Chapter 17

LXV.—[The grand enigma of Israel’s simultaneous loss and gain is solved by a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles, ver. 1. This is connected with the obstinate unfaithfulness of the chosen people, ver. 2. They are represented under the two main aspects of their character at different periods, as gross idolaters and as pharisaical bigots, vers. 3–5. Their casting off was not occasioned by the sins of one generation, but of many, vers. 6, 7. But even in this rejected race there was a chosen remnant, in whom the promises shall be fulfilled, vers. 8–10. He then reverts to the idolatrous Jews, and threatens them with condign punishment, vers. 11, 12. The fate of the unbelieving carnal Israel is compared with that of the true spiritual Israel, vers. 13–16. The gospel economy is described as a new creation, ver. 17. Its blessings are represented under glowing figures borrowed from the old dispensation, vers. 18–19. Premature death shall be no longer known, ver. 20. Possession and enjoyment shall no longer be precarious, vers. 21–23. Their very desires shall be anticipated, ver. 24. All animosities and noxious influences shall cease for ever, ver. 25.]

1. I have been inquired of by those that asked not, I have been found by those that sought Me not; I have said, Behold Me, behold Me, to a nation (that) was not called by My name. 2. I have spread (or, stretched) out My hands all the day (or, every day) to a rebellious people, those going the way not good, after their own thoughts (or, designs)—3. the people angering Me to My face continually, sacrificing in the gardens, and censing on the bricks; 4. sitting in the graves, and in the holes they will lodge, eating the flesh of swine, and broth of filthy things (is in) their vessels; 5. the (men) saying, Keep to thyself, come not near to me, for I am holy to thee,—these (are) a smoke in My wrath, a fire burning all the day (or, every day). 6 and 7. Lo, it is written before Me, I will not rest except I repay, and I will repay into their bosom your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith Jehovah, who burned incense on the mountains, and on the hills blasphemed Me, and I will measure their first work into their bosom.

8. Thus saith Jehovah, as (when) juice is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for the sake of My servants, not to destroy the whole. 9. And I will bring forth from Jacob a seed, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, and My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10. And Sharon shall be for (or, become) a home of flocks, and the valley of Achor a lair of herds, for My people who have sought Me.

11. And (as for) you, forsakers of Jehovah, the (men) forgetting My holy mountain, the (men) setting for Fortune a table, and the (men) filling for Fate a mingled draught; 12. and I have numbered you to the sword, and all of you to the slaughter shall bow; because I called and ye did not answer, I spake and ye did not hear, and ye did the (thing that was) evil in my eyes, and that which I desired not ye chose.

13 and 14. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Lo! My servants shall eat and ye shall hunger; lo, My servants shall drink and ye shall thirst; lo, My servants shall rejoice and ye shall be ashamed; lo, My servants shall shout from gladness of heart, and ye shall cry from grief of heart, and from brokenness of spirit ye shall howl. 15. And ye shall leave your name for an oath to My chosen ones, and the Lord Jehovah shall slay thee, and shall call His servants by another name (lit. call another name to them), 16. (by) which the (man) blessing himself in the land (or, earth) shall bless himself by the God of truth, and (by which) the (man) swearing in the land (or, earth) shall swear by the God of truth, because forgotten are the former enmities (or, troubles), and because they are hidden from My eyes.

17. For lo I (am) creating (or, about to create) new heavens and a new earth, and the former (things) shall not be remembered, and shall not come up into the mind (lit. on the heart). 18. But rejoice and be glad unto eternity (in) that which I (am) creating, for lo, I (am) creating Jerusalem a joy, and her people a rejoicing. 19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and there shall not be heard in her again the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. 20. There shall be no more from there an infant of days, and an old man who shall not fulfil his days, for the child a hundred years old shall die, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 and 22. And they shall build houses and inhabit (them), and shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, they shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree (shall be) the days of My people, and the work of their hands My chosen ones shall wear out (or, survive). 23. They shall not labour in vain, and they shall not bring forth for terror; for the seed of the blessed of Jehovah are they, and their offspring with them. 24. And it shall be (or, come to pass), that they shall not yet have called and I will answer, yet (shall) they (be) speaking and I will hear. 25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed as one, and the lion like the ox shall eat straw, and the serpent dust (for) his food. They shall not hurt and they shall not corrupt (or, destroy) in all My holy mountain, saith Jehovah.

LXVI.—[This chapter winds up the prophetic discourse with an express prediction of the change of dispensation, and a description of the difference between them. Jehovah will no longer dwell in temples made with hands, ver. 1. Every sincere and humble heart shall be His residence, ver. 2. The ancient sacrifices, though Divinely instituted, will henceforth be as hateful as the rites of idolatry, ver. 3. They who still cling to the abrogated ritual will be fearfully but righteously requited, ver. 4. The true Israel cast out by these deluded sinners shall ere long be glorified, and the carnal Israel fearfully rewarded, vers. 5, 6. The ancient Zion may already be seen travailing with a new and glorious dispensation, vers. 7–9. They who mourned for her seeming desolation, now rejoice in her abundance and her honour, vers. 10–14. At the same time the carnal Israel shall be destroyed, as apostates and idolaters, vers. 15–17. The place where they once occupied shall now be filled by the elect from all nations, ver. 18. To gather these, a remnant of the ancient Israel shall go forth among the Gentiles, ver. 19. They shall come from every quarter, and by every mode of conveyance, ver. 20. They shall be admitted to the sacerdotal honours by the chosen people, ver. 21. This new dispensation shall not be temporary, like the one before it, but shall last for ever, ver. 22. While the spiritual Israel is thus replenished from all nations, the apostate Israel shall perish by a lingering decay in the sight of an astonished world, ver. 23, 24.]

1. Thus saith Jehovah, the heavens (are) My throne, and the earth My footstool; where is (or, what is) the house which ye will build for Me, and where is (or, what is) the place of My rest? 2. And all these My own hand made, and all these were (or, are), saith Jehovah; and to this one will I look, to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, and trembling at My word.

3. Slaying the ox, smiting a man—sacrificing the sheep, breaking a dog’s neck—offering an oblation, blood of swine—making a memorial of incense, blessing vanity—also they have chosen their ways, and in their abominations has their soul delighted. 4. I also will choose their vexations, and their fear I will bring unto them; because I called and there was no answering, I spake and they did not hear, and they did evil in My eyes, and that which I delight not in they chose.

5. Hear the word of Jehovah, ye that tremble at His word. Your brethren say, (these) hating you and casting you out for My name’s sake, Jehovah will be glorified, and we shall gaze upon our joy—and they shall be ashamed. 6. A voice of tumult from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of Jehovah, rendering requital to His enemies!

7. Before she travailed she brought forth, before her pain came she was delivered of a male. 8. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall a land be brought forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once? For Zion hath travailed, she hath also brought forth her children. 9. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? saith Jehovah. Or am I the one causing to bring forth, and shall I shut up? saith thy God.

10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all that love her; and be glad with her with gladness, all those mourning for her. 11. that ye may suck and be satisfied from the breast of her consolations, that ye may milk out and enjoy yourselves, from the fulness (or, the full breast) of her glory. 12. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I am extending to her peace like a river, and like an overflowing stream the glory of nations; and ye shall suck; on the side shall ye be borne, and on the knees shall ye be dandled. 13. As a man who his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and in Jerusalem shall ye be comforted. 14. And ye shall see, and your heart shall leap (with joy), and your bones like grass shall sprout, and the hand of Jehovah shall be known to His servants, and He shall be indignant at His enemies.

15. For lo, Jehovah in fire will come, and like the whirlwind His chariots, to appease in fury His anger, and His rebuke in flames of fire. 16. For by fire is Jehovah striving and by His sword with all flesh, and multiplied (or, many) are the slain of Jehovah. 17. The (men) hallowing themselves and the (men) cleansing themselves to (or, towards) the gardens after one in the midst, eaters of swine’s flesh and vermin and mouse, together shall cease (or, come to an end), saith Jehovah.

18. And I—their works and their thoughts—it is come—to gather all the nations and the tongues—and they shall come and see My glory. 19. And I will place in them (or, among them) a sign, and I will send of them survivors (or, escaped ones) to the nations, Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, drawers of the bow, Tubal and Javan, distant isles, which have not heard my fame, and have not seen My glory, and they shall declare My glory among nations. 20. And they shall bring all your brethren from all nations, an oblation to Jehovah, with horses, and with chariot, and with litters, and with mules, and with dromedaries, on My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, as the children of Israel bring the oblation in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. 21. And also of them, will I take for the priests, for the Levites, saith Jehovah. 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I am making (or, about to make), are standing (or, about to stand) before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall stand your name and your seed.

23. And it shall be (or, come to pass) that from new-moon to new-moon (or, on every new-moon), and from Sabbath to Sabbath (or, on every Sabbath), shall come all flesh to bow themselves (or, worship) before Me, saith Jehovah. 24. And they shall go forth and gaze upon the carcasses of the men who revolted (or, apostatised) from Me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a horror to all flesh.

 

TRANSLATION

of the

PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH,

By Delitzsch and Martin.[1]

 

general title.—chap. i. 1.

Seeing of Yesha’-yahu, son of Amoz, which he saw over Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziyahu, Jotham, Ahaz, and Yehizkiyahu, the kings of Judah.

 

PART I.

prophecies relating to the onward course of the great mass of the people towards hardening of heart.—chaps. i.–vi.

Opening Address Concerning the Ways of Jehovah with His Ungrateful and Rebellious Nation.—Chap. i. 2., sqq.

2. Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah speaketh! I have brought up children, and raised them high, and they have fallen away from Me. 3. An ox knoweth its owner, and an ass its master’s crib: Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4. Woe upon the sinful nation, the guilt-laden people, the miscreant race, the children acting corruptly! They have forsaken Jehovah, blasphemed Israel’s Holy One, turned away backwards.

5. Why would ye be perpetually smitten, multiplying rebellion? Every head is diseased, and every heart is sick. 6. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: cuts, and stripes, and festering wounds; they have not been pressed out, nor bound up, nor has there been any soothing with oil. 7. Your land . . . a desert; your cities . . . burned with fire; your field . . . foreigners consuming it before your eyes, and a desert like overthrowing by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion remains like a hut in a vineyard; like a hammock in a cucumber field, as a besieged city. 9. Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a little of what had escaped, we had become like Sodom, we were like Gomorrah.

10. Hear the word of Jehovah, ye Sodom judges; give ear to the law of our God, O Gomorrah nation! 11. What is the multitude of your slain offerings to Me? saith Jehovah. I am satiated with the whole offerings of rams, and the fat of stalled calves; and blood of bullocks and sheep and he-goats I do not like. 12. When ye come to appear before My face, who hath required this at your hands, to tread My courts? 13. Continue not to bring lying meat offering; abomination incense is it to Me. New-moon and Sabbath, calling of festal meetings . . . I cannot bear ungodliness and a festal crowd. 14. Your new-moons and your festive seasons My soul hateth; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15. And if ye stretch out your hands, I hide Mine eyes from you; if ye make ever so much praying, I do not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16. Wash, clean yourselves; put away the badness of your doings from the range of My eyes; cease to do evil; 17. learn to do good, attend to judgment, set the oppressor right, do justice to the orphan, conduct the cause of the widow.

18. O come, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah. If your sins come forth like scarlet cloth, they shall become white as snow; if they are red as crimson, they shall come forth like wool! 19. If ye then shall willingly hear, ye shall eat the good of the land; 20. if ye shall obstinately rebel, ye shall be eaten by the sword! for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

21. How is she become an harlot, the faithful citadel! she, full of right, lodged in righteousness, and now——murderers. 22. Thy silver has become dross, thy drink mutilated with water. 23. Thy rulers are rebellious and companions of thieves; every one loveth presents, and hunteth after payment; the orphan they right not, and the cause of the widow has no access to them.

24. Therefore, saying of the Lord, of Jehovah of hosts, of the Strong One of Israel; Ah! I will relieve Myself on Mine adversaries, and will avenge Myself upon Mine enemies; 25. and I will bring My hand over thee, and will smelt out thy dross as with alkali, and will clear away all thy lead. 26. And I will bring back thy judges as in the olden time, and thy counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards thou wilt be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Citadel.

27. Zion will be redeemed through judgment, and her returning ones through righteousness; 28. and breaking up of the rebellious and sinners together; and those who forsake Jehovah will perish. 29. For they become ashamed of the terebinths, in which ye had your delight; and ye must blush for the gardens, in which ye took pleasure. 30. For ye shall become like a terebinth with withered leaves, and like a garden that hath no water. 31. And the rich man becomes tow, and his work the spark; and they will both burn together, and no one extinguishes them.

