Spreading the Letter Before the Lord.
xxxvii. 14. And Hezekiah received the letter, &c.
The letter was an insolent cartel of defiance from the Assyrian king Sennacherib, full as much of blasphemous defiance against God as of insolence to God’s servant. It represents the conflict between Assyria and Judah as being a struggle between the gods of one nation and the God of the other. The point of it is: “Don’t let the God in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of Assyria. Thou hast seen what Assyria has done to all lands, and is thy God any better than theirs?” So the king of Judah, very simple and child-like, picks up the piece of blasphemy and goes up to the temple and spreads it out before God. A very naïve piece of unconscious symbolism! The meaning of it comes out in the prayer that follows: “Open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see,” &c. It is for Thee to act. That is the essential meaning of Hezekiah’s action.
I. It was an appeal to God’s knowledge. For his comfort it was necessary to make this appeal. That which influences and agitates us, we need in some way to spread before the Lord. When some great anxiety strikes its talons deep into our hearts, we need to have the truth made clear to ourselves. The Eyes up yonder see all about it. A plain old piece of commonplace, but, oh! there is a deep, unutterable consolation when a man realises this. “Thy Father which is in secret, seeth in secret.”
II. It was an appeal to God’s honour. His prayer was this in effect: “Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to reproach the living God. I say nothing about myself, but it is Thine honour that is threatened. If this insolent braggart does the thing which he threatens, then it will be said, ‘Forasmuch as this Jehovah was not able to save His people, therefore He let them perish;’ those who worship other gods will say, ‘Jehovah is a name without meaning’—Thy name, which is above every name!” If a man has not got something like that in his prayers, they are poor prayers. With all humility, yet with all self-confidence, ask Him, not so much to deliver you, as to be true to His character and His promises, to be self-consistent with all that He has been; and let us feel, as we have a right to feel, that if any human soul, that ever in the faintest, poorest, humblest manner put out a trembling hand of confidence towards His great hand to grasp it, was suffered to go down and perish, there is a blight and blot on the fair fame of God before the whole creation which nothing can obliterate. But the feeblest cry shall be answered, the feeblest faith rewarded! Let us grasp the thought that not only for our own poor selves—though, blessed be God, He does take our happiness for a worthy object—but because His honour and fair fame are so inextricably wound with our well-being, He must answer the cries of His people (Ezek. xxxvi. 22–24).
III. Let us take out of the account, not only what we ought to do when we go to God in prayer, but the kind of things we ought to take to Him. Every difficulty, danger, trial, temptation, or blasphemy by which His name is polluted, should be at once spread out before the Lord. But most of all the common things of everyday life! The small boy, whom one of our writers tells of, who used to pray that he might have strength given to him to learn his Latin declension, had a better understanding of prayer than the men of the world can understand (H. E. I. 3756, 3757).
IV. Another lesson: If you have not been in the habit of going to the House of God at other times, it will be a hard job to find your way there when your eyes are blinded with tears, and your hearts heavy with anxiety. Hezekiah had cultivated a habit of trusting God and referring everything to Him; so he went straight into the Temple as by instinct, where he could have found his way in the dark, and spread this letter before the Lord as a matter of course. It is a poor thing when a man’s religion is like a waterproof coat, that is only good to wear when it rains, and has to be taken off when the weather improves a little! If you want to get the blessedness of fellowship with God and help from Him in the dark days, learn the road to the Temple in sunshine and gladness, and do not wait for the bellow of the pitiless storm and darkness upon the path, before you go up to the Temple of God (H. E. I. 3877–3879).
V. What do we get by this habit of spreading out everything before God?
1. Valuable counsel. I do not know anything that has such a power of clearing a man’s way, scattering mists, removing misconceptions, letting us see the true nature of some dazzling specious temptations, as the habit of turning to prayer. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the thing that perplexes us is that the steadiness of the hand that holds the microscope is affected by the beating of the heart and the passionate desires and wishes, and so there is nothing defined and clear; it is all a haze. Firmness of hand, clearness of vision, come in prayer to the man who is accustomed to take the harassing “letter,” and spread it out before the Lord (H. E. I. 3741–3743).
2. A very accurate and easily applied test. I do not wonder that as many of us do not like to pray about our plans and about our anxieties; it is either because the plans have no God in them, or the anxieties have no faith. Anything we cannot pray about, we had better not touch. And anxiety that is not substantial enough to bear lifting and laying before God, ought never to trouble us. Test your lives, your thoughts, your affairs, your purposes by this. Will they stand carriage to the Temple? If not, the sooner you get rid of them the better. And then, “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests by made known unto God; and,” in spite of all the blatant Sennacheribs who have poured out their insolent blasphemies, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”—Alexander Maclaren, in Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, pp. 81–85.
APPENDIX.
TRANSLATIONS OF THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH.
Translations, at once accurate and varied, are among the most valuable of all helps in the study of Scripture. It was, therefore, the intention of the supplier of this volume to give in four parallel columns the translations of Isaiah which occur in the Commentaries of Alexander, Delitzsch, and Henderson, and in the Revised English Bible. Considerations of space, have, however, compelled him to confine himself to the two first named; and it is believed that these will be acceptable even to those who possess the Commentaries whence they are taken. They are interwoven with the comments, and a continuous study of them is thus rendered difficult. The divisions and subdivisions in the second column are those given in Delitzsch’s Commentary. For a very prompt and general permission to make this use of that great work, hearty thanks are here accorded to Messrs. T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh.
TRANSLATION
of the
PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH,
By Joseph Addison Alexander, D.D.[1]
general title.—chap. i. 1.
The Vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
sin and suffering.—chap. i. 2–31.
2. Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah speaks. Sons I have reared and brought up, and they, even they, have rebelled against Me. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.
4. A sinful nation, people heavy with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, sons corrupting themselves! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have treated with contempt the Holy One of Israel; they are alienated back again.
5. Whereupon can ye be stricken any more, (that) ye add revolt? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is not in it a sound place; (it is) wound and bruise and fresh stroke. They have not been pressed, and they have not been bound, and it has not been mollified with ointment. 7. Your land . . . a waste! Your towns . . . burnt with fire! Your ground . . . before you strangers (are) devouring it, and a waste like the overthrow of strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a melon field, like a watched city. 9. Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been like Sodom, we should have resembled Gomorrah.
10. Here the word of Jehovah, ye judges of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah! 11. For what (end) is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? saith Jehovah. I am full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and the blood of bullocks and lambs and he-goats I desire not. 12. When you come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hands to tread My courts? 13. Ye shall not add to bring a vain offering. Incense is an abomination to Me; (so are) new-moon and Sabbath, the calling of the convocation: I cannot bear iniquity and holy day. 14. Your new-moons and your convocations My soul hateth; they have become a burden to Me, I am weary of bearing (them). 15. And when you spread your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; also when ye multiply prayer, I am not hearing; your hands are full of blood.
16. Wash you, purify yourselves; remove the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17. learn to do good, seek judgment, redress wrong, judge the fatherless, befriend the widow.
18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool. 19. If ye consent and hear, the good of the land ye shall eat; 20. and if ye refuse and rebel, by the sword shall ye be eaten: the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
21. How has she become an harlot, the faithful city! full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, and now murderers. 22. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine weakened with water. 23. Thy rulers are rebels and fellows of thieves, every one of them loving a bribe, and pursuing rewards. The fatherless they judge not, and the cause of the widow cometh not unto them.
24. Therefore, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will comfort Myself of My adversaries, and I will avenge Myself of Mine enemies; 25. and I will turn My hand upon them, and will purge out thy dross like purity (itself), and I will take away all thine alloy. 26. And I will restore thy judges as at first, and thy counsellors as in the beginning, after which thou shalt be called City of Righteousness, a faithful State.
27. Zion shall be redeemed in judgment, and her converts in righteousness; 28. and the breaking of apostates and sinners (shall be) together, and the forsaken of Jehovah shall cease. 29. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen; 30. for ye shall be like an oak fading (in) its leaf, and like a garden which has no water; 31. and the strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and they shall burn both of them together, (there) shall be no one quenching (them).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Reprinted from the Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, by Joseph Addison Alexander, D.D., Princeton. New and Revised Edition, edited by John Eadie, D.D., LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot.
the reign of the messiah, and intervening judgments on the jews.—chaps. ii.–iv.
II.—1. The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2. And it shall be in the end of the days, the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and exalted from the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. 3. And many nations shall go and shall say, Come, and let us ascend to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach of us of His ways, and we will go in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4. And He shall judge between the nations, and decide for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.
6. Because Thou hast forsaken Thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east and (full of) soothsayers like the Philistines, and with the children of strangers they abound. 7. And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; and their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their treasures. 8. And their land is filled with idols, to the work of their hands they bow down, to that which their fingers have made.
9. And so the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low, and do not Thou forgive them. 10. Go into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah and from the glory of His majesty. 11. The eyes of the loftiness of men are cast down, and the height of man is brought low, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day.
12. For there is a day to Jehovah of hosts upon everything high and lofty, and upon everything exalted, and it shall come down; 13. and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lofty, and on all the oaks of Bashan; 14. and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills; 15. and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall; 16. and upon all ships of Tarshish, and upon all images of desire. 17. And (thus) shall the loftiness of man be cast down, and the pride of man be brought low, and Jehovah alone exalted in that day [or, so sinks the loftiness of man and bows the pride of man, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day].
18. And as for the idols the whole shall pass away. 19. And they shall enter into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah and the glory of His majesty when He arises to terrify the earth. 20. And that day shall man cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they have made for him to worship, to the moles and the bats; 21. to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the fissures of the cliffs, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty, in His arising to terrify the earth.
22. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? III.—1. For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; 2. hero and warrior, judge and prophet, and diviner and elder; 3. the chief of fifty, and the favourite, and the counsellor, and the skilful artificer, and the expert enchanter. 4. And I will give children to be their rulers, and childish things shall govern them. 5. And the people shall act tyrannically, man against man, and man against his fellow. They shall be insolent, the youth to the old man, and the mean man to the noble. 6. When a man shall take hold of his brother in his father’s house (saying), Thou hast raiment, a ruler shalt thou be to us, and this ruin under thy hand; 7. in that day he shall lift up his voice saying, I will not be a healer, and in my house is no bread, and there is no clothing: ye shall not make me a ruler of the people.
8. For Jerusalem totters and Judah falls, (because) their tongues and their doings are against Jehovah, to resist His glorious eyes. 9. The expression of their countenance testifies against them, and their sin, like Sodom, they disclose, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil to themselves. 10. Say ye of the righteous that it shall be well, for the fruits of their doings they shall eat. 11. Woe unto the wicked, ill, for the thing done by his hands shall be done to him. 12. My people! their oppressors are childish, and women rule over them. My people! thy leaders are seducers, and the way of thy paths they swallow up.
13. Jehovah standeth up to plead, and is standing to judge the nations. 14. Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and the chiefs thereof. And ye (even ye) have consumed the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15. What mean ye that ye crush My people, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
16. And Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are lofty, and walk with outstretched neck, and gazing with their eyes, and with a tripping walk they walk, and with their feet they make a tinkling, 17. therefore the Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, and their nakedness Jehovah will uncover. 18. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of the ankle-bands, and the cauls, and the crescents, 19. the pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils, 20. the caps, the ankle-chains, and the girdles, and the houses of breath, and the amulets, 21. the rings, and the nose-jewels, 22. the holiday dresses, and the mantles, and the robes, and the purses, 23. the mirrors, and the tunics, and the turbans, and the veils. 24. And it shall be (that) instead of perfume there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of braided work baldness, and instead of a full robe a girding of sackcloth, burning instead of beauty. 25. Thy men by the sword shall fall, and thy strength in war. 26. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and being emptied she shall sit upon the ground. IV.—1. And in that day seven women shall lay hold on one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let thy name be called upon us, take thou away our reproach.
2. In that day shall the Branch of Jehovah be for honour and for glory, and the fruit of the earth for sublimity and beauty, to the escaped of Israel. 3. And it shall be that the left in Zion and the spared in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one written to life in Jerusalem, 4. when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and the bloodguiltiness of Jerusalem shall purge from its midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. 5. And Jehovah will create over the whole extent of mount Zion, and over her assembles, a cloud by day, and smoke and the brightness of a burning fire by night; for over all the glory there shall be a covering; 6. and there shall be a shelter for a shadow by day from heat, and a covert and for a hiding place from storm and from rain.
the parable of the vineyard.—chap. v.
1. I will sing, if you please, of my friend, my friend’s song of his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard in a hill of great fertility; 2. and he digged it up, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with Sorek, and built a tower in the midst of it; and he waited for it to produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes.
3. And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. 4. What more is there to be done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I wait for it to bear grapes, and it bore wild grapes?
5. And now I will let you know if you please what I am about to do to my vineyard: Remove its hedge, and it shall become a pasture; break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling-place; 6. and I render it a desolation. It shall not be pruned and it shall not be dressed, and there shall come up thorns and briars. And I will lay my commands upon the clouds from raining rain upon it. 7. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is the plant of His pleasures. And He waited for judgment, and behold bloodshed, for righteousness, and behold a cry!
8. Woe to the joiners of house with house, field to field they bring together, even to a failure of place, and ye are made to dwell by yourselves in the midst of the land. 9. In my ears Jehovah of hosts (is saying), Of a truth many houses shall become a desolation, great and good for want of an inhabitant. 10. For ten acres shall make one bath, and a bower of seed shall produce an ephah.
11. Woe to those rising early in the morning to pursue strong drink, delaying in the twilight (until) wine inflames them. 12. And the harp and viol, the tabret, and the pipe, and wine (compose) their feasts; and the work of Jehovah they will not look at, and the operation of His hands they have not seen.
13. Therefore my people have gone into exile for want of knowledge, and their glory are men of hunger, and their multitude dry with thirst. 14. Therefore the grave has enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure, and down goes her pomp and her noise and her crowd and he that rejoices in her; 15. and man is brought low, and man is cast down, and the eyes of the lofty are cast down; 16. and Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgment, and the Mighty, the Holy One, is sanctified in righteousness; 17. and lambs shall feed as (in) their pasture, and the wastes of the fat ones shall sojourners devour.
18. Woe to the drawers of iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart-rope; 19. those who say, Let Him speed, let Him hasten His work that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw night and come, that we may know (it).
20. Woe unto those saying to evil good, and to good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
21. Woe unto the wise in their (own) eyes, and the prudent in their own estimation.
22. Woe to the mighty men that drink wine, and men of strength that mingle strong drink; 23. justifying the guilty as the result of a bribe, and the righteousness of the righteous they will take from him.
24. Therefore as a tongue of fire devours chaff, and as ignited grass falls away, their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom as fine dust shall go up. For they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and the word of the Holy One of Israel they have treated with contempt. 25. Therefore the anger of Jehovah has burned against His people, and He stretched forth His hand against them, and smote them, and the mountains trembled, and their carcass was like sweeping in the midst of the streets.
In all this His anger was not turned back, and still His hand is stretched out; 26. and He raises a signal to the nations from afar, and whistle for him from the ends of the earth; and behold in haste, swift he shall come. 27. There is no one faint, and there is no one stumbling among them. He sleeps not, and he slumbers not, and the girdle of his loins is not opened and the latchet of his sandals is not broken; 28. whose arrows are sharpened and all his bows bent; the hoofs of his horses like flint are reckoned, and his wheels like a whirlwind. 29. He has a roar like the lioness, and he shall roar like the young lions, and shall growl, and seize the prey, and secure it, none delivering (it). 30. And he shall roar against him in that day like the roaring of a sea. And he shall look to the land, and behold darkness! Anguish and light! It is dark in the clouds thereof!
the vision of the most high.—chap. vi.
1. In the year that king Uzziah died (b.c. 758), I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and His skirts filling the palace. 2. Seraphim standing above it. Six wings to each. With two he covers his face, and with two he covers his feet, and with two he flies. 3. And one cried to another, and said,
Holy, Holy, Holy! is Jehovah of hosts!
The fulness of the whole earth is His glory!
4. Then stirred the bases of the thresholds at the voice that cried, and the house is filled with smoke.
5. And I said, Woe is me, for I am undone! for a man of impure lips am I, and in the midst of a people of impure lips I am dwelling: for the King, Jehovah of hosts, my eyes have seen.
6. Then there flew to me one of the seraphim, and in his hand a live coal; with tongs he took it from off the altar; 7. and he caused it to touch my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is gone, and thy sin shall be atoned for.
8. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I; behold me; send me.
9. And He said, Go and say to this people, Hear indeed, but understand not; and see indeed, but know not. 10. Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears make heavy, and its eyes smear; lest it see with its eyes, and with its ears hear, and its heart understand, and it turn to me, and be healed.
11 And I said, How long, Lord?
And He said, Until that cities are desolate for want of an inhabitant, and houses for want of men, and the land shall be desolate, a waste; 12. and Jehovah shall have put far off the men, and great shall be that which is left in the midst of the land. 13. And yet in it a tenth shall return and be for a consuming; like the terebinth and like the oak which in falling have substance in them, a holy seed (is) the substance of it.
prophesies relating to the reign of ahaz.—chaps. vii.–xii.
1. And it was in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, king of Aram [or Syria], and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war against it; and he was not able to war against it. 2. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria resteth upon Ephraim: and his heart and the heart of the people shook, like the shaking of the trees of a wood before a wind.
3. And Jehovah said to Isaiah son of Amoz, Go out to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-jashub thy son, to the end of the conduit of the upper pool, to the highway of the fuller’s field. 4. And thou shalt say to him, Be cautious and be quiet; fear not, nor let thy heart be soft before these two smoking tails of firebrands, in the heat of the anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5. Because Syria has devised evil against thee, also Ephraim and Remaliah’s son, saying, 6. We will go up into Judah and vex it, and make a breach in it (thereby subduing it) to ourselves, and let us make a king in the midst of it, to wit, the son of Tabeal: 7. thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It shall not stand, and it shall not be; 8. because the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, for in yet sixty-and-five years shall Ephraim be broken from (being) a people; 9. for the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe (it is) because you are not to be established.
10. And Jehovah added to speak unto Ahaz, saying, 11. Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God, ask deep or high above. 12. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not tempt Jehovah. 13. And he said, Hear, I pray you, O house of David! is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God? 14. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you sign. Behold! the virgin pregnant and bringing forth a son, and she calls his name Immanuel. 15. Curds and honey shall he eat until he shall know (how) to reject the evil and choose the good; 16. for before the child shall know (how) to reject the evil to choose the good, the land, of whose two kings thou art afraid, shall be forsaken.
17. Jehovah will bring upon thee, and on thy people, and on thy father’s house, days which have not come since the departure of Ephraim from Jacob, to wit, the king of Assyria. 18. And it shall be in that day that Jehovah will whistle for the fly which is in the edge of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee which is in Assyria; 19. and they come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of rocks, and in all thorn-hedges, and in all pastures. 20. In that day will the Lord shave, with a razor hired in the parts beyond the river, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and also the beard will it take away. 21. And it shall be in that day (that) a man shall save alive a young cow and two sheep; 22. and it shall be (that) from the abundance of the yielding of milk, he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land. 23. And it shall be in that day (that) every place where there shall be a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall be for thorns and briers. 24. With arrows and with bows shall one go thither, because thorns and briers shall the whole land be; 25. and all the hills which are digged with the hoe, thou shalt not go (even) there for fear of briers and thorns, and they shall be for a sending-place of cattle and a trampling-place of sheep.
VIII.—1. And Jehovah said to me, Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with a man’s pen, to Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2. And I (Jehovah) will take to witness for me credible witnesses, to wit, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah.
3. And I approached unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son, and Jehovah said to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz: 4. for before the child shall know (how) to cry, My father, and my mother, they shall take away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria.
