ESAIAS
TO THE READER

EDITION OF THE GREEK TEXT

It is important to note that the earlier English translations of the LXX by Thomson and Brenton were based on editions of the Greek version that essentially reproduced the text of Codex Vaticanus. While this important manuscript preserves an excellent text for most books of the LXX, it is less trustworthy in the case of Esaias. (R. R. Ottley, for his translation, used Codex Alexandrinus, our best available witness for Esaias.) As a result, the reader will find a large number of textual differences between those earlier English translations and the present one, which is based on the full-fledged critical edition of J. Ziegler (Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum XIV: Isaias [Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967]).

Ziegler’s reconstructed text is very similar to that found in Rahlfs’ Septuaginta. If we set aside differences that do not show up in an English translation (primarily Greek orthographic variants), we find approximately ninety places where the two editions differ, and many of these variations are relatively minor. I have accepted Ziegler’s judgment in all but sixteen of these (10.7; 13.3; 14.27; 26.18; 28.2–3; 41.29[bis]; 42.4; 49.13; 50.3; 51.16; 54.5; 55.13; 56.5; 61.3; 63.12), some of which involve conjectural emendations that are reasonable, even brilliant, but not totally persuasive. In addition, there are two places where Rahlfs and Ziegler agree but where I have reluctantly gone my own way (9.1[8.23] and 53.11; in the latter passage I have accepted an old conjectural emendation).

Many readers of NETS will not have easy access to Ziegler’s edition. If they use the present translation in conjunction with Rahlfs’ text, it will often be unclear whether departures from the latter are only apparent (the result of a non-literal rendering) or substantial (the result of a textual variation). Since NETS includes textual notes only when it departs from the base text (Ziegler), it may be helpful to the reader to have a list of those verses where the present translation reflects a text different from Rahlfs’ edition. They are as follow: 2.20; 5.9; 5.29; 7.6; 8.18; 9.4(3); 10.1; 10.10(bis); 10.22; 11.5; 12.2; 12.6(bis); 13.3; 14.13; 15.2; 15.4; 16.3; 16.5; 16.7; 17.5; 17.6; 18.7; 20.1; 21.13; 22.1; 23.13; 23.16; 25.5; 25.9; 28.15; 29.8; 30.14; 30.33; 33.18; 34.10; 36.19; 37.12; 37.13; 37.32; 37.38; 40.4; 40.25; 40.28; 41.23; 43.17; 44.16; 45.4; 45.9; 45.13; 46.11; 47.10; 48.5(bis); 48.16; 49.6; 49.7; 49.15; 51.5; 53.2; 54.3; 54.8; 54.10; 54.17(bis); 56.11; 58.11(bis); 60.6; 61.4; 61.8; 65.11; 65.23; 66.8(bis); 66.17(misprint).

TRANSLATION PROFILE OF THE GREEK

Attempts to evaluate the Greek translation of Esaias in the past have typically failed to note the complexity of such a task. One can find numerous passages where the translator has failed to understand the Hebrew text and where his Greek appears to be solecistic and even unintelligible. It is therefore natural to infer that he lacked competence. The problem with this conclusion, however, is that it does not take into account the skill, knowledge and creativity that he displays in many other passages. Moreover, any generalizations about the translator’s technique run afoul of the startling variations in his approach.

Consider, for example, the first half dozen verses in chapter 43. It is apparent that the translator had no trouble whatever understanding the Hebrew text and that he was capable of representing the meaning of the original in simple, clear and faultless Greek. His approach here may be characterized as moderately literal, resulting in a certain quaintness of style that betrays its Semitic background. Admittedly, the Hebrew of this passage is not particularly difficult. Elsewhere, if the translator encounters a rare word, he seems to lose his bearings. In 28.20, the Hebrew appears to mean, “For the bed is [too] short for stretching, and the covering [too] narrow for gathering [i.e., wrapping] oneself.” Here the Hebrew words for “bed” (which appears nowhere else in the Bible) and “stretching” (which is rare) stumped the translator. Exercising his imagination, he came up with this, “We are in straits and unable to fight, and we ourselves are too weak to be mobilized.” We should remember, however, that even modern scholarship is less than confident about the meaning of numerous sentences in the Hebrew text of Isaiah.

In some of his renderings, the translator appears to be slavishly literal, but it is clear that, as a whole, he felt free to vary his vocabulary and restructure the syntax if it served his purposes. That sense of freedom allowed him at times to go off on tangents that have little connection with the Hebrew. Indeed, on occasions the meaning of his translation is patently contrary to that of the original (cf. the negative he introduces at 8.14, “you will not encounter him as a stumbling caused by a stone”). What may have been going on in his mind at those times is an intriguing question, but we would be wrong to infer that he was unconcerned about being faithful to the text. There can be no doubt that he struggled mightily to make sense of difficult passages, and that even when he seems to go beyond the text, he is sensitive to the thrust of the book as a whole and seeks to come up with teachings that are up-building (note that at the beginning of 8.14 the addition of the clause “if you trust in him” effectively links this verse with a recurring theme in the book).

All of this means that we cannot easily describe lexical and grammatical patterns in the translator’s handling of the Hebrew text. Some can certainly be identified, but the exceptions to those patterns are significant, and they prevent us from making many valid generalizations. As we might expect, he follows some of the lexical equations established by the Greek translators of the Pentateuch, such as = in the sense of “covenant.” For Hebrew he normally uses (“Hades”), but in 28.15, 18 we find , “death.” There is no need to multiply examples. Beyond these more-or-less standard calques, the translator naturally comes up with a few equivalences of his own, but not in uniform fashion. With regard to syntax, while his tendency is to follow the simple structure of the Hebrew clauses, he does not hesitate to introduce variety and to exploit some of the resources of the Greek language; still, many of the niceties one routinely finds in original Greek composition are missing. Special note should be made of the translator’s fairly consistent representation of the Hebrew perfect tense (which can have various temporal references) with the Greek aorist (a simple past tense). Although the choice of the aorist is appropriate when the context clearly indicates a past action or a gnomic idea (e.g., 1.3, “The ox knew [=knows] its owner”), his overuse of this tense lends a distinct and odd quality to his translation.

THE NETS TRANSLATION OF ESAIAS

Given the Greek translator’s inconsistent approach (or so it appears to us), an English translation of his work faces special problems. The challenges are compounded by the need to follow the pattern of the NRSV. Numerous stylistic variations frequently used by the latter (as it renders the Hebrew text) introduce an additional and deeper level of inconsistency to the endeavor.

The user of NETS deserves to know that the present translation has gone through two distinct stages. The initial draft reflected a special effort not only to understand what the Greek translator meant (for which the sense of the Hebrew is an important piece of evidence), but also to communicate that meaning in fairly clear and natural English when possible (often the irregularities of the Greek called for less than fluent English). That first draft, in addition, sought to maximize the potential for NETS/NRSV synoptic study; in other words, it preserved NRSV renderings whenever these could be defended as reasonable representations of the Greek.

In the opinion of the editors, however, such an approach was inconsistent with the aim of NETS to represent not only what the Greek says but also how it is being said. For the sake of uniformity with the project as a whole, therefore, hundreds of changes were made that result in unclear or even unnatural English (e.g., “wept with weeping”). Moreover, the reader should be advised not to assume that a difference between NETS and NRSV reflects a difference between the Hebrew and the Greek.

Even in the first draft of this translation, NRSV renderings were changed in cases where the Hebrew is idiomatic but the Greek equivalence appears odd. In particular, note that the Greek translator fairly consistently translates the Hebrew (“man”) with , even in passages where such an equivalence is inappropriate, including instances when the Hebrew has a distributive meaning, “each.” The Greek translator is quite capable of rendering these uses idiomatically. For example, in 13.8, the Hebrew (lit., “a man to his neighbor”) is rendered (“one to another”). It seems advisable to render the Greek to English literally in cases where the Greek inappropriately renders the Hebrew literally. The reader of NETS will thus notice a large number of instances of the singular “man” the unusual flavor of the resulting English corresponds to some extent with the peculiar quality of the Greek.

The strophic arrangement of the NRSV has been followed as much as possible to facilitate comparison, but it must not be thought that the Greek always has a corresponding poetic quality.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

I have profited greatly from R. R. Ottley, The Book of Isaiah according to the LXX (Codex Alexandrinus) (3 vols; London: Cambridge University Press, 1904–1906). The first volume contains an important introduction (including a discussion of the Greek translator’s “Method of Rendering”) and a translation of the Hebrew and the Greek on facing pages. Volume 2 presents the Greek text with a critical apparatus, followed by extensive notes that pay special attention to the divergences between the Greek translation and the Hebrew original. A third, slim volume simply includes the text by itself.

Joseph Ziegler’s Untersuchungen zur Septuaginta des Buches Isaias (Alttestamentliche Abhandlungen 12/3; Münster: Aschendorff, 1934), which may be regarded as a prolegomenon to his critical edition, remains to this day the most penetrating and reliable source of information. The highly regarded monograph by I. L. Seeligmann, The Septuagint Version of Isaiah: A Discussion of Its Problems (Leiden: Brill, 1948), has chapters on textual criticism, translation technique, historical background and Jewish theology. More recently, Arie van der Kooij has produced a very full and helpful analysis of one chapter, The Oracle of Tyre: The Septuagint of Isaiah XXIII as Version and Vision (VTSup 71; Leiden: Brill, 1998).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my appreciation to my former student assistant Carl Franzon (Byington Scholar at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) for producing an initial collation showing the textual differences between the editions of Rahlfs and Ziegler. His careful labor greatly facilitated my subsequent work.

I am also greatly indebted to Albert Pietersma for his thorough review of the initial translation. His sharp eye saved me from embarrassment at numerous points, and his mastery of Greek and LXX studies improved the quality of the work in significant ways.

MOISÉS SILVA

1 A vision, which Esaias son of Amos saw—which he saw against Judea and against Ierou-salem in the reign of Ozias and Ioatham and Achaz and Hezekias, who reigned over Judea.

² Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:

I begat sons and exalted them,
but they rejected me.

³ The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,

but Israel has not known me,
and the people have not understood me.

⁴ Ah, sinful nation,
people full of sins,

evil offspring,
lawless sons,

you have forsaken the Lord
and provoked to anger the Holy One of
         Israel!

⁵ Why should you be beaten anymore
as you continue in lawlessness?

^aEvery head has become troubled,
and every heart has become sad^a.

⁶ From the feet to the head—
whether a sore or a bruise or a festering
         wound—

there is no emollient to put on,
nor oil nor bandages.

⁷ Your country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;

in your very presence
foreigners devour your land,
and it has been made desolate,
         overthrown by foreign peoples.

⁸ Daughter Sion will be forsaken
like a booth in a vineyard

and like a garden-watcher’s hut in a
         cucumber field,
like a besieged city.

⁹ And if the Lord Sabaoth
had not left us offspring,

we would have become like Sodoma
and been made similar to Gomorra.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodoma!

Pay attention to the law of God,
you people of Gomorra!

¹¹ What to me is the multitude of your
         sacrifices?
says the Lord;

I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams,
and I do not want the fat of lambs
nor the blood of bulls and goats—

^{12 b}not even if you come^b to appear before me.

For who asked these things from your
hands?

You shall trample my court no more!

¹³ If you should offer fine flour, that would be
         futile;
incense is an abomination to me.

Your new moons and sabbaths and great day
I cannot endure. Fasting and holidays^c,

¹⁴ as well as your new moons and your feasts, my soul hates.

^aYou have made me full^a;
I will no longer forgive your sins.

¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands to me,
I will turn away my eyes from you;

even if you make many petitions,
I will not listen to you,
for your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ Wash yourselves; become clean;
remove the evil deeds from your souls
before my eyes;

cease from your evil deeds;

¹⁷      learn to do good;

seek judgment;
rescue the one who is wronged;

defend the orphan,
and do justice to the widow.

¹⁸ So come, and let us argue it out,
says the Lord:

even though your sins are like crimson,
I will make them white like snow,

and though they are like scarlet,
I will make them white like wool.

¹⁹ And if you are willing and listen to me,
you shall eat the good things of the
         land,

²⁰ but if you are not willing nor listen to me,
the dagger will devour you;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
         these things.