 

the way of general judgment; or the course of israel from false glory to the true—chaps. ii.–iv.

II.—1. The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw of Judah and Jerusalem.

2. And it cometh to pass at the end of the days, the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be set at the top of the mountains, and exalted over hills; all nations pour unto it. 3. And peoples in multitude go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; let Him instruct us out of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for instruction will go out from Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4. And He will judge between the nations, and deliver justice to many peoples; and they forge their swords into coulters, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation lifts not up sword against nation, neither do they exercise themselves in war any more.

5. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

6. For Thou hast rejected Thy people, the house of Jacob; for they are filled with things from the east and are conjurors like the Philistines; and with the children of foreigners they go hand in hand. 7. And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end in their treasures; and their land is filled with horses, and there is no end of their chariots. 8. And their land is filled with —— idols; the work of their own hands they worship, that which their own fingers have made.

9. Thus, then, men are bowed down, and lords are brought low; and forgive them—no, that Thou wilt not. 10. Creep into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty. 11. The people’s eyes of haughtiness are humbled, and the pride of their lords is bowed down; and Jehovah, He only, stands exalted in that day.

12. For Jehovah of hosts hath a day over everything towering and lofty, and over everything exalted; and it becomes low. 13. As upon all the cedars of Lebanon, the lofty and exalted, so upon all the oaks of Bashan; 14. as upon all mountains, the lofty ones, so upon all hills the exalted ones; 15. as upon every high tower, so upon every fortified wall; 16. as upon all ships of Tarshish, so upon all works of curiosity. 17. And the haughtiness of the people is bowed down, and the pride of the lords brought low; and Jehovah, He alone, stands exalted in that day.

18. And the idols pass utterly away. 19. And they will creep into caves in the rocks, and cellars in the earth, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to put the earth in terror. 20. In that day will a man cast away his idols of gold; and his idols of silver, which they made for him to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21. to creep into the cavities of the stone-blocks, and into the clefts of the rocks, before the terrible look of Jehovah and before the glory of His majesty, when He arises to put the earth in terror.

22. Oh then, let man go, in whose nose is a breath, for what is he to be estimated at? III.—1. For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supporter and means of support, every support of bread and every support of water; 2. hero and man of war, judge and prophet, and soothsayer and elder; 3. captains of fifty, and the highly distinguished, and counsellors, and masters in art, and those skilled in muttering. 4. And I will give the boys for princes, and caprices shall rule over them. 5. And the people oppress one another, one this and another that; the boy breaks out violently upon the old man, and the despised upon the honoured. 6. When a man shall take hold of his brother in his father’s house, Thou hast a coat, thou shalt be our ruler, and take this ruin under thy hand; 7. he will cry out in that day, I do not want to be a surgeon; there is neither bread nor coat in my house: ye cannot make me the ruler of the people.

8. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to defy the eyes of His glory. 9. The look of their faces testifies against them, and their sin they make known like Sodom, without concealing it: woe to their soul! for they do themselves harm. 10. Say of the righteous, that it is well with him; for they will enjoy the fruit of their doings. 11. Woe to the wicked! it is ill; for what his hands have wrought will be done to him. 12. My people, its oppressors are boys, and women rule over it; my people, thy leaders are misleaders, who swallow up the way of thy paths.

13. Jehovah has appeared to plead, and stands up to judge the nations. 14. Jehovah will proceed to judgment with the elders of His people, and its princes. And ye, ye have eaten of the vineyard; prey of the suffering is in your houses. 15. What mean ye that ye crush My people, and grind the face of the suffering? thus saith the Lord of hosts.

16. Jehovah hath spoken: because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk about with extended throat, and blinking with the eyes, walk about with tripping gait, and tinkle with their foot-ornaments: 17. the Lord of all makes the crown of the daughters of Zion scabbed, and Jehovah will uncover their shame. 18. On that day the Lord will put away the show of the ankle-clasps, and of the head-bands, and of the crescents; 19. the ear-rings, and the arm-chains, and the light veils; 20. the diadems, and the stepping-chains, and the girdles, and the smelling-bottles, and the amulets; 21. the finger-rings and the nose-rings; 22. the gala dresses, and the sleeve-frocks, and the wrappers, and the pockets; 23. the hand-mirrors, and the Sindu-cloths, and the turbans, and the gauze mantles. 24. And instead of balmy scent there will be mouldiness, and instead of artistic ringlets a baldness, and instead of the dress-cloak a frock of sack-cloth, branding instead of beauty. 25. Thy men fall by the sword, and thy might in war. 26. Then will her gates lament and mourn, and desolate is she and sits down upon the ground. IV.—1. And seven women lay hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothes; only let thy name be named upon us, take away our reproach.

2. In that day will the Sprout of Jehovah become an ornament and glory, and the fruit of the land pride and splendour for the redeemed of Israel. 3. And it will come to pass, whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem, holy will he be called, all who are written down for life in Jerusalem: 4. when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged away the blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of sifting. 5. And Jehovah creates over every spot of mount Zion, and over its festal assemblies, a cloud by day, and smoke, and the shining and flaming fire by night; for over all the glory comes a canopy; 6. and it will be a booth for shade by day and covert from storm and from rain.

 

judgment of devastation upon the vineyard of jehovah.—chap. v.

Closing Words of the First Cycle of Prophecies.

1. Arise, I will sing of my beloved, a song of my dearest touching His vineyard.

My beloved had a vineyard on a flatly-nourished mountain-horn, 2. and dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with noble vines, and built a tower in it, and also hewed out a winepress therein; and hoped that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between Me and My vineyard! 4. What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it! Wherefore did I hope that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes?[1]

5. Now then, I will tell you what I will do at once to My vineyard: Take away its hedges, and it shall be for grazing; pull down its wall, and it shall be for treading down; 6. and I will put an end to it: it shall not be pruned nor dragged, and it shall break out in thorns and thistles, and I will command the clouds to rain no rain over it. 7. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plantation of His delight: He waited for justice, and behold, grasping; for righteousness, and behold, a shriek!

8. Woe unto them that join house to house, who lay field to field, till there is no more room, and ye alone are dwelling in the midst of the land. 9. Into mine ears, Jehovah of hosts: Of a truth many houses shall become a wilderness, great and beautiful ones deserted. 10. For ten yokes of vineyard will yield one pailful, and a quarter of seed-corn will produce a bushel.

11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to run after strong drink: who continue till late at night with wine inflaming them! 12. And guitar and harp, kettle-drum, and flute, and wine is in their feast; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, and see not the purpose of His hands.

13. Therefore My people go into banishment without knowing; and their glory will become starving men, and their tumult men dried up with thirst. 14. Therefore the under-world opens its jaws wide, and stretches open its mouth immeasurably wide; and the glory of Jerusalem descends, and its tumult, and noise, and those who rejoice within it. 15. Then are mean men bowed down, and lords humbled, and the eyes of lofty men are humbled. 16. And Jehovah of hosts shows Himself exalted in judgment, and God the Holy One sanctifies Himself in righteousness; 17. and lambs feed as upon their pasture, and nomad shepherds eat the waste places of the fat ones.[2]

18. Woe unto them that draw crime with cords of lying, and sin as with the rope of the waggon; 19. who say, Let Him hasten, accelerate His work, that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may experience it.

20. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who give out darkness for light, and light for darkness; who give out bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.

22. Woe unto those who are heroes to drink wine, and brave men to mingle strong drink; 23. who acquit criminals for a bribe, and take away from every one the righteousness of the righteous.

24. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and hay sinks together in the flame, their root will become like mould, and their blossom fly up like dust; for they have despised the law of Jehovah of hosts, and scornfully rejected the proclamation of the Holy One of Israel. 25. Therefore is the wrath of Jehovah kindled against His people, and He stretches His hand over them, and sites them; then the hills tremble, and their carcass become like sweepings in the midst of the streets.

For all this His anger is not appeased, and His hand is stretched out still, 26. and lifts up a banner to the distant nations, and hisses to it from the end of the earth; and, behold, it comes with haste swiftly. 27. There is none exhausted, and none stumbling among them: it gives itself no slumber, and no sleep; and to none is the girdle of his hips loosed; and to none is the lace of his shoes broken; 28. he whose arrows are sharpened, and all his bows strung; the hoofs of his horses are counted like flint, and his wheels like the whirlwind. 29. Roaring issues from it as from the lioness: it roars like lions, and utters a low murmur; seizes the prey, carries it off, and no one rescues. 30. And it utters a deep roar over it in that day like the roaring of the sea: and it looks to the earth, and behold darkness, tribulation, and light; it becomes night over it in the clouds of heaven.[3]

 

the prophet’s account of his own divine mission.—chap. vi.

1. The year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord of all sitting upon a high and exalted throne, and His borders filling the temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. 3. And one cried to the other, and said,

Holy, holy, holy! is Jehovah of hosts!
Filling the whole earth is His glory.

4. And the foundation of the threshold shook with the voice of them that cried; and the house became full of smoke.

5. Then said I, Woe unto me! for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I am dwelling among a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.

6. And one of the seraphim flew to me with a red-hot coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7. And he touched my mouth with it, and said, Behold, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away; and so thy sin is expiated.

8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Behold me here; send me!

9. He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear on, and understand not; and look on, but perceive not. 10. Make ye the heart of this people greasy, and their ears heavy, and their eyes sticky; that they may not see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart understand, and they be converted, and one heal them.

11. Then said I, Lord, how long?

And He answered, Until towns are wasted without inhabitant, and houses are without men, and the ground shall be laid waste, a wilderness, 12. and Jehovah shall put men far away, and there shall be many forsaken places within the land. 13. And is there still a tenth therein, this also is given up to destruction, like the terebinth and like the oak, of which, when they are felled, only a root stump remains: such a root stump is the holy seed.[1]

 

PART II.

consolation of immanuel in the midst of the assyrian oppressions.—chaps. vii.–xii.

Divine Sign of the Virgin’s Wondrous Son.—Chap. vii.

1. It came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aramæa, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, and (he) could not make war upon it. 2. And it was told the house of David, Aram has settled down upon Ephraim: then his heart shook, and the heart of the people, as trees of the wood shake before the wind.

3. Then said Jehovah to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-jashub thy son, to the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, to the road of the fuller’s field; 4. and say unto him, Take heed, and keep quiet; and let not thy heart become soft from these two smoking firebrand stumps! at the fierce anger of Rezin, and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. 5. Because Aram hath determined evil over thee, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying, 6. We will march against Judah, and terrify it, and conquer it for ourselves, and make the son of Tabeal king in the midst of it: 7. thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It will not be brought about, and will not take place. 8. For head of Aram is Damascus, and head of Damascus Rezin, and in five-and-sixty years will Ephraim as a people be broken to pieces. 9. And head of Ephraim is Samaria, and head of Samaria the son of Remaliah; if ye believe not, surely ye will not remain.

10. And Jehovah continued speaking to Ahaz as follows: 11. Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God, going deep down into Hades, or high up to the height above. 12. But Ahaz replied, I dare not ask, and dare not tempt Jehovah. 13. And he spake, Hear ye now, O house of David! Is it too little to you to weary men, that ye weary my God also? 14. Therefore the Lord, He will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin conceives, and bears a son, and calls his name Immanuel. 15. Butter and honey will he eat, at the time that he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16. For before the boy shall understand to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land will be desolate, of whose two kings thou art afraid.

17. Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days such as have not come since the day when Ephraim broke away from Judah—the king of Asshur. 18. And it comes to pass in that day, Jehovah will hiss for the fly which is at the end of the Nile-arms of Egypt, and the bees that are in the land of Asshur; 19. and they come and settle all of them in the valleys of the slopes, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in all the thorn-hedges, and upon all grass-plats. 20. In that day will the Lord shave with a razor, the thing for hire on the shore of the river, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet: and even the beard it will take away. 21. And it will come to pass in that day, that a man will keep a small cow and a couple of sheep; 22. and it comes to pass, for the abundance of the milk they will give he will eat cream: for butter and honey will every one eat that is left within the land. 23. And it will come to pass in that day, every place where a thousand vines stood at a thousand silverlings will have become thorns and thistles. 24. With arrows and with bows will men go, for the whole land will have become thorns and thistles. 25. And all the hills that were accustomed to be hoed with the hoe, thou wilt not go to them for fear of thorns and thistles; and it has become a gathering-place for oxen, and a treading-place for sheep.

 

two omens of the immediate future.—chap. viii. 1–4.

