantly.
And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard
even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry
out; his life shall be grievous unto him.
My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto
Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of
Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of
Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is
withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they
have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the
willows.
For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the
howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto
Beerelim.
For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will
bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab,
and upon the remnant of the land.
Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the
wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the
nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in
the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him
that wandereth.
Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to
them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an
end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of
the land.
And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit
upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and
seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.
We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of
his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies
shall not be so.
Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for
the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are
stricken.
For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the
lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants
thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through
the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone
over the sea.
Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of
Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and
Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy
harvest is fallen.
And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field;
and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall
there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in
their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine
inward parts for Kirharesh.
And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary
on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray;
but he shall not prevail.
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab
since that time.
But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as
the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be
contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall
be very small and feeble.
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from
being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks,
which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the
glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob
shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax
lean.
And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and
reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that
gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an
olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost
bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof,
saith the LORD God of Israel.
At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall
have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands,
neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either
the groves, or the images.
In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and
an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of
Israel: and there shall be desolation.
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast
not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt
thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange
slips:
In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the
morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest
shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like
the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make
a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God
shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be
chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like
a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is
not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of
them that rob us.
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia:
That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of
bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to
a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their
beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose
land the rivers have spoiled!
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see
ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he
bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will
consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour
grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the
sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the
branches.
They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains,
and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon
them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of
hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people
terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and
trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the
place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.
The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift
cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall
be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in
the midst of it.
And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they
shall fight every one against his brother, and every one
against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against
kingdom.
And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I
will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the
idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar
spirits, and to the wizards.
And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel
lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord,
the LORD of hosts.
And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be
wasted and dried up.
And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of
defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags
shall wither.
The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and
every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away,
and be no more.
The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into
the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the
waters shall languish.
Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave
networks, shall be confounded.
And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make
sluices and ponds for fish.
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise
counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto
Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee
now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed
upon Egypt.
The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are
deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the
stay of the tribes thereof.
The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof:
and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a
drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or
tail, branch or rush, may do.
In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be
afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD
of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one
that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because
of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined
against it.
In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the
language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall
be called, The city of destruction.
In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of
the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the
LORD.
And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of
hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD
because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour,
and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall
know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation;
yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and
they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated
of them, and shall heal them.
In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria,
and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into
Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my
people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine
inheritance.
In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king
of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;
At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz,
saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put
off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and
barefoot.
And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked
and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and
upon Ethiopia;
So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners,
and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot,
even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their
expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold,
such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be
delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?
The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south
pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible
land.
A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer
dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam:
besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold
upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed
down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my
pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise,
ye princes, and anoint the shield.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let
him declare what he seeth.
And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of
asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently
with much heed:
And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the
watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole
nights:
And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of
horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken
unto the ground.
O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have
heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared
unto you.
The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman,
what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if
ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge,
O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.
The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that
was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.
For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from
the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according
to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall
fail:
And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the
children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of
Israel hath spoken it.
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that
thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city:
thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the
archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which
have fled from far.
Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly,
labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the
daughter of my people.
For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of
perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision,
breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and
Kir uncovered the shield.
And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be
full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in
array at the gate.
And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in
that day to the armour of the house of the forest.
Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they
are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower
pool.
And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses
have ye broken down to fortify the wall.
Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the
old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof,
neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and
to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep,
eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to
morrow we shall die.
And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely
this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith
the Lord GOD of hosts.
Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this
treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,
What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast
hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a
sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself
in a rock?
Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity,
and will surely cover thee.
He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a
large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of
thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.
And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state
shall he pull thee down.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my
servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with
thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and
he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to
the house of Judah.
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder;
so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and
none shall open.
And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall
be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's
house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small
quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of
flagons.
In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is
fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and
fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the
LORD hath spoken it.
The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid
waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land
of Chittim it is revealed to them.
Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants
of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the
river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the
strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth
children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up
virgins.
As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely
pained at the report of Tyre.
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?
her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,
whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the
honourable of the earth?
The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all
glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the
earth.
Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there
is no more strength.
He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms:
the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to
destroy the strong holds thereof.