5. And Jehovah added to speak to me again, saying—
6. Because this people hath forsaken the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and joy with respect to Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7. therefore, behold! the Lord (is) bringing up upon them the waters of the river, its strong and many waters, to wit, the king of Assyria and all his glory, and it shall come up over all the channels and go over all its banks, 8. and it shall pass over into Judah, overflow and pass through, to the neck shall it reach, and the spreading of its wings shall be the filling of the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!
9. Be wicked and be broken, and give ear all the remote parts of the earth! Gird yourselves and be broken; gird yourselves and be broken! 10. Devise a plan, and it shall be defeated; speak a word, and it shall not stand: for God (is) with us.
11. For thus said Jehovah unto me in strength of hand, and instructed me away from walking in the way of this people, saying, 12. Ye shall not call conspiracy everything which this people calleth conspiracy, and its fear ye shall not fear nor be afraid. 13. Jehovah of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify; and He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. 14. And He shall be for a holy thing, and for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15. And many shall stumble over them, and fall and be broken and be snared, and be taken.
16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law, in my disciples. 17. And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and will expect Him. 18. Behold, I and the children which Jehovah hath given me are (for) signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, the (One) dwelling in mount Zion. 19. And when they shall say to you, Seek unto the spirits and to the wizards, the chirpers and the mutterers: should not a people seek to its God, for the living to the dead? 20. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, (they are they) to whom there is no dawn. 21. And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall be that when they are hungry they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and shall look upward. 22. And to the earth he shall look; and behold distress and darkness, dimness of anguish, and (into) darkness (he shall be) driven. [— Or, The dimness of anguish and of darkness is dispelled.]
IX.—1. For (there shall) not (be) darkness (for ever) to her who is now distressed. As the former time degraded the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, so the latter glorifies the way of the sea, the bank of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
2. The people, those walking in the dark, have seen a great light: the dwellers in the shadow of death, light has beamed upon them. 3. Thou hast enlarged the nation, Thou hast increased its joy: (they) rejoice before Thee like the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil; 4. that the yoke of his burden, and the rod of his shoulder, and the staff of the one driving him, Thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. 5. For all the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, food of fire. 6. For a son is born to us, a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7. To the increase of the government and to the peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to confirm it, in justice and in righteousness from henceforth and for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.
8. The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it came down into Israel. 9. And they know, the people, all of them, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, in pride and in greatness of heart saying, 10. “Bricks are fallen, and hewn stone will we build; sycamores are felled, and cedars will we substitute.” 11. And (now) Jehovah raises up above him the enemies of Rezin, and he will instigate his own enemies: 12. Aram before, and Philistia behind, and they devour Israel with open mouth. For all this His wrath does not turn back, and still His hand is stretched out.
13. And the people has not turned to Him that smote them, and Jehovah of hosts they have not sought. 14. And Jehovah has cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and root, in one day. 15. The elder and the favourite, be (is) the head, and the prophet teaching falsehood, he (is) the tail. 16. The leaders of this people have been seducers, and the led of them (are) swallowed up. 17. Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, and on their orphans and their widows He will not have mercy, for every one of them is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth (is) speaking folly. For all this His wrath is not turned back, and still is His hand outstretched.
18. For wickedness burneth as the fire, thorns and briers it consumes, then kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll themselves upward, a column of smoke. 19. In the wrath of Jehovah of hosts the land is darkened, and the people is like food of fire: one another they do not spare. 20. And he tears on the right hand, and is hungry (still), and devours on the left, and (still) they are not satisfied; each the flesh of his (own) arm they devour: 21. Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, (and) together they (are) against Judah. For all this His wrath is not turned back, and still His hand (is) stretched out.
X.—1. Woe unto them that decree decrees of injustice, and that write oppression which they have prescribed; 2. to turn aside from judgment the weak, the right of the poor of my people, that widows may be their spoil, and the fatherless they plunder. 3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the ruin (which) shall come from far? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory? 4. It does not bow beneath the prisoners, and (yet) they shall fall beneath the slain. For all this His wrath is not turned back, and still His hand is stretched out.
the sin and the doom of assyria.—chap. x. 5–34.
5. Woe unto Asshur, the rod of My anger, and the staff in their hand is My indignation. 6. Against an impious nation will I send him and against the people of My wrath I will commission him, to take spoil and to seize pray, and to render it a trampling, like the mire of streets. 7. And he not so will think, and his heart so will think; for to destroy (is) in his heart, and to cut off nations not a few. 8. For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings? 9. Is not Calno like Carchemish? or (is) not Hamath like Arpad? or (is) not Samaria like Damascus? 10. As my hand hath found the idol-kingdoms, and their images (more) than (those of) Jerusalem and Samaria, 11. shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her gods?
12. And it shall be that the Lord will cut all His work short of mount Zion and at Jerusalem. (Yes, even there) will I visit on the fruit of the greatness of heart of the king of Assyria, and on the ostentation of his loftiness of eyes. 13. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done (all this), and by my wisdom, for I am wise, and I remove the bounds of the nations, and rob their hoards, and bring down, like a mighty man (as I am), the inhabitants. 14. My hand has found the strength of the nations, and like the gathering of eggs forsaken, so have I gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped.
15. Shall the axe glorify itself above the (person) hewing with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself above the (person) handling it? (This is indeed) like a rod’s wielding those who wield it, like a staff’s lifting (that which is) no wood. 16. Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send upon his fat ones leanness, and under his glory shall burn like the burning of fire. 17. 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 briers in one day. 18. And the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, from soul to body, will He consume, and it shall be like the wasting away of a sick man. 19. And the rest of the trees of the forest shall be few, and a child shall write them.
20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and the escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no longer continue to lean upon their smiter, but shall lean upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21. A remnant shall return, a remnant of Jacob to God Almighty. 22. For though thy people, O Israel, shall be like the sand of the sea, (only) a remnant of them shall return. A consumption is decreed, overflowing (with) righteousness. 23. For a consumption even (the one) determined, (is) the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, making in the midst of all the earth.
24. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts, Be not afraid, O my people inhabiting Zion, of Asshur. He shall smite thee with the rod, and shall lift up his staff upon thee in the way of Egypt. 25. For yet a very little, and wrath is at an end, and my anger (shall go forth) to their destruction; 26. and Jehovah of hosts shall raise up against him a scourge like the smiting of Midian at the rock Oreb, and His rod (shall again) be over the sea, and He shall lift it up in the way of Egypt. 27. And it shall be in that day, (that) his burden shall depart from thy shoulder, and his yoke from thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of oil.
28. He is come to Aiath—he is passed to Migron—to Michmash he entrusts his baggage. 29. They have passed the pass—in Geba they have taken up their lodging—Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. 30. Cry aloud, daughter Gallim; hearken Laishah, (ah) poor Anathoth! 31. Madmenah, wanders; the inhabitants of Gebim flee. 32. Yet to-day in Nob (he is) to stand; (and there) will he shake his hand against the mountain of the house of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33. Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, (is) lopping the branch with terror, and the trees (shall be) felled, and the lofty ones brought low. 34. And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and this Lebanon by a Mighty One shall fall.
the restoration and deliverance, eternal safety and internal peace of god’s own people.—chaps. xi., xii.
XI.—1. And there shall come forth a twig from the stock of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots shall grow. 2. And upon Him shall rest the Spirit of Jehovah, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. 3. And His sense of smelling (shall be exercised) in the fear of Jehovah, and not by the sight of His eyes shall He judge, and not by the hearing of His ears shall He decide; 4. and He shall judge in righteousness the weak, and do justice with equity to the meek of the earth; and shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall slay the wicked. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.
6. And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and young lion and fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; 7. and the cow and the bear shall feed, together shall their young lie down, and the lion like the ox shall eat straw; 8. and the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and on the den of the basilisk shall the weaned child stretch its hand. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, because the land is full of the knowledge of Jehovah, like the waters covering the sea.
10. And in that day shall the root of Jesse which is set up be for a signal to the nations: unto Him shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious.
11. And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall add His hand a second time to redeem the remnants of His people from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12. And He shall set up a signal to the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah shall He bring together from the four wings of the earth. 13. And the army of Ephraim shall depart, and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14. And they shall fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines towards the sea; together they shall spoil the sons of the East; Edom and Moab the stretching out of their hand, and the children of Ammon their obedience. 15. And Jehovah will destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and He will wave His hand over the river, in the violence of His wind, and smite it into seven streams, and make (His people) tread (it) in shoes. 16. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people which shall be left, from Assyria, as there was for Israel in the day of his coming up from the land of Egypt.
XII.—1, 2. And thou shalt say in that day, O Lord, I will praise Thee! For Thou wast angry with me, but Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; for my strength and song is Jah Jehovah, and He is become my salvation. 3. And ye shall draw water with joy from the springs of salvation. 4–6. And ye shall say in that day, Praise Jehovah! Call upon His name! Make known among the nations His exploits; remind them that His name is exalted. Praise Jehovah, because He has done a sublime deed. Known is this in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.
prophecies against certain foreign powers.—chaps. xiii.–xxiii.
The fall of the Babylonian empire, and the destruction of Babylon.—Chaps. xiii., xiv.
XIII.—1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.
2. Upon a bare hill, set up a signal, raise the voice to them, wave the hand, and let them enter the gates of the nobles. 3. I (Myself) have given command to My consecrated. Yes, I have called (forth) My mighty ones for (the execution of) My wrath, My proud exulters. 4. The voices of a multitude in the mountains! the likeness of much people! the sound of a tumult of kingdoms of nations gathered! Jehovah of hosts mustering a host of battle! 5. Coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, Jehovah and the instruments of His wrath, to lay waste the whole land. 6. Howl, for the day of Jehovah is near! like might from the Almighty it shall come. 7. Therefore all hands shall sink and every heart of man shall melt. 8. And they shall be confounded, pangs and throes shall seize (them), like the travailing (woman) they shall writhe, each at his neighbour, they shall wander, faces of flames their faces. 9. Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, terrible, and wrath and heat of anger, to make the land a waste, and its survivors He will destroy from it.
10. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not shed their light, the sun is darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine. 11. And I will visit upon the world (its) iniquity, and upon the wicked their iniquity, and I will cause to cease the arrogance of presumptuous sinners, and the pride of tyrants I will humble. 12. And I will make man more scarce than pure gold, and a human being than the ore of Ophir. 13. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake out of its place in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts and in the day of the heat of His anger. 14. And it shall be that like a roe chased, and like sheep, with none to gather them—each to his people, they shall turn—and each to his country they shall flee. 15. Every one found shall be stabbed, and every one joined shall fall by the sword. 16. And their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished. 17. Behold, I (am) stirring up the Madai who will not regard silver, and (as for) gold they will not take pleasure in it. 18. And bows shall dash boys in pieces, and the fruit of the womb they shall not pity; on children their eye shall not have mercy.
19. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the ornament, the pride of the Chaldees, shall be like God’s overthrowing Sodom and Gomorrah. 20. It shall not be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be dwelt in from generation to generation, neither shall the Arab pitch tent there, neither shall shepherds cause their flocks to lie there. 21. But there shall lie down desert creatures, and their houses shall be filled with howls (or yells), and there shall dwell the daughters of the ostrich, and shaggy beasts shall gambol there. 22. And wolves shall howl in his palaces, and jackals in the temples of pleasure. And near to come is her time, and her days shall not be prolonged.
XIV.—1. For Jehovah will pity Jacob, and will still choose Israel and cause them to rest on their (own) land, and the stranger shall be joined to them, and they shall be attached to the house of Jacob. 2. And nations shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall take possession of them on Jehovah’s land for male and female servants—and (thus) they shall be captors of their captors, and rule over their oppressors. 3. And it shall be in the day of Jehovah’s causing thee to rest from thy toil, and from thy commotion, and from the hard service which was wrought by thee, 4. that thou shalt raise this song over the king of Babylon, and say—
How hath the oppressor ceased, and the golden (city) ceased! 5. Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, 6. smiting nations in anger by a stroke without cessation, ruling nations in wrath by a rule without restraint. 7. At rest, quiet, is the whole earth. They burst forth into singing. 8. And the cypresses rejoice with respect to thee, the cedars of Lebanon (saying), Now that thou art fallen, the feller shall not come up against us.
9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it rouses for thee the giants, all the chief ones of the earth; it raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10. All of them shall answer and say to thee, Thou also art made weak as we, to us are likened! 11. Down to the grave is brought thy pride, the music of thy harps: under thee is spread the worm, thy covering is vermin. 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! felled to the ground, thou that didst lord it over the nations! 13. And (yet) thou hadst said in thy heart, The heavens will I mount; above the stars of God will I raise my throne; and I will sit in the mount of meeting, in the sides of the north; 14. I will mount above the cloud-heights; I will make myself like the Most High. 15. But thou shalt only be brought down to hell, to the depths of the pit. 16. Those seeing thee shall gaze at thee, they shall look at thee attentively, (and say), Is this the man that made the earth shake, that made kingdoms tremble, 17. made a world like a desert, destroyed its cities, and its captives did not set free homewards? 18. All kings of nations, all of them, lie in state, each in his house; 19. and thou art cast out from thy grave—like a despised branch, the raiment of the slain, pierced with the sword, going down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled carcass. 20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thy land thou hast destroyed, thy people thou hast slain. Let the seed of evil-doers be named no more for ever.
21. Prepare for his sons a slaughter, for the iniquity of their fathers. Let them not arise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. 22. And I (Myself) will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name, and remnant, and progeny, and offspring, saith Jehovah. 23. And I will render it a possession of the porcupine, and pools of water, and will sweep it with the broom of destruction.
24. Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have planned, it shall come to pass, and as I have devised it shall stand; 25. to break Assyria in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden from off his back shall depart. 26. This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth, and this the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. 27. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul? And His hand the one stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28. In the year of the death of King Ahaz, was this burden.
29. Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken, for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and its fruit a fiery flying serpent. 30. And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy in security lie down, and I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant it shall slay.
31. Howl, O gate! cry, O city! dissolved, O Philistia, is the whole of thee; for out of the north a smoke comes, and there is no straggler in his forces. 32. And what shall one answer to the ambassadors of a nation? That Jehovah has founded Zion, and in it the afflicted of His people shall seek refuge.
the downfall of moab.—chaps. xv., xvi.
1. (This is) the burden of Moab, That in a night Ar-Moab is laid waste, is destroyed; that in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, is destroyed. 2. They go up to the house, and Dibon (to) the high places for weeping. On Nebo and on Medeba Moab howls, and all heads baldness, every beard cut off. 3. In its streets, they are girded with sackcloth; on its roofs and in its squares all of it howls, coming down with weeping. 4. And Heshbon cries and Eleaich—even to Jahaz is their voice heard; therefore the warriors of Moab cry, his soul is distress in him. 5. My heart for Moab cries out; her fugitives (are fled) as far as Zoar—an heifer of three years old; for he that goes up Luhith with weeping goes up by it, for in the way of Horonaim a cry of destruction they lift up. 6. For the waters of Nimrim (are and) shall be desolations: for withered is the grass, gone is the herbage, verdure there is none. 7. Therefore the remainder of what each one has made, (and their) hoard, over the brook of the willows they carry them away. 8. For the cry goes round the border of Moab; even to Eglaim (is) its howling (heard), and to Beer-Elim its howling. 9. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; and I will bring upon Dimon additions, on the escaped of Moab a lion; and on the remnant of it.
XVI.—1. Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 2. And it shall come to pass like a bird wandering, (like) a nest cast out, shall be the daughters of Moab, the fords of Arnon. 3. [Alexander omits the translation of this verse, but comments on it. . . .] 4. Let my outcasts, Moab, sojourn with thee; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, oppression has ceased, consumed are the tramplers out of the land. 5. And a throne shall be established in mercy; and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice, and prompt in equity.
6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, the very proud, his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath, the falsehood of his pretensions. 7. Therefore Moab shall howl for Moab; all of it shall howl; for the grapes of Kir-hareseth shall ye sigh, altogether smitten. 8. For the fields of Heshbon are withered—the vine of Sibmah—the lords of the nations broke down its choice plants—unto Jazer they reached—they strayed into the desert—its branches—they were stretched out—they reached to the sea. 9. Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer (for) the vine of Sibmah. I will wet thee (with) my tears, Heshbon and (thee) Elealeh! for upon thy fruit and thy harvest a cry has fallen. 10. And taken away is joy and gladness from the fruitful field: and in the vineyards shall no (more) be sung, no (more) be shouted; wine in the presses shall the treader not tread; the cry have I stilled. 11. Therefore my bowels for Moab like the harp shall sound, and my inwards for Kirhares. 12. And it shall come to pass, when Moab has appeared (before his gods), when he has wearied himself (with vain oblations) on the high place, then he shall enter into his sanctuary to pray, and shall not be able (to obtain an answer).
13. This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab of old. 14. And now Jehovah speaks, saying, In three years, like the years of an hireling, the glory of Moab, shall be disgraced, with all the great throng, and the remnant shall be small, and few, not much.
the doom of the enemies of judah.—chaps. xvii., xviii.
XVII.—1. The burden of Damascus.
Behold, Damascus is removed from (being) a city, and is a heap, a ruin. 2. Forsaken are the cities of Aroer; for flocks shall they be, and they shall lie down, and there shall be no one making (them) afraid. 3. Then shall cease defence for Ephraim and royalty from Damascus and the rest of Syria. Like the glory of the children of Israel shall they be, with Jehovah of hosts.
4. And it shall come to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob shall be brought low, and the fatness of his flesh shall be made lean. 5. And it shall be as one gathers the harvest, the standing corn, and his arm reaps the ears. And it shall be like one collecting ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6. And gleanings shall be left therein like the shaking of an olive-tree, two (or) three berries in the top of a high bough, four (or) five in the branches of the fruit-tree, saith Jehovah, God of Israel.
7. In that day man shall turn to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel shall look. 8. And he shall not turn to the altars, the work of his own hands, and that which his own fingers have made shall he not regard, and the groves of Ashtoreth and the pillars of the sun.
9. In that day shall his fortified cities by like what is left in the thickets and the lofty branch, which they leave (as they retire) from before the children of Israel, and (the land) shall be a waste. 10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and the rock of thy strength hast not remembered, therefore thou wilt plant plants of pleasantness, and with a strange slip set it. 11. In the day of thy planting thou wilt hedge it in, and in the morning thou wilt make thy seed to blossom, (but) away flies the crop in a day of grief and desperate sorrow.
12. Hark! the noise of many nations! Like the noise of the sea they make a noise. And the rush of peoples! Like the rush of many waters they are rushing. 13. Nations, like the rush of many waters, rush; and he rebukes it, and it flees from afar, and is chased like the chaff of hills before a wind, and like a rolling thing before a whirlwind. 14. At evening-tide, and behold terror; before morning he is not. This be the portion of our plunderers, and the lot of our spoilers.
XVIII.—1. Ho! land of rustling wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush, 2. sending by sea ambassadors, and in vessels of papyrus on the face of the waters. Go, ye light messengers, to a nation drawn and shorn, to a people terrible since it existed and onwards, a nation of double strength and tramplings, whose land the streams divide. 3. All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, shall see as it were the raising of a standard on the mountains, and shall hear as it were the blowing of a trumpet.
4. For thus said Jehovah to me, I will rest and look on in My dwelling-place, like a serene heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5. For before the harvest or the bloom is finished, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts down the branches with the pruning-knives, and the tendrils he removes, he cuts away. 6. They shall be left together to the wild birds of the mountains, and to the wild beasts of the earth, and the wild birds shall summer thereon, and every wild beast of the earth thereon shall winter.
7. At that time shall be brought a gift to Jehovah of hosts, a people drawn out and shorn, and from a people terrible since it hath been and onward, a nation of double power and trampling, whose land streams divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, mount Zion.
the burden of egypt.—chap. xix.