1. Then Jehovah said to me, Take a large slab, and write upon it with common strokes, “In speed spoil, booty hastens:” 2. and I will take to me trustworthy witnesses, Uriyah the priest, and Zehcaryahu the son of Yeberechyahu.

3. And I drew near to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son: and Jehovah said to me, Call his name In-speed-spoil-booty-hastens (Maher-shalal-hash-baz): 4. for before the boy shall know how to cry, My father, and my mother, they will carry away the riches of Damascus, and the spoil of Samaria, before the king of Asshur.

 

esoteric addresses—chap. viii. 5–xii.

A.—Consolation of Immanuel in the Coming Darkness.—Chap. viii. 5–ix. 6.

5. And Jehovah proceeded still further to speak to me, as follows:—

6. Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Siloah that go softly, and regardeth as a delight the alliance with Rezin and the son of Remalyahu, 7. therefore, behold! the Lord of all bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, the mighty and the great, the king of Assyria, and all his military power: and he riseth over all his channels, and goeth over all his banks, 8. and presses forward into Judah, overflows and pours onward, till it reaches the neck, and the spreadings out of its wings fill the breadth of thy land, Immanuel.

9. Exasperate yourselves, O nations, and go to pieces; and see it, all who are far off in the earth! Gird yourselves, and go to pieces; gird yourselves, and go to pieces! 10. Consult counsel, and it comes to nought; speak the word, and it is not realised: for with us is God.

11. For Jehovah hath spoken thus to me, overpowering me with God’s hand, and instructing me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, 12. Call ye not conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy; and what is feared by it, fear ye not, neither think ye dreadful. 13. Jehovah of hosts, sanctify Him; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your terror. 14. So will He become a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (vexation) to both the houses of Israel, a snare and a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15. And many among them shall stumble, and shall fall; and be dashed to pieces, and be snared and taken.

16. Bind up the testimony, seal the lesson in my disciples. 17. And I will wait upon Jehovah, who hides His face before the house of Jacob, and hope for Him. 18. Behold, I and the children which God hath given me for signs and types in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth upon mount Zion. 19. And when they shall say to you, Inquire of the necromancers, and of the soothsayers that chirp and whisper:—should not a people inquire of its God? for the living to the dead? 20. To the teaching of God, and to the testimony! If they do not accord with this word, they are a people for whom no morning dawns. 21. And it goes about therein hardly pressed and hungry: and it comes to pass, when hunger befalls it, it frets itself, and curses by its king and by its God, and turns its face upward, 22. and looks to the earth, and behold distress and darkness, benighting with anguish, and thrust out into darkness.

IX.—1. For it does not remain dark where there is now distress: in the first time He brought into disgrace the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and in the last He brings to honour the road by the sea, the other side of Jordan, the circle of the Gentiles.

2. The people that walk about in darkness see a great light; they who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light shines. 3. Thou multipliest the nation, preparest it great joy; they rejoice before Thee like the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they share the spoil. 4. For the yoke of its burden and the stick of its neck, the splinters, as in the day of Midian. 5. For every boot of those who tramp with boots in the tumult of battle, and cloak rolled in blood, shall be for burning, a food of fire. 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government rests upon His shoulder: and they call His name Wonder, Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7. To the increase of government and to peace without end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to strengthen it, and to support it through judgment and righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The jealousy of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

B.—Jehovah’s Outstretched Hand.—Chap. ix. 8–x. 4.

8. The Lord sends out a word against Jacob, and it descends into Israel. 9. And all the people must make atonement, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, saying in pride and haughtiness of heart, 10. “Bricks are fallen down, and we build with square stones; sycamores are hewn down, and we put cedars in their place.” 11. Jehovah raises Rezin’s oppressors high above him; and pricks up his enemies: 12. Aram from the east, and Philistines from the west; they devour Israel with full mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

13. But the people turneth not into Him that smiteth it, and they seek not Jehovah of hosts. 14. Therefore Jehovah rooteth out of Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. 15. Elders and highly distinguished men, this is the head; and prophets, lying teachers, this is the tail. 16. The leaders of this people have become leaders astray, and their followers swallowed up. 17. Therefore the Lord will not rejoice in their young men, and will have no compassion on their orphans and widows: for all together are profligate and evil-doers, and every mouth speaketh blasphemy. With all this His anger is not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

18. For the wickedness burneth up like fire: it devours thorns and thistles, and burns in the thickets of the wood; and they smoke upwards in a lofty volume of smoke. 19. Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts the land is turned into coal, and the nation has become like the food of fire: not one spares his brother. 20. They hew on the right, and are hungry; and devour on the left, and are not satisfied: they devour the flesh of their own arm: 21. Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: these together over Judah. With all this His anger is not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

X.—1. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who prepare trouble; 2. to force away the needy from demanding justice, and to rob the suffering of my people of their rightful claims, that widows may become their prey, and they plunder orphans! 3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the storm that cometh from afar? To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye deposit your glory? 4. There is nothing left but to bow down under prisoners, and they fall under the slain. With all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

C.—Destruction of the Imperial Kingdom of the World, and Rise of the Kingdom of Jehovah in His Anointed.—Chap. x. 5–xii.

5. Woe to Asshur, the rod of Mine anger, and it is a staff in their hand, Mine indignation. 6. Against a wicked nation will I send them, and against the people of My wrath give them a charge, to spoil spoil, and to make it trodden down like street-mire. 7. Nevertheless he meaneth not so, neither does his heart think so; for it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 8. For he saith, Are not my generals all kings? 9. Is not Calno as Carchemish, or Hamath as Arpad, or Samaria as Damascus? 10. As my hand hath reached the kingdoms of the idols, and their graven images were more than those of Jerusalem and Samaria; 11. shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, do likewise to Jerusalem and her idols?

12. And it will come to pass, when the Lord shall have brought to an end all His work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will come to punish over the fruit of the pride of heart of the king of Asshur, and over the haughty look of his eyes. 13. For he hath said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom; for I am prudent: and I removed the bounds of the nations, and I plundered their stores, and threw down rulers like a bull. 14. And my hand extracted the wealth of the nations like a nest: and as men sweep up forsaken eggs, have I swept the whole earth; there was none that moved the wing, and opened the mouth, and chirped.

15. Dare the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith, or the saw magnify itself against him that useth it? As if a staff were to swing those that lift it up, as if a stick should lift up not—wood! 16. Therefore will the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send consumption against his fat men; and under Asshur’s glory there burns a brand like a firebrand. 17. And the light of Israel becomes a fire, and his Holy One a flame; and it sets on fire and devours its thistles and thorns in one day. 18. And the glory of his forest and his garden-ground will He destroy, even to soul and flesh, so that it is as when a sick man dieth. 19. And the remnant of the trees of his forest can be numbered, and a boy could write them.

20. And it will come to pass in that day, the remnant of Israel, and that which has escaped of the house of Jacob, will not continue to stay itself upon its chastiser, and will stay itself upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21. The remnant will turn, the remnant of Jacob, to God the Mighty. 22. For if thy people were even as the sea-sand, the remnant thereof will turn: destruction is firmly determined, flowing away righteousness. 23. For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, completes the finishing-stroke and that which is firmly determined, within the whole land.

24. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, My people that dwellest on Zion, be not afraid of Asshur, if it shall smite thee with the rod, and lift up its stick against thee, in the manner of Egypt. 25. For yet a very little while the indignation is past, and my wrath turns to destroy them: 26. and Jehovah of hosts moves the whip over it, as He smite Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff stretches out over the sea. 27. And it will come to pass in that day, its burden will remove from thy shoulder, and its yoke from thy neck; and the yoke will be destroyed from the pressure of the fat.

28. He comes upon Ayyath, passes through Migron; in Michmash he leaves his baggage. 29. They go through the pass: let Geba be our quarters for the night! Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. 30. Scream aloud, O daughter of Gallim. Only listen, O Laysha! Poor Anathoth! 31. Madmenah hurries away; the inhabitants of Gebim rescue. 32. He still halts in Nob to-day; swings his hand over the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33. Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, lops down the branches with terrific force; and those of towering growth are hewn down, and the lofty are humbled. 34. And He fells the thickets of the forest with iron; and Lebanon, it falls by a Majestic One.

XI.—1. And there cometh forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse, and a shoot from the roots bringeth forth fruit. 2. And the Spirit of Jehovah descends upon Him, spirit of wisdom and understanding, spirit of counsel and might, spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah; 3. and fear of Jehovah is fragrance to Him; and He judges not according to outward sight, neither does He pass sentence according to outward hearing; 4. and judges the poor with righteousness, and passes sentence with equity for the humble in the land; and smites the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slays the wicked. 5. And righteousness is the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His hips.

6. And the wolf dwells with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the kid; and calf and lion and stalled ox together; a little boy drives them. 7. And cow and bear go to the pasture; their young ones lie down together: and the lion eats chopped straw like the ox. 8. And the suckling plays by the hole of the adder, and the weaned child stretching its hand to the pupil of the basilisk-viper. 9. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain: for the land is filled with knowledge of Jehovah, like the waters covering the sea.

10. And it will come to pass in that day: the root-sprout of Jesse, which stands as a banner of the people’s, for it will nations ask, and its place of rest is glory.

11. And it will come to pass in that day, the Lord will stretch out His hand a second time to redeem the remnant of His people that shall be left, out of Asshur, and out of Egypt, and out of Pathros, and out of Ethiopia, and out of Elam, and out of Shinar, and out of Hamath, and out of the islands of the sea. 12. And He raises a banner for the nations, and fetches home the outcasts of Israel; and the dispersed of Judah will He assemble from the four borders of the earth. 13. And the jealousy of Ephraim is removed, and the adversaries of Judah are cut off; Ephraim will not show jealousy towards Judah, and Judah will not oppose Ephraim. 14. And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines seawards; unitedly they plunder the sons of the East: they seize upon Edom and Moab, and the sons of Amon are subject to them. 15. And Jehovah pronounces the ban upon the sea-tongue of Egypt, and swings His hand over the Euphrates in the glow of His breath, and smites it into seven brooks, and makes it so that men go through in shoes. 16. And there will be a road for the remnant of His people that shall be left, out of Asshur, as it was for Israel in the day of its departure out of the land of Egypt.

XII.—1, 2. And in that day thou wilt say,

I thank thee, O Jehovah, that Thou wast angry with me:
Thine anger is turned away, and Thou hast comforted me.
Behold, the God of my salvation;
I trust, and am not afraid;
For Jah Jehovah is my pride and song,
And He became my salvation.

3. And with rapture ye will draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4–6. And ye will say in that day,

Praise Jehovah, proclaim His name,
Make known His doings among the nations,
Boast that His name is exalted.
Harp to Jehovah; for He has displayed majesty:
Let this be known in all lands.
Shout and be jubilant, O inhabitant of Zion:
For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

 

PART III.

collection of oracles concerning the heathen.—chaps. xiii.–xxiii.

Oracle concerning the Chaldeans, the Heirs of the Assyrians.—Chap. xiii. 1–xiv. 17.

XIII.—1. Oracle concerning Babel, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

2. On woodless mountain lift ye up a banner, call to them with a loud sounding voice, shake the hand, that they may enter into the gates of princes! 3. I, I have summoned My sanctified ones, also called My heroes to My wrath, My proudly rejoicing ones. 4. Hark, a rumbling on the mountains after the manner of a great people! hark, a rumbling of kingdoms met together! Jehovah of hosts musters an army, 5. those that have come out of a distant land, from the end of heaven: Jehovah and His instruments of wrath, to destroy the whole earth. 6. Howl; for the day of Jehovah is near; like a destructive force from the Almighty it comes. 7. Therefore all arms hang loosely down, and every human heart melts away. 8. And they are troubled: they fall into cramps and pangs; like a woman in labour they twist themselves: one stares at the other; their faces are faces of flame. 9. Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, a cruel one, and wrath and fierce anger, to turn the earth into a wilderness: and its sinners He destroys out of it.

10. For the stars of heaven, and its Orions, will not let their light shine: the sun darkens itself at its rising, and the moon does not let its light shine. 11. And I visit the evil upon the world, and upon sinners their guilt, and sink into silence the pomp of the proud; and the boasting of tyrants I throw to the ground. 12. I make men more precious than fine gold, and people than a jewel of Ophir. 13. Therefore I shake the heavens, and the earth trembles away from its place, because of the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and because of the day of His fierce anger. 14. And it comes to pass as a gazelle which is scared, and as a flock without gatherers: they turn every one to his people, and they flee every one to his land. 15. Every one that is found is pierced through, and every one that is caught falls by the sword. 16. And their infants are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their homes plundered, and their wives ravished. 17. Behold, I rouse up the Medes over them, who do not regard silver, and take no pleasure in gold. 18. And bows dash down young men; and they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb: their eye has no pity on children.