²¹ How the faithful city Sion
has become a whore!

She that was full of justice,
wherein righteousness lodged—
but now murderers!

²² Your silver has no value;
your taverners mix the wine with water.

²³ Your rulers are disobedient:
they are companions of thieves,

loving gifts,
running after a reward,

not defending orphans
and not paying attention to the widows’
         cause.

²⁴ Therefore this is what the Sovereign, the
         Lord Sabaoth, says:

Ah, mighty ones of Israel!

For my wrath on my adversaries will not
         abate,

and I will exact judgment from my foes!

²⁵ And I will turn my hand against you
and will burn you to bring about purity.

But the disobedient I will destroy,
and I will remove from you all the
         lawless
and humble all who are arrogant.

²⁶ And I will set up your judges as at the
         former time
and your counselors as at the beginning.

And after these things you shall be called
         the city of righteousness,
the faithful mother city, Sion.

²⁷ For her captivity shall be saved
with judgment and with mercy.

²⁸ But the lawless and the sinners shall be
         crushed together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be
brought to an end.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed because of their
         idols,
which they themselves wanted,

and they were embarrassed because of their
         gardens,
which they desired.

³⁰ For they shall be like a terebinth
that has shed its leaves
and like an orchard that has no water.

³¹ And their strength shall be like a stalk of
         flax,
and their works like sparks of fire,

and the lawless and the sinners shall be
         burned together,

and there shall be no one to quench
them.

2 The word that came from the Lord to Esaias son of Amos concerning Judea and concerning Ierousalem.

² For in the last days
the mountain of the Lord shall be
         manifest,

and the house of God shall be on the tops
         of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills,

and all the nations shall come to it.

³ And many nations shall go and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
         Lord
and to the house of the God of Iakob,

and he will declare to us his way,
and we will walk in it.”

For out of Sion shall go forth a law,
and a word of the Lord from Ierousalem.

⁴ And he shall judge between the nations
and shall convict many people,

and they shall beat their daggers into plows
and their spears into pruning hooks,

and no more shall nation take up dagger
         against nation,

neither shall they learn to wage war any
more.

⁵ And now, O house of Iakob,
come, let us walk
by the light of the Lord!

⁶ For he has abandoned his people,
the house of Israel,

because their country, like that of the
         allophyles, was filled with divinations as it had been
at the beginning,

and many allophyle children were born
to them.

⁷ For their country was filled with silver and
         gold,

and there was no number to their
treasures,

and the land was filled with horses,
and there was no number to their
         chariots.

⁸ And the land was filled with
         abominations,
the works of their hands,
and they did obeisance to the things their
         own fingers had made.

⁹ And so a person bowed down,
and a man was humbled—
and I will not forgive them!

¹⁰ And now enter into the rocks,
and hide in the earth

from before the fear of the Lord
and from the glory of his strength,
when he rises to crush the earth.

¹¹ For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is
         lowly,

and the loftiness of men shall be brought
low,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that
         day.

¹² For the day of the Lord Sabaoth will be
against everyone who is insolent and
         haughty

and against everyone who is lofty and
high,

and they shall be humbled,

¹³ both against every cedar of Lebanon,
of them that are lofty and high,
and against every ^aacorn tree^a of Basan,

¹⁴ both against every mountain
and against every lofty hill,

¹⁵ both every lofty tower
and against every lofty wall,

¹⁶ both every ship of the sea
and against every spectacle of beautiful
         ships.

¹⁷ And every person shall be humbled,
and the loftiness of men shall fall,
and the Lord alone will be exalted on
         that day.

¹⁸ They will hide all ^bthe works of their
         hands^b—

¹⁹ carrying them into the caves
and into the clefts of the rocks
and into the holes of the earth—

from before the fear of the Lord
and from the glory of his strength,
when he rises to crush the earth.

²⁰ On that day a man ^cwill throw away
his silver and gold abominations, which
         they made

to do obeisance to the vain ones and the
bats^c,

²¹ to enter the holes of the solid rock
and the clefts of the rocks,

from before the fear of the Lord
and from the glory of his strength,
when he rises to crush the earth.

3 Behold now the Sovereign, the Lord Sabaoth,
    will take away from Judea and from
         Ierousalem

a strong man and a strong woman,
strength of bread and strength of water,

² a ^dmighty one^d and strong one and
         soldier,
both judge and prophet,
and diviner and elder,

³ both officer of fifty
and wonderful counselor,

both skillful builder
and intelligent listener.

⁴ And I will set up youths as their rulers,
and mockers shall be lords of them.

⁵ And the people will fall together,
man against man,
and a man against his neighbor;

the child will stumble against the elder,
the dishonored against the honorable.

⁶ Because a man will seize his brother
or his father’s kinsman, saying,

“You have a cloak;
you be our leader,

and let my food
be under^e you.”

⁷ But he will answer and say on that day,

“I will not be your leader,
for in my house there is neither bread nor
         cloak;

I will not be
the leader of this people,”

⁸ because Ierousalem has been abandoned
and Judea has fallen

and their tongues are joined with lawlessness,
being disobedient toward the things of
         the Lord;

now therefore their glory has been brought
         low.

⁹ And the shame of their face has risen up
         against them;

they have proclaimed their sin like that of
Sodoma,

and they have made it plain.

Woe to their soul!

Because they have given evil counsel
against themselves,

¹⁰ saying, “Let us bind the just, for he is a
         nuisance to us.”

Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their
works.

¹¹ Woe to the lawless one! Evil things will
         happen to him
according to the works of his hands.

¹² O my people, your exactors strip you clean,
and your creditors lord it over you.

O my people, those who congratulate you
         mislead you
and confuse the path of your feet.

¹³ But now the Lord will stand up to judge,
and he will make his people stand to
         judge them.

¹⁴ The Lord himself will enter into judgment
with the elders of the people and with
         their rulers.

But you, why have you burned my
         vineyard,

and why is the spoil of the poor in your
houses?

¹⁵ Why do you wrong my people
and shame the face of the poor?

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says:

Because the daughters of Sion were lifted up
and walked with an uplifted neck
and with a wink of the eyes,

all the while sweeping their tunics in the
         gait of their feet,
all the while being playful with their feet;

¹⁷ God will bring low
the ruling daughters of Sion,
and the Lord will expose their form ¹⁸in
         that day.

And the Lord will take away the glory of their attire and their adornments and the braids^a and the tassels and the crescents ¹⁹and the necklace and the adornment of their face ²⁰and the collection of glorious adornment and the bracelets^b and the armlets and the braiding and the bangles^c and the rings and the earrings ²¹and the garments trimmed with purple and the garments blended with purple ²² and the housecoats^d and the transparent Laconian fabrics ²³and the garments of fine linen, both the blue ones and the scarlet ones, and the fine linen embroidered with gold and blue thread and the light flowing garments.

²⁴ And instead of a pleasant scent there will be
         dust,

and instead of a girdle you will gird
yourself with a rope,

and instead of a head adornment of gold
you will have baldness because of your
         works,

and instead of the tunic blended with
         purple

you will gird yourself about with
sackcloth.

²⁵ And your most beautiful son, whom you
         love,
shall fall by dagger,

and your strong men shall fall by dagger
⁽²⁶⁾and shall be brought low.

²⁶ And the cases for your adornment shall
         mourn,
and you shall be left alone
and shall be dashed to the ground.

4 Seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,

“We will eat our own bread
and wear our own clothes;

just let your name be called upon us;
take away our reproach.”

2 But on that day God will gloriously shine on the earth with counsel, to uplift and glorify what remains of Israel. ³And what is left behind in Sion and remains in Ierousalem will be called holy, all who have been recorded for life in Ierousalem, ⁴ because the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. ⁵Then he will come, and as for every site of Mount Sion and all that surrounds it, a cloud will overshadow it by day and will be like smoke and like a light of fire burning by night. With all glory will it be covered. ⁶And it will serve as a shade from the heat and as a shelter and a hideout from harshness and rain.

5 I will now sing for the beloved
a song of the loved one concerning my
         vineyard:

The beloved had a vineyard
on a hill, on a fertile place.

² And I put a hedge around it and fenced it in
and planted a Sorech^e vine,

and I built a tower in the midst of it
and dug out a wine vat in it,

and I waited for it to produce a cluster of
         grapes,
but it produced thorns.

³ And now, man of Ioudas
and those who dwell in Ierousalem,

judge between me
and my vineyard.

⁴ What more might I do for my vineyard,
and I have not done for it?

Because I waited for it to produce a cluster
         of grapes,
but it produced thorns.

⁵ But now I will declare to you
what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be plundered,

and I will tear down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.

⁶ And I will abandon my vineyard,
and it shall not be pruned or dug,
and a thorn shall come up into it as into
         a wasteland, and I will also command the clouds,
that they send no rain to it.

⁷ For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth
is the house of Israel,

and the man of Ioudas
is a beloved young plant;

I waited for him to produce justice,
but he produced lawlessness—

nor ^adid he produce^a righteousness,
but a cry!

⁸ Ah, those who join house to house
and bring field next to field

so that they may take something from their
         neighbor!
Will you dwell alone on the earth?

⁹ For these things were heard in the ears of
         the Lord Sabaoth;

for if houses become many, large and
beautiful ones shall be desolate,

and there shall be no inhabitants.

¹⁰ For where ten yoke of oxen shall work,
^athat land^a shall produce one jarful,

and he who sows six bushels
shall produce three measures^b.

¹¹ Ah, those who rise early
and pursue the sikera^c,

who linger till evening,
for wine will inflame them!

¹² For with lyre and harp
and drums and flutes do they drink the
         wine

but do not regard the works of the Lord
or consider the works of his hands!

¹³ Therefore my people have become captive,
because they do not know the Lord;

they have become a multitude of corpses,
because of famine and thirst for water.

¹⁴ And Hades has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth without ceasing;

and her^d glorious ones and herd great
and her^d rich and her^d pestilent shall go
         down.

¹⁵ A person shall be brought low, and a man
         shall be dishonored,

and the eyes that are high shall be
brought low.

¹⁶ But the Lord Sabaoth shall be exalted in
         judgment,

and the Holy God shall be glorified in
righteousness.

¹⁷ Then those who have been plundered shall
         graze like bulls,
and lambs shall feed on the wastelands
of those who have been displaced.

¹⁸ Ah, those who draw sins as with a long rope
and who draw acts of lawlessness as with
         a strap from a heifer’s yoke,

¹⁹ who say, “Let him quickly bring near
the things he will do,
that we may see them,

and let the plan of the Holy One of Israel
         come,
that we may know it!”

²⁰ Ah, those who call evil good
and good evil,

who make darkness light
and light darkness,

who make bitter sweet
and sweet bitter!

²¹ Ah, those who are wise in themselves
and knowledgeable in their own sight!

²² Ah, your strong ones who drink wine
and the powerful ones who mix the
         sikera^c,

²³ who acquit the impious one for the sake of
         bribes

and take away the right of the righteous
one!

²⁴ Therefore, as stubble will be burned by a
         coal of fire
and burned up by a weakened flame,

so their root will be like fine dust
and their blossom go up like dust;

for they did not want the law of the Lord
         Sabaoth

but have provoked the oracle of the Holy
One of Israel.

²⁵ And the Lord Sabaoth was enraged with
         anger against his people,

and he laid his hand on them and struck
them;

the mountains were provoked,

and their carcasses became like dung
in the middle of the road.

In all these things his wrath has not turned
         away,
but his hand is still high.

²⁶ Therefore, he will raise a signal among the
         nations that are far away

and whistle for them from the end of the
earth.

And behold, they are coming, quickly, swiftly!

²⁷ They will not hunger nor grow weary
nor slumber nor sleep,

nor will they loosen their girdles from their
         waist,

nor will the thongs of their sandals be
broken;

²⁸ their arrows are sharp,
and their bows bent;

their horses’ hoofs were reckoned as solid
         rock,

the wheels of their chariots as a tempest.

²⁹ They rush like lions
but stand by like a lion’s whelp,

and he will seize and roar like a beast,
and he will cast them out, and there will
         be no one who can rescue.

³⁰ And he will roar because of them on that
         day,
like the sound of a surging sea.