1. Behold! Jehovah riding on a light cloud, and He comes to Egypt, and the idols of Egypt move at His presence, and the heart of Egypt melts within him. 2. And I will excite Egypt against Egypt, and they shall fight, a man with his brother, and a man with his fellow, city with city, kingdom with kingdom. 3. And the spirit of Egypt shall be emptied out in the midst thereof, and the counsel thereof I will swallow up, and they will seek to the idols, and to the mutterers, and to the familiar spirits, and to the wizards. 4. And I will shut up Egypt in the hands of a hard master, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
5. And the waters shall be dried up from the sea, and the river shall fail and be dried up. 6. And the rivers shall stink, the streams of Egypt are emptied and dried up, reed and rush sicken. 7. And meadows by the river, by the mouth of the river, and all the sown ground of the river, shall wither being driven away, and it is not. 8. And the fisherman shall mourn, and they shall lament, all the throwers of a hook into the river, and the spreaders of a net upon the surface of the water, languish. 9. And ashamed are the workers of combed flax, and the weavers of white (stuffs). 10. And her pillars are broken down, all labourers for hire are grieved at heart.
11. Entirely foolish are the princes of Zoan, the sages of the counsellors of Pharaoh, (their) counsel is become brutish. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am the son of wise (fathers), I am the son of kings of old? 12. Where (are) they? Where (are) thy wise men? Pray let them tell thee, and (if that is too much) let them (at least) know, what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt. 13. Infatuated are the chiefs of Zoan, deceived are the chiefs of Noph, and they have misled Egypt, the corner-stone of her tribes. 14. Jehovah hath mingled in the midst of her a spirit of confusion, and they have misled Egypt in all its work, like the misleading of a drunkard in his vomit. 15. And there shall not be in Egypt a work which head and tail, branch and rush, may do.
16. In that day shall Egypt be like women, and shall fear and tremble from before the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He is shaking over it. 17. And the land of Judah shall be for a terror unto Egypt, every person to whom one mentions it shall fear before the purpose of Jehovah of hosts, which He is purposing against it.
18. In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing to Jehovah of hosts. The city of destruction shall one be called. 19. In that day there shall be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land, and a pillar near the border to Jehovah. 20. And it shall be for a sign and a testimony to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt, that they shall cry to Jehovah from the presence of oppressors, and He will send them a deliverer and a mighty one, and save them. 21. And Jehovah shall be known to Egypt, and Egypt shall know Jehovah in that day, and shall serve with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow to Jehovah, and perform it.
22. And Jehovah shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they shall return unto Jehovah, and He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. 23. In that day there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria shall come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt shall serve with Assyria. 24. In that day shall Israel be a third with respect to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25. which Jehovah has blessed, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and My heritage Israel.
the defeat and captivity of the egyptians and ethiopians.—chap. xx.
1. In the year of Tartan’s coming to Ashdod, in Sargon king of Assyria’s sending him, and he fought with Ashdod and took it; 2. at that time spake Jehovah by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and thou shalt loose the sackcloth from upon thy loins, and thy shoe thou shalt pull off from thy foot. And he did so, going naked and barefoot.
3. And Jehovah said, As my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years a sign and symbol concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, 4. so shall the king of Assyria lead the captivity of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, the disgrace of Egypt.
5. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their boast. 6. And the inhabitant of this coast shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help, to be delivered from the presence of the king of Assyria! and how shall we (ourselves) escape?
the burden of the desert of the sea.—chap. xxi. 1–10.
XXI.—1. Like whirlwinds in the south, as to rushing from the wilderness it comes, from a terrible land. 2. A hard vision it is revealed to me; the deceiver deceiving and the spoiler spoiling. Go, up, O Elam! besiege, O Media! All sighing have I made to cease. 3. Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have seized me like the pangs of a travailing woman; I writhe from hearing; I am shocked from seeing. 4. My heart wonders; horror appals me; the twilight of my pleasure He has put for fear for me.
5. Set the table, spread the cloth, eat, drink; arise, ye chiefs, anoint the shield! 6. For thus saith the Lord to me, Go, set the watchman: that which he sees let him tell. 7. And should he see cavalry—pairs of horsemen—ass-riders—camel-riders—then shall he hearken with a harkening a great harkening. 8. And he cries—a lion—on the watch-tower, Lord, I am standing always by day, and on my ward I am stationed all the night. 9. And behold, this comes, mounted men, pairs of horsemen. And he speaks again, and says, Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods He has broken to the earth.
10. O my threshing, and the son of my threshing-floor! What I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have told you.
the burden of dumah.—chap. xxi. 11–18.
11. To me (one is) calling from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? 12. The watchman says, Morning comes and also night; if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come.
the burden of arabia.—chap. xxi. 13–17.
13. In the forest of Arabia shall ye lodge, oh ye caravans of Dedanim. 14. To meet the thirsty they bring water; with his bread they anticipate the fugitive. 15. Because from the presence of swords they fled, from the presence of a drawn sword and from the presence of a bended bow, and from the presence of a weight of war. 16. For thus saith the Lord to me, In yet a year, like the years of a hireling shall fall all the glory of Kedar. 17. And the remnant of the number of bows, the mighty men of the children of Kedar shall be few, for Jehovah God of Israel hath spoken it.
the burden of the valley of vision.—chap. xxii. 1–14.
1. What (is) to thee, that thou art wholly gone up on the house-tops? 2. Full of stirs, a noisy town, a joyous city, thy slain are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle. 3. All thy shields fled together—from the bow—they were found—all that were found of thee were bound together—from afar they fled.
4. Therefore I said, Look away from me; let me weep bitterly; try not to comfort me for the desolation of the daughter of my people. 5. For there is a day of confusion and trampling and perplexity to the Lord Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision—breaking the wall and crying to the mountain. 6. And Elam bare a quiver, with chariots, infantry, horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. 7. And it came to pass (that) the choice of thy valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen drew up towards the gate. 8. And the covering of Judah was removed, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest. 9. And the breaches of the city of David ye saw, that they were many, and ye gathered the waters of the lower pool. 10. And the house of Jerusalem ye numbered, and ye pulled down the house to repair the wall. 11. And a reservoir ye made between the two walls for the waters of the old pool, and ye did not look to the Maker of it, and the Former of it ye did not see. 12. And the Lord Jehovah of hosts called in that day to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding sackcloth; 13. and behold mirth and jollity, slaying of oxen and killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine; eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. 14. And Jehovah of hosts made a revelation to me, saying, This iniquity shall certainly not be forgiven you until you die.
the message to shebna.—chap. xxii. 15–25.
15. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts, Go, go into this treasurer, to Shebna who (is) over the house. 16. What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewn thee here a sepulchre? Hewing on high his sepulchre, graving in the rook a habitation for himself! 17. Behold, Jehovah is casting thee a cast, O man! and covering thee a covering. 18. Rolling He will roll thee in a roll, like a ball (thrown) into a spacious ground—there thou shalt die—and there the chariots of thy glory—shame of thy master’s house. 19. And I will thrust thee from thy post, and from thy station thou shalt be pulled down.
20. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call for thy servant, for Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah; 21. and I will clothe him with thy dress, and with thy girdle will I strengthen him, and thy power will I give into his hand, and he shall be for a father to the dweller in Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22. And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder; he shall open, and there shall be no one shutting; he shall shut, and there shall be no one opening. 23. And I will fasten him a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. 24. And they shall hang upon him all the honour of his father’s house—the offspring and the issue—all vessels of small quantity—from vessels of cups even to all vessels of flagons. 25. In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail fastened in a sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall, and the burden which was upon it shall be cut off, for Jehovah speaks.
the burden of tyre.—chap. xxiii.
1. Howl, ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, no house, no entrance; from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. 2. Be silent, O inhabitants of the isle, the merchants of Sidon crossing the sea filled thee. 3. And in great waters (was) the seed of the Nile; the harvest of the river (was) her revenue; and she was a mart of nations. 5. When the report comes to Egypt, they are pained at the report of Tyre. 6. Pass over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle. 7. Is this your joyous city? From the days of old is her antiquity; her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8. Who hath purposed this against Tyre the crowning (city), whose merchants (are) princes, her traffickers the honoured of the earth? 9. Jehovah of hosts hath purposed it, to profane the elevation of all beauty, to degrade all the honoured of the earth. 10. Pass through thy land like the river; daughter of Tarshish, there is no girdle (any) longer. 11. His hand He stretched out over the sea; He made kingdoms tremble; Jehovah commanded respecting Canaan to destroy her strongholds. 12. And He said, Thou shalt not continue to triumph, violated virgin daughter of Zidon; to Chittim arise, pass over; there also there shall be no rest to thee. 13. Behold the land of the Chaldees; this people was not; Assyria founded it for dwellers in the wilderness; they have set up his towers; they have roused up her palaces; he has rendered it a ruin. 14. Howl, ships of Tarshish, for destroyed is your stronghold.
15. And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, as the days of one king; from the end of seventy years shall be to Tyre like the harlot’s song.
16. Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot! play well, sing much, that thou mayest be remembered. 17. And it shall be at the end of seventy years, Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she shall return with all the kingdoms of the earth upon the face of the ground.
18. And her gain and her hire shall be holiness to Jehovah; it shall not be stored and it shall not be hoarded; for her gain shall be for those who sit before Jehovah, to eat to satiety, and for substantial clothing.
Prophecies having Reference Chiefly to Judah.—Chaps. xxiv.–xxxv.
coming judgments.—chaps. xxiv.–xxvii.
I.—Some of the Consequences of National Iniquity.—Chap. xxiv. 1–12.
XXIV.—1. Behold Jehovah (is) pouring out the land and emptying it, and He will turn down its face, and He will scatter its inhabitants. 2. And it shall be, as the people so the priest, as the servant so his master, as the maid so her mistress, as the buyer so the seller, as the lender so the borrower, as the creditor so the debtor. 3. The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for Jehovah speaks this word. 4. The earth mourneth, fadeth; the world languisheth, fadeth; the highest of the people of the earth languish. 5. And the land has been profaned under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statute, broken the everlasting covenant. 6. Therefore a curse devoured the earth, and those dwelling in it were reckoned guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burned, and there are few men left. 7. The new wine mourneth; the vine languisheth; all the merry-hearted do sigh. 8. Still is the mirth of drums; ceased is the noise of revellers; still is the mirth of the harp. 9. With the song they shall not drink wine; bitter shall strong drink be to them that drink it. 10. Broken down is the city of confusion, shut up is every house so that it cannot be entered. 11. A cry for wine in the streets--darkened is all joy—departed is the gladness of the earth. 12. What is left in the city is desolation, and into ruins is the gate beaten down.
II.—The Songs of the Scattered Remnant.—Vers. 13–16.
13. For so shall it be in the midst of the earth among the nations, like the beating of an olive-tree, like gleanings when the gathering is done. 14. They shall raise their voice, they shall sing, for the majesty of Jehovah they cry aloud from the sea. 15. Therefore in the fires glorify Jehovah, in the islands of the sea the name of Jehovah God of Israel. 16. From the wing of the earth we have heard songs, praise to the righteous; and I said, Woe to me, woe to me, alas for me! The deceivers deceive, with deceit the deceivers deceive.
III.—Jehovah’s Exaltation in Jerusalem.—Vers. 17–23.
17. Fear and pit and snare upon thee, O inhabitant of the land! 18. And it shall be that the (one) flying from the voice of the fear shall fall into the pit, and the (one) coming up from the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for windows from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. 19. Behold, broken is the earth; shattered, shattered is the earth; shaken, shaken is the earth. 20. The earth reels, reels like a drunken man, and is shaken like a hammock. And heavy upon her is her guilt, and she shall fall and rise no more. 21. And it shall be in that day that Jehovah shall visit upon the host of the high place, and upon the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22. And they shall be gathered with a gathering as prisoners in a pit, and shall be shut up in a dungeon, and after many days they shall be visited. 23. And the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, for Jehovah of hosts is King in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem and before His elders there is glory.
IV.—The destruction of Babylon and the Deliverance of the Jews.—Chap. xxv. 1–5.
XXV.—1. Jehovah my God (art) Thou; I will exalt Thee; I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done a wonder, counsels from afar off, truth, certainty. 2. For Thou hast turned (it) from a city to a heap, a fortified town to a ruin, a palace of strangers from (being) a city; for ever it shall not be built. 3. Therefore a powerful people shall honour Thee, a city of terrible nations shall fear Thee. 4. For Thou hast been a stronghold to the weak, a stronghold to the poor, in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible was like a storm against a wall. 5. As heat in a drought, the noise of strangers wilt Thou bring down; (as) hast by the shadow of a cloud, (so) shall the song of the tyrants be brought low.
V.—A promise of Favour to the Gentiles and the People of God when united on Mount Zion.—Vers. 6–9.
6. And Jehovah of hosts will make, for all nations, in this mountain, 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. 7. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the veil, the veil upon all people, and the web, the (one) woven over all the nations. 8. He has swallowed up death for ever, and the Lord Jehovah wipes away tears from off all faces, and the reproach of His people he will take away from off all the earth, for Jehovah hath spoken (it). 9. And they shall say in that day, Lo, this is our God! we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is Jehovah; we have waited for Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.
VI.—The Ruin of Moab.—Vers. 10–12.
10. For the hand of Jehovah shall rest upon this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place as straw is trodden in the water of the dunghill. 11. And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of it, as the swimmer spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and He shall humble his pride, together with the devices of his hands. 12. And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls He hath cast down, humbled, brought to the ground, to the very dust.
VII.—A Song of Praise and Deliverance.—Chap. xxvi. 1–19.
XXVI.—1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will He place (as) walls and breastwork. 2. Open ye the gates, and let the righteous nation enter, keeping truth. 3. The mind stayed (on Thee) Thou wilt preserve in peace, (in) peace, because in Thee (it is) confident. 4. Trust ye in Jehovah for ever, for in Jah Jehovah is a rock of ages.
5. For He hath brought down the inhabitants of the high place, the exalted city; He will lay it low. He will lay it low, to the very ground; He will bring it to the very dust. 6. The foot shall trample on it, the feet of the afflicted, the steps of the weak. 7. The way for the righteous is straight; Thou most upright wilt level the path of the righteous. 8. Also in the way of Thy judgments, O Jehovah, we have waited for Thee; to Thy name and Thy remembrance (was our) soul’s desire. 9. (With) my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yes (with) my spirit within me will I seek Thee early; for when Thy judgments (come) to the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10. Let the wicked be favoured, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of the right, he will do wrong, and will not see the exaltation of Jehovah. 11. Jehovah, Thy hand is high, they will not see; (yes) they will see (and be ashamed) Thy zeal for Thy people; yea, the fire of Thine enemies shall devour them.
12. Jehovah, Thou will give us peace, for even all our works Thou hast wrought for us. 13. Jehovah, our God, (other) lords beside Thee have ruled us; (but henceforth) Thee, Thy name, only will we celebrate. 14. Dead, they shall not live: ghosts, they shall not rise: therefore Thou hast visited and destroyed them, and made all memory to perish with respect to them. 15. Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah, Thou hast added to the nation; Thou hast glorified Thyself; Thou hast put far off all the ends of the land. 16. Jehovah, in distress they visited Thee; they uttered a whisper: Thy chastisement was on them.
17. As when a pregnant (woman) draws near to the birth, she writhes, she cries out in her pangs, so have we been from Thy presence, O Jehovah! 18. We were in travail, we were in pain, as it were we brought forth wind. Deliverance we could not make the land, nor would the inhabitants of the world fall. 19. Thy dead shall live, my corpses shall arise: (awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust!) for the dew of herbs is Thy dew, and (on) the earth (on) the dead, Thou wilt cause it to fall.
VIII.—The Time is not Yet.—Vers. 20, 21.
20. Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors after thee, hide thyself for a little moment, till the wrath be past. 21. For behold, Jehovah (is) coming out of His place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth upon him, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
IX.—Israel’s Chastisements and Jehovah’s Judgments on His enemies, with the glorious results thereof.—Chap. xxvii.
1. In that day shall Jehovah visit with His sword, the hard, the great, the strong (sword), upon leviathan the flying serpent, and upon leviathan the coiled serpent, and shall slay the dragon which (is) in the sea. 2. In that day, as a vineyard of wine, afflict her. 3. I Jehovah (am) keeping her; every moment I will water her; lest any hurt her, night and day will I keep her. 4. It is not because I am cruel or revengeful that I thus afflict My people, but because she is a vineyard overrun with thorns or briers, on account of which I must pass through her and burn them out of her [Or, I am (no longer) angry with My people; O that their enemies, as thorns and briers, would array themselves against Me, that I might rush upon them and consume them.] 5. Or let him lay hold of My strength and make peace with Me; peace let him make with Me.
6. (In) coming (days) shall Jacob take root, Israel shall bud and blossom, and they shall fill the face of the earth with fruit. 7. Like the smiting of the smiter did He smite him, or like the slaying of his slain was he slain?
8. In measure, by sending her away, Thou dost contend with her. He removes (her) by His hard wind in the day of the east wind. 9. Therefore by this (affliction) shall Jacob’s iniquity be purged away, and this is all (its) fruit to take away his sin, (as will appear) in his placing all the stones of the (idolatrous) altar like limestones dashed in pieces (so that) groves and solar images shall arise no more.
10. For a fenced city shall be desolate, a dwelling-place broken up and forsaken like the wilderness. There shall the calf feed, and there shall it lie and consume her branches. 11. When its boughs are withered they shall be broken off, women coming and burning them; because it is not a people of understanding, therefore its Creator shall not pity it, and its Maker shall not have mercy on it.
12. And it shall be in that day, that Jehovah shall gather in His fruit from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one to another, O ye children of Israel! 13. And it shall come to pass in that day, (that) a great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come that were wandering in the land of Assyria, and those exiled in the land of Egypt, and shall bow down to Jehovah, in the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.
the downfall of samaria.—chap. xxviii.
1. Woe to the high crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower, his ornament of beauty, which (is) on the head of the fat valley of the wine-smitten. 2. Behold the Lord has a strong and mighty one, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty rushing waters. He has brought it to the ground with the hand. 3. With the feet shall be trodden the lofty crown of the drunkards of Ephraim. 4. And the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be like a first-ripe fig before summer, which he that sees it sees, and while it is yet in his hand swallows it.
5. In that day shall Jehovah of hosts become a crown of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of His people; 6. and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7. And (yet) these through wine have erred, and through strong drink have gone astray. Priest and prophet erred through strong drink, have been swallowed up of wine, have been led astray by strong drink, have erred in vision, have wavered in judgment. 8. For all tables are full of vomit, of filth, without a (clean) place. 9. Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand doctrine? Those weaned from the milk and removed from the breasts. 10. For (it is) rule upon rule, rule upon rule, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there. 11. For with stammering lips and with another tongue will He speak unto this people. 12. Who said to them, This is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is quiet, but they would not hear. 13. And the word of Jehovah was to them rule upon rule, rule upon rule; line upon line, line upon line; a little here, a little there; that they might go, and fall backwards, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
14. Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye scornful men, the rulers of this people which is in Jerusalem. 15. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have formed a league; the overflowing scourge, when it passes through, shall not come upon us, for we have made falsehood our refuge, and in fraud we have hid ourselves; 16. therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I lay in Zion a stone, a stone of proof, a corner-stone of value, of a firm foundation; the builder will not be in haste. 17. And I will place judgment for a line and justice for a plummet, and hail shall sweep away the refuge of falsehood, and the hiding-place waters shall overflow. 18. And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your league with hell shall not stand, and the overflowing scourge—for it shall pass through, and ye shall be for it to trample on. 19. And as soon as it passes through, it shall carry you away; for every morning it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and only vexation shall be the understanding of the thing heard. 20. For the bed is too short to stretch one’s self, and the covering too narrow to wrap one’s self. 21. For like mount Perazim shall Jehovah rise up, like the valley in Gibeon, shall He rage, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His strange task. 22. And now scoff not, lest your bands be strong; for even a decreed consumption I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts, upon the whole earth.