19. And Babel, the ornament of kingdoms, the proud boast of the Chaldeans, becomes like Elohim’s overthrowing judgments upon Sodom and Gomorrah. 20. She remains uninhabited for ever, and unoccupied into generation of generations; and not an Arab pitches his tent there, and shepherds do not make their folds there. 21. And there lie beasts of the desert, and horn-owls fill their houses; and ostriches dwell there, and field-devils hop about there. 22. And jackals howl in her castles, and wild dogs in palaces of pleasure; and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.

XIV.—1. For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will once more choose Israel, and will settle them down in their own land: and the foreigner will associate with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. 2. And nations take them, and accompany them to their place; and the house of Israel takes them to itself in the land of Jehovah for servants and maid-servants: and they hold in captivity those who led them away captive; and become lords over their oppressors. 3. And it cometh to pass, on the day that Jehovah giveth thee the rest from thy plague, and from thy cares, and from the heavy bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, 4. that thou shalt raise such a song of triumph concerning the king of Babel and say—

How hath the oppressor ceased! the place of torture ceased! 5. Jehovah hath broken the rod of the wicked, the ruler’s staff, 6. which smote nations in wrath with strokes without ceasing, subjugated nations wrathfully with hunting that never stays. 7. The whole earth rests, is quiet: they break forth into singing. 8. Even the cypresses rejoice at thee, the cedars of Lebanon: “Since thou hast gone to sleep, no one will come up to lay axe upon us.”

9. The kingdom of the dead below is all in uproar on account of thee, to meet thy coming; it stirs up the shades for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; it raiseth up from their throne-seats all the kings of the nations. 10. They all rise up and say to thee, Art thou also made weak like us? Art thou become like us? 11. Thy pomp is cast down to the region of the dead, the noise of the harps: maggots are spread under thee, and they that cover thee are worms. 12. How art thou fallen from the sky, thou star of light, son of the dawn, hurled down to the earth, thou that didst throw down nations from above! 13. And thou, thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and sit down on the mount of the assembly of gods in the corner of the earth; 14. I will ascend to the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High. 15. Nevertheless, thou wilt be cast down into the region of the dead, into the corner of the pit. 16. They that see thee look, considering thee, look at thee thoughtfully: “Is this the man that set the earth trembling, and kingdoms shaking, 17. that made the world a wilderness, and destroyed its cities, and did not release its prisoners (to their) home?”

18. All the kings of the nations, they are all interred in honour, every one in his house: 19. but thou art cast away far from thy sepulchre like a shoot hurled away, clothed with slain, with those pierced through with the sword, those that go down to the stones of the pit; like a carcass trodden under feet. 20. Thou art not united with them in burial, for thou hast destroyed thy land, murdered thy people.

The seed of evil-doers will not be named for ever. 21. Prepare a slaughter-house for his sons, because of the iniquity of their fathers! They shall not rise and conquer lands, and fill the face of the earth with cities.

22. And I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and root out in Babel name and remnant, sprout and shoot, saith Jehovah. 23. And I will make it the possession of hedgehogs and marshes of water, and sweep it away with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts.

24. Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, that takes place; 25. to break Asshur in pieces in My land, and upon My mountain will I tread him under foot; then his yoke departs from them, and his burden will depart from their neck. 26. This is the purpose that is purposed over the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all nations. 27. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who could bring it to nought? and His hand that is stretched out, who can turn it back?

the oracle concerning philistia.—chap. xiv. 28–32.

28. In the year of the death of King Ahaz the following oracle was uttered.

29. Rejoice not so fully, O Philistia, that the rod which smote thee is broken to pieces; for out of the serpent’s root comes forth a basilisk, and its fruit is a flying dragon. 30. And the poorest of the poor will feed, and needy ones lie down in peace; and I kill thy root through hunger, and he slays thy remnant.

31 Howl, O gate! cry, O city! O Philistia, thou must melt entirely away; for from the north cometh smoke, and there is no isolated one among his hosts. 32. And what answer do the messengers of the nations bring? that Jehovah hath founded Zion, and that the afflicted of His people are hidden therein.

the oracle concerning moab.—chaps. xv., xvi.

XV.—1. Oracle concerning Moab! for in a night Ar-Moab is laid waste, destroyed; for in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, destroyed. 2. They go up to the temple-house and Dibon, up to the heights to weep: upon Nebo and upon Medebah of Moab there is weeping: on all heads baldness, every beard is mutilated. 3. In the markets of Moab they gird themselves with sackcloth; on the roofs of the land, and in the streets, everything wails, melting into tears. 4. Heshbon cries, and ’Elâle; even to Jahaz they hear their howling; even the armed men of Moab break out into mourning thereat; its soul trembles within it. 5. My heart, towards Moab it crieth out; its bolts reach to Zoar, the three-year-old heifer. For the mountain-slope of Luhith they ascend with weeping; for on the road to Horonaijim they lift up a cry of despair. 6. For the waters of Nimrim are waste places from this time forth: for the grass is dried up, the vegetation wasteth away, the green is gone. 7. Therefore what has been spared, what has been gained, and their provision, they carry it over the willow-brook. 8. For the scream has gone round in the territory of Moab; the wailing of Moab resounds to Eglayim, and his wailing to Beēr-Elim. 9. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I suspend over Dimon a new calamity, over the escaped of Moab a lion, and over the remnant of the land.

XVI.—1. Send a land-ruler’s tribute of lambs from Sela desert-wards to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 2. And the daughters of Moab will be like birds fluttering about, a scared nest, at the fords of Arnon. 3. Give counsel, for a decision, make thy shadow like night in the midst of noon: hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderers. 4. Let mine outcasts tarry in thee, Moab; be a covert to it from before the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an end, desolation has disappeared, treaders down are away from the land. 5. And a throne is established by grace, and there sits thereon in truth in the tent of David one judging, and zealous for right, and practised in righteousness.

6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, the very haughty (pride), the haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath, the falsehood of his speech. 7. Therefore will Moab wail for Moab, everything will wail: for the grape-cakes of Kir-Haraseth will ye whine, utterly crushed. 8. For the fruit-fields of Heshbon have faded away: the vine of Simmah, lords of the nations its branches smote down: they reached to Ja’zer, trailed through the desert: its branches spread themselves out wide, crossed over the sea. 9. Therefore I bemoan the vine of Sibmah with the weeping of Jazer; I flood thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, that Hêdad hath fallen upon thy fruit-harvest and upon thy vintage. 10. And joy is taken away, and the rejoicing of the garden-land; and there is no exulting, no shouting in the vineyards: the treader treads out no wine in the presses; I put an end to the Hêdad. 11. Therefore my bowels sound for Moab like a harp, and my inside for Kir-Heres. 12. And it will come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary with weeping upon the mountain height, and enters into its sanctuary to pray, it will not gain anything.

13. This is the word which Jehovah spake long ago concerning Moab. And now Jehovah speaketh thus: In three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab is disgraced, together with all the multitude of the great: a remnant is left, contemptibly small, and not great at all.

the oracle concerning damascus and israel.—chap. xvii.

1. The burden of Damascus.

Behold, Damascus must (be taken) away out of the number of the cities, and will be a heap of fallen ruins. 2. The cities of Aroer are forsaken, they are given up to flocks, they lie there without any one scaring them away. 3. And when the fortress of Ephraim is abolished, and the kingdom of Damascus; and it happens to those that are left of Aram as to the glory of the sons of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts.

4. And it comes to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob wastes away, and the fat of his flesh grows thin. 5. And it will be as when a reaper grasps the stalks of wheat, and his arm mows off the ears; and it will be as with one who gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6. Yet a gleaning remains from it, as at the olive-beating: two, three berries high up at the top; four, five in its, the fruit-tree’s branches, saith Jehovah the God of Israel. 7. At that day will man look up to his Creator, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. 8. And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and what his fingers have made he will not regard, neither the Astartes nor the sun-gods.

9. In that day will his fortified cities be like the ruins of the forest and of the mountain top, which they cleared before the sons of Israel: and there arises a waste place. 10. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not thought of the Rock of thy stronghold, therefore thou plantest charming plantations, and didst set them with strange vines. 11. In the day that thou plantedst, thou didst make a fence; and with the morning dawn thou madest thy sowing to blossom: a harvest heap in the day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heart.

12. Woe to the roaring of many nations: like the roaring of seas they roar; and low the rumbling of nations, like the rumbling of mighty waters they rumble! 13. Nations, like the rumbling of mighty waters they rumble; and He threatens it: then it flies far away, and is chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a cloud of dust before the gale. 14. At eventide, behold consternation; and before the morning dawn it is destroyed! this is the portion of our plunderers, and the lot of our robbers.

ethiopia’s submission to jehovah.—chap. xviii.

1. Woe to the land of the whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush; 2. that sends ambassadors into the sea, and in boats of papyrus over the face of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to the people stretched out and polished, to the terrible people far away on the other side, to the nation of command upon command and treading down, whose land rivers cut through. 3. All ye possessors of the globe and inhabitants of the earth, when a banner rises on the mountains, look ye: and when they blow the trumpets, hearken! 4. For thus hath Jehovah spoken to me: I will be still, and I will observe upon My throne during clear weather in sunshine, during a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5. For before the harvest, when the blossom falls off, and the fruit becomes the ripening grape: then will He cut off the branches with pruning-hooks; and the tendrils He removes, breaks off. 6. They are left altogether to the birds of prey on the mountains, and to the cattle of the land; and the birds of prey summer thereon, and all the cattle of the land will winter thereon.

7. At that time will there be offered as a homage to Jehovah of hosts a nation stretched out and polished, and from a terrible people, far away on the other side; a nation of command upon command and treading down, whose land rivers cut through, at the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mountain of Zion.

the oracle concerning egypt.—chap. xix.

1. Behold, Jehovah rideth upon a light cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shake before Him, and the heart of Egypt melteth within it. 2. And I spur Egypt against Egypt: and they go to war, every one with his brother, and every one with his neighbour; city against city, kingdom against kingdom. 3. And the spirit of Egypt is emptied out within it: and I swallow up its ready counsel; and they go to the idols to inquire, and to the mutterers, and to the oracle-spirits, and to the soothsayers. 4. And I shut up Egypt in the head of a hard rule; and a fierce king will rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

5. And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. 6. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up. 7. The meadow by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every cornfield of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. 8. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. 9. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics. 10. And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind.

11. The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? 12. Where are they then, thy wise men? Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. 13. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes. 14. Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. 15. And there does not occur of Egypt any work which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush.

16. In that day will the Egyptians become like women, and tremble and be alarmed at the swinging of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He sets in motion against it. 17. And the land of Judah becomes a shuddering for Egypt; as often as they mention this against Egypt, it is alarmed, because of the decree of Jehovah of hosts, that He suspendeth over it.

18. In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing to Jehovah of hosts: ’Ir ha-Heres will one be called. 19. In that day there stands an altar consecrated to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and an obelisk near the border of the land consecrated to Jehovah. 20. And a sign and a witness for Jehovah of hosts is this in the land of Egypt; when they cry to Jehovah for oppressors, He will send them a helper and champion, and deliver them. 21. And Jehovah makes Himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians know Jehovah in that day; and they serve Him with slain-offerings and meat-offerings, and vow vows to Jehovah, and pay them. 22. And Jehovah smites Egypt, smiting and healing; and if they return to Jehovah, He suffers Himself to be entreated, and heals them. 23. In that day a road will run from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur comes into Egypt, and Egypt to Asshur; and Egypt worships (Jehovah) with Asshur. 24. In that day will Israel be a third part to Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25. since Jehovah of hosts blesseth them thus: Blessed be thou, My people Egypt; and thou, Asshur, the work of My hands; and thou Israel, Mine inheritance.

symbol of the fall of egypt and ethiopia, and its interpretation.—chap. xx.

1. In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, Sargon the king of Asshur having sent him (and he made war against Ashdod, and captured it): 2. at that time Jehovah spake through Yesha’-yahu, the son of Amoz, as follows, Go and loosen the smock-front from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, and went stripped and barefooted.

3. And Jehovah said, As my servant Yesha’-yahu goeth naked and barefooted, a sign and a type for three years long over Egypt and over Ethiopia, 4. so will the king of Asshur carry away the prisoners of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, children and old men, naked and barefooted, and with their seat uncovered—a shame to Egypt.