And they will look to the land,
and behold, harsh darkness in their
         dismay.

6 And it happened in the year that King Ozias died that I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and raised up, and the house was full of his glory. ²And seraphin stood around him; ^athe one had six wings and the one had six wings^a, and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. ³And they cried out one to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Sabaoth;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ And the lintel was raised at the voice with which they cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵And I said: “O wretched that I am! I am stunned; for being a man and having unclean lips, I live among a people having unclean lips, and I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth, with my eyes!”

6 Then one of the seraphin was sent to me, and he had in his hand a live coal that he had taken from the altar with the tongs. ⁷And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips, and it will take away your lawlessness and purify your sins.” ⁸Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go to this people?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” ⁹ And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

‘You will listen by listening, but you will not
         understand,

and looking you will look, but you will not
         perceive.’

¹⁰ For this people’s heart has grown fat,
and with their ears they have heard
         heavily,
and they have shut their eyes

so that they might not see with their eyes
and hear with their ears

and understand with their heart
and turn—and I would heal them.”

¹¹ Then I said, “How long,
O Lord?” And he said:

“Until cities become desolate,
because they are not inhabited,

and houses, because there are no people,
and the land will be left desolate.

¹² And after these things, God will send people
         far away,

and those who have been left will be
multiplied on the land.

¹³ And still a tenth part is on it,
and it will be plundered again,

like a terebinth or an acorn tree
when it falls from its station.”

7 And it happened in the days of Achaz son of Ioatham the son of Ozias, king of Ioudas, that King Raasson of Aram and King Phakee son of Romelias of Israel went up against Ierousalem to wage war against it but could not besiege it. ²And it was reported to the house of Dauid, saying, “Aram has made an agreement with Ephraim.” And his^b soul and the soul of his^b people were agitated as when a tree in the forest is shaken by the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Esaias, Go out to meet Achaz, you and the one who is left, your son Iasoub, at the pool on the upper road to the Fuller’s Field. ⁴And you will say to him, Take care to be quiet, and do not fear, nor let your soul be feeble because of these two logs of smoking firebrands, for when my fierce anger comes, I will heal again. ⁵ And as for the son of Aram and the son of Romelias: Because they have plotted an evil counsel concerning you, saying, ⁶We will go up to Judea, and after talking with them, let us turn them toward us, and we will make the son of Tabeel king over it; ⁷this is what the Lord Sabaoth says:

This counsel shall not remain,
nor shall it come to pass.

⁸ But the head of Aram is Damascus,
but yet within sixty-five years ^cthe
         kingdom of Ephraim will cease
         from being people^c.

⁹ And the head of Ephraim is Somoron,
and the head of Somoron is the son of
         Romelias.

And if you do not believe,
neither shall you understand.

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke further to Achaz, saying, ¹¹Ask for yourself a sign of the Lord your God, in depth or in height. ¹²But Achaz said, I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test. ¹³Then he^d said: “Hear now, O house of Dauid! Is it a small thing for you to provoke a fight with mortals? How then do you provoke a fight with the Lord? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and you^e shall name him Emmanouel. ¹⁵He shall eat butter and honey; before he knows or prefers evil things, he shall choose what is good. ¹⁶For before the child knows good or bad, he defies evil to choose what is good, and the land that you fear ^ffrom before^f the two kings will be abandoned. ¹⁷But God will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not yet come since the day that he took Ephraim away from Ioudas—the king of the Assyrians.”

18 And it shall be on that day that the Lord will whistle for the flies that rule part of the river of Egypt and for the bee that is in the country of the Assyrians. ¹⁹And they will all come and rest in the ravines of the country and in the clefts of the rocks and into the caves and into every crevice and on every tree.

²⁰ On that day the Lord will shave with the great and drunken razor—which is beyond the river of the king of the Assyrians—the head and the hair of the feet, and he will cut off the beard.

21 And it shall be on that day that a person will nourish a young cow of the cattle and two sheep, ²² and it shall be, because of the abundance of milk that they give, everyone that is left on the land will eat butter and honey.

23 And it shall be on that day that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels, will become barren ground and thorn. ²⁴With dart and arrow they will enter there, for all the land will be barren ground and thorn, ²⁵ and every hill being plowed will be plowed, and fear will not come there, for it will be turned^a from the barren ground and thorn to a place where a sheep can feed and an ox can tread.

8 Then the Lord said to me, Take for yourself ^ba scroll of a new large one^b and write on it with a man’s pen, “In order to take plunder from the spoils quickly, for it is near,” ²and make reliable men my witnesses, Ourias and Zacharias son of Barachias. ³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, Name him “Swiftly Spoil, Quickly Plunder” ⁴for before the child knows how to call father or mother, it will receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians.

5 The Lord spoke to me yet further: ⁶Because this people does not want the water of Siloam that flows gently but want to have Raasson and the son of Romelias as king over you, ⁷therefore behold, the Lord is bringing up against you the mighty and abundant water of the River, the king of the Assyrians and his glory, and he will go up on your every ravine and walk on your every wall, ⁸and he will take away from Judea any man who can lift his head or who is capable to accomplish anything; his camp will be such as to fill the breadth of your country. God is with us.

⁹ Learn, you nations, and be defeated;
listen as far as the end of the earth;

be strong, and be defeated;
for if you become strong again, again you
         shall be defeated!

¹⁰ And whatever counsel you take, the Lord
         will scatter it,

and whatever word you speak, it will not
remain for you,

because the Lord God is with us.

11 Thus says the Lord, With a strong hand do they reject the course of the way of this people, saying: ¹²Never say “Hard,” for whatever this people says is hard, but do not fear what it fears, neither be troubled. ¹³Sanctify the Lord himself, and he himself will be your^c fear. ¹⁴And If you^c trust in him, he will become your^c holy precinct, and you will not encounter him as a stumbling caused by a stone nor as a fall caused by a rock, but the house of Iakob is in a trap, and those who sit in Ierousalem are in a pit. ¹⁵Therefore, many among them shall become powerless, and they shall fall and be crushed, and people who are in safety shall draw near and be taken.

16 Then shall become manifest those who seal up the law so that they might not learn. ¹⁷And one shall say, “I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Iakob, and I will trust in him. ¹⁸Here am I and the children whom God has given me, and they shall become signs and portents in Israel from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Sion.” ¹⁹And if people say to you, “Seek those who utter sounds from the earth and the ventriloquists, the babblers who utter sounds out of their bellies,” should not a nation be with its God? Why do they seek out the dead concerning the living? ²⁰For he has given a law as a help so that they may not speak a word such as this one, concerning which there are no gifts to give. ²¹And a harsh famine will come upon you, and it shall be that when you become hungry, you will be distressed, and you will vilify your ruler and your patachra^d. And they will look up to heaven above, ²²and they will observe the earth below, but look: affliction and distress and darkness—dire straits and darkness so that they cannot see—⁽²³⁾and the one who is in distress will not be perplexed for a time.

9 ^(8.23) Do this first; do it quickly, O country of Zaboulon, the land of Nephthalim^e, and the rest who inhabit the seashore and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the parts of Judea.

²⁽¹⁾ O you people who walk in darkness,
see a great light!

O you who live in the country and in the
         shadow of death,

light will shine on you!

³⁽²⁾ Most of the people,
whom you have brought back in your joy,

will also rejoice before you
like those who rejoice at the harvest
and in the same way as those who divide
         plunder,

⁴⁽³⁾ because the yoke placed on them will be
         taken away,

and the rod that is on their neck;

for the Lord has scattered the rod of the
exactors

as on the day that was upon Madiam,

⁵⁽⁴⁾ because with reconciliation^f they shall repay
every garment and cloak acquired by
         deceit,

and they will be willing ^ato do so
even^a if they have been burned by fire,

⁶⁽⁵⁾ because a child was born for us,
a son also given to us,

whose sovereignty was upon his shoulder, and he is named Messenger of Great
Counsel,

for I will bring peace upon the rulers,
peace and health to him.

⁷⁽⁶⁾ His sovereignty is great,
and his peace has no boundary

upon the throne of Dauid and his kingdom,
to make it prosper and to uphold it

with righteousness and with judgment
from this time onward and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these
things.

⁸⁽⁷⁾ The Lord sent death against Iakob,
and it came on Israel,

⁹⁽⁸⁾ and all the people of Ephraim will know it,
and those who sit in Samaria
with pride and uplifted heart, saying:

¹⁰⁽⁹⁾ “The bricks have fallen,
but come, let us hew stones

and cut down sycamores and cedars
and build ourselves a tower.”

¹¹⁽¹⁰⁾ And God will strike those who rise up
         against them on Mount Sion,
and he will scatter their enemies,

¹²⁽¹¹⁾ Syria from the rising of the sun
and the Greeks from the setting of the
         sun—

those who devour Israel with open
mouth.

For all this his anger has not turned away,
but his hand is still uplifted.

¹³⁽¹²⁾ And the people did not turn back until they
         were smitten,
and they did not seek the Lord.

¹⁴⁽¹³⁾ So the Lord took away from Israel head and
         tail,
great and small in one day—

⁽¹⁴⁾ the elder and those who admire persons:
         this is the first part,

¹⁵      and the prophet who teaches lawless
         things: this one is the tail.

¹⁶⁽¹⁵⁾ And those who congratulate this people will
         lead them astray,

and they lead them astray in order to
devour them.

¹⁷⁽¹⁶⁾ Therefore God will not rejoice over their
         young people,

nor will he have compassion on their
orphans and widows;

for they are all lawless and evil,
and every mouth speaks injustices.

For all this his anger has not turned away,
but his hand is still uplifted.

¹⁸⁽¹⁷⁾ And the transgression will burn like a fire,
and like dry grass will it be consumed by
         fire,

and it will burn in the thickets of the forest
and devour everything around the hills.

¹⁹⁽¹⁸⁾ Because of the fierce anger of the Lord,
the whole land has been burned up,

and the people will be completely burned as
         by fire.

A man will not have compassion on his
brother

²⁰⁽¹⁹⁾ but will turn aside to the right, because he
         will be hungry,

and he will eat on the left,

but a man will not be satisfied
even if he eats the flesh of his arm.

²¹⁽²⁰⁾ For Manasse will eat Ephraim’s, and
         Ephraim Manasse’s,

because together they will besiege
Ioudas.

For all this his anger has not turned away,
but his hand is still uplifted.

10 Woe to those who write evil!
For when writing they write trouble,

² turning aside the cause of the poor,
seizing the judgment of the needy among
         my people

so that a widow may become their spoil
and an orphan their plunder!

³ What will they do on the day of visitation?
For the affliction will come to you from
         far away.

And to whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your glory

⁴ so as not to fall into misery^a?

For all this his anger has not turned away,
but his hand is still uplifted.

⁵ Woe to the Assyrians!
The rod of my wrath and anger is in their
         hands!

⁶ I will send my anger against a lawless
         nation,

and I will instruct my people

to take spoils and plunder
and to tread down the cities and turn
         them into dust.

⁷ But he himself did not plan thus,
nor has he reasoned thus in his soul,

but ^bhis mind will^b change,
even to destroy utterly nations not a few.

⁸ And if they say to him,
“You alone are ruler,”

⁹ then he will say,
“Did I not take the country above
         Babylon and Chalanne,

where the tower was built?

And I took Arabia and Damascus and
Samaria.

¹⁰ As I took these, I will also take all the
         countries.

Wail, you graven images in Ierousalem
and in Samaria!

¹¹ For as I did to Samaria and to ^cthe works of
         her hands^c,

thus will I do also to Ierousalem and to
her idols.”

12 And it shall be that when the Lord has finished doing all the things on Mount Sion and in Ierousalem, he will bring ^ahis wrath^a against the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and against the loftiness of the glory of his eyes. ¹³For he said:

“By my strength I will do it,
and by the wisdom of my understanding

I will remove the boundaries of nations,
and I will plunder their strength.

¹⁴ And I will shake inhabited cities

⁽¹⁴⁾      and take with my hand the whole world
         like a nest

and seize ^aits inhabitants^a like eggs that have
been forsaken,

and there is none who will escape from
me or contradict me.”