And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed
virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there
also shalt thou have no rest.
Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the
Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they
set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof;
and he brought it to ruin.
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be
forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king:
after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been
forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest
be remembered.
And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that
the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and
shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world
upon the face of the earth.
And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD:
it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise
shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat
sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as
with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with
her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with
the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury,
so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the
LORD hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and
fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof;
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that
dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the
earth are burned, and few men left.
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the
merryhearted do sigh.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice
endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be
bitter to them that drink it.
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up,
that no man may come in.
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened,
the mirth of the land is gone.
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with
destruction.
When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the
people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as
the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty
of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of
the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even
glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness,
woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously;
yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant
of the earth.
And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of
the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of
the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the
windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth
do shake.
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved,
the earth is moved exceedingly.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be
removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be
heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall
punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the
kings of the earth upon the earth.
And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered
in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many
days shall they be visited.
Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when
the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem,
and before his ancients gloriously.
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy
name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old
are faithfulness and truth.
For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a
ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be
built.
Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the
terrible nations shall fear thee.
For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the
needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from
the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm
against the wall.
Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a
dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch
of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all
people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of
fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering
cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all
nations.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe
away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath
spoken it.
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have
waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have
waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab
shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down
for the dunghill.
And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he
that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall
bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring
down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We
have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and
bulwarks.
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the
truth may enter in.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is
everlasting strength:
For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city,
he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he
bringeth it even to the dust.
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and
the steps of the needy.
The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost
weigh the path of the just.
Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for
thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the
remembrance of thee.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my
spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments
are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness.
Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal
unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they
shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea,
the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought
all our works in us.
O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over
us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they
shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them,
and made all their memory to perish.
Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the
nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all
the ends of the earth.
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a
prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her
delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we
been in thy sight, O LORD.
We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it
were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in
the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment,
until the indignation be overpast.
For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also
shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword
shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan
that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in
the sea.
In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any
hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against
me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them
together.
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace
with me; and he shall make peace with me.
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel
shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with
fruit.
Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he
slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it:
he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and
this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all
the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in
sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation
forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf
feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches
thereof.
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off:
the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no
understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy
on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat
off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and
ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet
shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish
in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt,
and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose
glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of
the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a
tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty
waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden
under feet:
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat
valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before
the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it
is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory,
and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,
and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink
are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are
out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they
stumble in judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there
is no place clean.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to
understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line
upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to
this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the
weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not
hear.
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a
little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall
backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule
this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a
sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the
plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and
the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by
it.
From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for
morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and
it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on
it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in
it.
For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be
wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his
strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a
consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break
the clods of his ground?
When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast
abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the
principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their
place?
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach
him.
For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument,
neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the
fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing
it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with
his horsemen.
This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year
to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and
sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege
against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the
ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy
voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of
the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small
dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff
that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and
with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and
the flame of devouring fire.
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
even all that fight against her and her munition, and that
distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold,
he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a
thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh,
and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall
the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount
Zion.
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are
drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong
drink.
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,
and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the
seers hath he covered.
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book
that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned,
saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it
is sealed:
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me
with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have
removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is
taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among
this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the
wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of
their prudent men shall be hid.
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the
LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth
us? and who knoweth us?
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as
the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it,
He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that
framed it, He had no understanding?
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned
into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed
as a forest?
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and
the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of
darkness.
The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the
poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is
consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him
that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing
of nought.
Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning
the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither
shall his face now wax pale.
But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the
midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the
Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and
they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take
counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not
of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my
mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and
to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the
trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to
Hanes.
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them,
nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble
and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper
and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the
shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches
of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose:
therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to
sit still.
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that
will not hear the law of the LORD:
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy
deceits:
Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the
Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise
this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay
thereon:
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to
fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh
suddenly at an instant.
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel
that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there
shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire
from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In
returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall
ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they
that pursue you be swift.
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of
five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of
a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto
you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all
they that wait for him.
For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt
weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice
of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the
water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into
a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is
the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and
when ye turn to the left.
Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of
silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou
shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto
it, Get thee hence.
Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow
the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and
it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle
feed in large pastures.
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall
eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel
and with the fan.
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every
high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great
slaughter, when the towers fall.
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the
sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light
of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach
of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his
anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of
indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the
midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of
vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people,
causing them to err.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is
kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to
come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of
Israel.
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and
shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation
of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with
scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten
down, which smote with a rod.
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which
the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and
harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is
prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is
fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of
brimstone, doth kindle it.
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses,
and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen,
because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy
One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call
back his words: but will arise against the house of the
evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh,
and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both
he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall
down, and they all shall fail together.
For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the
young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds
is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their
voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the
LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the
hill thereof.
As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem;
defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will
preserve it.
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply
revolted.
For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver,
and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you
for a sin.
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty
man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he
shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be
discomfited.
And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his
princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose
fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in judgment.
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a
covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of
them that hear shall hearken.
The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the
tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl
said to be bountiful.
For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work
iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the
LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause
the drink of the thirsty to fail.
The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked
devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the
needy speaketh right.
But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things
shall he stand.
Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless
daughters; give ear unto my speech.
Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women:
for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless
ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon
your loins.
They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for
the fruitful vine.
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers;
yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the
city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for
ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be
counted for a forest.
Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness
remain in the fruitful field.
And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of
righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in
sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city
shall be low in a low place.
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth
thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and
dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with
thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled;
and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they
shall deal treacherously with thee.
O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou
their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of
trouble.
At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up
of thyself the nations were scattered.
And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the
caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run
upon them.
The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled
Zion with judgment and righteousness.
And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times,
and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his
treasure.
Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors
of peace shall weep bitterly.
The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath
broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth
no man.
The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn
down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake
off their fruits.
Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now
will I lift up myself.
Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your
breath, as fire, shall devour you.
And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut
up shall they be burned in the fire.
Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are
near, acknowledge my might.
The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that
despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from
holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of
blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the
munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall
be sure.
Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold
the land that is very far off.
Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where
is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech
than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou
canst not understand.
Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall
see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not
be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be
removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad
rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars,
neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD
is our king; he will save us.
Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their
mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a
great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the
earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things
that come forth of it.
For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his
fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he
hath delivered them to the slaughter.
Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come
up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted
with their blood.
And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens
shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall
fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a
falling fig from the fig tree.
For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come
down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with
fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of
the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah,
and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks
with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and
their dust made fat with fatness.
For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of
recompences for the controversy of Zion.
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the
dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become
burning pitch.
It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall
go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie
waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl
also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out
upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none
shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles
in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of
dragons, and a court for owls.
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild
beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow;
the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a
place of rest.
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch,
and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be
gathered, every one with her mate.
Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these
shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath
commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it
unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from
generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;
and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and
singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the
excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of
the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not:
behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a
recompence; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the
dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and
streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty
land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each
lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be
called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it;
but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up
thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall
walk there:
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.
Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah,
that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the
defenced cities of Judah, and took them.
And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to
Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by
the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's
field.
Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over
the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the
recorder.
And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus
saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is
this wherein thou trustest?
I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have
counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that
thou rebellest against me?
Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt;
whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it:
so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.
But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not
he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken
away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship
before this altar?
Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king
of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou
be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the
least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for
chariots and for horsemen?
And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to
destroy it? the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and
destroy it.
Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I
pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we
understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in
the ears of the people that are on the wall.
But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to
thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that
sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink
their own piss with you?
Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews'
language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the
king of Assyria.
Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall
not be able to deliver you.
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The
LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered
into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria,
Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and
eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree,
and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a
land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will
deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his
land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of
Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have
delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the
king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the
household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph,
the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him
the words of Rabshakeh.
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent
his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into
the house of the LORD.
And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth,
unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children
are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring
forth.
It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the
living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God
hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that
is left.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master,
Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast
heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have
blasphemed me.
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a
rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to
fall by the sword in his own land.
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from
Lachish.
And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is
come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not
thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem
shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be
delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers
have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the
children of Eden which were in Telassar?
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of
the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,
O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the
cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD,
and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
to reproach the living God.