5. And they cry together, and behold themselves deceived by Ethiopia, to which they looked and by Egypt, in which they gloried. 6. And the inhabitant of this coast-land saith in that day, Behold, thus it happens to those to whom we looked, whither we fled for help to deliver us from the king of Asshur: and how should we, we escape?

the oracle concerning the desert of the sea (babylon).—chap. xxi. 1–10.

1. As storms in the south approach, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. 2. Hard vision is made known to me: the spoiler spoils, and the devastator devastates. Go up, Elam! Surround, Moday! I put an end to all their sighing. 3. Therefore are my loins full of cramp: pangs have taken hold of me, as the pangs of a travailing woman: I twist myself, so that I do not hear; I am brought down with fear, so that I do not see. 4. My heart beats wildly; horror hath troubled me; the darkness of night that I love, He hath turned for me into quaking.

5. They cover the table, watch the watch, eat, drink. Rise up, ye princes! Anoint the shield! 6. For thus saith the Lord to me, Go, set a spy; what he seeth, let him declare. 7. And he saw a procession of cavalry, pairs of horsemen, a procession of asses, a procession of camels; and listened sharply, as sharply as he could listen. 8. Then he cried with a lion’s voice, Upon the watch-tower, O Lord, I stand continually by day, and upon my watch I keep my stand all the nights. 9. And, behold, there came a cavalcade of men, pairs of horsemen, and lifted up its voice, and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of its gods He hath dashed to the ground! 10. O thou my threshing, and child of my threshing-floor! What I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

the oracle concerning the silence of death (edom).—chap. xxi. 11, 12.

11. A cry comes to me out of Seir: Watchman, how far is it in the night? Watchman, how far in the night? 12. Watchman says, Morning cometh, and also night. Will ye inquire, inquire! Turn, come!

the oracle in the evening (against arabia).—chap. xxi. 13–17.

13. In the wilderness in Arabia ye must pass the night, caravans of the Dedanians. 14. Bring water to meet thirsty ones! The inhabitants of the land of Tema are coming with its bread before the fugitive. 15. For they are flying before swords, before drawn swords, and before a bent bow, and before oppressive war.

16. For thus hath the Lord spoken to me, Within a year, as the years of a hired labourer, it is over with all the glory of Kedar. 17. And the remnant of the number of bows of the heroes of the Kedarenes will be small: for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken.

the oracle concerning the valley of vision (jerusalem).—chap. xxii. 1–14.

1. What aileth thee, then, that thou art wholly ascended upon the house-tops? 2. O full of tumult, thou noisy city, shouting castle, thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor slaughtered in battle. 3. All thy rulers departing together are fettered without bow; all thy captured ones are fettered together, fleeing far away.

4. Therefore I say, Look away from me, that I may weep bitterly; press me not with consolations for the destruction of the daughter of my people! 5. For a day of noise, and of treading down, and of confusion, cometh from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision, breaking down walls; and a cry of woe echoes against the mountains.

6. And Elam has taken the quiver, together with chariots with men, horsemen; and Kir has drawn out the shield. 7. And then it comes to pass, that thy choicest valleys are filled with chariots, and the horsemen plant a firm foot towards the gate.

8. Then he takes away the covering of Judah, and thou lookest in that day to the store of arms of the forest-house; 9. and ye see the breaches of the city of David, that there are many of them; and ye collect together the waters of the lower pool. 10. And ye number the houses of Jerusalem, and pull down the houses, to fortify the wall. 11. And ye make a basin between the two walls for the waters of the old pool; and ye do not look to Him who made it, neither do ye have regard to Him who fashioned it long ago.

12. The Lord, Jehovah of hosts, calls in that day to weeping, and to mourning, and to the pulling out of hair, and to girding with sackcloth; 13. and behold joy and gladness, slaughtering of oxen and killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine, eating and drinking, for ‘to-morrow we die.’ 14. And Jehovah of hosts hath revealed in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated for you until ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

against shebna the steward.—chap. xxii. 15–25.

(Appendix to the Tetralogy in chaps xxi., xxii. 14.)

15. Thus spake the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, Go, get thee to that steward there, to Shebna the house-mayor. 16. What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou art hewing thyself out a sepulchre here, hewing out his sepulchre high up, digging himself a dwelling in rocks? 17. Behold, Jehovah hurleth thee, hurling with a man’s throw, and graspeth thee grasping. 18. Coiling, He coileth thee a coil, a ball into a land far and wide; there shalt thou die, and thither the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the house of thy lord! 19. And I thrust thee from thy post, and from thy standing-place He pulleth thee down.

20. And it will come to pass in that day, that I call to my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21. and invest him with thy coat, and I throw thy sash firmly round him, and place thy government in his hand; and he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22. And I place the key of David upon his shoulder: and when he opens, no man shuts; and when he shuts, no man opens. 23. And I fasten him as a plug in a fast place, and he becomes the seat of honour to his father’s house. 24. And the whole mass of his father’s house hangs upon him, the offshoots and the side-shoots, every small vessel, from the vessel of the basins even to every vessel of the pitchers. 25. In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, will the peg that is fastened in a sure place be removed, and be cast down, and fall; and the burden that it bore falls to the ground: for Jehovah hath spoken.

the oracle concerning tyre.—chap. xxiii.

(Conclusion of the Cycle of Prophecies Relating to the Heathen.)

1. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entrance any more! Out of the land of the Chittæans it is made known to them. 2. Be alarmed, ye inhabitants of the coast! Sidonian merchants, sailing over the sea, filled thee once. 3. And the sowing of Sichor came upon great waters, the harvest of the Nile, her store; and she became gain for nations. 4. Shudder, O Sidon; for the sea speaketh, the fortress of the sea, thus: I have not travailed, nor given birth, nor trained up young men, brought up maidens. 5. When the report cometh to Egypt, they tremble at the report from Tzor.

6. Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast! 7. Is this your fate, thou full of rejoicing, whose origin is from the days of the olden time, whom her feet carried far away to settle? 8. Who hath determined such a thing concerning Tzor, the distributor of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the chief men of the earth! 9. Jehovah of hosts hath determined it, to desecrate the pomp of every kind of ornament, to dishonour the chief men of the earth, all of them.

10. Overflow thy land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish! No girdle restrains thee any longer. 11. His hand hath He stretched over the sea, thrown the kingdoms into trembling; Jehovah hath given commandment concerning Kena’an to destroy her fortresses. 12. And He said, Thou shalt not rejoice any further, thou disgraced one, virgin daughter of Sidon. Go up to Kittim, go over; there also shalt thou not find rest. 13. Behold the Chaldean land: this people that has not been (Asshur—it hath prepared the same for desert beasts)—they set up their siege-towers, destroy the palaces of Kena’an, make it a heap of ruins. 14. Mourn, ye ships of Tarshish: for your fortress is laid waste.

15. And it will come to pass in that day, that Tzor will be forgotten seventy years, equal to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years Tzor will go, according to the song of the harlot. 16. Take the guitar, sweep through the city, O forgotten harlot! Play bravely, sing zealously, that thou mayest be remembered! 17. And it will come to pass at the end of the seventy years: Jehovah will visit Tzor, and she comes again to her hire, and commits prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the broad surface of the globe. 18. And her gain and her reward of prostitution will be holy to Jehovah: it is not stored up nor gathered together; but her gain from commerce will be theirs who dwell before Jehovah, to eat to satiety and for stately clothing.

 

PART IV.

finale on the great catastrophe.—chaps. xxiv.–xxvii.

The Judgment upon the Earth.—chap. xxiv.

1. Behold, Jehovah emptieth the earth, and layeth it waste, and marreth its form, and scattereth all its inhabitants. 2. And it happeneth, as to the people, so to the priest; as to the servant, so to his master; as to the maid, so to her mistress; as to the buyer, so to the seller; as to the lender, so to the borrower; as to the creditor, so to the debtor. 3. Emptying the earth is emptied, and plundering is plundered: for Jehovah hath spoken this word.

4. Smitten down, withered up is the earth; pined away, wasted is the world; pined away have they, the foremost of the people of the earth. 5. And the earth has become wicked among its inhabitants; for they transgressed revelations, set at naught the ordinance, broke the everlasting covenant. 6. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they who dwelt in it make expiation: therefore are the inhabitants of the earth withered up, and there are very few mortals left. 7. New wine mourneth, vine is parched, all the merry-hearted groan. 8. The joyous playing of tabrets is silent; the noise of them that rejoice hath ceased; the joyous playing of the guitar is silent. 9. They drink no wine with a song: meth tastes bitter to them that drink it.

10. The city of Tohu is broken to pieces; every house is shut up, so that no man can come in. 11. There is lamentation for wine in the fields; all rejoicing has set; the delight of the earth is banished. 12. What is left of the city is wilderness, and the gate was shattered to ruins. 13. For so will it be within the earth, in the midst of the nations; as at the olive-beating, as at the gleaning, when the vintage is over.

14. They lift up the voice, and exult; for the majesty of Jehovah they shout from the sea! 15. Therefore praise ye Jehovah in the lands of the sun, in the islands of the sea the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. 16. From the border of the earth we hear songs: Praise to the Righteous One.

Then I said, Ruin to me! ruin to me! Robbers rob, and robbing, they rob as robbers! 17. Horror, and pit, and snare are over thee, O inhabitant of the earth! 18. And it cometh to pass, whoever fleeth from the tidings of horror falleth into the pit; and whoever escapeth out of the pit is caught in the snare: for the trap-doors on high are opened, and the firm foundations of the earth shake. 19. The earth rending, is rent asunder; the earth bursting, is burst in pieces; the earth shaking, tottereth. 20. The earth reeling, reeleth like a drunken man, and swingeth like a hammock; and its burden of sin presseth upon it; and it falleth, and riseth not again.

21. And it cometh to pass in that day, Jehovah will visit the army of the high place in the high place, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 22. And they are imprisoned, as one imprisons captives in the pit, and shut up in prison; and in the course of many days they are visited. 23. And the moon blushes, and the sun turns pale; for Jehovah of hosts reigns royally upon mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders in glory.

the fourfold melodious echo.—chaps. xxv., xxvi.

A.—First echo: Salvation of the Nations after the Fall of the Imperial City.—Chap. xxv. 1–8.

1. Jehovah, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name, that Thou hast wrought wonders, counsels from afar, sincerity, truth. 2. For Thou hast turned it from a city into a heap of stones, the steep castle into a ruin; the palace of the barbarians from being a city, to be rebuilt no more for ever. 3. Therefore a wild people will honour Thee, cities of violent nations fear Thee. 4. For Thou provest Thyself a stronghold to the lowly, a stronghold to the poor in his distress, as a shelter from the storm of rain, as a shadow from the burning of the sun; for the blast of the terrible once was as a storm against a wall. 5. Like the burning of the sun in a parched land, Thou subduest the noise of the barbarians; (like) the burning of the sun through the shadow of a cloud, the triumphal song of the violent ones was brought low.

6. And Jehovah of hosts prepares for all nations upon this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things rich in marrow, of wines on the lees thoroughly strained. 7. And He casts away upon this mountain the veil that veiled over all peoples, and the covering that covered over all nations. 8. He puts away death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah wipes the tear from every face; and He removes the shame of His people from the whole earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it.

B.—Second Echo: The Humiliation of Moab.—Chap. xxv. 9–12

9. And they say in that day, Behold our God, for whom we waited to help us: this is Jehovah, for whom we waited; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation. 10. For the hand of Jehovah will sink down upon this mountain, and Moab is trodden down there where it is, as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-pit. 11. And he spreadeth out his hands in the pool therein, as the swimmer spreadeth them out to swim; but Jehovah forceth down the pride of Moab in spite of the artifices of his hands. 12. Yes, thy steep, towering walls He bows down, forces under, and casts earthwards into dust.

C.—Third Echo: Israel Brought Back, or Raised from the Dead.—Chap. xxvi.

1. In that day will this song be sung in the land of Judah: A city of defence is ours; salvation He sets for walls and bulwarks. 2. Open ye the gates, that a righteous people may enter, one keeping truthfulness. 3. Thou keepest the firmly-established mind in peace, peace; for his confidence rests on Thee. 4. Hang confidently on Jehovah for ever: for in Jah, Jehovah, is an everlasting rock. 5. For He hath bent down them that dwell on high; the towering castle, He tore it down, tore it down to the earth, cast it into dust. 6. The foot treads it to pieces, feet of the poor, steps of the lowly. 7. The path that the righteous takes is smoothness; Thou makest the course of the righteous smooth.