¹⁵ Shall an ax be glorified without the one
         who cuts with it

or a saw be exalted without the one who
pulls it?

Just so would it be if someone were to lift
a rod or a log. ⁽¹⁶⁾But not so!

¹⁶ Rather, the Lord Sabaoth
will send dishonor on your honor,

and a burning fire will burn on your glory.

¹⁷ The light of Israel will become a fire,
and it will sanctify him with a burning
         fire

and devour the wood like grass.

¹⁸ On that day ⁽¹⁸⁾the mountains and the hills
and the woods will vanish,

and it will consume them
from the soul to the flesh,

and the one who flees will be
like the one who flees from a burning
         flame.

¹⁹ And those who are left from them will be a
         cipher,
and a child will write them down.

20 And it shall be on that day that what remains of Israel will no more be added, and those of Iakob who have been saved will no more trust in those who have wronged them but will trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ²¹And what remains of Iakob will be to the mighty God. ²²And if the people of Israel become like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved, for he is completing and cutting short a reckoning with righteousness, ²³because God will perform a shortened reckoning in the whole world.

24 Therefore this is what the Lord Sabaoth says: O my people, who live in Sion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, because he will beat you with a rod, for I bring a stroke upon you so that you may see the way of Egypt. ²⁵For yet a little while and the anger will cease, but my wrath will be upon their counsel. ²⁶God will stir up evil^a against them, like the stroke of Madiam at the place of affliction, and his wrath will be by the way of the sea, on the way toward Egypt. ²⁷And it shall be on that day that the fear of him will be taken away from you, and his yoke from your shoulder, and the yoke will be destroyed from off your^b shoulders.

²⁸ For he will come to the city of Aggai

²⁹      and pass on to Magedo,

and at Machmas he will lay down his
baggage,

⁽²⁹⁾ and he will pass the ravine
and come to Aggai;

fear will grip Rama,
the city of Saoul.

³⁰ The daughter of Gallim will flee:
Laisa will listen;
Anathoth will listen.

³¹ Madebena has retired—
also the inhabitants of Gibbir.

³² Encourage Sion^a today to remain in the way;
O mount, as well as you hills that are in
         Ierousalem,
with your hand encourage daughter Sion.

³³ For behold, the Sovereign, the Lord Sabaoth,
will mightily confound the glorious ones,

and the lofty will be crushed in their
         insolence,

and the lofty will be brought low.

³⁴ And the lofty will fall by dagger,
and Lebanon will fall with its lofty ones.

11 And a rod shall come out of the root of
         Iessai,

and a blossom shall come up out of his
   root.

² And the spirit of God shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and godliness.

³ The spirit of the fear of God will fill him.

He shall not judge on the basis of repute
or convict on the basis of report,

⁴ but he shall administer justice to a humble
         one

and convict the humble ones of the earth,

and he shall strike the earth with the word
         of his mouth,

and with breath through his lips he shall
do away with the impious.

⁵ He shall be girded with righteousness
         around the waist
and bound with truth around the sides.

⁶ And the wolf shall graze with the lamb,
and the leopard shall rest with the kid,

and the calf and the bull and the lion shall
         graze together,
and a little child shall lead them.

⁷ And the ox and the bear shall graze together,
and their young shall be together,
and together shall the lion and the ox eat
         husks.

⁸ And the young child shall put its hand over
         the hole of asps
and on the lair of the offspring of asps.

⁹ And they will not hurt or be able to destroy
anyone on my holy mountain,

because the whole earth^a has been filled to
         know the Lord
like much water to cover seas.

10 And there shall be on that day the root of Iessai, even the one who stands up to rule nations; nations shall hope in him, and his rest shall be honor.

11 And it shall be on that day that the Lord will further display his hand to show zeal for the remnant that is left of the people, whatever is left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt and Babylonia and Ethiopia and from the Ailamites and from where the sun rises and out of Arabia.

¹² And he will raise a signal for the nations
and will gather the lost ones of Israel

and gather the dispersed of Ioudas
from the four points of the earth.

¹³ And the jealousy of Ephraim shall be taken
         away,
and the enemies of Ioudas shall perish;

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Ioudas,
and Ioudas shall not afflict Ephraim.

¹⁴ But they shall fly away in ships of
         allophyles;

together they shall plunder the sea

and those from the rising of the sun and
Idumea.

And they shall first lay their hands on
         Moab,
but the sons of Ammon shall obey first.

¹⁵ And the Lord will make
the sea of Egypt desolate

and will lay his hand upon the River
with a violent wind

and will strike seven gullies
so that he may cross in sandals.

¹⁶ And there shall be a passage
for what is left of my people in Egypt,

and it shall be to Israel

as the day when he came out of the land
of Egypt.

12 And you will say in that day:
I will bless you, O Lord,
for you were angry with me,

and you turned away your wrath,
and you had compassion on me.

² Behold, the Lord is my God, my savior;
I will trust in him and will not be afraid,

because the Lord is my glory and my praise,
and he has become my salvation.

3 And with joy you will draw water out of the springs of salvation. ⁴And you will say in that day:

Sing hymns to the Lord;
call his name out loud;

declare his glorious deeds among the
         nations;

^bremember them, because^b his name has
been exalted.

⁵ Sing hymns to the name of the Lord, for he
         has done exalted things;

declare these things in all the earth.

⁶ Be glad, and rejoice, O you who dwell in
         Sion,

because the Holy One of Israel has been
exalted in your midst.

13 A vision, which Esaias son of Amos saw
against Babylon.

² On a mountain in the plain raise a signal;
raise up your voice to them; do not fear;

encourage them with your hand;
open, you rulers.

³ It is I who instruct, and I lead^c them;
[they have been consecrated,] and it is I
         who summon them.

^dMighty ones^d come to fulfill my wrath,
at the same time rejoicing and reviling.

⁴ A voice of many nations on the mountains
like that of many nations!

A voice of kings
and of nations gathered together!

The Lord Sabaoth has commanded
a heavily armed nation

⁵ to come from a distant land,
from the utmost foundation of heaven—

the Lord and his armed men—
to destroy the whole world.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near
and a destruction will come from God!

⁷ Therefore every hand will be weakened,
and every human soul will be afraid,

⁸      and the elders will be troubled,

and pangs will seize them, as of a woman
in labor.

And they will bewail one to another and be
         amazed,

and they will change their face like a
flame.

⁹ For behold, the incurable day of the Lord
         comes,
a day of wrath and anger,

to make the whole world desolate
and to destroy the sinners from it.

¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and Orion
and all the ornament of heaven
will not give light,

and it will be dark when the sun rises,
and the moon will not give its light.

¹¹ And I will command evils for the whole
         world,

and for the impious, their own sins;

I will destroy the pride of the lawless
and bring low the pride of the arrogant.

¹² And those that are left will be more valuable
         than unsmelted gold,

and man will be more valuable than the
stone from Souphir.

¹³ For heaven will be enraged,
and the earth will be shaken out of its
         foundations,

because of the fierce anger of the Lord
         Sabaoth
in the day when his wrath comes upon it.

¹⁴ And those that are left will be like a fleeing
         gazelle

or like a wandering sheep, and there will
be no one to gather them

so that a man will turn to his own people
and a man will run to his own land.

¹⁵ For whoever is caught will be defeated,
and whoever are gathered together will
         fall by dagger.

¹⁶ And they will strike down their children
in front of them,

and they will plunder their houses
and take their wives.

¹⁷ See, I am stirring up the Medes against
         you,
who do not take silver into account
nor have any need of gold.

¹⁸ They will crush the arrows of the young
         men,

and they will have no mercy on your
children,

nor will their eyes be sparing upon the
children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, which is called glorious
by the king of the Chaldeans,

will be as when God overthrew
Sodoma and Gomorra.

²⁰ It will not be inhabited forever,
nor will they enter it for many
         generations,

nor will Arabs pass through it,
nor will shepherds rest in it.

²¹ But wild animals will rest there,
and the houses will be filled with noise;

there sirens will rest,
and there demons will dance.

²² Donkey-centaurs^a will dwell there,
and hedgehogs will build nests in their
         houses;

it is coming quickly
and will not delay.

14 And the Lord will have compassion on Iakob and will yet choose Israel, and they will rest on their own land, and the gioras^b will be added to them; indeed, he will be added to the house of Iakob. ²And nations will take them and bring them into their place, and they will obtain an inheritance and will be multiplied on the land of God for male and female slaves, and those who captured them will be captives, and those who dominated them will be dominated.

3 And it shall be on that day that God will give you rest from your pain and wrath and your hard slavery with which you were subject to them. ⁴And you will take up this lament against the king of Babylon, and you will say on that day:

How the exactor has ceased
and the taskmaster has ceased!

⁵ God has crushed the yoke of sinners,
the yoke of rulers.

⁶ Having struck a nation in wrath
with an incurable blow,

smiting a nation with a wrathful blow
that spared no one,

⁽⁷⁾ he rested confidently.

⁷ The whole earth shouts with joy,

⁸ and the trees of Lebanon rejoiced over you,
even the cedar of Lebanon, saying^c,

“Since you fell asleep,
the one who is to cut us down has not
         come up.”

⁹ Hades beneath was embittered
on meeting you;

all the ^dmighty ones^d who have ruled the
         earth
rose up together against you—

those who have roused from their thrones
all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰ All will answer
and say to you:

“You too were taken even as we were,
and you were counted among us!”

¹¹ But your glory has gone down to Hades—
your abundant joy;

they will spread decay beneath you,
and a worm will be your covering.

¹² How is fallen from heaven
the Day Star, which used to rise early in
         the morning!

He has been crushed into the earth
who used to send light^c to all the
         nations!

¹³ You said in your mind,
“I will ascend to heaven;

I will set my throne
above the stars of God;

I will sit on a lofty mountain,
upon the lofty mountains toward the
         north;

¹⁴ I will ascend above the clouds;
I will be like the Most High.”

¹⁵ But now you will descend into Hades
and into the foundations of the earth.

¹⁶ Those who see you will marvel at you and
         say:

“Is this the man who troubles the earth,
shaking kings?”

¹⁷ The one who made the whole world
         desolate and overthrew the cities

has not released those who are in
         misery^a.

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations have fallen
         asleep in honor,
a man in his own house,

¹⁹ but you will be cast out on the mountains,
like an abominable corpse,

with many dead, those pierced with daggers,
who go down into Hades.

As a cloak stained with blood will not be
         clean,

²⁰ so neither will you be clean,

because you have destroyed my land
and killed my people.

You will not remain forever,
you evil seed!

²¹ Prepare your children to be slaughtered
for the sins of your father

so that they will not rise and inherit the
         earth
and fill the earth with wars.

22 And I will rise up against them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and will destroy their name and remnant and offspring. This is what the Lord says: ²³And I will make Babylonia desolate so that hedgehogs will dwell there, and it will become nothing, and I will make it a miry pit for destruction.

²⁴ This is what the Lord Sabaoth says:

As I have said,
so shall it be,

and as I have planned,
so shall it remain:

²⁵ to destroy the Assyrians from my land and
         from my mountains,
and they shall be trampled,

and their yoke shall be removed from
         them,

and their renown shall be removed from
their shoulders.

²⁶ This is the plan that the Lord has planned
against the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is raised up
against all the nations of the world.

²⁷ For what ^bthe holy God^b has planned,
who will scatter it?

And his hand that is raised up,
who will turn it back?

²⁸ In the year that King Ahaz died this word came:

²⁹ May you not rejoice, all you allophyles,
for the yoke of him who struck you is
         broken,

for from the seed of snakes will come forth
         the offspring of snakes,

and their offspring will come forth as
flying snakes.

³⁰ And the poor will graze through him,
and poor men will rest in peace,

but he will wipe out your offspring with
         famine,
and your remnant he will wipe out.

³¹ Wail, O city gates;
let the troubled cities cry out—all the
         allophyles!

Because smoke comes out of the north,
and there is ^cno way to live^c.

³² What will the kings of the nations answer?

“The Lord has founded Sion,
and the humble among the people
will be saved through him.”

15 The word against Moabitis.

By night Moabitis will perish;
for by night the wall of Moabitis will
         perish.

² Grieve for yourselves, for Lebedon will
         perish!