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the
nations, and their countries,
And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they
have destroyed them.
Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even
thou only.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus
saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me
against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The
virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed
thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head
at thee.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast
thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even
against the Holy One of Israel.
By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said,
By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of
the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the
tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I
will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his
Carmel.
I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet
have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of
ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to
pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into
ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were
dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field,
and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as
corn blasted before it be grown up.
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and
thy rage against me.
Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into
mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my
bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by
which thou camest.
And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such
as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth
of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant
vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall
again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that
escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall
do this.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria,
He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor
come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall
not come into this city, saith the LORD.
For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and
for my servant David's sake.
Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of
the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and
when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all
dead corpses.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned,
and dwelt at Nineveh.
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of
Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote
him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia:
and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the
prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus
saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die,
and not live.
Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto
the LORD,
And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have
walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have
done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David
thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears:
behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the
king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD
will do this thing that he hath spoken;
Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is
gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the
sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick,
and was recovered of his sickness:
I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates
of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of
the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of
the world.
Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's
tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off
with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an
end of me.
I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all
my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a
dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am
oppressed; undertake for me.
What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath
done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my
soul.
O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is
the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to
live.
Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love
to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou
hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee:
they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day:
the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs
to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the
house of the LORD.
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it
for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to
the house of the LORD?
At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had
heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.
And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his
precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and
the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all
that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his
house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto
him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee?
And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me,
even from Babylon.
Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah
answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is
nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of
hosts:
Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and
that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day,
shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the
LORD.
And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt
beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.
Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD
which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be
peace and truth in my days.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she
hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the
way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill
shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and
the rough places plain:
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh
shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken
it.
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh
is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of
the field:
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of
the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God
shall stand for ever.
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high
mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy
voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the
cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm
shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his
work before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the
lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall
gently lead those that are with young.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and
meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance?
Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his
counsellor hath taught him?
With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
shewed to him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the
isles as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof
sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to
him less than nothing, and vanity.
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye
compare unto him?
The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth
it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a
tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman
to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you
from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations
of the earth?
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out
the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to
dwell in:
That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of
the earth as vanity.
Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown:
yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall
also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind
shall take them away as stubble.
To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the
Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them
all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power; not one faileth.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid
from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his
understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men
shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and
not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew
their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us
come near together to judgment.
Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to
his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over
kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven
stubble to his bow.
He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had
not gone with his feet.
Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the
beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were
afraid, drew near, and came.
They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his
brother, Be of good courage.
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It
is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that
it should not be moved.
But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called
thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art
my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am
thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be
ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that
strive with thee shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that
contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as
nothing, and as a thing of nought.
For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto
thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help
thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument
having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them
small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and
the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the
LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and
their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I
the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst
of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and
the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and
the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir
tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand
together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the
Holy One of Israel hath created it.
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong
reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let
them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider
them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for
to come.
Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know
that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be
dismayed, and behold it together.
Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an
abomination is he that chooseth you.
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from
the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall
come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth
clay.
Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and
beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is
none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea,
there is none that heareth your words.
The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will
give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there
was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a
word.
Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their
molten images are wind and confusion.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul
delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard
in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall
he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment
in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and
stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that
which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people
upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold
thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of
the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the
prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to
another, neither my praise to graven images.
Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I
declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of
the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein;
the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of
the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in
the islands.
The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up
jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall
prevail against his enemies.
I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and
refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I
will destroy and devour at once.
I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their
herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up
the pools.
And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will
lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make
darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These
things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that
trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are
our gods.
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I
sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the
LORD'S servant?
Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears,
but he heareth not.
The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will
magnify the law, and make it honourable.
But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them
snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are
for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith,
Restore.
Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear
for the time to come?
Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not
the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not
walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and
the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round
about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not
to heart.
But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he
that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee,
I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:
I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men
for thee, and people for thy life.
Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the
east, and gather thee from the west;
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not
back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of
the earth;
Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created
him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that
have ears.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be
assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former
things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be
justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have
chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I
am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there
be after me.
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there
was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the LORD, that I am God.
Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can
deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For
your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all
their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path
in the mighty waters;
Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the
power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they
are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things
of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall
ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and
rivers in the desert.