8. We also have waited for Thee, that Thou shouldest come in the path of Thy judgments; the desire of the soul went after Thy name, and after Thy remembrance. 9. With my soul I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit deep within me, I longed to have Thee here: for when Thy judgments strike the earth, the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness.

10. If favour is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness; in the most upright land he acts wickedly; and has no eye for the majesty of Jehovah. 11. Jehovah, Thy hand has been exalted, but they did not see: they will see the zeal for a people, being put to shame; yea, fire will devour Thine adversaries. 12. Jehovah, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou hast accomplished all our work for us. 13. Jehovah our God, lords besides Thee had enslaved us; but through Thee we praise Thy name. 14. Dead men live not again, shades do not rise again; so hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and caused all their memory to perish. 15. Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah, hast added to the nation; glorified Thyself; moved out all the borders of the land.

16. Jehovah, in trouble they missed Thee, poured out light supplication when Thy chastisement came upon them. 17. As a woman with child, who draws near to her delivery, writhes and cries out in her pangs, so were we in Thy sight, O Jehovah. 18. We went with child, we writhed; it was as if we brought forth wind. We brought no deliverance to the land, and the inhabitants of the world did not come to the light.

19. Thy dead will live, my corpses rise again. Awake and rejoice, ye that lie in the dust! For Thy dew is as the dew of the lights, and the earth will bring shades to the day.

20. Go in, my people, into thy chambers, and shut the door behind thee; hide thyself a little moment, till the judgment of wrath passes by. 21. For, behold, Jehovah goeth out of His place to visit the iniquity of the earth upon them; and the earth discloses the blood that it has sucked up, and no more covers her slain.

XXVII.—1. In that day will Jehovah visit with His sword, with the hard, and the great, and the strong; leviathan the fleet serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea.

D.—The Fourth Echo: The Fruit-bearing Vineyard under the Protection of Jehovah.—Chap. xxvii. 2–6

2. In that day
     A merry vineyard—sing it!
3. I, Jehovah, its keeper,
     Every moment I water it.
     That nothing may come near it,
     I watch it night and day.
4. Wrath have I none;
     Oh, had I thorns, thistles before Me!
     I would make up to them in battle,
     Burn them all together.
5. Men would then have to grasp at My protection,
     Make peace with Me,
     Make peace with Me.

6. In future will Jacob strike roots, Israel blossom and bud, and fill the surface of the globe with fruits.

jehovah’s chastening and saving course towards israel.—chap. xxvii. 7–13.

7. Hath He smitten it like the smiting of the smiter, or is it slain like the slaying of those slain by Him? 8. Thou punishedst it with measures, when Thou didst thrust it away, sifting with violent breath in the day of the east wind. 9. Therefore will the guilt of Jacob be purged thus; and this is all the fruit of the removal of his sin: when He maketh all alter-stones like chalk-stones that are broken in pieces, Astarte images and sun-pillars do not rise up again. 10. For the strong city is solitary, a dwelling given up and forsaken like the steppe: there calves feed, and there they lie down, and eat of its branches. 11. When its branches become withered, they are broken; women come, make fires with them; for it is not a people of intelligence: therefore its Creator has no pity upon it, and its Former doth not pardon it.

12. And it will come to pass on that day, Jehovah will appoint a beating of corn from the water-flood of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and ye will be gathered one by one, O sons of Israel. 13. And it will come to pass in that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and the lost ones in the land of Asshur come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and cast themselves down before Jehovah on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

 

PART V.

book of woes: or, historical discourses relating to asshur and the egyptian alliance.—chaps. xxviii.–xxxiii.

The First Woe.—Judgment upon Samaria and Jerusalem, and Consolation for Both.—Chap. xxviii.

1. Woe to the proud crown of the drunken of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of its splendid ornament, which is upon the head of the luxuriant valley of those slain with wine.

2. Behold, the Lord holds a strong and mighty thing like a hailstorm, a pestilent tempest; like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He casts down to the earth with almighty hand. 3. With feet they tread down the proud crown of the drunken of Ephraim. 4. And it happens to the fading flower of its splendid ornament, which is upon the head of the luxuriant valley, as to an early fig before it is harvest, which whosoever sees it looks at, and it is no longer in his hand than he swallows it.

5. In that day will Jehovah of hosts be the adorning crown and the splendid diadem to the remnant of His people; 6. and the spirit of justice to them that sit on the judgment-seat, and heroic strength to them that drive back war at the gate.

7. And they also reel with wine, and are giddy with meth; priest and prophet reel with meth, reel when seeking visions, stagger when pronouncing judgment. 8. For all tables are full of filthy vomit, without any more place.

9. Whom then would He teach knowledge? And to whom make preaching intelligible? To those weaned from the milk. To those removed from the breast. 10. For precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there?

11. For through men stammering in speech, and through a strange tongue will He speak to this people. 12. He who said to them, There is rest, give rest to weary ones, and there is refreshing! But they would not hear. 13. Therefore the word of Jehovah becomes to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there, that they may go and stumble backwards, and be wrecked to pieces, and be snared and taken.

14. Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye scornful lords, rulers of this people which is in Jerusalem! 15. For ye say, We have made a covenant with death, and with Hades we have come to an agreement. The swelling scourge, when it cometh hither, will do us no harm: for we have made a lie our shelter, and in deceit have we hidden ourselves. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am He who laid in Zion a stone, a stone of trial, a precious corner-stone of well-founded founding; whoever believes will not have to move. 17. And I make justice the line, and righteousness the level; and hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, and the hiding-place is washed away by waters.

18. And your covenant with death is struck out, and your agreement with Hades will not stand; the swelling scourge when it comes, ye will become a thing trodden down to it. 19. And as often as it passes it takes you: for every morning it passes, by day and by night; and it is nothing but shuddering to hear such preaching. 20. For the bed is too short to stretch in, and the covering too tight when a man wraps himself in it.

21. For Jehovah will rise up as in the mountain of Perazim, and be wroth as in the valley at Gibeon to work His work; and to set His act; strange is His act.

22. And now drive ye not mockeries, lest your fetters be strengthened: for I have heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a judgment of destruction, and an irrevocable one, upon the whole earth.

23. Lend me your ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my address! 24. Does the husbandman plough continually to sow? to furrow and to harrow his land? 25. Is it not so: when he levels the surface thereof, he scatters black poppy seed, and strews cummin, and puts in wheat in rows, and barley in the appointed piece, and spelt on its border? 26. And He has instructed him how to act rightly: his God teaches him.

27. For the black poppy is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin; but black poppy is knocked out with a stick, and cummin with a staff. 28. Is bread-corn crushed? No; he does not go on threshing for ever, and drive the wheel of his cart and his horses over it: he does not crush it. 29. This also, it goeth forth from Jehovah of hosts: He gives wonderful intelligence, high understanding.

The Second Woe.—The Oppression and Deliverance of Ariel.—Chap. xxix.

1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the castle where David pitched his tent! Add year to year, let the feasts revolve: 2. then I distress Ariel, and there is groaning and moaning; and so she proves herself to Me as Ariel. 3. And I encamp in a circle round about thee, and surround thee with watch-posts, and erect tortoises against thee. 4. And when brought down thou wilt speak out of the ground, and thy speaking will sound low out of the dust; and thy voice cometh up like that of a demon from the ground, and thy speaking will whisper out of the dust.

5. And the multitude of thy foes will become like finely powdered dust, and the multitude of tyrants like chaff flying away; and it will take place suddenly, very suddenly. 6. For Jehovah of hosts there comes a visitation with crash of thunder and earthquake and great noise, whirlwind and tempest, and the blazing up of devouring fire. 7. And the multitude of all the nations that gather together against Ariel, and all those who storm and distress Ariel and her stronghold, will be like a vision of the night in a dream. 8. And it is just as a hungry man dreams, and behold he eats; and when he wakes up his soul is empty: and just as a thirsty man dreams, and behold he drinks; and when he wakes up, behold, he is faint, and his soul is parched with thirst: so will it be to the multitude of nations which gather together against the mountain of Zion.

9. Stop and stare; blind yourselves, and grow blind!

They are drunken, and not with wine; they reel, and not with meth. 10. For Jehovah hath poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and bound up your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, He has veiled. 11. And the revelation of all this will be to you like the words of a sealed writing, which they give to him that understands writing, say, Pray, read this; but he says, I cannot, it is sealed. 12. And they give the writing to one who does not understand writing, saying, Pray, read this; but he says, I do not understand writing.

13. The Lord hath spoken: Because this people approaches Me with its mouth, and honours Me with its lips, and keeps its heart far from Me, and its reverence for Me has become as a commandment learned from men; 14. therefore, behold, I will proceed wondrously with this people, wondrously and marvellously strange; and the wisdom of its wise men is lost, and the understanding of its intelligent men becomes invisible.

15. Woe unto them that hide plans deep from Jehovah, and their doing occurs in a dark place, and they say, Who saw us then, and who know about us? 16. Oh for your perversity! It is to be regarded as potter’s clay; that a work could say to its maker, He has not made me; and an image to its sculptor, He does not understand it!

17. Is it not yet a very little, and Lebanon is turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field esteemed as a forest? 18. And in that day the deaf hear scripture words, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19. And the joy of the humble increases in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20. For tyrants are gone, and it is over with scoffers; and all who think evil are rooted out, 21. who condemn a man for a word, and lay snares for him that is free-spoken in the gate, and overthrow the righteous through shameful lies.

22. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of the house of Jacob, He who redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not henceforth be ashamed, nor shall his face turn pale any more. 23. For when he, when his children see the work of My hands in the midst of him, they will sanctify My name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shudder before the God of Israel. 24. And those who were of an erring spirit discern understanding, and murmurers accept instruction.

The Third Woe.—The Momentous Result of the Alliance with Egypt.—Chap. xxx.

1. Woe to the stubborn children, saith Jehovah, to drive plans, and not by My impulse, and to plait alliance, and not according to My spirit, to heap sin upon sin; 2. that go away to travel down to Egypt, without having asked My mouth, to fly to Pharaoh’s shelter, and to conceal themselves under the shadow of Egypt. 3. And Pharaoh’s shelter becomes a shame to them, and the concealment under the shadow of Egypt is a disgrace. 4. For Judah’s princes have appeared in Zoan, and his ambassadors arrive in Haran. 5. They will all have to be ashamed of a people useless to them, that brings no help and no use, but shame, and also reproach.

6. Oracle concerning the water-oxen of the south: Through a land of distress and confinement, whence the lioness and lion, adders and flying dragons; they carry their possessions on the shoulders of asses’ foals, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that profits nothing. 7. And Egypt, worthlessly and hollowly will they help; therefore I call this Egypt, Great-mouth sits still.

8. Now go, write it on a table with them, and note it in a book, and let it stand there for future days, for ever, to eternity.

9. For it is a refractory people, lying children, children who do not like to hear the instruction of Jehovah; 10. who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things! Speak flatteries to us! 11. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, remove from our face the Holy One of Israel.

12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye dislike this word, and put your trust in force and shufflings, and rely upon this; 13. therefore will this iniquity be to like a falling breach, bent forwards in a high-towering wall, which falls to ruin suddenly, very suddenly. 14. And He smites it to pieces, as a potter’s vessel falls to pieces when they smash it without sparing, and of which, when it lies smashed to pieces there, you cannot find a sherd to fetch fire with from the hearth, or to take water with out of a cistern.

15. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, Through turning and rest ye would be helped; your strength would show itself in quietness and confidence; but ye would not. 16. And ye said, No, but we will fly upon horses; therefore ye shall flee: and, We will ride upon race-horses; therefore your pursuers will race. 17. A thousand, ye will flee from the threatening of one, from the threatening of five, until ye are reduced to a remnant, like a pine upon the top of the mountain, and like a banner upon the hill.

18. And therefore will Jehovah wait till He inclines towards you, and therefore will He withdraw Himself on high till He has mercy upon you; for Jehovah is a God of right, salvation to those who wait for Him.

19. For a people continues dwelling in Zion, in Jerusalem; thou shalt not weep for ever: He will prove Himself gracious to thee at the sound of thy cry for help; as soon as He hears, He answers thee. 20. And the Lord giveth you bread in penury, and water for your need; and thy teachers will not hide themselves any more, and thine eyes come to see thy teachers. 21. And thine ears will hear words behind thee, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it!” whether ye turn to the right hand or the left. 22. And ye defile the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the clothing of thy molten images of gold; thou wilt scatter them like a filthy thing: “Get out!” thou sayest to it.