Where your altar^d is, there you will go up
to weep:

wail over Nabau of Moabitis!

On every head will be baldness;
all arms will be cut in pieces.

³ In her highways gird yourselves with
         sackcloth, and smite yourselves;

on her housetops and in her streets

wail, all of you, with weeping!

⁴ Because Hesebon and Eleale have cried out,
her voice is heard as far as Iassa;

therefore the loins of Moabitis cry aloud;
her soul will know.

⁵ The heart of Moabitis cries aloud within her
         as far as Segor,
for she is a three-year-old heifer.

And on the ascent of Louith
they will go up to you weeping;

by the way of Haroniim she cries aloud,
“Destruction and an earthquake!”

⁶ The water of Nemrim
will be desolate,

and her grass will fail,
for there will be no green grass.

⁷ Even so, will she be saved?
For I will bring Arabs to the ravine,
and they will take her.

⁸ For the cry has reached
the boundary of Moabitis of Agallim,

and her wailing
as far as the well of Ailim.

⁹ And the water of Remmon will be filled
         with blood,
for I will bring Arabs upon Remmon,

and I will remove the offspring of Moab and
         Ariel
and the remnant of Adama.

16 I will send as it were creeping animals on
         the land:

is Mount Sion a desolate rock?

² For you will be as a nestling taken away
from a bird that is flying, O daughter of
         Moab!

And then, O Arnon,

³      take further counsel,

and make for her
a shelter for mourning for all time.

They flee in darkness at noon;
they were astonished;
do not be taken away.

⁴ The fugitives of Moab
will sojourn with you;

they will be a shelter to you^a
from before a pursuer,

because your alliance has been taken away
and the ruler who trampled on the land
         has perished.

⁵ Then a throne shall be restored with mercy,
and he shall sit on it with truth in the
         tent of Dauid,

judging and seeking judgment
and ^bquickly procuring^b righteousness.

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab:
exceedingly proud he is;

you have removed his arrogance.
Your divination is not thus;

⁷ Moab shall wail,
for in Moabitis all shall wail.

You will take care of those who dwell in
         Adeseth,
and you will not ^cbe ashamed^c.

⁸ The plains of Hesebon will mourn,
the vine of Sebama.

As you swallow up the nations,
trample down her vines as far as Iazer.

You will not come together;
you will not wander in the wilderness;

those who were sent have been forsaken,
for they crossed the wilderness.

⁹ Therefore I will weep as with the weeping of
         Iazer
for the vine of Sebama.

He has cut down your trees,
O Hesebon and Eleale,

because I will trample down your harvest
         and vintage,

and all things will fall.

¹⁰ And joy and gladness will be taken away
from your vineyards,

and in your vineyards
they will not rejoice,

and they will not tread out wine in the
         vats,
for ^dthe vintage^d has ceased.

¹¹ Therefore my belly will resound
like a lyre upon Moab,

and my inward parts will be
like a wall that you have made new.

12 And it will be for your shame, because Moab has become weary at the altars^e, and she will enter the works of her hands in order to pray but will not be able to deliver him.

13 This was the word that the Lord spoke against Moab at the time he also spoke. ¹⁴But now I say, In three years of the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be dishonored with all its great wealth, and it will be left very few in number and without honor.

17 The word against Damascus.

See, Damascus will be removed from among
         cities
and will become a ruin,

² abandoned forever, to be a fold and resting
         place for flocks,

and there will be no one to drive them
away.

³ And no longer will it be strong enough for
         Ephraim to flee to it for refuge,

and no longer will there be a kingdom in
Damascus,

and the rest of the Syrians will perish,
for you are not better than the sons of
         Israel and their glory.

⁴ This is what the Lord Sabaoth says:

  On that day
there will be a failing of the glory of
         Iakob,

and the riches^f of his glory will be
shaken.

⁵ And it shall be as if someone were to gather
         the standing crop

and reap the seed of the ears of grain,

and it shall be as if someone were to gather
         an ear of grain

in a firm^g ravine

⁶ and as if a stalk should be left in it,
or like berries of an olive tree—

two or three
on the topmost height,

or four or five left
on its branches.

This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ⁷On that day a man will trust in the One who made him, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel, ⁸and they will not trust in the altars^e nor in the works of their hands, which their own fingers have made, and they will not look at their trees nor at their abominations.

9 On that day your cities will be abandoned, just as the Amorrites and the Heuites abandoned them before the sons of Israel, and they will be desolate.

¹⁰ Because you have abandoned God your savior
and have not remembered the Lord your
         helper,

therefore you will plant an unfaithful plant
and an unfaithful seed.

¹¹ But on the day that you plant them,
you will be led astray,

and if you sow in the morning,
it will blossom for harvest
in whatever day you take possession of it,

and like a man’s father
you will take possession of it for your sons.

¹² Ah, the multitude of many nations!
Like a swelling sea, so will you be
         troubled,

and the backside of many nations
will roar like water.

¹³ Many nations are like much water,
as when much water violently rushes
         down.

And he will damn him and pursue him far
         away,

like the dust of chaff when they winnow
before the wind

and like a squall that drives a circling
dust cloud.

¹⁴ Toward evening there will be lamentation;
before morning, and it will not be.

This is the portion of those who despoiled
         you

and an inheritance for those who
inherited you.

18 Ah, wings of a land of ships

beyond the rivers of Ethiopia—

² he who sends hostages by sea
and papyrus letters on the water!

For swift messengers will go
to a high nation,

and a foreign and fierce people:
who is beyond it?

It is a nation
without hope and trampled down.

Now the rivers of the land

³ will be all like an inhabited country;

their country will be inhabited
as if a signal were raised from a
         mountain—

like the sound of a trumpet will it be
heard,

⁴ because thus the Lord said to me:

There will be safety in my city
like the light of midday heat,

and it will be like a cloud of dew
in the day of harvest.

⁵ Before the harvest, when the blossom has
         been completed
and the unripe grape blossoms—
a grape-bearing blossom—

then he will take away the little clusters with
         pruning hooks

and take away the small branches and cut
them off

⁶ and leave them together
to the birds of heaven

and to the beasts of the earth.

And the birds of heaven will be gathered
         over them,

and all the beasts of the earth will come
upon him.

7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Sabaoth from a people afflicted and plucked and from a great people henceforth and forever, a nation having hope and trodden down, which is in a part of a river of its land, to Mount Sion, the place where the name of the Lord Sabaoth is.

19 A vision concerning Egypt.

See, the Lord is sitting on a swift cloud
and will come to Egypt,

and the handiworks^a of Egypt will be
         shaken at his presence,

and their heart will be dismayed within
them.

² And Egyptians will be stirred up against
         Egyptians,
and a man will war against his brother,
and a man against his neighbor,
city against city and province against
         province,

³ and the spirit of the Egyptians will be
         troubled within them,

and I will scatter their counsel,

and they will consult their gods and their
         images

and those who speak out of the earth and
the ventriloquists,

⁴ and I will deliver Egypt
into the hands of men, cruel lords,

and cruel kings will lord it over them.

This is what the Lord Sabaoth says:

⁵ And the Egyptians will drink the water that
         is by the sea,
but the river will fail and be dried up,

⁶ and the rivers and the canals of the river will
         fail,
and every gathering of water,
even in every marsh of reed and papyrus,
will be dried up.

⁷ And the green marsh grass,
all that is around the river

and all that is sown by the river,
will be dried up, blasted by the wind.

⁸ And the fishers will groan,
and all who cast hooks into the river will
         groan,

and those who cast seines and those who
are anglers will mourn.

⁹ And shame will take hold of those who
         work the split flax
and those who work the linen.

¹⁰ And those who weave them will be in pain,
and all who make beer will be grieved,
and they will afflict their souls.

¹¹ And the rulers of Tanis will be fools;
as for the wise counselors of the king,
their counsel will become foolish.

How will you say to the king,

“We are sons of sages,

sons of kings who were from the
beginning”?

¹² Where now are your wise men?
And let them also declare to you and say
what the Lord Sabaoth has planned
         against Egypt.

¹³ The rulers of Tanis have failed,
and the rulers of Memphis have been
         exalted,

and they will lead Egypt astray
^atribe by tribe^a.

¹⁴ For the Lord has prepared^b for them
a spirit of error,

and they have led Egypt astray in all their
         works,

as the drunkard and the one who vomits

are led astray together.

¹⁵ And there will not be a work for the
         Egyptians

that will make head or tail, beginning or
end.

16 But on that day the Egyptians will be like women in fear and in trembling before the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which he will lay on them. ¹⁷And the land of the Judeans will become a terror to the Egyptians. As for everyone who should mention it to them—they will fear because of the plan that the Lord has planned against it.

18 On that day there will be five cities in Egypt speaking the Chananite language and swearing in the name of the Lord. The one city will be called Asedek City.

19 On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians and a stele to the Lord at its border. ²⁰And it will be a sign forever to the Lord in the country of Egypt, because they will cry to the Lord on account of those who oppress them, and the Lord will send them a man who will save them—judging he will save them. ²¹And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will offer sacrifices and make vows to the Lord and repay them. ²²And the Lord will strike the Egyptians with a great blow and heal them with healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to them and heal them.

23 On that day there will be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians will enter Egypt, and the Egyptians will go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians will be subject to the Assyrians.

24 On that day Israel will be third among the Assyrians and among the Egyptians, blessed in the land ²⁵that the Lord Sabaoth has blessed, saying, “Blessed be my people that are in Egypt and among the Assyrians, even Israel my heritage.”

20 In the year that Tanathan entered Azotos, when he was sent by Sarnan, king of the Assyrians, and waged war against Azotos and took it—²then the Lord spoke to Esaias, saying, “Go, and take off the sackcloth from your loins, and untie your sandals off your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. ³And the Lord said, “Just as my servant Esaias has walked naked and barefoot for three years, there will be signs and portents to the Egyptians and Ethiopians, ⁴because thus shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the captivity of Egypt and of the Ethiopians, young and old, naked and barefoot, uncovered—the shame of Egypt. ⁵And the Egyptians, having been defeated, shall be ashamed because of the Ethiopians, in whom the Egyptians had trusted, for they were their glory. ⁶And those who dwell in this island will say, ‘See, we had trusted to flee to them for help, who could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians! And we, how shall we be saved?’ ”

21 The vision of the wilderness.

As a whirlwind might pass through a
         wilderness—

coming from a wilderness, from land—

dreadful ²and harsh is the vision declared to
         me;

^cthe betrayer betrays^c;

the lawless one acts lawlessly.

The Ailamites are upon me,
and the envoys of the Persians are
         coming upon me.

Now I will groan and comfort myself.

³ Therefore my loins have been filled with
         weakness,
and pangs have seized me
like a woman in labor;

^dI did wrong not hearing;
I hasted not seeing^d.

⁴ My heart wanders, and lawlessness^e
         overwhelms me;

my soul has turned to fear.

⁵ Prepare^f the table;
drink; eat!

Rise up, rulers;
prepare shields!

⁶ Because thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, post a lookout for yourself,
and announce whatever you see.”

⁷ And I saw two riding horsemen,
a rider on a donkey and a rider on a
         camel.

Listen with much listening,

⁸ and call Ourias to the watchtower of the
         Lord.

And he said:

“I stood continually by day,
and over the camp I stood
the whole night.

⁹ And look, he himself comes, a rider of a pair of horses!”

Then he answered and said,
“Babylon has fallen,

and all her images and ^athe works of her
         hands^a
have been crushed to the ground.”

¹⁰ Hear, you who have been left and you who
         are in pain;

hear the things I have heard from the
Lord Sabaoth;

the God of Israel has announced them
to us.

¹¹ The vision concerning Idumea.

He calls to me from Seir,
“Guard the battlements!”

¹² I guard them in the morning and at night.
If you would inquire, inquire,
and dwell by me.”

¹³ In the evening, you will lie down in the
         thicket,
in the way of Dedan.

¹⁴ Bring water to meet the thirsty,
O you who dwell in the land of
         Thaiman;
meet with bread those who flee

¹⁵ because of the multitude of those who flee
and because of the multitude of those
         who wander

and because of the multitude of the dagger
and because of the multitude of the
         poised arrows

and because of the multitude of those
who have fallen in war.