The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the
owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in
the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my
praise.
But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been
weary of me, O Israel.
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt
offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I
have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied
thee with incense.
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou
filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me
to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities.
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine
own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou,
that thou mayest be justified.
Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have
transgressed against me.
Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and
have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have
chosen:
Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and
thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon
the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my
blessing upon thine offspring:
And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the
water courses.
One shall say, I am the LORD'S; and another shall call himself
by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand
unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the
LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me
there is no God.
And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in
order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the
things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto
them.
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that
time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there
a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.
They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their
delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own
witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is
profitable for nothing?
Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they
are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand
up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.
The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and
fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of
his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he
drinketh no water, and is faint.
The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a
line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the
compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to
the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak,
which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the
forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof,
and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea,
he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven
image, and falleth down thereto.
He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he
eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he
warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the
fire:
And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image:
he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto
it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their
eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot
understand.
And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge
nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire;
yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have
roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue
thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a
tree?
He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside,
that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in
my right hand?
Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I
have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not
be forgotten of me.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and,
as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower
parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O
forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed
Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from
the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth
forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by
myself;
That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners
mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge
foolish;
That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the
counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt
be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built,
and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all
my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and
to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose
the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates;
and the gates shall not be shut;
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I
will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the
bars of iron:
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden
riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the
LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even
called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast
not known me.
I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside
me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the
west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is
none else.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down
righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth
salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD
have created it.
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd
strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to
him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath
no hands?
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou?
or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask
me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the
work of my hands command ye me.
I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my
hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have
I commanded.
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all
his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my
captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.
Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of
Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over
unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee;
in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto
thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely
God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.
Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the
Saviour.
They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they
shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting
salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without
end.
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself
that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he
created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the
LORD; and there is none else.
I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I
said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD
speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are
escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the
wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot
save.
Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel
together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath
told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no
God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none
beside me.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I
am God, and there is none else.
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in
righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee
shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and
strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed.
In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and
shall glory.
Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the
beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden;
they are a burden to the weary beast.
They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the
burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the
house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which
are carried from the womb:
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I
carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and
will deliver you.
To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me,
that we may be like?
They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the
balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they
fall down, yea, they worship.
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in
his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove:
yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save
him out of his trouble.
Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind,
O ye transgressors.
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is
none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth
my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from
righteousness:
I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my
salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory.
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon,
sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the
Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and
delicate.
Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make
bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen:
I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy
One of Israel.
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the
Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of
kingdoms.
I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance,
and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy;
upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst
not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the
latter end of it.
Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that
dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none
else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I
know the loss of children:
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day,
the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee
in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for
the great abundance of thine enchantments.
For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None
seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee;
and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside
me.
Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from
whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt
not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee
suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of
thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so
be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the
astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand
up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them;
they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame:
there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before
it.
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even
thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to
his quarter; none shall save thee.
Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of
Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which
swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of
Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves
upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they
went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them
suddenly, and they came to pass.
Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron
sinew, and thy brow brass;
I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it
came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine
idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image,
hath commanded them.
Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I
have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things,
and thou didst not know them.
They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before
the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say,
Behold, I knew them.
Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that
time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou
wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a
transgressor from the womb.
For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise
will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen
thee in the furnace of affliction.
For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for
how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory
unto another.
Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am
the first, I also am the last.
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my
right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them,
they stand up together.
All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath
declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his
pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought
him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret
from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and
now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am
the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth
thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy
peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of
the sea:
Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy
bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been
cut off nor destroyed from before me.
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a
voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the
end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant
Jacob.
And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he
caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave
the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The
LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother
hath he made mention of my name.
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of
his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his
quiver hath he hid me;
And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will
be glorified.
Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength
for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the
LORD, and my work with my God.
And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his
servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not
gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and
my God shall be my strength.
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the
Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the
earth.
Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,
to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to
a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also
shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the
Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.
Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee,
and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will
preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to
establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate
heritages;
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that
are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastures shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor
sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them,
even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall
be exalted.
Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the
north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people,
and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath
forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet
will I not forget thee.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy
walls are continually before me.
Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that
made thee waste shall go forth of thee.
Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather
themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the
LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an
ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the
inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the
other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait
for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these,
seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and
removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I
was left alone; these, where had they been?
Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to
the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they
shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be
carried upon their shoulders.
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy
nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face
toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou
shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed
that wait for me.
Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive
delivered?
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall
be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered:
for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I
will save thy children.
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh;
and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet
wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour
and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's
divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is
it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye
sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put
away.
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was
there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it
cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my
rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their
fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their
covering.
The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I
should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:
he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as
the learned.
The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back.
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and
spitting.
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be
confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I
know that I shall not be ashamed.
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us
stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn
me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat
them up.
Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice
of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?
let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves
about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the
sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand;
ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek
the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the
hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:
for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste
places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her
desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be
found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation:
for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to
rest for a light of the people.
My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine
arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and
on mine arm shall they trust.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth
beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the
earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein
shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in
whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither
be ye afraid of their revilings.
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm
shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for
ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in
the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it
that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the
great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the
ransomed to pass over?
Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their
head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and
mourning shall flee away.
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou
shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of
man which shall be made as grass;
And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth
the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast
feared continually every day because of the fury of the
oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the
fury of the oppressor?
The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he
should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves
roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee
in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and
lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art
my people.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the
hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the
dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath
brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand
of all the sons that she hath brought up.
These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for
thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the
sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets,
as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD,
the rebuke of thy God.
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not
with wine:
Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the
cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the
cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou
shalt no more drink it again:
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee;
which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and
thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to
them that went over.
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there
shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem:
loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of
Zion.
For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought;
and ye shall be redeemed without money.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into
Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without
cause.
Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people
is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to
howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is
blasphemed.
Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall
know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith
unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together
shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD
shall bring again Zion.
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of
Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath
redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of our God.
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean
thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear
the vessels of the LORD.
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the
LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your
rereward.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted
and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more
than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their
mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they
see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a
root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from
him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for
our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to
his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall
declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of
the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit
in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured
out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the
transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into
singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of
the married wife, saith the LORD.
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes;
For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou
confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt
forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the
reproach of thy widowhood any more.
For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name;
and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole
earth shall he be called.
For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved
in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith
thy God.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies
will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the
LORD thy Redeemer.
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so
have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but
my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy
on thee.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires.
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of
carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great
shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far
from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for
it shall not come near thee.
Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy
sake.
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the
fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I
have created the waster to destroy.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and
their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and
your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul
delight itself in fatness.
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall
live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even
the sure mercies of David.
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader
and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and
nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the
LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath
glorified thee.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while
he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the
LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off.
Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that
layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself
to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me
from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry
tree.
For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths,
and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my
covenant;
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a
place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will
give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the
LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his
servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
and taketh hold of my covenant;
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house
shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet
will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered
unto him.
All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts
in the forest.
His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all
dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to
slumber.
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they
are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their
own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill
ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this
day, and much more abundant.
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and
merciful men are taken away, none considering that the
righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each
one walking in his uprightness.
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
adulterer and the whore.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a
wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of
transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying
the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they,
they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink
offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive
comfort in these?
Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even
thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy
remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than
me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee
a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest
it.
And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase
thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst
debase thyself even unto hell.
Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou
not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand;
therefore thou wast not grieved.
And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast
lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart?
have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?
I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall
not profit thee.
When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind
shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that
putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall
inherit my holy mountain;
And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up
the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite
ones.
For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always
wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls
which I have made.
For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote
him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the
way of his heart.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also,
and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal
him.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,
whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and
shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins.
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a
nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of
their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take
delight in approaching to God.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?
wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no
knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure,
and exact all your labours.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the
fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to
make your voice to be heard on high.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to
afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and
to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a
fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed
go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring
the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the
naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from
thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall
go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the
midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and
speaking vanity;
And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy
darkness be as the noonday:
And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul
in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail
not.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many
generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the
breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the
holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee
with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken it.
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God,
and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not
hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered
perverseness.