23. And He gives rain to thy seed, with which thou sowest the land; and bread of the produce of the land, and it is full of sap and fat; in that day your flocks will feed in roomy pastures. 24. And the oxen and the young asses, which work the land, salted mash will they eat, which is winnowed with the winnowing shovel and winnowing fork! 25. And upon every high mountain, and every hill that rises high, there are springs, brooks in the day of the great massacre, when the towers fall.

26. And the light of the moon will be as light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be multiplied sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth the hurt of His people, and healeth the crushing of His stroke.

27. Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning His wrath, and quantity of smoke: His lips are full of wrathful foam, and His tongue like devouring fire. 28. And His breath is like an overflowing brook, which reaches half-way to the neck, to sift nations in the sieve of nothingness; and a misleading bridle comes to the cheeks of the nations.

29. Your song will then sound as in the night, when the feast is celebrated; and ye will have joy of heart like those who march with the playing of flutes, to go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.

30. And Jehovah causes His majestic voice to be heard, and causes the lowering of His arm to be seen, with the snorting of wrath and the blazing of devouring fire, the bursting of a cloud, and pouring of rain and hailstones. 31. For Asshur will be terrified at the voice of Jehovah, when He smites with the staff. 32. And it will come to pass every stroke of the rod of destiny, which Jehovah causes to fall upon Asshur, is dealt amid the noise of drums and the playing of guitars; and in battles of swinging arm He fights it. 33. For a place for the sacrifice of abominations has long been made ready, even for the king it is prepared: deep, broad has He made it: its funeral-pile has fire and wood in abundance; the breath of Jehovah like a stream of brimstone sets it on fire.

The Fourth Woe.—The False Help; the Despised One Pitied; and the New Era.—Chaps. xxxi.–xxxii. 8.

1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely upon horses, and put their trust in chariots, that there are many of them, and in horsemen, that there is a powerful multitude of them: and to not look up to the Holy One of Israel, and do not inquire for Jehovah! 2. And yet He also is wise; thus then He brings evil, and sets not His words aside; and rises up against the house of miscreants, and against the help of evil-doers. 3. And Egypt is man, and not God; and its horses flesh, and not spirit. And when Jehovah stretches out His hand, the helper stumbles, and he that is helped falls, and they all perish together.

4. For thus hath Jehovah spoken unto me, As the lion growls and the young lion over its prey, against which a whole crowd of shepherds is called together; he is not alarmed at their cry, and does not surrender at their noise; so will Jehovah of hosts descend to the campaign against the mountain of Zion, and against their hill. 5. Like fluttering birds, so will Jehovah of hosts screen Jerusalem; screening and delivering, sparing and setting free.

6. Then turn, O sons of Israel, to Him from whom men have so deeply departed. 7. For in that day they will abhor every one their silver idols and their gold idols, which your hands have made to you for a sin. 8. And Asshur falls by a sword not of a man, and a sword not of a man will devour him; and he flees before a sword, and his young men become tributary. 9. And his rock, for fear it will pass away, and his princes be frightened away by the flags: the saying of Jehovah, who has His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.

XXXII.—1. Behold the king will reign according to righteousness; and the princes, according to right will they command. 2. And every one will be like a shelter from the wind, and a covert from the storm; like water-brooks in a dry place, like the shadow of a gigantic rock in a languishing land.

3. And the eyes of the seeing no more are closed, and the ears of the hearing attend. 4. And the heart of the hurried understands to know, and the tongue of stammerers speaks clear things with readiness.

5. The fool will no more be called a nobleman, nor the crafty a gentleman. 6. For a fool speaks follies, and his heart does godless things, to practise tricks and to speak error against Jehovah, to leave the soul of hungry men empty, and to withhold the drink of thirsty ones. 7. And the craft of the crafty man is evil, who devises stratagems to destroy suffering ones by lying words, even when the needy exhibits his right. 8. But a noble man deviseth noble things, and to noble things he adheres.

against the women of jerusalem.—chap. xxxii. 9–20.

Appendix to the Fourth Woe.

9. Ye contented women, rise up, hear my voice, ye confident daughters, hearken to my speech! 10. Days to the year: then will ye tremble, confident ones! for it is all over with the vintage, the fruit harvest comes to nought. 11. Tremble, contented ones! Quake, ye confident ones! Strip, make yourselves bare, and gird your loins with sackcloth! 12. They smite upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 13. On the land of my people there come up weeds, briers; yes, upon all joyous houses of the rejoicing city. 14. For the palace is made solitary: the crowd of the city is left desolate; the ophel and watch-tower serve as caves for ever, for the delight of wild asses, for the tending of flocks.

15. Until the Spirit is poured out over us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as the forest. 16. And justice makes its abode in the desert, and righteousness settles down upon the fruit-field. 17. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the reward of righteousness rest and security for ever. 18. And my people dwells in a place of peace, and in trustworthy, safe dwellings, and in cheerful resting-places. 19. And it hails with the overthrow of the forest, and into lowliness must the city be brought low.

20. Blessed are ye that sow by all waters, and let the foot of the oxen and asses rove in freedom.

The Fifth Woe.—Woe Concerning Asshur; Deliverance and Glory of Jerusalem.—Chap. xxxiii.

1. Woe, devastator, and thyself not devastated; and thou spoiler, and still not spoiled! Hast thou not done with devastating? thou shalt be devastated. Hast thou attained to rob? men rob thee.

2. Jehovah, be gracious to us; we wait for Thee: be their arm every morning, yea, our salvation in time of need!

3. At the sound of a noise peoples pass away: at Thy rising nations are scattered. 4. And your booty is swept away as a swarm of locusts sweeps away; as beetles run, they run upon it.

5. Jehovah is exalted; for dwelling on high, He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. 6. And there will be security of thy times, riches of salvation, of wisdom, and knowledge. Fear of Jehovah is then the treasure of Judah.

7. Behold, their heroes weep without; the messengers of peace weep bitterly. 8. Desolate are roads, disappeared are travellers; he has broken covenant, insulted cities, despised men. 9. The land mourns, languishes; Lebanon stands ashamed, parched; the meadow of Sharon has become like a steppe, and Bashan and Carmel shake their leaves. 10. Now will I arise, saith Jehovah, now exalt Myself, now lift up Myself.

11. Ye are pregnant with hay, ye bring forth stubble! Your snorting is the fire that will devour you. 12. And nations become as lime burnings, thorns cut off, which are kindled with fire.

13. Hear, ye distant ones, what I have accomplished; and perceive, ye near ones, my omnipotence! 14. The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling seizes the hypocrites: who of us can dwell with devouring fire? who of us abide with everlasting burnings?

15. He that walketh in righteousness, and speaketh uprightness; he that despiseth gain of oppressions, whose hand keepeth from grasping bribes; he that stoppeth his ear from hearing murderous counsel, and shutteth his eyes from looking at evil; 16. he will dwell upon high places; rocky fastnesses are his castle; his bread is abundant, his waters inexhaustible.

17. Thine eyes will see the King in His beauty, will see a land that is very far off.

18. Thy heart meditates upon the shuddering. Where is the valuer? where is the weigher? where he who counted the towers? 19. The rough people thou seest no more, a people of deep inaudible lip, of stammering unintelligible tongue.

20. Look upon Zion, the castle of our festal meeting. Thine eyes will see Jerusalem, a pleasant place, a tent that does not wander about, whose pegs are never drawn, and none of whose cords are ever broken. 21. No, there dwells for us a glorious One, Jehovah; a place of streams, canals of wide extent, into which no fleet of rowing vessels ventures, and which no strong man of war shall cross. 22. For Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our war-Prince; Jehovah is our King; He will bring us salvation.

23. Thy ropes hang loose; they do not hold fast the support of thy mast; they do not hold the flag extended: then is the booty of plunder divided in abundance; even lame men share the prey. 24. And not an inhabitant will say, I am weak: the people settled there have their sins forgiven.

 

PART VI.

finale of the judgment upon all the world (more especially upon edom) and redemption of the people of jehovah.—chaps. xxxiv., xxxv.

1. Come near, ye peoples, to hear; and ye nations, attend. Let the earth hear, and that which fills it, the world, and everything that springs from it. 2. For the indignation of Jehovah will fall upon all nations, and burning wrath upon all their host; He has laid the ban upon them, delivered them to the slaughter. 3. And their slain are cast away, and their corpses—their stench will arise, and mountains melt with their blood. 4. And all the host of the heavens are rolled up like a scroll, and all their heat withers as a leaf withers away from the vine, and like withered leaves from the fig-tree.

5. For My sword has become intoxicated in the heaven; behold, it comes down upon Edom, and upon the people of My ban to judgment. 6. The sword of Jehovah fills itself with blood, is fattened with fat, with blood of lambs and he-goats, with kidney-fat of rams; for Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7. And buffaloes fall with them, and bullocks together with bulls; and their land becomes intoxicated with blood, and their dust fattened with fat.

8. For Jehovah hath a day of vengeance, a year of recompense, to contend for Zion. 9. And the brooks of Edom are turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land becomes burning pitch. 10. Day and night it is not quenched; the smoke of Edom goes up for ever: it lies waste from generation to generation; no one passes through it for ever and ever. 11. And pelican and hedgehog take possession of it, and eared-owl and raven dwell there; and He stretched over it the measure of Tohu and the level of Bohu. 12. Its nobles—there is no longer a monarchy which they elected; nettles and thistles in the castles; and it and all its princes come to nought. 13. And the palaces of Edom break out into thorns, nettles and thistles in the castles; and it becomes the abode of wild dogs, pasture for ostriches. 14. And martens meet with jackals, and a wood-devil runs upon its fellow; yea, Līlīth dwells there, and finds rest for itself. 15. There the arrow-snake makes its nest, and breeds and lays eggs, and broods in the shadow there; yea, there vultures gather one to another. 16. Search in the book of Jehovah, and read! Not one of the creatures falls, not one misses the other: for My mouth—it has commanded it; and His breath—it has brought them together. 17. And He has cast the lots for them, and His hand has assigned it (this land) to them by measure; they will possess it for ever; to generation and generation they will dwell therein.

XXXV.—1. Gladness fills the desert and the heath; and the steppe rejoices, and flowers like the crocus. 2. It flowers abundantly, and rejoices; yea, rejoicing and singing: the glory of Lebanon is given to it, the splendour of Carmel and the plain of Sharon; they will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendour of our God.

3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make the trembling knees strong. 4. Say to those of a terrified heart, Be strong, Fear ye not! Behold, your God will come for vengeance, for a Divine retribution: He will come, and bring you salvation. 5. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6. Then will the lame man leap as the stag, and the tongue of the dumb man shout; for waters break out in the desert, and brooks in the steppe. 7. And the mirage becomes a fish-pond, and the thirsty ground gushing water-springs; in the place of jackals, where it lies, there springs up grass with reeds and rushes.

8. And a highway rises there, and a road, and it will be called the Holy Road; no unclean man will pass along it, as it is appointed for them: whoever walks the road, even simple ones do not go astray. 9. There will be no lion there, and the most ravenous beast of prey will not approach it, will not be met with there; and redeemed ones walk. 10. And the ransomed of Jehovah will return, and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they lay hold of gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

 

PART VII.

fulfilment of prophecy; and prophecies belonging to the fourteenth year of hezekiah’s reign, and the times immediately following.—chaps. xxxvi.–xxxix.

A.—First Assyrian Attempt to Compel the Surrender of Jerusalem.—Chaps. xxxvi.–xxxvii. 7.

XXXVI.—1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hizikiyahu, Sancherîb, king of Asshur, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 2. Then the king of Asshur sent Rabshakeh from Lachish towards Jerusalem to king Hizkiyahu with a great army, and he advanced to the conduit of the upper pool by the road of the fuller’s field; 3. and there went out to him Eliakim, son of Hilkiyahu, the house-minister, and Shebna the chancellor, and Joah, son of Asaph the recorder.

4. And Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hizkiyahu, Thus saith the great king, the king of Asshur, What sort of confidence is this that thou hast got? 5. I say, Vain talk is counsel and strength for war: now, then, in whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against me? 6. Behold, thou trustest in this broken reed-staff there, in Egypt, on which one leans, and it runs into his hand and pierces it; so does Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if thou sayest to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before the altar? 8. And not take a wager with my lord the king of Asshur; I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou art able for thy part to give horsemen upon them. 9. And how couldst thou repel the advance of a single satrap among the least of the servants of my lord? Thou puttest thy trust then in Egypt for chariots and riders! 10. And now have I come up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up to this land, and destroy it.