16 For thus the Lord said to me: Yet a year, like the year of a hired worker—the glory of the sons of Kedar will fail, ¹⁷and the rest of the arrows of Kedar’s strong sons will be few, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

22 The vision concerning the ravine of Sion.

What has happened to you^b now
that you have all gone up to useless
         housetops?

² The city was filled with people shouting.

Your wounded were not wounded by dagger,
nor were your dead men dead in battle.

³ All your rulers have fled,
and those who were caught have been
         harshly bound,

and those who are strong in you have
fled far away.

⁴ Therefore I said:

Leave me alone;

I will weep bitterly;

do not prevail in comforting me
for the ruin of the daughter of my race.

⁵ Because it is a day of trouble
and destruction and trampling

and there is wandering from the Lord
         Sabaoth

in the ravine of Sion,

from small to great they wander;
they wander on the mountains.

⁶ Now the Ailamites took quivers—
riding men on horses
and a gathering for battle.

⁷ And your choicest ravines will be filled with
         chariots,
and the cavalry will block your gates.

⁸ And they will uncover the gates of Ioudas
and look on that day into the choicest
         houses of the city,

⁹ and they will uncover the secrets
of the houses of the citadel of Dauid.

And they saw that there were rather many and that they had turned the water of the old pool into the city ¹⁰and that they had demolished the houses of Ierousalem to fortify the wall for the city. ¹¹And you ^cproduced water^c for yourselves between the two walls, further inward than the old pool. But you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, nor did you see him who created it.

¹² And in that day the Lord Sabaoth
called for weeping and lamentation
and shaving and girding with sackcloth,

¹³ but they engaged in joy and gladness,
killing calves and slaughtering sheep
in order to eat meat and drink wine,
         saying:

“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴ And these things are revealed in the ears of
         the Lord Sabaoth,

because^d this sin will not be forgiven you
until you die.

15 This is what the Lord Sabaoth says: Go into the priestly chamber, to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him: ¹⁶Why are you here? What do you have here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself and made for yourself a tomb on the height and inscribed a tent for yourself in a rock? ¹⁷Look now, the Lord Sabaoth will hurl away and wipe out a man, and he will take away your robe ⁽¹⁸⁾and your glorious crown ¹⁸and throw you into a great and immeasurable land; there you shall die. And he will make your fair chariot a disgrace and your ruler’s house something trampled down, ¹⁹and you will be removed from your office and from your position.

20 And it shall be on that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelkias ²¹and will clothe him with your robe and give him your crown, and I will give your power and office into his hands, and he shall be as a father to those who dwell in Ierousalem and to those who dwell in Ioudas. ²²And I will give him the glory of Dauid, and he shall rule, and there shall be no one to contradict him. ²³And I will make him ruler in a secure place, and he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house. ²⁴And everyone who is glorious in his father’s house, from small to great, will trust in him, and they will ^ahang over^a him ²⁵on that day. This is what the Lord Sabaoth says: The man who was fastened in a secure place will be removed and will fall, and the glory that was on him will be taken away, for the Lord has spoken.

23 The vision of Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Carthage,
for she has perished,

and people no longer come from the land
         of the Kitieans:
she has been led captive.

² To whom have become similar those who
         dwell in the island—
the merchants of Phoenicia,

crossing the sea

³      on much water,

an offspring of merchants?

The merchants of the nations
are as when a harvest is being gathered
         in.

⁴ “Be ashamed, O Sidon,” said the sea,
and the strength of the sea said:

“I have not travailed nor given birth
nor reared young men nor raised up
         virgins.”

⁵ But when it becomes heard in Egypt,
anguish concerning Tyre will take hold of
         them.

⁶ Go away to Carthage—
wail, O you who dwell in this island!

⁷ Was this not your pride from the
         beginning,
before she was handed over?

⁸ Who has planned these things against Tyre?

Is she inferior? Or does she have no
strength?

Her traders are glorious,
rulers of the earth!

⁹ The Lord Sabaoth has planned
to undo all the pride of the glorious
         ones

and to dishonor every glorious thing on
the earth.

¹⁰ Work your land,
for indeed ships no longer come from
         Carthage.

¹¹ But your hand, which irritated kings,
is no longer strong by sea;

the Lord Sabaoth commanded concerning
         Chanaan
to destroy her strength.

¹² And they will say:

You will no longer continue to insult
and do wrong to the daughter of Sidon;

even if you go away to the Kitieans,
not even there will you have rest.

13 And ^bif you go^b to the land of the Chaldeans, this too has been made desolate by the Assyrians, because her wall has fallen.

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Carthage,
because your fortress has perished.

¹⁵ And it shall be on that day that Tyre will be abandoned for seventy years, like the time of a king, like the time of a man. And it shall be that after seventy years Tyre will be like the song about a prostitute:

¹⁶ Take a lyre;
roam, you city,
you forgotten prostitute!

Play the lyre well;
sing much,
that you may be remembered.

¹⁷ And it shall be that after seventy years God will pay a visit to Tyre, and she will be restored again to her ancient condition and will be a market center for all the kingdoms of the world. ¹⁸And her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord; it will not be gathered for them, but all her merchandise will be for those who live in the presence of the Lord, to eat and drink and be filled, ^cas a covenant, a memorial^c in the presence of the Lord.

24 Look, the Lord is ruining the world and
         will make it desolate,

and he will uncover its surface and scatter
those who dwell in it.

² And the people shall be like the priest,
and the servant like the master,
and the maid like the mistress;

the buyer shall be like the seller,
and the lender like the borrower,
and the creditor like the one to whom he
         owes.

³ The earth shall be ruined with ruin,
and the earth shall be plundered with
         plundering,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
these things.

⁴ The earth mourned,
and the world was ruined;
the exalted ones of the earth mourned.

⁵ And the earth behaved lawlessly
because of those who inhabit it,

because they transgressed the law
and changed the ordinances—
an everlasting covenant.

⁶ Therefore a curse will devour the earth,
because those who inhabit it have sinned;

therefore those who dwell in the earth will
         be poor,
and few people will be left.

⁷ The wine will mourn;
the vine will mourn;
all who rejoice in their soul will groan.

⁸ The joy of the drums has ceased;
the stubbornness and wealth of the
         impious have ceased;

the sound of the lyre has ceased.

⁹ They felt shame, did not drink wine;
the sikera^a became bitter to those who
         drank it.

¹⁰ Every city was made desolate;
he will shut up the house so that no one
         can enter.

¹¹ Wail everywhere for the wine;
all the joy of the earth has ceased.

¹² And cities will be left desolate;
abandoned houses will perish.

¹³ All these things shall be on the earth,
in the midst of the nations;

just as when someone gleans an olive tree,
so shall people glean them,
even when the harvest has ceased.

¹⁴ These will cry aloud with their voice,
but those who are left in the land

will rejoice together in the glory of the Lord.
The water of the sea will be troubled.

¹⁵ Therefore the glory to the Lord will be in the
         islands of the sea;
the name of the Lord will be glorious.

¹⁶ O Lord God of Israel,

⁽¹⁶⁾      from the wings of the earth

we have heard wonders:
Hope for the godly one.

But ^bthose who reject the law will say,
Woe to those who reject!^b

¹⁷ Fear and pit and snare
are upon you who dwell on the earth!

¹⁸ And it shall be that the one who flees from
         the fear
shall fall into the pit,

and the one who gets out of the pit
shall be caught by the snare,

because windows have been opened out of
         heaven,

and the foundations of the earth will be
shaken.

¹⁹ The earth will be troubled with trouble,
and the earth will be perplexed with
         perplexity.

²⁰ The earth has bent over, and it will be
         shaken like a garden-watcher’s hut,

like the one who drinks too much and is
intoxicated,

and it will fall and will not be able to rise,
for lawlessness has prevailed upon it.

²¹ And God will bring his hand
against the ornament of heaven
and against the kings of the earth.

²² And they will gather them together
and shut them up in a fortress and in a
         prison;

through many generations
will be their visitation.

²³ Then the brick will be dissolved,
and the wall will fall,

because the Lord will reign
in Sion and in Ierousalem,

and before the elders he will be glorified.

25 O Lord, my God,

I will glorify you; I will sing hymns to your
      name,

because you have done wonderful things—
an ancient, true plan. May it be so,
         Lord!

² Because you have made cities a heap,
fortified cities, so their foundations might
         fall;

the city of the impious will not be built
forever.

³ Therefore the poor people will bless you,
and cities of ill-treated persons will bless
         you.

⁴ For you have become a helper to every
         humble city

and a shelter to those who are dispirited
because of poverty;

you will rescue them from evil persons—
a shelter for the thirsty and breath for ill-
         treated persons,

⁵ like faint-hearted persons thirsting in Sion,
because of the impious, to whom you
         delivered us.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord Sabaoth will
         make ^ca feast^c for all nations:
they will drink joy;
they will drink wine;

⁷ they will anoint themselves with
     perfume.

⁽⁷⁾ Deliver all these things to the nations on
         this mountain,

for this counsel is against all the nations.

⁸ Death, having prevailed, swallowed them
         up,

and God has again taken away every tear
from every face;

the disgrace of the people he has taken away
         from all the earth,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

⁹ And they will say on that day,
Lo, our God, in whom we were hoping,
and we were glad in our salvation,

¹⁰ because God will give us rest on this
         mountain,
and Moabitis shall be trodden down
as they tread a threshing floor with
         wagons.

¹¹ And he will send forth his hands,
as he himself brought him low to destroy
         him,

and he will bring low his pride—
things on which he laid his hands.

¹² And he will bring low the height of the
         refuge of your wall,

and it will come down all the way to the
ground.

26 On that day they will sing this song on the
         land of Ioudas, saying:

Look, a strong city,
and he will make our salvation
its wall and outer wall.

² Open the gates;
let a people enter that keeps
         righteousness
and that keeps truth,

³ that lays hold of truth
and that keeps peace,

because in you

⁴     have they hoped, O Lord, forever—

the great, everlasting God,

⁵ you who have humbled and brought down
those who dwell in lofty places;

you will cast down strong cities
and bring them down to the ground,

⁶ and the feet of the gentle and humble
will trample them.

⁷ The way of the godly has become straight;
the way of the godly has also been
         prepared,

⁸ for the way of the Lord is judgment;
we have hoped in your name

and in the remembrance

⁹ that our soul desires.

In the night my spirit ^arises early toward
         you^a, O God,

because your ordinances are a light upon
the earth.

Learn righteousness, you who dwell on the
         earth;

¹⁰ for the impious one has come to an end;

he will not learn righteousness on the earth;
he will not perform truth.

Let the ungodly one be taken away
so that he may not see the glory of the
         Lord.

¹¹ O Lord, your arm is lifted up,
and they have not known it,
but once they realize it, they will be
         ashamed.

Jealousy will take hold of an uninstructed
         people,

and fire will now consume the
adversaries.

¹² O Lord, our God, give us peace,
for you have granted us all things.

¹³ O Lord, our God, take possession of us;
O Lord, we know no other besides you;
we name your name.

¹⁴ But the dead will not see life,
nor will physicians raise them up;

because of this you have brought them and
         destroyed them
and taken away all their males.

¹⁵ Increase evils on them, O Lord;
increase evils on the glorious ones of the
         earth.

¹⁶ O Lord, in affliction I remembered you;
with small affliction ^byour chastening was
         on us^b.

¹⁷ And as a woman in travail is about to give
         birth
and cries out in her pangs,

so were we to your beloved
because of the fear of you, O Lord.

⁽¹⁸⁾ We conceived and travailed and gave birth;
^cwe produced a wind of your salvation^c
         on the earth,
but those who dwell on the earth will fall.

¹⁹ The dead shall rise, and those who are in
         the tombs shall be raised,

and those who are in the earth shall
rejoice;

for the dew from you is healing to them,
but the land of the impious shall fall.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your chambers;
shut your door;

hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath of the Lord has passed.

²¹ For look, the Lord from his holy place^d
brings his wrath upon those who dwell
         on the earth;

the earth will disclose its blood
and will not cover the slain.