None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they
trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and
bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he
that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed
breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity,
and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent
blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and
destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in
their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever
goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice
overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for
brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had
no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in
desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for
judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off
from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins
testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as
for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away
from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and
uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar
off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot
enter.
Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh
himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that
there was no judgment.
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was
no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him;
and his righteousness, it sustained him.
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of
salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of
vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to
his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he
will repay recompence.
So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his
glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard
against him.
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn
from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My
spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth
of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the
LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD
is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather
themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come
from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall
fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall
be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come
unto thee.
The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of
Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall
bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises
of the LORD.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee,
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come
up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house
of my glory.
Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their
windows?
Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold
with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy
One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their
kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee,
but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.
Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not
be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces
of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.
For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall
perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the
pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending
unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves
down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The
city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went
through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of
many generations.
Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck
the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy
Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver,
and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy
officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor
destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls
Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for
brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD
shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended.
Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the
land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
that I may be glorified.
A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong
nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent
me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called
trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might
be glorified.
And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the
former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the
desolations of many generations.
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of
the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call
you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they
shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they
shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt
offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them.
And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their
offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge
them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in
my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a
bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with her jewels.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden
causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the
Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth
before all the nations.
For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth.
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy
glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth
of the LORD shall name.
Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land
any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called
Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in
thee, and thy land shall be married.
For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry
thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall
thy God rejoice over thee.
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall
never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of
the LORD, keep not silence,
And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his
strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for
thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy
wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the
LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in
the courts of my holiness.
Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the
people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones;
lift up a standard for the people.
Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say
ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh;
behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the
LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not
forsaken.
Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from
Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the
greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save.
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like
him that treadeth in the winefat?
I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was
none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample
them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my
garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come.
And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that
there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought
salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.
And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them
drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the
earth.
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the
praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath
bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of
Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his
mercies, and according to the multitude of his
lovingkindnesses.
For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not
lie: so he was their Saviour.
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed
them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was
turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people,
saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with
the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit
within him?
That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm,
dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting
name?
That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness,
that they should not stumble?
As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD
caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make
thyself a glorious name.
Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy
holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength,
the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are
they restrained?
Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of
us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our
father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and
hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants'
sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little
while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not
called by thy name.
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come
down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters
to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the
nations may tremble at thy presence!
When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou
camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor
perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside
thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth;
for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be
saved.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up
himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou
our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for
ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised
thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are
laid waste.
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou
hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them
that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation
that was not called by my name.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their
own thoughts;
A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face;
that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of
brick;
Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments,
which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in
their vessels;
Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am
holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that
burneth all the day.
Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but
will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,
saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains,
and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure
their former work into their bosom.
Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will
I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an
inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and
my servants shall dwell there.
And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a
place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have
sought me.
But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy
mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish
the drink offering unto that number.
Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow
down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not
answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine
eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall
eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink,
but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but
ye shall be ashamed:
Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall
cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for
the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another
name:
That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself
in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall
swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are
forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create:
for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a
joy.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the
voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice
of crying.
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man
that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old
shall be accursed.
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall
plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not
plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days
of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands.
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for
they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their
offspring with them.
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will
answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall
eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's
meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,
saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is
my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and
where is the place of my rest?
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things
have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to
him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my
word.
He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that
sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that
offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that
burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have
chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their
abominations.
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears
upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I
spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes,
and chose that in which I delighted not.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your
brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake,
said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your
joy, and they shall be ashamed.
A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a
voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.
Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came,
she was delivered of a man child.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall
the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation
be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought
forth her children.
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith
the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?
saith thy God.
Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that
love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her:
That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her
consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the
abundance of her glory.
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her
like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing
stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides,
and be dandled upon her knees.
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and
ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones
shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be
known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his
enemies.
For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his
chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and
his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all
flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the
gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and
the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together,
saith the LORD.
For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that
I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and
see my glory.
And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that
escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud,
that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off,
that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and
they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the
LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in
litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel
bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.
And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith
the LORD.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,
shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and
your name remain.
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another,
and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to
worship before me, saith the LORD.
And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men
that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh.
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