11. Then said Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah, to Rabshakeh, Pray, speak to thy servants in Aramæan, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Jewish, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

12. Then Rabshakeh said to them, Has my lord sent me to thy lord and to thee, not rather to the men who sit upon the wall, to eat their dung, and to drink their urine together with you?

13. Then Rabshakeh went near, and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Asshur. 14. Thus saith the king, Let not Hizkiyahu practise deception upon you; for he cannot deliver you. 15. And let not Hizkiyahu feed you with hope in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will deliver, yea, deliver us: this city will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Asshur. 16. Hearken not to Hizkiyahu; for thus saith the king of Asshur, Enter into a connection of mutual good wishes with me, and come out to me: and enjoy every one his vine, and every one his fig-tree, and drink every one the water of his cistern: 17. till I come and take you away into a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread-corn and vineyards; 18. that Hizkiyahu do not befool 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 Asshur? 19. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where the gods of Sepharvayim? and how much less have they delivered that Samaria out of my hand? 20. Who were they among all the gods of these lands who delivered their land out of my hand? how much less will Jehovah deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

21. But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for it was the king’s commandment, Ye shall not answer him.

22. Then came Eliakim, son of Hilkiyahu, the house-minister, and Shebna that chancellor, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, to Hizkiyahu, with torn clothes, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

XXXVII.—1. And it came to pass, when king Hizkiyahu had heard, he rent his clothes, and wrapped himself in mourning linen, and went into the house of Jehovah. 2. And sent Eliakim the house-minister, and Shebna the chancellor, and the eldest of the priests, wrapped in mourning linen, to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet. 3. And they say to him, Thus saith Hizkiyahu, A day of affliction, and punishment, and blasphemy is this day; for children are come to the matrix, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4. Perhaps Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, with which the king of Asshur his lord has sent him to revile the living God; and Jehovah thy God will punish for the words He hath heard, and thou wilt make intercession for the remnant that still exists.

5. And the servants of king Hizkiyahu came to Isaiah. 6. And Isaiah said to them, Speak thus to your lord, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have blasphemed Me. 7. Behold, I will bring a spirit upon him, and he will hear a hearsay, and return to his own land; and I will cut him down with the sword in his own land.

B.—Second Attempt of the Assyrians to Force the Surrender of Jerusalem. Its Miraculous Deliverance.—Chap. xxxvii. 8–38.

8. Rabshakeh thereupon returned, and found the king of Asshur warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish. 9. And he had heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war against thee; and heard, and sent messengers to Hiskiyahu, saying, 10. Thus shall ye say to Hizkiyahu king of Judah, saying, Let not the God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Asshur. 11. Behold, thou hast surely heard what the kings of Asshur have done to all lands, to lay the ban upon them; and thou, thou shouldest be delivered? 12. Have the gods of the nations, which my fathers destroyed, delivered them? Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the B•nē-’Eden, which are in Telassar? 13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of ‘Ir-Sepharvayim, Hen‘a, and ‘Ivah?

14. And Hizkiyahu took the letter out of the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of Jehovah; and Hizkiyahu spread it before Jehovah. 15. And Hizkiyahu prayed to Jehovah, saying, 16. Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim, Thou, yea Thou alone, art God of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth. 17. Incline Thine ear, Jehovah, and hear! Open Thine eyes, Jehovah, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to despise the living God! 18. Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Asshur have laid waste all lands, and their land, 19. and have put their gods into the fire: for they were not gods, only the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. 20. And now, Jehovah our God, help us out of his hand, and all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou Jehovah art it alone.

21. And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hizkiyahu, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib the king of Asshur: 22. This is the utterance which Jehovah utters concerning him:—The virgin daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head after thee. 23. Whom hast thou reviled and blasphemed, and over whom hast thou spoken loftily, that thou hast lifted up thine eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24. By thy servants hast thou reviled the Lord, in that thou sayest, “With the multitude of my chariots have I climbed the height of the mountains, the inner side of Lebanon; and I shall fell the lofty growth of its cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I shall penetrate to the height of its uttermost border, the grove of its orchard. 25. I, I have digged and drank waters, and will make dry with the sole of my feet all the Nile-arms.” 26. Hast thou not heard? I have done it long ago, from the days of ancient time have I formed it, and now brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into desolate stone heaps; 27. and their inhabitants, powerless, were terrified, and were put to shame: became herb of the field and green of the turf, herb of the house-tops, and a cornfield before the blades. 28. And thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy entering in, I know; and thy heating thyself against Me. 29. On account of thy heating thyself against Me, and because thy self-confidence has risen up into Mine ears, I put My ring into thy nose, and My muzzle into thy lips, and lead thee back by the way by which thou hast come.

30. And let this be a sign to thee, Men eat this year what is self-sown; and in the second year what springs from the roots; and in the third year they sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31. And that which is escaped of the house of Judah, that which remains will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 32. For from Jerusalem will a remnant go forth, and a fugitive from Mount Zion; the zeal of Jehovah of hosts will carry this out.

33. Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Asshur, He will not enter into this city, nor shoot off an arrow there; nor do they assault it with a shield, nor cast up earthworks against it. 34. By the way by which he came will he return; and he will not enter into this city, saith Jehovah. 35. And I shield this city, to help, for Mine own sake, and for the sake of David My servant.

36. Then the angel of Jehovah went forth and smote in the camp of Asshur a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men rose up in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37. Then Sennacherib king of Asshur decamped, and went forth and returned, and settled down in Nineveh. 38. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharazer his sons smote him with the sword; and when they escaped to the land of Ararat, Esar-haddon reigned in his stead.

C.—Hezekiah’s Illness. Isaiah Assures Him of His Recovery.—Chap. xxxviii.

1. In those days Hizkiyahu became dangerously ill. And Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thine house in order; for thou wilt die, and not recover. 2. Then Hizkiyahu turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Jehovah, 3. and said, O Jehovah, remember this, I pray, that I have walked before Thee in truth, and with the whole heart, and have done what was good in Thine eyes. And Hizkiyahu wept with loud weeping.

4. And it came to pass the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah as follows: 5. Go and say to Hizkiyahu, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thine ancestor, I have heard thy prayer, seen thy tears; behold, I add to thy days fifteen years. 6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Asshur, and defend this city.

[21. Then Isaiah said they were to bring a fig-cake; and they plastered the boil, and he recovered. 22. And Hizkiyahu said, What sign is there that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?]

7. And let this be the sign to thee on the part of Jehovah, that Jehovah will perform the word which He has spoken: 8. Behold, I will make the shadow retrace the steps, which it has gone down upon the sun-dial of Ahaz through the sun, ten steps backward. And the sun went back ten steps upon the dial, which it had gone down.

9. Writing of Hizkiyahu king of Judah, when he was sick, and recovered from his sickness.

10, 11, 12:—
I said, in quiet of my days shall I depart into
          the gates of Hades:
I am mulcted of the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah, in the land of
          the living:
I shall behold man no more, with the inhabitants
          of the regions of the dead.
My home is broken up, and is carried off from me
          like a shepherd’s tent:
I rolled up my life like a weaver: He would have
          cut me loose from the roll:
From day to night Thou makest an end of me.

13, 14:—
I waited patiently till the morning; like the lion,
So will He break in pieces all my bones:
From day to night Thou makest it all over with me.
Like a swallow, a crane, so I chirped;
I cooed like the dove:
Mine eyes pined for the height.
O Lord, men assault me! Be bail for me.

15–17:—
What shall I say, That He promised me,
          and He hath carried it out:
I should walk quietly all my years,
          on the trouble of my soul?
Oh Lord, by such things men revive, and the life
          of my spirit is always therein:
And so wilt Thou restore me, and make me
          to live!
Behold, bitterness became salvation to me,
          bitterness;
And Thou, Thou hast delivered my soul in
          love out of the pit of corruption:
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.

18–20:—
For Hades does not praise Thee; death does not sing
          praises to Thee:
They that sink into the grave do not hope for
          Thy truth.
The living, the living, he praises Thee,
          as I do to-day;
The father to the children makes known Thy truth,
Jehovah is ready to give me salvation;
Therefore will we play my stringed instruments
          all the days of my life
In the house of Jehovah.

D.—Threatening of the Babylonish Captivity Occasioned by Hezekiah.—Chap. xxxix.

1. At that time Merodach Bal’adan, son of Bal’adan king of Babel, sent writings and a present to Hizkiyahu, and heard that he had been sick, and was restored again.

2. And Hizkiyahu rejoiced concerning them, and showed them all his storehouses: the silver, and the gold and the spices, and the fine oil, and all his arsenal, and all that was in his treasures: there was nothing that Hizkiyahu had now shown them in all his house or in all his kingdom.

3. Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hizkiyahu, and said to him, What have these men said, and whence came they to thee? Hizkiyahu said, They came to me from a far country, out of Babel. 4. He said further, What have they seen in thy house? Hizkiyahu said, All that is in my house have they seen; there was nothing in my treasures that I had not shown them. 5. Then Isaiah said to Hizkiyahu, Hear the word of Jehovah of hosts; 6. Behold, days come, that all that is in thy house, and all that thy fathers have laid up unto this day, will be carried away to Babel: nothing will be left behind, saith Jehovah. 7. And of thy children that proceed from thee, whom thou shalt beget, will they take; and they will be courtiers in the palace of the king of Babel. 8. Then said Hizkiyahu to Isaiah, Good is the word of Jehovah which thou hast spoken. And he said further, Yea, there shall be peace and steadfastness in my days.

 

second half of the collection, chaps. xl.–lxvi.

PART I.

first prophecy.—chap. xl.

Words of Comfort, and the God of Comfort.

1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her affliction is ended, that her debt is paid, that she has received from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins.

3. Hark, a crier! In the wilderness prepare ye a way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a road for our God. 4. Let every valley be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; and let the rugged by made a plain, and the ledges of rock a valley. 5. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh seeth together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

6. Hark, one speaking, Cry! And he answers, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. 7. Grass is withered, flower faded, for the breath of Jehovah has blown upon it. Surely grass is the people; 8. grass withereth, flower fadeth: yet the word of our God shall stand for ever.

9. Upon a high mountain get thee up, O evangelistess Zion;[1] lift up thy voice with strength, evangelistess Jerusalem! lift up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.

10. Behold, the Lord Jehovah as a mighty one will He come! His arm ruling for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His retribution before Him. 11. He will feed His flock like a shepherd, take the lambs in His arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are giving suck.

12. Who hath measured the waters with the hollow of His hand, and regulated the heavens with a span, and taken up the dust of the earth in a third measure, and weighed the mountains with a steelyard, and hills with balances? 13. Who regulated the Spirit of Jehovah, and (who) instructed Him as His counsellor? 14. With whom took He counsel, and who would have explained to Him and instructed Him concerning the path of right, and taught Him knowledge, and made known to Him a prudent course?

15. Behold, nations like a little drop on a bucket, and like a grain of sand in a balance, are they esteemed; behold, islands like an atom of dust that rises in the air. 16. And Lebanon is not a sufficiency of burning, nor its game a sufficiency of burnt-offerings. 17. All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are regarded by Him as belonging to nullity and emptiness. 18. And to whom can ye liken God, and what king of image can ye place beside Him!

19. The idol, when the smith has cast it, the melter plates it with gold, and melteth silver chains for it. 20. The man who is impoverished in oblations, he chooseth a block of wood that will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skilful smith, to prepare an idol that will not shake.

21. Do ye not know? Do ye not hear? Is it not proclaimed to you from the beginning? Have ye not obtained an insight into the foundations of the earth? 22. He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants resemble grasshoppers; who has spread out the heavens like gauze, and stretched them out like a tent-roof to dwell in; 23. He who giveth up rulers; maketh judges of the earth like a desolation. 24. They are hardly planted, hardly sown, their stem has hardly taken root in the earth, and He only blows upon them, and they dry up, and the storm carries them away like stubble.

25. And to whom will ye compare Me, to whom can I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26. Lift[2] up your eyes on high and see; who hath created these things? It is He who bringeth out their host by number, calleth them all by names, because of the greatness of (His) might, and as being strong in power: there is not one that is missing.

27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hidden from Jehovah, and my right hand is overlooked by my God? 28. Is it not known to thee, or hast thou not heard, an eternal God is Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth? He fainteth not, neither becomes weary; His understanding is unsearchable. 29. Giving power to the faint, and to the incapable He giveth strength in abundance. 30. And youths grow faint and weary, and young men suffer a fall. 31. But they who wait for Jehovah gain fresh strength; lift up their wings like eagles; run, and are not weary; go forward, and do not faint.