23. Give ear and hear my voice; hearken and hear my speech. 24. Does the husbandman plough every day to sow? Does he open and level his ground? 25. Does he not, when he has levelled the surface of it, cast abroad dill, and scatter cummin, and set wheat in rows, and barley (in the place) marked out, and spelt in his border? 26. So teaches him aright, his God instructs him. 27. For not with sledge must dill be threshed, or the cart wheel turned upon cummin; for with the stick must dill be beaten, and cummin with the rod. 28. Bread-corn must be crushed, for he will not be always threshing it; so he drives the wheel of his cart (upon it), but with his horses he does not crush it. 29. Even this from Jehovah of hosts comes forth; He is wonderful in counsel; great in wisdom.
prophecy concerning jerusalem.—chap. xxix.
1. Alas for Ariel, Ariel, the city David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts revolve; 2. And I will distress Ariel, and there shall be sadness and sorrow, and it shall be to Me as Ariel. 3. And I will camp against thee round about, and push against thee a post, and raise against thee ramparts. 4. And thou shalt be brought down, out of the ground shalt thou speak, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be like (the voice of) a spirit, out of the ground, and out of the dust shall thy speech mutter.
5. And shall be like fine dust the multitude of thy strangers, and like passing chaff be in a moment suddenly. 6. From the presence of Jehovah shall it be raised with thunder, and earthquake, and great noise, tempest and storm, and flame of devouring fire. 7. Then shall be as a dream, a vision of the night, the multitude of all the nations fighting against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and distress her. 8. And it shall be as when the hungry dreams, and lo he eats, and he awakes, and his soul is empty; and as when the thirsty dreams, and lo he drinks, and he awakes, and lo he is faint and his soul craving: so shall be the multitude of all the nations that fight against mount Zion.
9. Waver and wonder! be merry and blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they reel, but not with strong drink. 10. For Jehovah hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath shut your eyes, the prophets, even your heads the seers, hath He covered. 11. And the vision of the whole is to you like the words of the sealed writing, which they give to one knowing writing, saying, Pray read this, and he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. 12. And the writing is given to one who knows not writing, saying, Pray read this, and he says, I know not writing. 13. And the Lord said, Because this people draws near with its mouth, and with its lips they honour Me, and its heart it puts far from Me, and their fearing Me is a precept of men, (a thing) taught, 14. therefore, behold, I will continue to treat this people strangely, very strangely, and with strangeness, and the wisdom of its wise ones shall be lost, and the prudence of its prudent ones shall hide itself. 15. Alas for those going deep from Jehovah to hide counsel, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us, and who knows us? 16. Your perversion! Is the potter to be reckoned as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, He made me not, and the thing formed say of its former, He does not understand!
17. Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned to a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be reckoned to the forest? 18. And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and out of obscurity and darkness shall the eyes of the blind see. 19. And the humble shall rejoice more and more in Jehovah, and the poor among men in the Holy One of Israel shall rejoice. 20. For the violent is at an end, and the scoffer ceaseth, and all the watchers for injustice are cut off: 21. making a man a sinner for a word, and for him disputing in the gate they laid a snare, and turned aside the righteous through deceit. 22. Therefore thus saith Jehovah to the house of Jacob, He who redeemed Abraham, Not now shall Jacob be ashamed, and not now shall his face turn pale. 23. For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name, yes, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and the God of Israel they shall fear. 24. Then shall the erring in spirit know wisdom, and the rebels shall receive instruction.
the sin and the folly of ancient israel in seeking foreign aid against their enemies.—chaps. xxx., xxxi.
XXX.—1. Woe to the disobedient children, saith Jehovah, (so disobedient as) to form (or execute) a plan and not from Me, and to weave a web, but not (of) My Spirit, for the sake of adding sin to sin; 2. those walking to go down to Egypt, and My mouth they have not consulted, to take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 3. And the strength of Egypt shall be to you for shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt for confusion. 4. For his chiefs are in Zoan, and his ambassadors arrive at Hanes. 5. All are ashamed of a people who cannot profit them, a people not for help and not for profit, but for shame, and also for disgrace. 6. The burden of the beasts of the south, in a land of suffering and distress, whence (are) the adder and the fiery flying serpent; they are carrying on the shoulders of young asses their wealth, and on the hump of camels their treasures, to a people who cannot profit; 7. and the Egyptians are in vain and to no purpose shall they help. Therefore I cry concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8. And now go, write it with them on a table, and inscribe it in a book, and let it be for a future day, for ever, to eternity. 9. For a rebellious people is it, lying children, children who are not willing to learn the law of Jehovah; 10. who say to the seers, Ye shall not see, and to the viewers, Ye shall not view for us right things: speak unto us smooth things, view deceits, 11. depart from the way, sever from the path, cause to cease from before us the Holy One of Israel. 12. Therefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because of your rejecting this word, and (because) ye have trusted in oppression and perverseness and have relied thereon, 13. therefore shall their iniquity be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking may come suddenly, at (any) instant. 14. And it is broken like the breaking of a potter’s vessel, broken unsparingly, so that there is not found among its fragments a sherd to take up fire from a hearth, and to dip up water from a pool. 15. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in remaining quiet and in confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not. 16. And ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee; and upon swift will we ride; therefore shall your pursuers be swift. 17. One thousand shall flee from before the menace of one, from before the rebuke of five shall ye flee, until ye are left like a pole on the top of the mountain, and like the signal on the hill. 18. And therefore will Jehovah wait to have mercy upon you, and therefore will He rise up to pity you, for a God of judgment is Jehovah; blessed are all that wait for Him. 19. For the people in Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more; He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; as He hears it He will answer thee. 20. And the Lord will give you bread of affliction and water of oppression, and no more shall thy teachers hide themselves, and thine eyes shall see thy teachers. 21. And thine ears shall hear a voice from behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right and when ye turn to the left. 22. And ye shall defile the covering of thy idols of silver and the case of thy image of gold; thou shalt scatter them as an abominable thing. Away! shalt thou say to it. 23. And He shall give the rain of thy seed, with which thou shalt sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, and it shall be fat and rich; thy cattle shall feed that day in an enlarged pasture. 24. And the oxen and the asses working the ground shall eat salted provender which has been winnowed with the sieve and fan. 25. And there shall be, on every high mountain, and on every elevated hill, channels, streams of waters, in the day of great slaughter, when towers fall. 26. And 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 of Jehovah’s binding up the breach of His people, and the stroke of His wound He will heal.
27. Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from afar, burning His anger, and heavy the ascent (of smoke); His lips are full of wrath, and His tongue as a devouring fire. 28. And His breath, like an overflowing stream, shall divide as far as the neck, to sift the nations in the sieve of falsehood, and a misleading bridle on the jaws of the people. 29. Your song shall be like the night of the consecration of a feast, and your joy shall be like (that of) one marching with the pipe to go into the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel. 30. And Jehovah shall cause to be heard the majesty of His voice, and the descent of His arm shall He cause to be seen, with indignation of anger and a flame of devouring fire, scattering, and rain, and hailstones. 31. For at the voice of Jehovah shall Assyria be broken, with the rod shall He smite. 32. And every passage of the rod of doom, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, shall be with tabrets and harps, and with fights of shaking it is fought therein. 33. Not arranged since yesterday is Tophet: even for the king it is prepared; He has deepened, He has widened (it); its pile fire and wood in plenty; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.
XXXI.—1. Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, and on horses they rely and trust in cavalry, because it is numerous, and on horsemen, because they are very strong, and they look not to the Holy One of Israel, and Jehovah they seek not. 2. And (yet) He too is wise, and brings evil, and His words He removes not, and He rises up against the house of evil-doers, and against the help of the workers of iniquity. 3. And Egypt (is) man, and their horses flesh and not spirit: and Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, and the helper shall stumble, and the helped fall, and together all of them shall cease.
4. For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As a lion growls, and a young lion over his prey, against whom a multitude of shepherds is called forth, at their voice he is not frightened, and at their noise he is not humbled, so will Jehovah of hosts come down, to fight upon mount Zion and upon her hill. 5. As birds flying (over or around their nests), so will Jehovah cover over Jerusalem, cover and rescue, pass over and save.
6. Return unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. 7. For in that day they shall reject, a man his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your sinful hands have made for you [or, which your own hands have made for you as sin]. 8. And Assyria shall fall by no man’s sword, and no mortal’s work shall devour him, and he shall flee from before the sword, and his young men shall become tributary. 9. And his rock from fear shall pass away, and his chiefs shall be afraid of a standard, saith Jehovah, to whom there is a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.
continuation of promises.—chap. xxxii. 1–8.
1. Behold, for righteousness shall reign a king, and rulers for justice shall rule. 2. And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the rain (or storm), as channels of water in a dry place (or in drought), as the shadow of a heavy rock in a weary land.
3. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. 4. And the heart (or, mind) of the rash (heedless or reckless) shall understand to know (or, understand knowledge), and the tongue of stammerers shall hasten to speak clear things.
5. The fool will no longer be called noble, and the churl will no longer be spoken of (or, to) as liberal. 6. The fool (is one who) will speak folly, and his heart will do iniquity, to do wickedness and to speak error unto (or, against) Jehovah, to starve (or, leave empty) the soul of the hungry, and the drink of the thirsty he will suffer to fail. 7. And as for the churl, his arms (or, instruments) are evil. He deviseth plots to destroy the oppressed (or afflicted) with words of falsehood, even in the poor (man’s) speaking right. 8. The noble (or, generous) man devises noble (or, generous) things, and in noble (or, generous) things he perseveres.
threatenings addressed to the women of judah.—chap. xxxii. 9–20.
9. Careless women, arise, hear my voice; confiding daughters, give ear unto my speech.
10. In a year and more ye shall tremble, ye confiding ones, for the vintage fails, the gathering shall not come. 11. Tremble, ye careless (women); quake, ye confiding (ones); strip you and make you bare, and gird (sackcloth) on your loins. 12. Mourning for the breasts (or, beating on the breasts), for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 13. Upon the land of my people, thorn (and) thistle shall come up, for (they shall even come up) upon all (thy) houses of pleasure, O joyous city (or, upon all houses of pleasure in the joyous city). 14. For the palace is forsaken, the crowd of the city (or, the crowded city) left, hill and watch-tower (are) for caves (or, dens) for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks.
15. Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is reckoned to the forest. 16. And justice shall abide in the wilderness, and righteousness in the fruitful field shall dwell. 17. And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness rest and assurance (or, security) for ever. 18. And my people shall abide in a house of peace, in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
19. And it shall hail in the downfall of the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place (or, humbled with humiliation). 20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth the foot of the ox and the ass.
threatenings of retribution to the enemies of god’s people.—chap. xxxiii.
1. Woe to thee spoiling and thou wast not spoiled, deceiving and they did not spoil thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou art done deceiving they shall deceive thee. 2. Jehovah, favour us, for on Thee we wait; be their arm in the mornings, also our salvation in times of trouble. 3. At the noise of tumult (or, tumultuous noise) the people flee; at Thy rising the nations are scattered. 4. And your spoil shall be gathered (like) the gathering of the devourer; like the running of locusts running on it. 5. Exalted is Jehovah because dwelling on high; He fills (or, has filled) Zion with judgment and righteousness. 6. And He shall be the security of thy times, strength of salvations, wisdom and knowledge, the fear of Jehovah, that is his treasure.
7. Behold, their valiant ones cry without; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 8. The highways are wasted, the wayfarer ceaseth; he breaks the covenant, despises cities, values no man. 9. The land mourneth, languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed, it pines away; Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel cast (their leaves). 10. Now will I arise, saith Jehovah, now will I be lifted up, now will I exalt Myself. 11. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble; your breath as stubble shall devour you. 12. And nations shall be like lime-kilns (or, like burnings of lime); thorns cut up, in the fire they shall burn. 13. Hear, ye far, what I have done, and know, ye near, my might.
14. Afraid in Zion are the sinners; trembling has seized the impious. Who of us can dwell with the devouring fire, who of us can dwell with everlasting burnings? 15. Walking righteousnesses, and speaking right things, rejecting with contempt the gain of oppressions (or, extortions), shaking his hands from taking hold of the bribe, stopping his ears from hearing bloods, shutting his eyes from looking at evil, 16. he high places shall inhabit; fastnesses of rocks (shall be) his lofty place; his bread is given, his water sure. 17. A king in his beauty shall thine eyes behold, they behold a land of distances. 18. Thy heart shall meditate terror. Where is he that counted? Where is he that weighted? Where is he that counted the towers? 19. The fierce (or, determined) people thou shalt not see; a people deep of lip from hearing, of barbarous tongue without meaning.
20. Behold Zion, the city of our festivals! Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet home, a tent that shall not be removed. Its stakes shall not be pulled up for ever, and all its cords shall not be broken. 21. But there shall Jehovah be mighty for us; a place of rivers, streams broad (on) both sides; there shall not go in it an oared vessel, and a gallant ship shall not pass through it. 22. For Jehovah our Judge, Jehovah our Lawgiver, Jehovah our King, He will save us.
23. Thy ropes are cast loose; they do not hold upright their mast; they do not spread the sail; then is shared plunder of booty in plenty; the lame spoil the spoil.
24. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. The people dwelling in it (is) forgiven (its) iniquity.
threatenings against the enemies of the church, with promises to the church itself.—chaps. xxxiv., xxxv.
1. Come near, ye nations, to hear; and ye peoples hearken. Let the earth hear, and its fulness, the world and all its issues. 2. For Jehovah is angry against all the nations, and has wrath against all their host; He has doomed them, He has given them to the slaughter. 3. And their slain shall be cast out, and their carcasses, their stench shall go up; and mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4. And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host shall fade like the fading of a leaf from off a vine, and like a fading (leaf) or a withered (fig) from a fig-tree.
5. For My sword is steeped in heaven; behold, upon Edom shall it come down, and upon the people of My curse. 6. Jehovah has a sword; it is full of blood, it is smeared with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7. And unicorns shall come down with them, and bullocks with blood, and their dust with fat shall be fattened. 8. For there is a day of vengeance to Jehovah, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9. And her streams shall be turned to pitch, and her dust to brimstone, and her land shall become burning pitch. 10. Day and night it shall not be quenched; for ever shall its smoke go up; from generation to generation shall it lie waste; for ever and ever there shall be no one passing through it. 11. Then shall possess it the pelican and the porcupine, the crane and the crow shall dwell in it. And One shall stretch upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. 12. Her caves—and there is no one there they will (still) call a kingdom, and all her chiefs will cease to be. 13. And in her palaces shall come up thorns, nettles, and brambles in her fortresses; and she shall be a home of wolves, a grass-plot for ostriches. 14. And wild creatures shall (there) meet with howling creatures, and the shaggy monster shall call to his fellow; only there reposes the night-monster, and finds for herself a resting place. 15. [As to the particular species of animals referred to in this whole passage, there is no need, as Calvin well observes, of troubling ourselves much about them. The general sense evidently is, that a human population should be succeeded by wild and lonely animals, who should not only live but breed there, implying total and continued desolation.] 16. Seek ye out of the book of Jehovah and read; by number will Jehovah call them. For My mouth, it has commanded; and His Spirit it has gathered them. 17. He too has cast the lot for them and His hand has divided it to them by line. For ever shall they hold it as a heritage, to all generations they shall dwell therein.
XXXV.—1. Desert and waste shall rejoice (for) them; and the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. 2. (It shall) blossom, it shall blossom and rejoice; yea (with) joy and shouting. The glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the beauty of Carmel and of Sharon. They shall see the glory of Jehovah, the beauty of our God.
3. Strengthen hands (now) sinking, and knees (now) tottering make firm. 4. Say ye to the hasty of heart, Be firm, fear not; behold your God; He (Himself) is coming, and will save you.
5. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6. Then shall the lame bound as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout (for joy), because waters have burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
7. And the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water, (even) in the haunt of wolves, their lair, a court for reeds and rushes. 8. And there shall be there a highway and a way; it shall be called the Way of Holiness; and there shall not pass through it an unclean (thing or person); it shall be for them; the travellers, yea, those who are ignorant (or foolish) shall not be able to go astray. 9. There shall not be there a lion, and a ravenous beast shall not ascend it, nor be found there; and (there) shall walk redeemed (ones).
10. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head; gladness and joy shall overtake (them), and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
historical appendix to the first part of isaiah’s prophecies.—chaps. xxxvi.–xxxix.
XXXVI.—1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. 2. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a strong force, and he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field. 3. Then there came forth Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder.
4. And Rabshakeh said to them: say now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What is this confidence which thou confidest in? 5. I say, mere word of lips (is your) counsel and strength for the war; now on whom hast thou confided, that thou hast rebelled against me? 6. Behold, thou hast trusted in the support of this broken reed, in Egypt, which, (if) a man lean upon it, will go into his hand and pierce it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all those trusting in him. 7. And if thou say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, Before this altar shall ye worship? 8. And now, engage, I pray thee, with my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. 9. And how wilt thou turn away the face of one governor of the least of my master’s servants? So hast thou reposed thyself on Egypt, with respect to chariots and horses. 10. And now (is it) without Jehovah I have come up against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
11. Then said Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Pray speak unto thy servants in Aramean, for we understand (it), and speak not unto us in Jewish, in the ears of the people who (are) on the wall.
12. And Rabshakeh said: Is it to thy master and to thee that my master sent me to speak these words? Is it not to the men sitting on the wall to eat their own dung and to drink their own water with you?
13. Then Rabshakeh stood and called with a loud voice in Jewish, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14. Thus saith the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15. And let not Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will certainly save us, this city shall not be given up into the hand of the king of Assyria, 16. Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make with me a blessing, and come out unto me, and eat ye (every) man his own vine and (every) man his own fig-tree, and drink ye (every) man the waters of his own cistern; 17. 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. 18. Let not Hezekiah seduce you, saying Jehovah will deliver us. Have the gods of the nations delivered every one his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19. Where (are) the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where the gods of Sepharvaim? and (when or where was it) that they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20. Who (are they) among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21. And they held their peace, and did not answer him a word, for such was the commandment of the king, Ye shall not answer him.
22. Then came Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who (was) over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder, unto Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
XXXVII.—1. And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah. 2. And he sent Eliakim who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the people covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet. 3. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, A day of anguish and rebuke and contempt (is) this day, for the children are come to the places of birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4. If peradventure Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard, then shalt thou lift up a prayer for the remnant (that is still) found (here).
5. And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6. And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, (with) which the servants of the king of Assyria hath blasphemed me. 7. Behold, I am putting a spirit in him, and he shall hear a noise, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8. And Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had decamped from Lachish. 9. And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee; and he heard (it), and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10. Thus shall ye say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given unto the hand of the king of Assyria. 11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by utterly destroying them, and thou shalt be delivered! 12. Did the gods of the nations deliver them, which my fathers destroyed, (to wit) Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which is in Telassar? 13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city Sepharvaim, Henah, and Ivrah?
14. And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up (to) the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spread it before Jehovah. 15. And Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying, 16. Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, dwelling between the cherubim, Thou art He, the God, Thou alone, to all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made the heavens and the earth. 17. Bow down Thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to reproach the living God. 18. It is true, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have wasted all the lands and their land, 19. and given their gods into the fire—for they (were) no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men’s hands—and destroyed them. 20. And now, O Jehovah, our God, save us from his hand, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall know that Thou alone art Jehovah.