27 On that day God will bring his holy and great and strong dagger against the dragon, a fleeing snake—against the dragon, a crooked snake—and he will kill the dragon.

² On that day:

A beautiful vineyard—
a desire to begin singing about it.

³ I am a strong city, a besieged city;
in vain will I water it,

for it will be taken by night,
and by day the wall will fall.

⁴ There is not ^da city^d that has not taken hold
         of it;

who will set me to watch stubble in a
field?

Because of this enmity I have set it aside.

Therefore because of this the Lord God has
         done all things,

whatever he has ordained.

I have been burned up.

⁵ Those who dwell in it will cry out:
Let us make peace with him;
let us make peace!

^{6 e}Those who are coming are the children of
         Iakob;

Israel shall bud and blossom^e,

and the world will be filled with his fruit.

⁷ Will he be smitten even as he himself has
         struck?

And will he be killed even as he himself
has killed?

⁸ Fighting and reviling, he will send them
         away.

Were you not the one who conspired
with your harsh spirit

to kill them with a spirit of wrath?

⁹ Because of this the lawlessness of Iakob will
         be removed.

And this is his blessing, when I remove
his sin,

when they make all the stones of the altars^a
broken pieces like fine dust,

and their trees will not remain,
and their idols will be cut down like a
         forest far away.

¹⁰ The inhabited fold will be left deserted,
like a forsaken fold,

and it will be turned into a feeding place for
         a long time,
and there they will rest.

¹¹ Then after a time there will be nothing
         green in it,
because it will have dried up.

You women who come from a spectacle,
         come here!

For it is not a people having
understanding;

therefore he that made them will not have
         compassion,
nor will he that formed them have mercy.

12 And it shall be on that day that the Lord will fence them in from the canal of the river to Rhinocorura, but as for you, gather the sons of Israel one by one. ¹³And it shall be on that day that they will trumpet with the great trumpet, and those who were lost in the country of the Assyrians and those who were lost in Egypt will come and do obeisance to the Lord on the holy mountain at Ierousalem.

28 Ah, the crown of pride,

the hired workers of Ephraim,

the flower that has fallen from its glory
on the top of the stout^b mountain—
those who are drunk without wine!

² See, the wrath of the Lord is a strong and
         harsh thing,

like hail rushing down where there is no
shelter;

violently rushing down like a great flood
         that sweeps a country,
it will give rest ^cto the land.

With hands ³and feet the garland^c of pride
         will be trampled—
the hired workers of Ephraim.

⁴ And the flower that has fallen from its
         glorious hope
on the topmost of the lofty mountain

will be like an early fig;
the one who sees it will want to eat it up
before he takes it into his hand.

⁵ In that day the Lord Sabaoth will be the
         garland of hope,

which is woven of glory, to what is left of
my people.

⁶ They will be left for a spirit of judgment—
for judgment and strength ^din forbidding
         anyone to destroy^d.

⁷ For these have gone astray with wine;
they went astray because of sikera^e;

the priest and the prophet lost their senses
         because of wine;

they were shaken up as a result of the
drunkenness of sikera^e;

they went astray; this is an omen.

⁸ A curse will devour this counsel,
for this counsel is for the sake of greed.

⁹ To whom did we declare evil things,
and to whom did we declare a
         message?

Those who are weaned from milk,
those pulled away from the breast?

¹⁰ Expect affliction upon affliction,
hope upon hope,
yet a little, yet a little,

¹¹ because of contempt from lips,
through a different tongue,

because they will speak to this people,

¹² saying to them,

“This is the rest for the hungry,
and this is the destruction”;
yet they would not hear.

¹³ And the oracle of the Lord God will be to
         them
affliction upon affliction,
hope upon hope,
yet a little, yet a little,

in order that they may go and fall
         backward,

and they will be in danger and crushed
and taken.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you
         afflicted men

and rulers of this people that is in
Ierousalem.

¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a
         covenant with Hades

and agreements with death,

if a rushing storm passes through,
it will not come to us;

we have made falsehood our hope,
and in falsehood we will be sheltered”;

¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord,

See, I will lay for the foundations of Sion
a precious, choice stone,

a highly valued cornerstone for its
         foundations,

and the one who believes in him will not
be put to shame.

¹⁷ And I will turn judgment into hope, and my mercy will become weight
balances,

and as for you who trust vainly in
         falsehood,

^aI tell you^a that the tempest will not pass
you by,

¹⁸      lest it also take away your covenant of
         death.

And your hope regarding Hades will not
         remain;

if a rushing storm comes,

you will be trampled down by it.

¹⁹ When it passes by, it will take you;
early, early in the day it will pass by,

and at night it will be an evil hope^b;
learn to hear.

²⁰ We are in straits and unable to fight,
and we ourselves are too weak to be
         mobilized.

²¹ He will rise up as a mountain of impious
         ones,
and he will be in the ravine of Gabaon;

with wrath he will do his deeds—a deed of
         bitterness!

But his wrath will deal strangely,

and his bitterness will be strange.

²² And as for you, may you not rejoice,
nor let your bonds become strong,

because I have heard from the Lord
         Sabaoth

of deeds finished and cut short,

which he will perform upon the whole
land.

²³ Give ear, and hear my voice;
pay attention, and hear my words.

²⁴ Will the plowman plow the whole day?
Will he prepare the seed prior to working
         the land?

²⁵ When he has leveled its surface,
does he not then sow small dill^c and
         cumin

and again sow wheat and barley
and spelt in your borders?

²⁶ And you will be instructed by the judgment
         of your God,

and you will rejoice.

²⁷ For the dill is not purified with harshness,
nor will a cart wheel roll over the cumin,

but the dill^c is shaken with a rod,
and the cumin ²⁸will be eaten with
         bread.

For I will not be angry with you forever,
nor will the voice of my bitterness
         trample you.

²⁹ And these wonders came forth from the
         Lord Sabaoth;
take counsel; lift up a vain appeal.

29 Ah, city of Ariel,

against which Dauid waged war!

Gather crops year by year,
for you will eat with Moab.

² For I will greatly distress Ariel,
and her strength and wealth shall be
         mine.

³ And like Dauid I will surround you;
I will lay ramparts around you
and set up towers around you.

⁴ Then your words shall be brought low to
         the earth;

to the earth shall your words sink;

your voice shall be like those who utter
         sounds from the earth,

and your voice shall be weak near the
ground.

⁵ But the wealth of the impious shall be like
         dust from a wheel
and like flying chaff.

And it shall be like an instant, suddenly,

⁶      from the Lord Sabaoth,

for there shall be a visitation
with thunder and earthquake and a great
         voice,

a rushing storm and a devouring flame of
fire.

⁷ And the wealth of all the nations—
as many as marched against Ariel
and all that went to war against
         Ierousalem

and all who were gathered against her
and were distressing her—

shall be like one who dreams in his sleep.

⁸ And they shall be like those who hunger
         and eat in their sleep,
and after rising, their dream is vain,

and just as a thirsty person dreams that he is
         drinking

and after rising is still thirsty

and his soul has hoped for something
vain,

so shall the wealth of all the nations be,
as many as have marched against Mount
         Sion.

⁹ Be faint and amazed;
get a drunken headache—

not from strong drink
nor from wine!

¹⁰ Because the Lord has made you drink
with a spirit of deep sleep;

he will close their eyes
and those of their prophets and of their
         rulers—
the ones who see the hidden things.

11 And all these sayings shall become for you like the words of this sealed book. If they give it to a learned man, saying, “Read these things,” then he will say, “I cannot read it, for it is sealed.” ¹²And this book will be given into the hands of an unlearned man, and one will say to him, “Read this,” and he will say, “I am not learned.”

¹³ The Lord said:

These people draw near me;
they honor me with their lips,
while their heart is far from me,

and in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts and teachings.

¹⁴ Therefore look, I will proceed
to remove this people.

I will remove them and destroy the wisdom
         of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I
will hide.

¹⁵ Ah, those who make plans deeply
and not through the Lord!

Ah, those who make plans in secret,
and their works will be in darkness!

And they will say, “Who has seen us,
and who will know us or the things we
         do?”

¹⁶ Shall you not be regarded as the potter’s
         clay?

Shall the thing formed say to the one who
         formed it,

“You did not form me,”

or the thing made to the one who made it,
“You made me with no understanding”?

¹⁷ Is it not yet a little while,
and Lebanon shall be changed like
         Mount Chermel,

and Mount Chermel shall be regarded as
a forest?

¹⁸ On that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a scroll,

and as for those who are in the darkness
and those who are in the fog,
the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹ And the poor shall be glad with joy because
         of the Lord,

and those despairing among people shall
be filled with joy.

²⁰ The lawless has failed,
and the arrogant has perished,

and those who transgress wickedly have
         been utterly destroyed—

²¹ even those who cause people to sin in word.

And they will make all those who reprove in
         the gates a cause of stumbling,

and they have turned aside the just
^aamong the unjust^a.

²² Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the house of Iakob, which he set apart from Abraam:

Iakob shall not be ashamed now,
nor shall Israel now change his face.

²³ But when ^btheir children see my works^b,
because of me they will sanctify my name;

they will sanctify the Holy One of Iakob
and will fear the God of Israel.

²⁴ And those who wander in spirit will know
         understanding,

and those who grumble will learn to
    obey,

[and the faltering tongues will learn to
    speak peace].

30 Oh, rebellious children, this is what the
         Lord says,

You made a plan not through me
and agreements not through my spirit,
to add sins to sins—

² those who walk to go down to Egypt
but did not ask me,

to be helped by Pharao
and to be sheltered by the Egyptians.

³ For ^cthe shelter of Pharao shall become a
         shame to you^c,

and to those who trust in Egypt, a
reproach.

⁴ Because there are leaders in Tanis,
evil messengers,

⁵ in vain shall they become weary

⁽⁵⁾      with a people that shall not profit them—

neither for help nor for profit
but for shame and reproach.

⁶ The vision of the quadrupeds in the
         wilderness.

In affliction and distress,
there are a lion and a lion’s whelp,
thence also asps and the offspring of
         flying asps,

those who brought their wealth on donkeys
         and camels

to a nation that shall not profit them for
help,

but for shame and reproach.

⁷ The Egyptians shall benefit you in vain and
         with emptiness;

announce to them,

“This consolation of yours is vain.”

⁸ Now therefore sit, and write these things
on a tablet and in a book,

because these things shall be for days of
         times
and even forever.

⁹ For they are a disobedient people,
faithless sons,

who were not willing to hear
the law of God,

¹⁰ who say to the prophets, “Do not declare to
         us”

and to those who see visions, “Do not
speak to us,

but talk to us,
and declare to us another error,

¹¹ and turn us back from this way; remove
         from us this path,

and remove from us the Holy One of
Israel.”

¹² Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One
         of Israel:

Because you disobeyed these words
and hoped in a lie

and because you^a murmured
and trusted in this word,

¹³ therefore this sin shall be for you
like a wall falling suddenly

when a strong city is taken,
whose fall comes suddenly,

¹⁴ and its fall will be like the crushing of an
         earthen vessel,

becoming small fragments of a jar

so that you cannot find among them a
         sherd

in which you can take up fire

and in which you can skim off a little
water.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel:

When you turn back and groan,
then you shall be saved and realize where
         you were;

when you placed your trust in vain things,
your strength became vain.

And you were not willing to hear ¹⁶but said,

“We will flee upon horses”—
therefore you shall flee!

And you said, “We will be riders upon swift
         steeds^b”—

therefore those who pursue you shall be
swift!

¹⁷ Because of the voice of one, a thousand
         shall flee,

and because of the voice of five, many
shall flee,

until you are left
like a pole on a mountain,
like someone bearing a standard on a
         hill.

¹⁸ And again God will wait to have
         compassion on you;

therefore he will be exalted to show
mercy to you,

because the Lord our God is a judge,
and where will you leave your glory?

Happy are those who stay firm in him.

19 Because a holy people shall dwell in Sion, and Ierousalem wept with weeping, “Have mercy on me,” he will have mercy on you for the voice of your cry; when he saw, he listened to you. ²⁰And the Lord will give you^c bread of affliction and scant water, and those who lead you astray will not come near you any more, because your eyes shall see those who lead you astray ²¹and your ears shall hear the words of those behind you who have led you astray, who say, “This is the way; let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left.” ²²And you will remove the silver-covered and the gold-covered idols. You will make small and scatter them^b like the water of a ^dwoman who sits apart^d, and like dung you will throw them out.