21. And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, (as to) what thou has prayed to the (with respect to) Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22. this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him, The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee, she hath laughed thee to scorn, the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head after thee. 23. Who hast thou reproached and reviled, and against whom hast thou raised (thy) voice, and lifted thine eyes (on) high towards the Holy One of Israel? 24. By the hand of thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord and said, With the multitude of my chariots I have ascended the height of mountains, the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the loftiness of its cedars and the choice of its fire, and I will reach its extreme height, its garden-forest. 25. I have digged and drunk water, and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the streams of Egypt. 26. Hast thou not heard? From afar I have done it, from the days of old, and formed it, now I have caused it to come, and it shall be, to lay waste, (as) desolate heaps, fortified cities. 27. And their inhabitants are short of hand; they are broken and confounded; they are grass of the field and green herbage, grass of the house-tops and a field before the stalk. 28. And thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in, I have known, and thy raging against Me. 29. Because of thy raging against Me, and (because) thy arrogance has come up into My ears, I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and I will cause thee to return by the way by which thou camest.
30. And this to thee, the sign: eat, the (present) year, that which 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. 31. And the escaped of the house of Jacob, that is left, shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward; 32. for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and an escape from Mount Zion; the zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.
33. Therefore thus saith Jehovah (with respect) to the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, and shall not shoot an arrow there, and shall not come before it with a shield, and shall not cast up a mound against it. 34. By the way that he came shall he return, and to this city shall he not come, saith Jehovah. 35. And I will cover over this city, (so as) to save it, for My sake, and for the sake of David My servant.
36. And the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of Assyria an hundred and eighty and five thousand, and they rose up early in the morning and behold all of them were dead corpses. 37. Then decamped, and departed, and returned, Sennacherib king of Assyria, and dwelt in Nineveh. 38. And he was worshipping (in) the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
XXXVIII.—1. In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Order thy house, for thou (art) dying, and art not to live. 2. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Jehovah. 3. And he said, Ah, Jehovah, remember, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and that which is good in Thine eyes have I done; and Hezekiah wept a great weeping.
4. And the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying, 5. Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I am adding unto thy days fifteen years. 6. And out of the hand of the king of Assyria I will save thee and this city, and I will cover over this city.
7. And this shall be to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah will perform this word which He hath spoken: 8. Behold, I am causing the shadow to go back, the degree which it has gone down on the degrees of Ahaz with the sun, ten degrees backward; and the sun returned ten degrees on the degrees which it had gone down.
9. A writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he was sick, and recovered from his sickness:—
10. I said in the pause of my days, I shall go into the gate of the grave, I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11. I said I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living; I shall not behold man again with the inhabitants of the world. 12. My dwelling is plucked up and uncovered by me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like the weaver, my life; from the thrum He will cut me off; from day to night Thou wilt finish me.
13. I set (Him before me) till the morning as a lion (saying), So will He break all my bones; from day to night Thou wilt make an end of me. 14. Like a swallow (or) like a twittering sparrow, so I chirp; I moan like a dove; my eyes are weak (with looking) upward; O Jehovah; I am oppressed, undertake for me.
15. What shall I say? He hath both spoken to me, and Himself hath done (it); I shall go softly all my days in the bitterness of my soul. 16. Lord, upon them they live, and as to everything in them is the life of my spirit, and Thou wilt recover me and make me to live. 17. Behold to peace (is turned) my bitter bitterness, and Thou hast loosed my soul from the pit of destruction, because Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins.
18. For the grave shall not confess Thee (nor) death praise Thee; they that go down to the pit shall not hope for Thy truth. 19. The living, the living, he shall thank Thee, as I do to-day; fathers to sons shall make known with respect to Thy truth. 20. Jehovah (listened) to save me! And my songs we will play, all the days of our life, at the house of Jehovah.
21. And Isaiah said, Let him take a lump of figs, and lay them softened on the boil, and he shall live. 22. And Hezekiah said, What sign (is there) that I shall go up (to) the house of Jehovah?
XXXIX.—1. In that time, Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, and he heard that he was sick and was recovered.
2. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them his house of rarities, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the ointment, and all his house of arms, and all that was found in his treasures; there was not a thing which Hezekiah did not show them, in his house, and in all his dominion.
3. Then came Isaiah the prophet to the king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men, and whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, From a far country came they unto me, from Babylon. 4. And he said, What have they seen in thy house? And Hezekiah said, All that is in my house have they seen; there is not a thing that I have not showed them in my treasures.
5. And Isaiah said, Hear the word of Jehovah of hosts, 6. Behold days are coming when all that (is) in thy house, and that which thy fathers have hoarded until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; there shall not be left a thing, saith Jehovah. 7. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt begat, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
8. And Hezekiah said, Good is the word of Jehovah which thou hast spoken. And he said, for there shall be peace and truth in my days.
XL.—[A glorious change awaits the Church, consisting in a new and gracious manifestation of Jehovah’s presence, for which His people are exhorted to prepare, vers. 1–5. Though one generation perish after another, this promise shall eventually be fulfilled, because it rests not upon human but Divine authority, vers. 6–8. Zion may even now see Him approaching as the conqueror of His enemies, and at the same time as the shepherd of His people, vers. 9–11. The fulfilment of these pledges is insured by His infinite wisdom, His Almighty power, and His independence both of individuals and nations, vers. 12–17. How much more is He superior to material images, by which men represent Him or supply His place, vers. 18–25. The same power which supports the heavens is pledged for the support of Israel, vers. 26–31.]
1. Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. 2. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins. 3. A voice crying—in the wilderness—Clear the way of Jehovah—make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4. Every valley shall be raised, and every mountain and hill brought low, and the uneven shall become level, and the ridges a plain. 5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see (it) together, for the mouth of Jehovah speaks.
6. A voice saying, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its favour like the flower of the field! 7. Dried is the grass, faded is the flower; for the breath of Jehovah has blown upon it. Surely the people is grass. 8. Dried is the grass, faded the flower, and the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9. Upon a high mountain, get thee up, bringer of good news, O Zion! Raise with strength thy voice, bringer of good news, Jerusalem! Raise (it), fear not; say to the towns of Judah, Lo, your God! 10. Lo, the Lord Jehovah is coming in (the person of) a strong one, and His arm (is) ruling for Him. Lo, His hire is with Him, and His wages before Him. 11. Like a shepherd His flock will He feed, with His arm will He gather the lambs, and in His bosom carry (them): the nursing (ewes) He will (gently) lead.
12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended in a measure the dust of the earth, and weighed in a balance the mountains, and the hills in scales? 13. Who hath measured the Spirit of Jehovah, and (who, as) the man of His counsel, will teach Him? 14. Whom did He consult, and he made Him understand, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and the way of understanding (who) will make Him know? 15. Lo, nations are as a drop from a bucket, and as dust on scales are reckoned; lo, islands as an atom He will take up. 16. And Lebanon is not enough for burning, and its beasts are not enough for a sacrifice. 17. All the nations (are) as nothing before Him, less than nothing and vanity are counted to Him.
18. And (now) to whom will ye liken God, and what likeness will ye compare to Him? 19. The image a carver has wrought, and a gilder with gold shall overlay it, and chains of silver (he is) casting. 20. (As for) the man impoverished (by) offering, a tree (that) will not rot he chooses, a wise carver he seeks for it, to set up an image (that) shall not be moved. 21. Will you not know? Will you not hear? has it not been told you from the first? have you not understood (from) the foundations of the earth? 22. The (One) sitting over the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants (are) as locusts; the One spreading like an awning the heavens, and He stretches them out like a tent to dwell in; 23. the One bringing princes to nothing, the judges of the earth like emptiness He has made. 24. Not even planted were they, not even sown, not even rooted in the ground their stock, and He just breathed upon them, and they withered, and a whirlwind like the chaff shall take them up. 25. And now to (whom) will ye liken Me, and to (whom) shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26. Lift up on high your eyes and see—who hath created these?—and who is the (One) bringing out by number their host?—to all of them by name will He call—from abundance of might and because strong in power—not one faileth. 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and why (thus) speak, O Israel? Hidden is my way from Jehovah, and from my God my cause will pass away. 28. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The God of eternity, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, will not faint, and will not tire; there is no search (with respect) to His understanding. 29. Giving to the weary strength, and to the powerless might will He increase. 30. And (yet) weary shall youths be and faint, and chosen (youths) shall be weakened, be weakened. 31. And (on the other hand) those waiting for Jehovah shall gain new strength; they shall raise the pinion like the eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
XLI.—[Until the ends of Israel’s national existence are accomplished, that existence must continue in spite of hostile nations and their gods, who shall all perish sooner than the chosen people, vers. 1–16. However, feeble Israel may be in herself, Jehovah will protect him, and raise up the necessary instruments for his deliverance and triumph.]
1. Be silent to Me, O islands, and the nations shall gain new strength; they shall approach, then shall they speak, together to the judgment-seat will we draw near. 2. Who hath raised up from the east? Righteousness shall call Him to its foot; it shall give nations before Him, and cause Him to tread upon kings; it shall give (them) as dust to His sword, and as driven stubble to His bow. 3. He shall pursue them; He shall pass (in) safety; a path with His feet He shall not go. 4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I Jehovah, the First and with the Last, I (am) He.
5. The isles have seen it and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble: they have approached and come. 6. A man his neighbour they will help, and to his brother (one) will say, Be strong! 7. And the carver has strengthened the gilder, the smoother with the hammer, the smiter on the anvil; he says of the solder, It is good; and he sharpeneth it with nails; it shall not be moved. 8. And thou Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend; 9. thou whom I have grasped from the ends of the earth, and from its sides have I called thee, My servant (art) thou; I have chosen thee, and not rejected thee.
10. Fear thou not, for I (am) with thee; look not around, for I (am) thy God; I have strengthened thee, yea, I have helped thee, yea, I have upheld thee with the right hand of My righteousness. 11. Lo, ashamed and confounded shall be all those inflamed against thee; they shall be as though they were not, and destroyed shall be they that strive with thee. 12. Thou shalt seek them and not find them, the men of quarrel; they shall be as nothing and as nought, thy men of war. 13. For I, Jehovah thy God, (am) holding fast thy right hand; the (one) saying to thee, Fear not, I have helped thee. 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I have helped thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15. Behold I have placed thee for a threshing-sledge, sharp, new, possessed of teeth; thou shalt thresh mountains and beat (them) small, and hills like the chaff shalt thou make. 16. Thou shalt fan them, and a wind shall take them up, and a whirlwind shall scatter them, and thou shalt joy in Jehovah, and in the Holy One of Israel shalt thou boast.
17. The suffering and the poor (are) seeking water, and it is not; their tongue with thirst is parched. I Jehovah will answer them. 18. I will open upon bare hills streams, and in the midst of valleys fountains; I will convert the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into springs of water. 19. I will give in the wilderness cedar, acacia, and myrtle, and oil tree; I will place in the desert fir, pine, and box together. 20. That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
21. Present your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. 22. Let them bring forward and show forth to us the (things) which are to happen; the former things, when they were, show forth, and we will set our heart, and know the issue; or (else) the coming events make us to hear. 23. Show forth the (things) to come hereafter, and we will know that ye are gods; yes, ye shall do good or evil, and we will look about and see together. 24. Lo, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. 25. I have raised up (one) from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon My name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as a potter treadeth clay. 26. Who hath declared from the beginning? (Say) and we will know; and beforehand, and we will say, True! Nay, there was none that told; nay, there was none that uttered; nay, there was none that heard your words. 27. (I am the) first (to say) to Zion, Behold, behold them! and (to give) to Jerusalem a bringer of good news. 28. And I will look, but there is no man; and of these, but there is no one advising; and I will ask them, and (perhaps) they will return an answer. 29. Lo, they (are) all nought, nothing their words, wind and emptiness their molten images.
XLII.—[This chapter exhibits to our view the servant of Jehovah, i.e., the Messiah and His people, as a complex person, and as the messenger or representative of God among the nations. His mode of operation is described, vers. 1–4. The effects of His influence are represented, as not natural but spiritual, vers. 5–9. The power of God is pledged for His success, notwithstanding all appearances of inaction or indifference on His part, vers 10–17. In the latter portion of the chapter, the Church or Body of Christ, as distinguished from its Head, and representing Him until He came, is charged with unfaithfulness to its great trust, and this unfaithfulness declared to be the cause of what it suffered, vers. 18–25.]
1. Behold My servant! I will hold Him fast; My chosen One, (in whom) My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; judgment to the nations shall He cause to go forth. 2. He shall not cry, and He shall not raise (His voice), and He shall not let His voice be heard in the street. 3. A broken reed shall He not break, and a dim wick will He not quench; by the truth He will bring forth judgment. 4. He shall not be dim, and He shall not be crushed, until He shall set judgment in the earth, and for His law the isles shall wait.
5. Thus saith the mighty (God), Jehovah, creating the heavens and stretching them out, spreading the earth and its issues, giving breath to the people on it, and spirit to those walking in it. 6. I, Jehovah, have called Thee in righteousness, and will lay hold of Thy hand, and will keep Thee, and will give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. 7. to open blind eyes, to bring out from prison the bondman, from the house of confinement the dwellers in darkness. 8. I am Jehovah, that is My name, and My glory to another will I not give, and My praise to graven images. 9. The former things—lo, they have come, and new things I (am) telling; before they spring forth I will let you hear (them).
10. Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise from the end of the earth, (ye) going down to the sea and its fulness, isles and their inhabitants! 11. The desert and its towns shall raise (the voice), the enclosures (in which) Kedar dwells; the dwellers in the rock shall shout, from the top of the mountains shall they cry aloud. 12. They shall give to Jehovah honour, and His praise in the islands they shall show forth. 13. Jehovah, like a strong one, will go forth; like a warrior He will cry; against His foes will show Himself strong. 14. I have long been still, (saying) I will hold my peace, I will restrain myself. (But now), like the travailing (woman) I will shriek, I will pant and gasp at once. 15. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and all their herbage will I dry up; I will turn streams to islands, and pools will I dry up. 16. And I will make the blind walk in a way they know not, in paths they know not I will make them tread; I will turn darkness before them to light, and obliquities to straightness. These are the words; I have made them, and have not left them. 17. They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly ashamed, those trusting in the graven image, those saying to the molten images, Ye are our gods!
18. Ye deaf, hear! and, ye blind, look to see! 19. Who (is) blind but My servant, and deaf like My messenger (whom) I will send? Who (is) blind like the devoted are, and blind like the servant of Jehovah? 20. Thou hast seen many things and wilt not observe. (Sent) to open ears! and he will not hear! 21. Jehovah (is) willing for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law and make it honourable.
22. And (yet) it (is) a people spoiled and robbed, ensnared in holes all of them, and in houses of confinement they are hidden. They have become a spoil, and there is none delivering; a prey, and there is none saying, Restore! 23. Who among you will give ear to this, and hearken and hear for the time to come? 24. Who has given Jacob for a prey, and Israel to spoilers? Hast not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? and they were not willing in His ways to walk, and did not hearken to His law. 25. And He poured upon him fury, (even) His wrath and the violence of war: and it set him on fire round about, and he knew it not; and it burned him, and he will not lay it to heart.
XLIII.—[Israel is the peculiar people of Jehovah, cherished and favoured at the expense of other nations, vers. 1–4. But these are one day to become partakers of the same advantages, vers. 5–9. The proofs of the Divine protection are afforded by the history of Israel, vers. 10–13. One of the most remarkable, yet future, is the downfall of Babylon and the liberation of the exiles, vers. 14, 15. An analogous example was the deliverance from Egypt, vers. 16, 17. But both these instances shall be forgotten in comparison with the great change which awaits the Church hereafter, vers. 18–21. Of all these distinguishing favours none was owing to the merit of the people, but all to the sovereign grace of God, vers. 22–25. The people were not only destitute of merit, but deserving of punishment, which they had experienced and must experience again, vers. 26–28.]
1. And now, thus saith Jehovah, thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Former, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called by thy name, thou art Mine. 2. 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 scorched, and the flame shall not burn thee. 3. For I, Jehovah, thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, have given (as) thy ransom Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, instead of thee. 4. Since thou wast precious in My eyes; thou hast been honoured, and I have loved thee, and will give men instead of thee, and nations instead of thy life.
5. Fear not, for I (am) with thee; from the east I will make thy seed come, and from the west I will gather thee; 6. I will say to the north, Give, and to the south, Withhold not, let My sons come from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; 7. Every one called by My name, and for My glory I have created him; I have formed him yea, I have made him. 8. He hath brought out the blind people, and there are eyes (to them), and the deaf, and (there are) ears to them. 9. All the nations are gathered together, and the people are to be assembled. Who among them will declare this, and let us hear the first things? Let them produce their witnesses and be justified; and (if they cannot do this) let them hear (My witnesses), and say, (it is) the truth.
10. Ye are My witnesses saith Jehovah, and My servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe Me, and may understand that I am He; before Me was not formed a god, and after Me there shall not be; 11. I, I, Jehovah, and beside Me there is no Saviour. 12. I have told and have saved and have declared, and there is not among you (any) stranger; and ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I (am) God. 13. Even from the day I am He, and there is no one freeing from My hand; I will do, and who will undo it?
14. Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down fugitives all of them; and the Chaldeans, in the ships their shout; 15. I, Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
16. Thus saith Jehovah, the (One) giving in the sea a way, and in mighty waters a path; 17. the (One) bringing out chariot and horse, force and strong; together shall they lie, they shall not rise; they are extinct, like tow they are quenched.
18. Remember not former things, and old things consider not. 19. Behold I (am) doing (something) new, it is yet to sprout; do you not know it? Yes, I will place in the wilderness a way, in the desert streams. 20. The living creature of the field shall honour Me, jackass and ostriches; because I have given in the wilderness waters, and streams in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 21. This people I have formed for Myself; My praise shall they recount.
22. And not Me hast thou called, O Jacob; for thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel. 23. Thou hast not brought to Me the sheep of thy burnt-offering, and (with) thy sacrifices thou hast not honoured Me. I have not made thee serve with oblations, and I have not wearied thee with incense. 24. Thou hast not brought for Me sweet cane with honey, and with the fat of thy sacrifices thou hast not drenched Me; thou hast only made Me serve with thy sins, and wearied Me with thine iniquities. 25. I, I am He blotting out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and thy sins I will not remember.
26. Remind Me; let us plead together: state (thy case) that thou mayest be justified. 27. Thy first father sinned, and thy interpreters rebelled against Me. 28. And I will profane the holy chiefs, and will give up Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
XLIV.—[The chapter opens, like the fortieth and forty-third, with cheering promises to Israel, followed by reasons for confiding in them, drawn from the wisdom, power, and goodness of Jehovah. The specific promise, which constitutes the theme or basis of the prophecy, is that of abundant spiritual influences and their fruits; not only internal prosperity, but large accessions from without, vers. 1–5. The pledge for the fulfilment of this promise is afforded by the proofs of God’s omniscience, as contrasted with all other gods, vers. 6–9. The folly of image-worship is then established by two arguments. The first is, that idols are themselves the creatures of mere men, vers. 10–14. The other is, that they are not only made, and made by man, but made of the very same materials applied to the most trivial domestic uses, vers. 15–20. From this demonstration of the power of Jehovah to perform His promise we are now brought back to the promise itself, vers. 21–24. This is again confirmed by an appeal to God’s creative power, and illustrated by the raising up of Cyrus as a deliverer to Israel, vers. 25–28.]
1. And now hear, Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. 2. Thus saith Jehovah, Thy Maker and thy Former from the womb will help thee; fear not, My servant Jacob, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3. For I will pour waters upon the thirsty, and flowing (waters) on the dry (land); I will pour My Spirit on thy seed, and My blessing on thine offspring. 4. And they shall spring up in the midst of the grass, like willows by the water-courses. 5. They shall say, To Jehovah I (belong); and this shall call on the name of Jacob; and this shall inscribe with his hand, To Jehovah, and with the name of Israel shall entitle.
6. Thus saith Jehovah, King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah of hosts; I (am) first, and I (am) last, and without Me there is no God. 7. And who, like Me, will call, and tell it, and state it to Me, since I placed the ancient people; and coming things and things which are to come will tell to them? 8. Quake not and fear not; have I not let thee hear and told thee, and are ye not My witnesses? Is there a God without Me? I know not (any). 9. The image-carvers all of them are vanity, and their desired ones are worthless; and their witnesses themselves will not see and will not know, that they may be ashamed.
10. Who formed the god and cast the image to no use? 11. Lo, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen themselves are of men; they shall assemble all of them, they shall stand, they shall tremble, they shall be ashamed together. 12. He has carved (iron) with a graver, and has wrought (it) in the coals, and with his hammer he will shape it. Besides, he is hungry and has no strength, he has not drunk water and is faint. 13. He has carved wood, he has stretched a line, he will mark it with the awl, he will form it with the chisel, and with the compass he will mark it, and then he will make it after the model of a man, like the beauty of mankind, to dwell in a house. 14. To hew him down cedars, and (now) he has taken a cypress and an oak—and has raised it for himself among the trees of the forest—he has planted a pine, and the rain shall increase (it). 15. And it shall be to man for fuel, and he has taken of them and warmed himself; yea, he will kindle and bake bread; yea, he will form a god and fall prostrate; he has made it a graven image and bowed down to them. 16. Half of it he hath burned in the fire; on half of it he will eat flesh, he will roast and be filled; yea, he will warm himself and say, Aha, I am warm, I have seen fire. 17. And the rest of it he has made into a god, into his graven image; he will bow down to it, and will worship, and will pray to it, and say, Deliver me, for thou (art) my god. 18. They have not known, and they will not understand, for He hath smeared their eyes from seeing, their hearts from doing wisely. 19. And he will not bring it home to himself, and there (is) not knowledge, and (there is) not understanding to say, Half of it I have burned in the fire, and have also baked bread on its coals; I will roast flesh and eat, and the rest of it I will make to (be) an abomination; to a log of wood I will cast myself down. 20. Feeding on ashes, (his) heart is deceived; it has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself; and he will not say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
21. Remember these (things), Jacob and Israel, for thou art My servant; I have formed thee, a servant unto Me art thou; Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten by Me. 22. I have blotted out, like a cloud, thy transgressions, and like a vapour, thy sins; return to Me, for I have redeemed thee. 23. Sing, O heavens, for Jehovah hath done (it); shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth, ye mountains, Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and in Israel He will glorify Himself. 24. Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and thy Former from the womb, I, Jehovah, making all, stretching the heavens alone, spreading the earth by Myself.
25. Breaking the signs of babblers, and diviners He will madden; turning sages back, and their knowledge He will stultify; 26. confirming the word of His servant, and the counsel of His messengers He will fulfil; the (One) saying as to Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited, and as the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and the ruins will I raise; 27. the (One) saying to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy floods; 28. the (One) saying as to Cyrus, My shepherd, and all My pleasure he will fulfil, and saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and (to) the temple, Thou shalt be founded.
XLV.—[The chapter opens, in direct continuation of the forty-fourth, with a further prophecy of Cyrus and of his successors, vers. 1–3. These are then referred to the power of God and His design of mercy towards His people, so that all misgivings or distrust must be irrational and impious, vers. 4–13. Then leaving Cyrus out of view, the prophet turns his eyes to the nations, and declares that they must be subdued, but only in order to be blessed and saved, which is declared to have been the Divine purpose, and revealed as such from the beginning, vers 14–25.]
1. Thus saith Jehovah to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held fast, to tread down before him nations, and the loins of kings I will loose; to open before him double doors, and gates shall not be shut. 2. I will go before thee, and uneven places will I level; doors of brass I will break, and bars of iron I will cut. 3. And I will give thee treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, in order that thou mayest know that I Jehovah, the (One) calling thee by name, am the God of Israel.
4. For the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel My chosen, therefore will I call thee by thy name: I will give thee a title, and thou hast not known Me. 5. I am Jehovah, and there is no other; except Me there is no God; I will gird thee, and thou hast not known Me; 6. that they may know, from the rising of the sun to the west, that there is none without Me; I am Jehovah, and there is no other. 7. Forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil, I (am) Jehovah doing all these things. 8. Distil, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour out righteousness; let the earth open, and let salvation and righteousness grow, let him bring (them) forth together. I Jehovah have created it. 9. Woe to him striving with his Maker—a potsherd with potsherds of the earth. Shall clay say to its former, What art thou doing? and thy work, He has no hands? 10. Woe to him saying to a father, What wilt thou beget? and to a mother, What wilt thou bring forth? 11. Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, Ask Me (of) the things to come; concerning My sins and concerning the work of My hands, ye may command Me. 12. I make the earth, and man upon it I created; I, My hands, spread the heavens, and all their host commanded. 13. I, and no other, raised him up in righteousness, and all his ways will I make straight; (it is) he (that) shall build My city, and My captivity he will send (home), not for reward, and not for hire, saith Jehovah of hosts.
14. Thus saith Jehovah, The toil of Egypt, and the gain of Cush, and the Sebaim men of measure unto thee shall pass, and to thee shall they belong, after thee shall they go, in chains shall they pass over; and unto thee shall they bow themselves, to thee shall they pray, saying, Only in thee (is) God, and there is none besides, no (other) God. 15. Verily Thou art a God hiding Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour! 16. They are ashamed and also confounded all of them together, they are gone away in confusion—the carvers of images. 17. Israel is saved in Jehovah (with) an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed, and ye shall not be confounded for ever. 18. For thus saith Jehovah, the Creator of the heavens—He is God—the Former of the earth and its Maker—He established it—not to be empty did He create it—to be inhabited He formed it—I am Jehovah, and there is none besides. 19. Not in secret have I spoken, in a dark place of the earth; I have not said to the seed of Jacob, In vain seek ye Me. I (am) Jehovah, speaking truth, declaring right things. 20. Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, ye escaped of the nations. They know not, those carrying the wood, their graven image, and praying to a god (who) cannot save. 21. Bring forward and bring near! Yea, let them consult together. Who hath caused this to be heard of old, since thou declared it! Have not I Jehovah? and there is no other God besides Me; a righteous and a saving God, there is none besides Me. 22. Turn unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none besides. 23. By Myself I have sworn; the word is gone out of a mouth of righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me shall bow every knee, shall swear every tongue. 24. Only in Jehovah have I, says he, righteousness and strength; unto Him shall he come, and all that were incensed at Him shall be ashamed. 25. In Jehovah shall be justified and boast themselves all the seed of Israel.
XLVI.—[In conformation of the general threats and promises with which chap. xlv. is wound up, the prophet now exhibits the particular case of the Babylonian idols, as a single instance chosen from the whole range of past and future history. They are described as fallen and gone away into captivity, wholly unable to protect their worshippers or save themselves, vers. 1, 2. With these he then contrasts Jehovah’s constant care of Israel in times past and in time to come, vers. 3, 4. The contrast is carried out by another description of the origin and impotence of idols, vers. 5–7, and another assertion of Jehovah’s sole Divinity, as proved by His knowledge and control of the future, and by the raising up of Cyrus in particular, vers. 8–11. This brings him back to the same solemn warning of approaching judgments, and the same alternative of life and death, with which the foregoing chapter closes, vers. 12, 13.]
1. Bel is bowed down, Nebo stooping; their images are (consigned) to the beasts and to the cattle. Your burdens are packed up (as) a load to the weary (beast). 2. They stoop, they bow together; they cannot save the load; themselves are gone into captivity.
3. Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, those borne from the belly, those carried from the womb. 4. And to old age I am He, and to grey hair I will bear (you); I have done it, and I will carry and I will bear and save (you).
5. To whom will ye liken Me, and equal and compare Me, that we may be like? 6. The prodigals will weigh gold from the bag, and silver with the rod; they will hire a gilder, and he will make it a god: they will bow down, yea, they will fall prostrate. 7. They will lift him on the shoulder, they will carry him, they will set him in his place, and he will stand (there); from his place he will not move; yea, one will cry to him, and he will not answer, from his distress he will not save him.
8. Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it home, ye apostates, (to) your mind. 9. Remember former things of old, for I am the Mighty, and there is no other God, and there is none like Me, 10. declaring from the first the last, and from ancient time the things which are not (yet) done, saying, My counsel shall stand and all My pleasure I will do. 11. Calling from the east a bird of prey, from a land of distance the man of His counsel; I have both said and will also bring it to pass, I have formed (the plan) and will also do it.
12. Hearken to Me, ye stout of heart, those far from righteousness. 13. I have brought near My righteousness, it shall not be far off; and My salvation, it shall not tarry; and I will place in Zion My salvation, to Israel My glory.
XLVII.—[Having exemplified his general doctrine, as to God’s ability and purpose to do justice both to friends and foes, by exhibiting the downfall of the Babylonian idols, Isaiah now attains the same end by predicting the downfall of Babylon itself, and of the state to which it gave its name. Under the figure of a royal virgin, she is threatened with extreme degradation and exposure, vers 1–3. Connecting this event with Israel and Israel’s God, as the great themes which it was intended to illustrate, he predicts the fall of the empire more distinctly, ver. 5, and assigns as a reason the oppression of God’s people, ver. 6, pride and self-confidence, ver. 7–9, especially reliance upon human wisdom and upon superstitious arts, all which would prove entirely insufficient to prevent the great catastrophe, vers. 10–15.]
1. Come down! Sit on the dust, virgin daughter of Babel! There is no throne, daughter of Chasdim! For thou shalt not continue to be called tender and delicate. 2. Take millstones and grind meal! Remove thy veil, lift up thy skirt, uncover the leg, cross streams! 3. Let thy nakedness be uncovered, likewise let thy shame be seen. I will take vengeance; I shall encounter no man.
4. Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts (is) His name, the Holy One of Israel.
5. Sit in silence and go into darkness, daughter of Chasdim! For thou shalt not continue to be called mistress of kingdoms. 6. I was wroth against My people; I profaned My heritage; and I gave them into thy hand. Thou didst not show them mercy; on the ancient thou didst aggravate thy yoke exceedingly; 7. and thou saidst, For ever I shall be a mistress (of kingdoms); until (at last) thou didst not lay these things to heart, thou didst not remember the end of it. 8. And now, hear this, thou voluptuous one, the (one) sitting in security, the (one) saying in her heart, I (am) and none besides; I shall not sit (as) a widow, and I shall not know the loss of children; 9. and they shall come to thee,—these two suddenly, loss of children and widowhood in the midst of the multitude of thy enchantments, in the midst of the multitude of thy spells. 10. And (yet) thou art secure in thy wickedness; thou hast said, there is no one seeing me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it has seduced thee; and thou hast said in thy heart, I am, and there is no other. 11. And so there cometh upon thee evil,—thou shalt not know how to charm it away; and there shall fall upon thee ruin,—thou shalt not be able to avert it; and there shall come upon thee suddenly a crash,—thou shalt not know (it). 12. Persist now in thy spells and in the abundance of thy charms, in which thou hast wearied thyself; perhaps thou wilt be able to succeed, perhaps thou wilt grow strong. 13. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsel. Now let them stand and save thee, the dividers of the heavens, the star-gazers, making known at the new-moon what shall come upon thee. 14. Behold, they are like stubble, fire has burned them; they cannot deliver themselves from the hand of the flame; (this fire) is not a coal (at which) to warm one’s self; a fire to sit before. 15. Thus are they to thee; and so are (even) thy traders: each to his own quarter, straight before him, they wander; there is no one saving thee.
XLVIII.—[Although Israel is God’s chosen and peculiar people, he is in himself unworthy of the honour and unfaithful to the trust, vers. 1, 2. Former predictions had been uttered expressly to prevent his ascribing the event to other gods, vers. 3–5. For the same reason new predictions will be uttered now, of events which have never been distinctly foretold, vers. 6–8. God’s continued favour to His people has no reference to merit upon their part, but is the fruit of His own sovereign mercy, and intended to promote His own designs, vers. 9–11. He again asserts His own exclusive deity, as proved by the creation of the world, by the prediction of events still future, and especially by the raising up of Cyrus, as a promised instrument to execute His purpose, vers 12–16. The sufferings of Israel are a fruit of his own sin, but his prosperity and glory, of God’s sovereign grace, vers. 17–19. The book closes as it opened, with a promise of deliverance from exile, accompanied in this case by a solemn limitation of the promise to its proper objects, vers. 20–22.]
1. Here this, O house of Jacob, the man called by the name of Israel, and from the waters of Judah they have come out; those swearing by the name of Jehovah, and (who) of the God of Israel makes mention, not in truth and not in righteousness. 2. Nor from the Holy City they are called, and upon the God of Israel rely; Jehovah of hosts is His name.
3. The former things since then I declared, and out of My mouth they went forth, and I cause them to be heard; suddenly do I do (them), and they come to pass. 4. Because I know that thou art hard, and an iron sinew (is) thy neck, and thy forehead brass, 5. therefore I told thee long ago; before it comes I have let thee hear (it), lest thou say, My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image ordered them.
6. Thou has heard the (prediction), see all of it accomplished. And ye, will ye not predict (something)? I have made thee to hear new things from now, and (things) kept (in reserve), which thou hast not known. 7. Now they are created, and not of old; before this day thou hast never heard them, lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them. 8. Nay, thou didst not hear; nay, thou didst not know; likewise of old thine ear was not opened; I knew thou wouldst act very treacherously, and Apostate from the womb wast thou called.
9. For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, and (for) My praise I will restrain (it) towards thee, so as not to cut thee off. 10. Behold, I have melted thee, and not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 11. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do (it)—for how is it profaned!—and My honour to another will I not give.
12. Hearken unto Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called; I am He, I am the First, also I the Last. 13. Also My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread the heavens; I call to them, and they will stand up together. 14. Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them hath predicted these things? Jehovah loves him; He will do His pleasure in Babylon, and His arm (shall be upon) the Chaldees. 15. I, I have spoken; I have also called him; I have brought him (forth), and he prospers in his way. 16. Draw near unto me! Hear this; not from the beginning in secret have I spoken; from the time of its being, I was there; and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and His Spirit.
17. Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am Jehovah thy God, teaching thee to profit, making thee to tread in the way thou shalt go. 18. Oh that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea; 19. then should have been like the sand thy seed, and the offspring of thy bowels like (the offspring of) its bowels; his name should not be cut off from before Me.
20. Go forth from Babel! Flee ye from the Chaldeans! With the voice of joy tell this, cause it to be heard, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His servant Jacob. 21. And they thirsted not in the desert (through which) He made them go; water from a rock He made to flow for them; and He clave the rock, and waters gushed out. 22. There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.
XLIX.—[This chapter, like the whole division which it introduces, has for its great theme the relation of the Church to the world, and of Israel to the Gentiles. It opens with an exhibition of the Messiah and His people, under one ideal person, as the great appointed Teacher, Apostle, and Restorer of the apostate nations, vers. 1–9. This is followed by a promise of Divine protection and of glorious enlargement, attended by a joyous revelation in the state of the whole world, vers. 10–16. The doubts and apprehensions of the Church herself are twice recited under different forms, vers. 14, 24, and as often met and silenced, first by repeated and still stronger promises of God’s unchanging love to His people and of their glorious enlargement and success, vers. 15–23; then by an awful threatening of destruction to their enemies and His, vers 25, 26.]
1. Hearken, ye Islands, unto Me, and attend, ye nations from afar. Jehovah from the womb hath called Me, from the bowels of My mother He hath mentioned My name. 2. And He hath rendered My mouth like a sharp sword, and He rendered Me as a polished arrow, in His quiver He has hid Me. 3. And He said to Me, Thou art My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. 4. And I said, In vain have I toiled, for emptiness and vanity My strength have I consumed; but My right is with Jehovah and My work with My God. 5. And now, saith Jehovah, who formed Me from the womb for a servant to Himself, to restore Jacob to Him, and (yet) Israel will not be gathered—and yet I shall be honoured in the eyes of Jehovah, and My God has (already) been My strength. 6. And He said, It is a light thing that Thou shouldst be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and the preserved of Israel to restore; and I have given Thee for a light to the Gentiles, to be My salvation even to the end of the earth. 7. Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One, to the heartily despised, to the nation exciting abhorrence, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see it, and rise up, princes (shall see) and bow themselves, for the sake of Jehovah who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen Thee. 8. Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour I have heard Thee, and to a day of salvation have I helped Thee; and I will keep Thee, and I will give Thee for a covenant to the people, to raise up the earth, and to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 9. to say to those bound, Come forth, and to (those) who are in darkness, Show yourselves.
On the ways they shall feed, and in all bare hills shall be their pasture. 10. They shall not hunger and they shall not thirst, and there shall not smite them mirage and sun; for He that hath mercy on them shall guide them, and by springs of water shall He lead them. 11. And I will place all mountains for the way, and My roads shall be high. 12. Behold, these from afar shall come, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the land of Sinim. 13. Shout, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, let the mountains burst forth into a shout; because Jehovah has comforted His people, and on His sufferers He will have mercy.
14. And (yet) Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. 15. Will a woman forget her suckling, so as not to have mercy on the son of her womb? Even these will forget, and (yet) I will not forget thee. 16. Behold, on My palms have I graven thee; thy walls (are) before Me continually. 17. Thy sons hasten (to thee); thy destroyers and thy wasters shall go out from thee. 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and see; all of them are gathered together, they are come to thee. (As) I live, saith Jehovah, (I swear) that all of them as an ornament thou shalt put on, and bind them like the bride. 19. For thy ruins, and thy wastes, and thy land of desolation, for now shalt thou be too narrow for the inhabitant, and far off shall be thy devourers. 20. Again shall they say in thine ears, The sons of thy childlessness. (Too) narrow for me is the place; come near for me, that I may dwell. 21. And thou shalt say in thine heart, Who hath produced these for me? and I was bereaved and barren, an exile and a banished one? And these who brought up? Behold, I was left alone; these where were they? 22. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I will lift up to the nations My hand, and I will set up to the peoples My standard; and they will bring thy sons in the bosom, and thy daughters on the shoulders shall be carried. 23. And kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing-mothers; face to the ground shall they bow to thee, and the dust of thy feet shall they lick; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah, whose waiters shall not be ashamed.
24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, and shall the captivity of the righteous be delivered? 25. For thus saith Jehovah, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered, and with thy strivers will I strive, and thy sons will I save. 26. And I will make thy oppressors eat their (own) flesh, and as with new wine with their blood shall they be drunken; and all flesh shall know that I am Jehovah thy Saviour, and (that) thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
L.—[This chapter contains no entirely new element, but a fresh view of several which have already been repeatedly exhibited. The first of these is the great truth, that the sufferings of God’s people are the necessary fruit of their own sins, ver. 1. The second is the power of Jehovah to accomplish their deliverance, vers. 2, 3. The third is the Servant of Jehovah, His mission, His qualifications for it, His endurance of reproach, and opposition on account of it, vers. 4–9. The fourth is the way of salvation and the certain doom of those who neglect it, vers. 10, 11.]
1. Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of divorcement of your mother, whom I have sent away? Or which of My creditors (is it) to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities ye have been sold, and for your transgressions has your mother been sent away.
2. Why did I come, and there was no man? (why) did I call, and there was no one answering? Is My hand shortened, shortened, from redemption? and is there with Me no power to deliver? Behold, by My rebuke I will dry up the sea, I will make streams a wilderness; let their fish stink for want of water and die of thirst. 3. I will clothe the heavens in blackness, and sackcloth will I make their covering.
4. The Lord God hath given to Me a ready tongue, that I might know how to help the weary (with) a word. He will waken, every morning He will waken for Me the ear, that I may hear like the disciples. 5. The Lord Jehovah opened for Me the ear, and I resisted not, I did not draw back. 6. My back I gave to those smiting, and My cheeks to those plucking (the hair); My face I did not hide from shame and spitting. 7. And the Lord God will help Me, therefore I am not confounded; therefore I have set My face as a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 8. Near is My justifier; who will contend with Me? We will stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him draw near to Me. 9. Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help Me; who (is) he (that) will condemn Me? All they like the garment shall grow old; the moth shall devour them.
10. Who among you is a fearer of Jehovah, hearkening to the voice of His servant, who walketh in darkness, and there is no light to him? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and lean upon his God. 11. Lo, all of you kindling fire, girding sparks (or, fiery darts), go in the light of your fire, and in the sparks ye have kindled. From My hand is this to you; in pain shall ye lie down.
LI.—[This chapter is a direct continuation of the preceding declarations with respect to the vocation of the Church, and the Divine administration towards her. The possibility of her increase, as previously promised, is evinced by the example of Abraham, from whom all Israel descended, vers. 1–3. In like manner many shall be added from the Gentiles, vers. 4–6. Their enemies shall not only fail to destroy them, but shall be themselves destroyed, vers. 7, 8. This is confirmed by another historical example, that of Egypt, vers. 9, 10. The same assurances are then repeated, with a clearer promise of the new dispensation, vers. 11–16. The chapter closes with a direct address to Zion, who, though helpless in herself and destitute of human aid, is sure of God’s protection and of the destruction of her enemies and His, vers. 17–23.]
1. Hearken unto Me, ye who are following after righteousness, ye who are seeking Jehovah; look unto the rock (from which) ye have been hewn, and the hole of the pit from which ye have been digged. 2. Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah (that) bare you: for I have called him one, and I will bless him and increase him (still). 3. For Jehovah hath comforted Zion; He hath comforted all our wastes, and hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 4. Attend unto Me, My people: and My nation, unto Me give ear: that law from Me shall go forth, and My judgment for a light of the nations. 5. Near (is) My righteousness, gone forth is My salvation, and My arm shall judge the nations. For Me shall the islands wait, and in My arm they shall hope. 6. Raise to the heavens your eyes, and look unto the earth beneath; and the earth like the garment (which grows old) shall grow old, and its inhabitants likewise shall die; and My salvation to eternity shall be, and My righteousness shall not be broken.
7. Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, people (with) My law in their heart: hear not the reproach of men, and by their scoffs be not broken (in spirit). 8. For like the (moth-eaten) garment shall the moth devour them, and like the (worm-eaten) wool shall the worm devour them; and My righteousness to eternity shall be, and My salvation to an age of ages.
9. Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Jehovah; awake, as (in the) days of old, the ages of eternities; art Thou not the same that hewed Rahab in pieces, that wounded the dragon? 10. Art not Thou the same that dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that placed the depths of the sea (as) a way for the passage of redeemed ones?
11. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head; gladness and joy shall overtake (them), sorrow and sighing have fled away. 12. I, I am He that comforteth you; who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of man (who) is to die, and of the son of man who (as) grass is to be given? 13. And hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker, spreading the heavens and founding the earth, and hast trembled continually all the day, from before the wrath of the oppressor as he made ready to destroy? And where is (now) the wrath of the oppressor? 14. He hastens bowing to be loosed, and he shall not die in the pit, and his bread shall not fail. 15. And I am Jehovah thy God, rousing the sea, and then its waves roar; Jehovah of hosts (is) His name. 16. And I have put My words in thy mouth, and in the shadow of My hand I have the earth, and to say to Zion, Thou art My people. 17. Rouse thyself! rouse thyself! Arise, Jerusalem! (thou) who hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of His wrath; the bowl of the cup of reeling thou hast drunk, thou hast wrung out.
18. There is no guide to hear of all the sons she has brought forth, and no one grasping her hand of all the sons she has brought up.
19. Both these things are befalling thee: who will mourn for thee? Wasting and ruin, famine and sword: who (but) I will comfort thee? 20. Thy sons were faint; they lie at the head of all the streets like a wild bull in a net, filled with the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God. 21. Therefore pray hear this, thou suffering one, and drunken, but not with wine; 22. thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God—He will defend His people—Behold, I have taken from thy hand the cup of reeling, the bowl of the cup of My fury; thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. 23. And I put it into the hand of those that afflicted thee, that said to thy soul, Bow down and we will pass over; and thou didst lay thy back as the ground, and as the street for the passengers.
LII.—[However low the natural Israel may sink, the true Church shall become more glorious than ever, being freed from the impurities connected with her former state, ver. 1. This is described as a captivity from which she is exhorted to escape, ver. 2. Her emancipation is the fruit of God’s gratuitous compassion, ver. 3. As a nation she has suffered long enough, vers. 4, 5. The day is coming when the Israel of God shall know in whom they have believed, ver. 6. The herald of the new dispensation is described as already visible upon the mountains, ver. 7. The very ruins of Jerusalem are summoned to rejoice, ver. 9. The glorious change is witnessed by the whole world. 10. The true church or Israel of God is exhorted to come out of Jewry, ver. 11. This exodus is likened to the one from Egypt, but described as even more auspicious, ver. 12. Its great leader, the Messiah, as the Servant of Jehovah, must be and is to be exalted, ver. 13. And this exaltation shall bear due proportion to the humiliation which preceded it, vers. 14, 15.]
1. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion! Put on thy garments of beauty, O Jerusalem, the Holy City! For no more shall there continue to come into thee an uncircumcised and unclean (person). 2. Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit, O Jerusalem! loose the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
3. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Ye were sold for nought, and not for money shall ye be redeemed. 4. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Into Egypt went down My people at the first to sojourn there, and Assyria oppressed them for nothing. 5. And now what have I here, saith Jehovah, that My people is taken away for nothing, its rulers howl, saith Jehovah, and continually, all the day, My name is blasphemed? 6. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day (shall they know) that I am He that said, Behold Me!
7. How timely on the mountains are the feet of one bringing glad tidings, publishing peace, bringing tidings of good, publishing salvation, saying to Zion, Thy God reigneth! 8. The voice of thy watchmen! They raise the voice, together will they shout; for eye to eye will they see in Jehovah’s returning to Zion. 9. Burst forth, shout together, ruins of Jerusalem! For Jehovah hath comforted His people, hath redeemed Jerusalem. 10. Jehovah hath bared His holy arm to the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
11. Away! away! go out from thence! the unclean touch not! come out from the midst of her! Be clean, ye armour-bearers of Jehovah. 12. For not in haste shall ye go out, and in flight ye shall not depart; for going before you (is) Jehovah, and bringing up your rear the God of Israel.
LII. 13.—[The great leader of this exodus, the Messiah, as the Servant of Jehovah, must be and is to be exalted, ver. 13. And this exaltation shall bear due proportion to the humiliation which preceded it, vers. 14, 15.
LIII.—Notwithstanding these and other prophecies of the Messiah, He is not recognised when He appears, ver. 1. He is not the object of desire and trust, for whom the great mass of the people have been waiting, ver. 2. Nay, His low condition, and especially His sufferings are vicarious, not accidental or incurred by His own fault, vers. 4–6. Hence, though personally innocent, He is perfectly unresisting, ver. 7. Even they for whom He suffers may mistake His person and His office, ver. 8. His case presents the two extremes of righteous punishment and perfect innocence, ver. 9. But the glorious fruit of these very sufferings will correct all errors, ver. 10. He becomes a Saviour only by becoming a substitute, ver. 11. Even after the work of expiation is completed, and His glorious reward secured, the work of intercession will be still continued, ver. 12.]
13. Behold, my Servant shall do wisely, shall rise and be exalted and high exceedingly. 14. As many were shocked at Thee—so marred from man His look, and His form from the sons of men—15. so shall He sprinkle many nations; concerning Him shall kings stop their mouth, because what was not recounted to them they have seen, and what they had not heard they have perceived.
LIII.—1. Who hath believed our report? and the arm of Jehovah, to whom (or, upon whom) has it been revealed?
2. And He came up like the tender plant before Him, and like a root from a dry ground; He had no form nor comeliness, and we shall see Him, and no sight that we should desire it. 3. Despised and forsaken of men (or ceasing from among men), a man of sorrows and acquainted with sickness, and like one hiding the face from Him (or, us), despised, and we esteemed Him not.
4. Surely our sicknesses He bore, and our griefs He carried; and we thought Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. 5. And He was pierced (or, wounded) for our transgression, bruised (or, crushed) for our iniquities; the chastisement (or, punishment) for our peace (was) upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. 6. And we like sheep had gone astray, each to his own way we had turned, and Jehovah laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7. He was oppressed and He humbled Himself, and He will not open His mouth—as a lamb to the slaughter is brought, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb—and He will not open His mouth. 8. From distress and from judgment He was taken; and in His generation who will think, that He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people (as) a curse for them? 9. And He gave with wicked (men) His grave, and with a rich (man) in His death; because (or, although) He had done no violence, and no deceit (was) in His mouth.
10. And Jehovah was pleased to crush (or, bruise Him), He put Him to grief (or, made Him sick); if (or, when) His soul shall make an offering for sin, He shall see (His) seed, He shall prolong (His) days, and the pleasure of Jehovah in His hand shall prosper. 11. From the labour of His soul (or, life) He shall see, He shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall my servant (as) a righteous one, give righteousness to many, and their iniquities He will bear. 12. Therefore will I divide to Him among the many, and with the strong shall He divide the spoil, in lieu of this that He bared unto death His soul, and with the transgressors was numbered, and He (Himself) bare the sin of many, and for the transgressors He shall make intercession.
LIV.—[Instead of suffering from the loss of her national prerogatives, the Church shall be more glorious and productive than before, ver. 1. Instead of being limited to a single nation, she shall be so extended as to take in all the nations of the earth, vers. 2, 3. What seemed at first to be her forlorn and desolate condition shall be followed by a glorious change, ver. 4. He who seemed to be the God of the Jews only shall now be seen to be the God of the Gentiles also, ver. 5. The abrogation of the old economy was like the repudiation of a wife, but its effects will show it to be rather a renewal of the conjugal relation, ver. 6. The momentary rejection shall be followed by an everlasting reconciliation, vers. 7, 8. The old economy, like Noah’s flood, can never be repeated, ver. 9. That was a temporary institution; this shall outlast the earth itself, ver. 10. The old Jerusalem shall be forgotten in the splendour of the new, vers. 11, 12. But this shall be a spiritual splendour, springing from a constant Divine influence, ver. 13. Hence it shall be also a holy and a safe state, ver. 14. All the enemies of the Church shall either be destroyed or received into her bosom, ver. 15. The warrior and his weapons are alike God’s creatures and at His disposal, ver. 16. In every conflict, both of hand and tongue, the Church shall be triumphant, not in her own right or her own strength, but in that of Him who justifies, pardons, and saves her, ver. 17.]
1. Shout, O barren, that didst not bear; break forth into a shout and cry aloud, thou that didst not writhe (in childbirth): for more (are) the children of the desolate than the children of the married (woman), saith Jehovah. 2. Widen the place of thy tent, and the curtains of thy dwelling let them stretch out; spare not (or, hinder it not); lengthen thy cords and strengthen (or, make fast) thy stakes. 3. For right and left shalt thou break forth (or, spread), and thy seed shall possess (or, dispossess or inherit) nations, and repeople ruined (or, forsaken) cities.
4. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; and be not abashed, for thou shalt not blush; for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember any more. 5. For thy husband (is) thy Maker, Jehovah of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer (is) the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth shall He be called. 6. For as a wife forsaken and grieved of spirit has Jehovah called thee, and (as) a wife of youth, for she shall be rejected, said thy God. 7. In a little moment I forsook thee, and in great mercies I will gather thee. 8. In a gush of wrath I hid My face for a moment from thee, and in everlasting kindness I have had mercy on thee, saith thy Redeemer, Jehovah. 9. For the waters of Noah is this to Me; what I sware from the waters of Noah passing again over the earth [i.e., that they should not pass], so have I sworn from being angry [that I will not be angry] against thee, and from rebuking [that I will not] rebuke thee. 10. For the mountains shall move and the hills shall shake; but My favour from thee shall not move, and My covenant of peace shall not shake, saith thy pitier, Jehovah. 11. Wretched, storm-tossed, comfortless! Behold, I am laying (or, about to lay) thy stones in antimony, and I will found thee upon sapphires; 12. and I will make thy battlements (or, pinnacles) ruby, and thy gates to (be) sparkling gems, and all thy borders to (be) stones of pleasure (or delight). 13. And all thy children disciples of Jehovah, and great (or, plentiful) the peace of thy children. 14. In righteousness shalt thou be established: be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from destruction, for it shall not come near to thee. 15. Lo, they shall gather, they shall gather, not at My sign (or, signal). Who has gathered against thee? He shall fall away to thee. 16. Lo, I have created the smith, blowing into the fire of coal, and bringing out a weapon for his work; and I have created the wasters to destroy. 17. Every weapon (that) shall be formed against thee shall not prosper, and every tongue that shall rise with thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness from Me, saith Jehovah.
LV.—[By the removal of the old restrictions, the Church is, for the first time, open to the whole world, as the source or medium of the richest blessings, ver. 1. It is only here that real nourishment can be obtained, ver. 2. Life is made ours by an oath and covenant, ver. 3. The Messiah is a witness of the truth and a commander of the nations, ver. 4. As such He will be recognised by many nations who before knew nothing of the true religion, ver. 5. These are now addressed directly, and exhorted to embrace the offered opportunity, ver. 6. To this there is every encouragement afforded in the Divine mercy, ver. 7. The infinite disparity between God and man should have the same effect, instead of hindering it, vers. 8, 9. The commands and promises of God must be fulfilled, vers. 10, 11. Nothing, therefore, can prevent a glorious change in the condition of the world under the dispensation of the Spirit, ver. 12. This blessed renovation, being directly promotive of God’s glory, shall endure for ever, ver. 13.]
1. Ho, every thirsty one, come ye to the waters; and he to whom there is no money, come ye, buy (food) and eat; and come, buy, without money and without price, wine and milk. 2. Why will ye weigh money for (that which is) not bread, and your labour for (that which is) not to satiety? Hearken, hearken unto me, and eat (that which is) good, and your soul shall enjoy itself in fatness. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live (or, let it live), and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David. 4. Lo, (as) a witness of nations I have given him, a chief and commander of nations. 5. Lo, a nation (that) thou knowest not shalt thou call, and a nation (that) have not known thee shall run unto thee, for the sake of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified thee.
6. Seek ye Jehovah while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts, and let him return unto Jehovah, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon (literally, multiply to pardon). 8. For My thoughts (are) not as your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, saith Jehovah. 9. For (as) the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and thither returneth not, but when it has watered the earth and made it bear and put forth, and has given seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11. so shall My word be, which goeth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void (or, without effect), but when it has done that which I desired, and successfully done that for which I sent it. 12. For with joy shall ye go forth, and in peace shall ye be led; the mountains and the hills shall break out before you into a shout, and all the trees of the field shall clap the hand. 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle, and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
LVI.—[The day is coming when the righteousness of God is to be fully revealed, without the veils and shackles which had hitherto confined it, ver. 1. For this great change, the best preparation is fidelity to the spirit of the old economy, ver. 2. No personal or national distinctions will be any longer recognised, ver. 3. Connection with the Church will no longer be a matter of hereditary right, vers. 4, 5. The Church shall be henceforth coextensive with the world, vers. 6–8. But first the carnal Israel must be abandoned to its enemies, ver. 9. Its rulers are neither able nor worthy to deliver the people or themselves, ver. 10–12.]
1. Thus saith Jehovah, Keep ye judgment (or justice) and do righteousness; for near (is) My salvation to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. 2. Happy the man (that) shall do this, and the son of man that shall hold it fast, keeping the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeping the hand from doing evil.
3. And let not the foreigner say, who has joined himself unto Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will separate me wholly from His people; and let not the eunuch say, Lo, I am a dry tree. 4. For thus saith Jehovah to (or, as to) the eunuchs, who shall keep My Sabbaths, and shall choose what I delight in, and take fast hold of My covenant, 5. I will give to them in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than sons and than daughters; an everlasting name will I give to him, which shall not be cut off. 6. And (as to) the foreigners joining themselves to Jehovah to serve Him and to love the name of Jehovah, to be to him for servants, every one keeping the Sabbath from profaning it, and holding fast my covenant; 7. I will bring them to My mount of holiness, and make them joyful in My house of prayer, their offerings and their sacrifices (shall be) acceptance on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. 8. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the gatherer of the outcasts of Israel, Still (more) will I gather upon him (in addition) to his gathered.
9. All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, all ye beasts in the forest! 10. His watchmen (are) blind all of them, they have not known (or, do not know); all of them (are) dumb dogs, they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. 11. And the dogs are greedy, they know not satiety, and they, the shepherds (or, the shepherds themselves), know not how to distinguish (or, act wisely): all of them to their own way are turned, (every) man to his own gain from his own quarter (or, without exception). 12. Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will intoxicate ourselves with strong drink, and like to-day (shall be) to-morrow, great, abundantly, exceedingly.
LVII.—[The righteous who died under the old economy were taken away from the evil to come, vers. 1, 2. The wicked who despised them were themselves proper objects of contempt, vers. 3, 4. Their idolatry is first described in literal terms, vers. 5, 6. It is then represented as a spiritual idolatry, vers. 7–9. Their obstinate persistence in sin is represented as the cause of their hopeless and remediless destruction, vers. 10–13. A way is prepared for spiritual Israel to come out from among them, vers. 14. The hopes of true believers shall not be deferred for ever, vers. 15, 16. Even these must be chastened for their sins, ver. 17. But there is favour in reserve for all true penitents, without regard to national distinctions, vers. 18. 19. To the incorrigible sinner, on the other hand, peace is impossible, vers. 20, 21.]
1. The righteous perisheth, and there is no man laying (it) to heart, and men of mercy are taken away, with none considering (or perceiving) that from the presence of evil the righteous is taken away. 2. He shall go in peace (or, enter into peace); they shall rest upon their beds—walking straight before him.
3. And ye (or, as for you), draw near hither, ye sons of the witch, seed of the adulterer and the harlot. 4. At whom do ye amuse yourselves? At whom do ye enlarge the mouth, prolong the tongue? Are ye not children of rebellion (or, apostasy), a seed of falsehood? 5. Inflamed (or, inflaming yourselves) among the oaks (or, terebinths), under every green tree, slaughtering the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks. 6. Among the smooth (stones) of the valley (or, the brook) is thy portion; they, they are thy lot; also to them hast thou poured out a drink-offering, thou hast brought up a meat-offering. Shall I for these things be consoled (i.e., satisfied without revenge)?
7. On a high and elevated mountain thou hast placed thy bed; also there (or, even thither) hast thou gone up to offer sacrifice. 8. And behind the door and the door-post thou hast placed thy memorial, far away from me thou hast uncovered (thyself or thy bed), and hast gone up, thou hast enlarged thy bed and hast covenanted from them, thou hast loved their bed, thou hast provided room. 9. And thou hast gone to the king in oil, and hast multiplied thine unguents, and hast sent thine ambassadors even to a far-off (land), and hast gone (or, sent) down even to hell.
10. In the greatness of thy way (or, the abundance of thy travel) thou hast labour; (but) thou hast not said, There is no hope. Thou hast found the life of thy hand; therefore thou art not weak. 11. And whom hast thou feared and been afraid of, that thou shouldst lie? And Me thou hast not remembered, thou hast not called to mind (or, laid to heart). Is it not (because) I hold My peace, and that of old, that thou wilt not fear Me? 12. I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, and they shall not profit (or, avail) thee. 13. In thy crying (i.e., when thou criest for help), let thy gatherings save thee! And (yet) all of them the wind shall take up, and a breath shall take away, and the (one) trusting in Me shall inherit the land and possess My holy mountain.
14. And he shall say, Cast up, cast up, clear the way, take up the stumbling-block from the way of the people! 15. For thus saith the High and Exalted One, inhabiting eternity, and Holy is His name: On high and holy will I dwell, and with the broken and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to retrieve the heart of the broken (or, contrite ones). 16. For not to eternity will I contend, and not to perpetuity will I be wroth; for the spirit from before Me will faint, and the souls (which) I have made.
17. For his covetous iniquity I am wroth and will smite him, (I will) hide Me and will be wroth; for he has gone on turning away (i.e., persevering in apostasy) in the way of his heart (or, of his own inclination). 18. His ways I have seen, and I will heal him, and will guide him, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. 19. Creating the fruit of the lips, Peace, peace to the far off and to the near, saith Jehovah, and I will heal him.
20. And the wicked (are) like the troubled sea, for rest it cannot, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. 21. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
LVIII.—[The rejection of Israel as a nation is the just reward of their unfaithfulness, ver. 1. Their religious services are hypocritical, ver. 2. Their mortifications and austerities are nullified by accompanying wickedness, vers. 3-5. They should have been connected with the opposite virtues, vers. 6, 7. In that case they would have continued to enjoy the divine favour, vers. 8, 9. They are still invited to make trial of this course, with an ample promise of prosperity and blessing to encourage them, vers. 10–14.]
1. Cry with the throat, spare not, like the trumpet raise thy voice, and tell to My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2. And Me day (by) day they will seek, and the knowledge of My ways they will delight in (or, desire), like a nation which has done right, and the judgment of its God has not forsaken; they will ask of Me righteous judgments, the approach to God (or, of God) they will delight in (or, desire).
3. Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not seen (it)? afflicted our soul (or, themselves) and Thou wilt not know (it)? Behold in the day of your fast ye will find pleasure, and all your labours ye will exact. 4. Behold, for strife and contention ye will fast, and to smite with the flat of wickedness; ye shall not (or, ye will not) fast to-day (so as) to make your voice heard on high. 5. Shall it be like this, the fast that I will choose, the day of man’s humbling himself? Is it to hang his head like a bulrush, and make sackcloth and ashes his bed? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day of acceptance (an acceptable day) to Jehovah?
6. Is not this the fast that I will choose, to loosen bands of wickedness, to undo the fastenings of the yoke, and to send away the crushed (or broken) free, and every yoke ye shall break? 7. Is it not to break unto the hungry thy bread? and the afflicted, the homeless, thou shalt bring home; for thou shalt see one naked and shalt clothe him, and from thine own flesh thou shalt not hide thyself.
8. Then shall break forth as the dawn thy light, and thy healing speedily shall spring up; then shall go before thee thy righteousness, and the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rereward (or, bring up thy rear). 9. Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and He will say, Behold Me (here I am), if thou wilt put away from the midst of thee the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of vanity.
10. And (if) thou wilt let out thy soul to the hungry, and the afflicted soul will satisfy, then shall thy sight arise in the darkness, and thy gloom as the (double light or) noon. 11. And Jehovah will guide thee over, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and thy bones shall He invigorate, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters shall not fail. 12. And they shall build from thee the ruins of antiquity (or, perpetuity), foundations of age and age (i.e., of ages) shalt thou raise up: and it shall be called to thee (or, thou shalt be called) Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths for dwelling.
13. If thou wilt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath to do thy pleasure on My holy day, and wilt call the Sabbath a delight (and) the holy (day) of Jehovah honourable, and wilt honour it by not doing thy own ways, by not finding thy pleasure and talking talk; 14. then shalt thou be happy in Jehovah, and I will make thee rule upon the heights of the earth, and I will make thee eat the heritage of Jacob thy father, for Jehovah’s mouth hath spoken it.
LIX.—[The fault of Israel’s rejection is not in the Lord, but in themselves, vers. 1, 2. They are charged with sins of violence and injustice, vers. 3, 4. The ruinous effects of these corruptions are described, vers. 5, 6. Their violence and injustice are fatal to themselves and to others, vers. 7, 8. The moral condition of the people is described as one of darkness and hopeless degradation, vers. 9–15. In this extremity, Jehovah interposes to deliver the true Israel, vers. 16, 17. This can only be effected by the destruction of the carnal Israel, vers. 18. The Divine presence shall no longer be subjected to local restrictions, vers. 19. A Redeemer shall appear in Zion to save the true Israel, vers. 20. The old dispensation shall give place to the dispensation of the Word and Spirit, which shall last for ever, ver. 21.]
1. Behold, not shortened is Jehovah’s hand from saving, and not benumbed is His ear from hearing. 2. But your iniquities have been separating between you and your God, and your sins have hid (His) face from you, so as not to hear.
3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue will utter wickedness. 4. There is none calling with justice, and there is none contending with truth; they trust in vanity and speak falsehood, conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. 5. Eggs of the basilisk they have hatched, and webs of the spider they will spin (or, weave); the one eating their eggs shall die, and the crushed (egg) shall hatch out a viper. 6. The webs shall not become (or, be for) clothing, and they shall not cover themselves with their works: their works are works of mischief (or, iniquity), and the doing of violence is in their hands. 7. Their feet to evil will run, and they will hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of mischief (or, iniquity); wasting and ruin are in their paths. 8. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their paths; their courses they have rendered crooked for them; every one walking in them knows not peace.
9. Therefore is judgment far from us, and righteousness will not overtake us; we wait for light, and behold darkness; for splendours, (and) in obscurities we walk. 10. We grope like the blind for the wall, like the eyeless we grope; we stumble at noon-day as in twilight, in thick darkness like the dead. 11. We growl like the bears, all of us, and like the doves we moan; we wait for justice and there is none, for salvation (and) it is far from us. 12. For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and our iniquities—we know them; 13. to transgress and lie against Jehovah, and to turn back from behind our God, to speak oppression and departure, to conceive and utter from the heart words of falsehood. 14. And judgment is thrust (or, driven) back, and righteousness afar off stands; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. 15. Then truth was missed (i.e., found wanting), and whoso departed from evil made himself a prey (or, was plundered).
Then Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgment (or, practical justice). 16. And He saw that there was no man, and He stood aghast that there was no one interposing; and His own arm saved for Him, and His own righteousness, it upheld Him. 17. And He clothed Himself with righteousness as a coat of mail, and a helmet of salvation on His head, and He clothed Himself with garments of vengeance (for) clothing. 18. According to (their) deeds, according will He repay, wrath to His enemies, (their) desert to His foes, to the isles (their) desert will He repay. 19. And they shall fear from the west the name of Jehovah, and from the rising of the sun His glory; for it shall come like a straitened stream, the spirit of Jehovah raising a banner in it.
20. Then shall come for Zion a Redeemer, and for the converts from apostasy in Jacob, saith Jehovah. 21. And I (or, as for me)—this (is) My covenant with them, saith Jehovah. My Spirit which is on thee, and My words which I have placed in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever (or, from now and to eternity).
LX.—[The prophet describes the approaching change as a new and Divine light rising upon Zion, ver. 1. He contrasts it with the darkness of surrounding nations, ver. 2. Yet these are not excluded from participation in the light, ver. 3. The elect in every nation are the children of the Church, and shall be gathered to her, vers. 4, 5. On one side he sees the Oriental caravans and flocks approaching, vers. 6, 7. On the other, the commercial fleets of western nations, vers. 8, 9. What seemed rejection is in fact the highest favour, ver. 10. The glory of the true Church is her freedom from local and national restrictions, ver. 11. None are excluded from her pale but those who exclude themselves and thereby perish, ver. 12. External nature shall contribute to her splendour, ver. 13. Her very enemies shall do her homage, ver. 14. Instead of being cast off, she is glorified for ever, ver. 15. Instead of being identified with one nation, she shall derive support from all, ver. 16. All that is changed in her condition shall be changed for the better, ver. 17. The evils of her former state are done away, ver. 18. Even some of its advantages are now superfluous, ver. 19. What remains shall be no longer precarious, ver. 20. The splendour of this new dispensation is a moral and spiritual splendour, but attended by external safety and protection, ver. 21, 22. All this shall certainly and promptly come to pass at the appointed time, ver. 22.]
1. Arise, be light; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon thee. 2. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and a gloom the nations, and upon thee shall Jehovah rise, and His glory upon thee shall be seen. 3. And nations shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising.
4. Lift up thine eyes round about (i.e., in all directions) and see; all of them are gathered, they come to thee, thy sons from afar shall come, and thy daughters at the side shall be borne. 5. Then shalt thou see (or, fear), and brighten up (or, overflow), and thy heart shall throb and swell; because (or, when) the abundance of the sea shall be turned upon thee, the strength of nations shall come unto thee.
6. A stream of camels shall cover thee, young camels (or, dromedaries) of Midian and Ephah, all of them from Sheba shall come, gold and incense shall they bear, and the praises of Jehovah as good news. 7. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered for thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to thee, they shall ascend with good-will (or, acceptably) My altar, and My house of beauty I will beautify.
8. Who are these that fly as a cloud and as doves to their windows? 9. Because for Me the isles are waiting (or, must wait) and the ships of Tarshish in the first place, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified thee.
10. And strangers shall build thy walls, and their kings shall serve thee; for in My wrath I smote thee, and in My favour I have had mercy on thee. 11. And thy gates shall be open continually, day and night they shall not be shut, to bring into thee the strength of nations and their kings led (captive, or, in triumph). 12. For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve thee shall perish, and the nations shall be desolated, desolated.
13. The glory of Lebanon to thee shall come, cypress, plane, and box together, to adorn the place of My sanctuary, and the place of My feet I will honour.
14. Then shall come to thee bending the sons of thy oppressors, then shall bow down to the soles of thy feet all thy despisers, and shall call thee the City of Jehovah, Zion the holy place of Israel (or, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel).
15. Instead of thy being forsaken and hated, and with none passing (through thee), and I will place thee for a boast of perpetuity, a joy of age and age. 16. And they shalt suck the milk of nations, and the breast of kings shalt thou suck, and thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and (that) thy Redeemer (is) the Mighty One of Jacob. 17. Instead of brass (or, copper) I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver, and instead of wood brass, and instead of stones iron, and I will place (or, make) thy government peace, and thy rulers righteousness.
18. There shall be no more heard violence in thy land, desolation and ruin in thy borders (or, within thy bounds); and thou shalt call salvation thy walls, and thy gates praise. 19. No more shall be to thee the sun for a light by day, and for brightness the moon shall not shine to thee, and Jehovah shall become thy everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20. The sun shall set no more, and thy moon shall not be withdrawn; for Jehovah shall be unto thee an eternal light, and completed the days of thy mourning. 21. And thy people, all of them righteous, for ever shall inherit the earth, the branch (or, shoot) of My planting, the work of My hands, to glorify Myself (or, to be glorified). 22. The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I, Jehovah, in its time will hasten it.
LXI.—[After describing the new condition of the Church, he again introduces the great Personage by whom the change is to be brought about. His mission and its object are described by Himself in vers. 1–3. Its grand result shall be the restoration of a ruined world, ver. 4. The Church, as a mediator between God and the revolted nations, shall enjoy their solace and support, vers. 5, 6. The shame of God’s people shall be changed to honour, ver. 7. The Church once restricted as a single nation, shall be recognised and honoured among all, ver. 9. He triumphs in the prospect of the universal spread of truth and righteousness, vers. 10, 11.]
1. The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah (is) upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to bring good news to the humble, He hath sent me to bind up the broken in heart, to proclaim to captives freedom, and to the bound open opening (of the eyes or of the prison doors); 2. to proclaim a year of favour for Jehovah, and a day of vengeance for our God; to comfort all mourners, 3. to put upon Zion’s mourners—to give them a crown instead of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for a faint spirit; and it shall be called to them (or, they shall be called) the oaks of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah (i.e., planted by Jehovah) to glorify Himself.
4. And they shall bind up the ruins of antiquity, the desolations of the ancients they shall raise, and shall renew the cities of ruin (i.e., ruined cities), the desolations of age and age. 5. Then shall stand strangers and feed your flocks, and the children of outland (shall be) your ploughmen and your vine-dressers. 6. And ye (or more emphatically, as for you), the priests of Jehovah shall ye be called, the ministers of our God shall be said to you (or, of you), the strength of nations shall ye eat, and in their glory shall ye substitute yourselves. 7. Instead of your shame (ye shall have) double, and (instead of their) confusion they shall celebrate their portion; therefore in their land shall they inherit double, everlasting joy shall be to them. 8. For I am Jehovah, loving justice, hating (that which is) taken away unjustly, and I will give their hire truly, and an everlasting covenant I strike for them. 9. Then shall be known among the nations their seed, and their issue in the midst of the peoples. All seeing them shall acknowledge them that they are a seed Jehovah has blessed.
10. (I will) joy, I will joy in Jehovah, let my soul exult in my God; for He hath clothed me with garments of salvation, a mantle of righteousness has He put on me, as a bridegroom adjusts his priestly crown, and as the bride arrays her jewels. 11. For as the earth puts forth its growth, and as the garden makes its plants to grow, so shall the Lord Jehovah make to grow righteousness and praise before all the nations.
LXII.—[The words of the great Deliverer are continued from the foregoing chapter. He will not rest until the glorious change in the condition of His people is accomplished, ver. 1. They shall be recognised by kings and nations as the people of Jehovah, vers. 2, 3. She who seemed to be forsaken is still His spouse, vers. 4, 5. The Church is required to watch and pray for the fulfilment of the promise, vers. 6, 7. God has sworn to protect her and supply her wants, ver. 8, 9. Instead of a single nation, all the nations of the earth shall flow unto her, ver 10. The good news of salvation shall no longer be confined, but universally diffused, ver 11. The glory of the Church is the redemption of the world, ver. 12.]
1. For Zion’s sake I will not be still, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp (that) burneth. 2. And nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and there shall be called in thee a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah shall utter. 3. And thou shalt be a crown of beauty in Jehovah’s hand, and a diadem of royalty in the palm of thy God. 4. No more shall it be called to thee (shalt thou be called) Azubah (Forsaken), and thy land shall no more be called Shemamah (Desolate), but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (married), for Jehovah delights in thee, and thy land shall be married. 5. For (as) a young man marrieth a virgin, (so) shall thy sons marry thee, and (with) the joy of a bridegroom over a bride shall thy God rejoice over thee.
6. On thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night long they shall not be silent. Ye that remind Jehovah, let there be no rest to you, 7. and give no rest to Him, until He establish and, until He place Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8. Sworn hath Jehovah by His right hand, and by His arm of strength, If I give (i.e., I will not give) thy corn any more as food to thine enemies, and if the sons of the outland shall drink thy new wine which thou hast laboured in (I am not God). 9. For those gathering it shall eat it, and shall praise Jehovah, and those collecting it shall drink it in My holy courts (or, in the courts of My sanctuary). 10. Pass, pass through the gates, clear the way of the people, raise high, raise high the highway, free (it) from stones, raise a banner (or, a signal) over the nations. 11. Behold, Jehovah has caused it to be heard to the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him and His hire before Him. 12. And they shall call them the Holy People, the redeemed of Jehovah, and thou shalt be called Derushah (sought for), Ir-lo-neczabah (city not forsaken).
LXIII.—[The influx of the Gentiles into Zion having been described in the preceding verses, the destruction of her enemies is now sublimely represented as a sanguinary triumph of Jehovah or the Messiah, vers. 1–6. The prophet then supposes the catastrophe already past, and takes a retrospective view of God’s compassion towards His people, and of their unfaithfulness during the old economy, vers. 7–14. He assumes the tone of earnest supplication, such as might have been offered by the believing Jews when all seemed lost in the destruction of the commonwealth and temple, vers. 15–19.]
LXIV.—[This chapter is inseparable from the one before it. The strongest confidence is expressed in the Divine power, founded upon former experience, vers. 1–3. The two great facts of Israel’s rejection as a nation, and the continued existence of the Church, are brought together in ver. 4. The unworthiness of Israel is acknowledged still more fully, ver. 5, 6. The sovereign authority of God is humbly recognised, ver. 7. His favour is earnestly implored, ver. 8. The external prerogatives of Israel are lost, ver. 9. But will God for that cause cast off the true Israel, His own people? ver. 10.]
1. Who (is) this coming from Edom, bright (as to His) garments from Bozrah, this one adorned in His apparel, bending in the abundance of His strength?
I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.
2. Why (is there) redness to Thy raiment, and (why are) Thy garments like (those of) one treading in a wine-press?
3. The press I have trodden by Myself, and of the nations there was not a man with Me; and I will tread them in My anger, and trample them in My fury, and in their juice shall spirt upon My garments, and all My vesture I have stained. 4. For the day of vengeance (is) in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come. 5. And I look, and there is none helping; and I stand aghast, and there is none sustaining; and My own arm saves for Me, and My fury it sustains Me. 6. And I tread the nations in My anger, and I make them drunk in My wrath, and I bring down to the earth their juice.
7. The mercies of Jehovah I will cause to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath done for us, which He hath done for them, according to His compassions, and according to the multitude of His mercies.
8. And He said, Only they are My people, (My) children shall not lie (or, deceive), and He became a Saviour for them. 9. In all their enmity He was not an enemy, and the angel of His face (or, presence) saved them; in His love and in His sparing mercy He redeemed them, and He took them up and carried them all the days of old. 10. And they rebelled, and grieved His Holy Spirit (or, Spirit of holiness), and He was turned from them into an enemy, He himself fought against them.
11. And he remembered the days of old, Moses (and) his people. Where is He that brought them up from the sea, the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put within him His Holy Spirit? 12. Leading them by the right hand of Moses (and) His glorious arm, cleaving the waters from before them, to make for Him an everlasting name? 13. Making them walk in the depths, like the horse in the desert they shall not stumble. 14. As the herd into the valley will go down, the Spirit of Jehovah will make him rest. So didst Thou lead Thy people, to make for Thyself a name of glory.
15. Look (down) from heaven and see from Thy dwelling-place of holiness and beauty! Where is Thy zeal and Thy might (or, mighty deeds)? The sounding of Thy bowels and Thy mercies towards me have withdrawn themselves. 16. For Thou (art) our Father; for Abraham hath not known us, and Israel will not recognise us; Thou Jehovah art our Father, our Redeemer of old (or, from everlasting) is Thy name. 17. Why wilt Thou make us wander, O Jehovah, from Thy ways? (why) wilt Thou harden our heart from Thy fear? Return, for the sake of Thy servants, the tribes of Thy inheritance. 18. For a little Thy holy people possessed, our enemies trod down Thy sanctuary. 19. We are of old, Thou has not ruled over them, Thy name has not been called upon them. LXIV.—1. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens (and) come down, (that) from before Thee the mountains might quake (or flow down), 2. as fire kindles brush, fire boils water—to make known Thy name to Thine enemies, from before Thee nations shall tremble. 3. In Thy doing fearful things (which) we expect not, (oh that) Thou wouldst come down, (that) the mountains before Thee might flow down. 4. And from eternity they have not heard, they have not perceived by the ear, the eye hath not seen, a God beside Thee (who) will do for (one) waiting for Him.
5. Thou hast met with one rejoicing and executing righteousness; in Thy ways shall they remember Thee; behold, Thou hast been wroth, and we have sinned; in them is perpetuity, and we shall be saved. 6. And we were like the unclean all of us, and like a filthy garment all our righteousness (virtues or good works), and we faded like the (fading) leaf all of us, and our iniquities like the wind will take us up (or, carry us away). 7. And there is no one calling on Thy name, rousing himself to lay hold on Thee; for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast melted us because of (or, by means of) our iniquities.
8. And now Jehovah, our Father (art) Thou, we the clay and Thou our potter, and the work of Thy hands (are) we all. 9. Be not angry, O Jehovah, to extremity, and do not to eternity remember guilt; lo, look, we pray thee, Thy people (are) we all. 10. The holy cities are a desert, Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste. 11. Our house of holiness and beauty (in) which our fathers praised Thee has been burned up with fire, and all our delights (or, desirable places) have become a desolation. 12. Wilt Thou for these (things) restrain Thyself, O Jehovah, wilt Thou keep silence and afflict us to extremity?