23 Then will there be rain for the seed of your land, and the bread of the produce of your land will be plenteous and rich. And on that day your cattle will graze in a fertile and spacious place; ²⁴your bulls and oxen that work the land will eat chaff prepared with winnowed barley. ²⁵On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be running water, on that day when many perish and when towers fall. ²⁶And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold on the day when the Lord heals the destruction of his people, and he will heal the pain of your wound.

²⁷ See, the name of the Lord comes after a long
         time;
his wrath is burning;

the oracle of his lips is with glory; his oracle
         is full of anger,

and the anger of his wrath will devour
like fire;

²⁸ his breath, like water sweeping in a ravine,
will come up to the neck and be divided

to confuse nations in^e vain error,
and error will pursue them
and lay hold of them face-to-face.

29 Must you continually rejoice and continually enter my holy places as if you were keeping a feast? And as if you were rejoicing must you come in with a flute to the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel? ³⁰And God will make the glory of his voice to be heard, and he will show the wrath of his arm with wrath and anger and a devouring flame; he will thunder violently, even like water and hailstones falling down with violence. ³¹The Assyrians will be defeated because of the voice of the Lord, through the stroke with which he will smite them. ³²And this will happen to him on all sides, from where the hope of help in which he himself trusted came to him; they in turn will wage war against him with flutes and lyres, ³³for you will be deceived before those^b days; was it also for you to reign that it was made ready with a deep trench, wood piled, fire and wood in abundance? The wrath of the Lord is like a ravine burning with brimstone.

31 Ah, those who go down to Egypt for help,
who trust in horses and in chariots, for
         they are many,

and in horses—a great multitude—

but did not trust in the Holy One of Israel
and did not seek God!

² And he, being wise, brought evils upon
         them;
his word will not be set to naught.

And he will rise against the houses of evil
         men
and against their vain hope—

³ an Egyptian, a man and not God—the flesh of horses, and there is no help.

But the Lord will turn his hand against
         them,

and those who help will grow weary,

and they will all perish together.

⁴ Because thus the Lord said to me,

As a lion or a whelp might roar
over the prey that he has taken

and might cry out over it
until the mountains are filled with his
         voice—

and they were overcome,
and were terrified at the greatness of his
         wrath—

so the Lord Sabaoth will come down,
to march against Mount Sion and against
         its mountains.

⁵ Like birds flying, so the Lord will shield
         Ierousalem;
he will deliver and preserve and save it.

6 Turn, you who plan a deep and lawless plan, ⁷ because on that day people shall disown their handiworks^a of silver and gold, which their hands have made.

⁸ Then Assour shall fall; not a man’s dagger,
nor a human dagger, shall devour him,

and he shall not flee from before a dagger,

⁽⁹⁾      but his young men shall be defeated;

⁹ for they shall be encompassed by a rock, as
         with a rampart,
and they shall be defeated,
and the one who flees will be caught.

This is what the Lord says:

“Happy is the one who has a seed in
Sion

and kinsmen in Ierousalem.”

32 For see, a just king will reign,
and rulers will rule with judgment.

² The man will be hiding his words
and will be hidden as from rushing water,

and he will appear in Sion like a rushing
         river,
glorious in a thirsty land.

³ Then no longer will they trust in men,
but they will lend their ears to hear.

⁴ The heart of the weak will apply itself to
         hear,

and the stammering tongues will soon
learn to speak peace.

⁵ And they will no longer tell the fool to rule,
and no longer will your servants say, “Be
         quiet.”

⁶ For the fool will speak folly,
and his heart will devise vain things

in order to accomplish lawless things
and to speak error against the Lord,

in order to scatter hungry souls
and to make empty the souls that thirst.

⁷ For the counsel of the evil ones
will plan lawless things,

to ruin the humble with unjust words
and to scatter the words of the humble in
         judgment.

⁸ But the godly have planned intelligent
         things,
and this counsel will remain.

⁹ Rise up, you wealthy women, and hear my
         voice;
you daughters in hope, hear my words.

¹⁰ Mention^b the days of a year
in pain with hope;

the vintage has been consumed;
the sowing has ceased and will no longer
         come.

¹¹ Be amazed; be grieved,
you confident women;

strip; make yourselves bare;
gird sackcloth on your loins,

¹² and beat your breasts for a desired field
and for a fruitful vine.

¹³ As for the land of my people,
thorns and grass will come up,
and joy will be removed from every
         house.

A wealthy city,

¹⁴ forsaken houses!

They will give up a city’s wealth
and desirable houses.

And the villages will be caverns forever,
the joy of wild donkeys,
a feeding place of shepherds,

¹⁵ until a spirit from on high comes upon
         you.

And Chermel will be a wilderness,

and Chermel will be regarded as a forest.

¹⁶ Then judgment will rest in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in Carmel.

¹⁷ And the works of righteousness will be
         peace,

and righteousness will hold on to rest,

and they will be confident forever.

¹⁸ His people will abide in a city of peace,
dwell in confidence and rest with wealth.

¹⁹ If hail descends, it will not come upon you.

And those who dwell in the forests

will be confident, like those in the plain.

²⁰ Happy are those who sow beside every
         water,

where ox and donkey tread.

33 Woe to those who distress you!
But no one makes you distressed,

and ^cthe betrayer does not betray you;
the betrayers^c will be caught and
         delivered up,

and like a moth on a garment,
so will they be defeated.

² O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we trust in you.

The seed of the disobedient came to
         destruction,

but our salvation came in a time of
affliction.

³ Because of the voice of the fear of you,
peoples were astonished for fear of you,
and the nations scattered.

⁴ But now your spoils—of small and of
         great—
will be gathered;

as someone might gather grasshoppers,
so will they mock you.

⁵ God who dwells in lofty places is holy;
Sion is filled with judgment and
         righteousness.

⁶ By law they will be handed over.
Our salvation is in treasures:

wisdom and knowledge and piety toward
         the Lord are there;

these are the treasures of righteousness.

⁷ See now! They themselves will be afraid
         with fear of you;

those you feared will be afraid because of
you,

for messengers will be sent requesting peace,
weeping bitterly, entreating for peace.

⁸ For the roads of these people will be made
         desolate;
the fear of the nations has ceased,

and their covenant with these is being put
         away,

and you will not reckon them to be men.

⁹ The land mourned;
Lebanon was ashamed;

Saron became marshes;
Galilee and Carmel will become visible.

¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will be glorified;
now I will be exalted.

¹¹ Now you will see;
now you will perceive;

the strength of your spirit will be vain;
fire will consume you.

¹² And the nations will be burned
like a thorn cast out and burned in a
         field.”

¹³ Those who are far away will hear the things
         I have done;
those who are near will know my might.

¹⁴ The lawless in Sion have gone away;
trembling will seize the impious.

Who will declare to you that a fire is
         burning?

Who will declare to you the everlasting
place?

¹⁵ One walking in righteousness, speaking a
         straight way,
hating lawlessness and unrighteousness

and shaking off his hands from gifts,
making his ears dull, lest he hear a
         judgment of blood,

shutting his eyes, lest he see
unrighteousness—

¹⁶ this one will live
in the high cave of a strong rock;

bread will be given to him,
and his water will be assured.

¹⁷ You will see a king with glory,
and your eyes will see a land from far
         away.

¹⁸ Your soul will muse on fear:

“Where are the scholars? Where are the
counselors?

Where is the one who counts those
         gathering together,

¹⁹      a small and a great people?”

They took no counsel with him,
nor did he know deep speech,

^aso that a despised people could not
         hear^a,

and there is no understanding to the one
who hears.

²⁰ Look, the city of Sion is our salvation!
Your eyes will see Ierousalem, a wealthy
         city:

tents that will not be shaken,
nor will the stakes of its tent be moved
         forever,
nor will its ropes be broken.

²¹ Because the name of the Lord is great to
         you,
there will be a place for you—
rivers and canals, broad and spacious.

You shall not go this way,
nor shall a ship go sailing.

²² For my God is great; the Lord will not pass
         me by.

The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our
ruler;

the Lord is our king; he will save us.

²³ Your ropes broke,
because they were not strong.

Your mast has bent; it will not release the
         sails;

it will not raise a signal until it is given
up for plunder;

therefore many lame will take plunder.

²⁴ And the people who live in them will not
         say, “I am weary,”
for their sin has been forgiven.

34 Draw near, O nations,
and hear, O rulers!

Let the earth hear, and those in it,
the world, and the people that are in it,

² because the wrath of the Lord is against all
         the nations

and his anger against the whole number
of them, to destroy them and to give them over for
slaughter.

³ Their wounded and their dead shall be cast
         out,
and their stench shall rise;
the mountains shall be drenched with
         their blood.

⁴ Heaven shall roll up like a scroll,
and all the stars shall fall

like leaves from a vine
and as leaves fall from a fig tree.

⁵ My dagger has become drunk in heaven;
lo, it will descend upon Idumea
and upon the people of destruction with
         judgment.

⁶ The dagger of the Lord is filled with blood;
it is gorged with the fat of lambs
and with the fat of goats and rams,

because the Lord has a sacrifice in Bosor
and a great slaughter in Idumea.

⁷ And the prominent ones shall fall with
         them,
both the rams and the bulls.

And the land shall become drunk with
         blood,
and it shall be filled with their fat.

⁸ For it is a day of the Lord’s judgment
and a year of recompense for the
         judgment of Sion.

⁹ And her ravines shall be turned into pitch,
and her land into sulfur;

her land shall burn like pitch

¹⁰      night and day,

and it shall not be quenched forever,
and its smoke shall go up above;

for generations it shall be made desolate;
indeed, for a long time it shall be made
         desolate.

¹¹ But birds and hedgehogs
and ibises and ravens shall live in it.

A measuring line of desolation shall be cast
         over it,
and donkey-centaurs^a shall dwell in it.

¹² Her rulers shall not be,
for her kings and her rulers
and her nobles shall be destroyed.

¹³ Thorn trees shall grow up in their cities
and in her fortresses.

It shall be a habitation of sirens
and a courtyard of ostriches.

¹⁴ Demons shall meet with donkey-centaurs^a
and call one to another;

there donkey-centaursa shall repose,
for they have found for themselves a
         place to rest.

¹⁵ There has the hedgehog made a nest,
and the earth has preserved her young in
         safety;

there does met
and saw each other’s faces.

¹⁶ They have passed by in number,
and not one of them has perished;
they did not seek each other,

because the Lord has commanded them
and his spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷ He will himself cast lots for them^b;
his hand has distributed ^cfood for them^c
         to eat.

You will inherit ^cthe land^c forever;
for generations of generations they shall
         rest on it.

35 Rejoice, O thirsty wilderness!
Let the wilderness be glad,
and let it blossom like a lily!

² And the deserted places of the Jordan
shall blossom and be glad.

And the glory of Lebanon has been given to
         it,
as well as the honor of Carmel,

and my people shall see the glory of the
         Lord
and the loftiness of God.

³ Be strong, you weak hands
and feeble knees!

⁴ Give comfort,
you who are faint of heart and mind!
Be strong; do not fear!

Look, our God is repaying judgment;
yes, he will repay;
he himself will come and save us.

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall hear;

⁶ then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of stammerers shall be
         clear,

because water has broken forth in the
         wilderness
and a gully in a thirsty land;

⁷ the dry place shall turn into marshlands,
and in the thirsty land there shall be a
         spring of water;

the joy of birds shall be there—
a bed of reed and marshlands.

⁸ A pure way shall be there,
and it shall be called a holy way;

and the unclean shall not pass by there,
nor shall be there an unclean way,

but those who have been dispersed shall
         walk on it,
and they shall not go astray.

⁹ And no lion shall be there,
nor shall any of the evil beasts come up
         on it

or be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk on it.

¹⁰ And those gathered together because of the
         Lord shall return
and come to Sion with joy; everlasting joy shall be above their head,
for upon their head shall be praise and
         gladness,

and joy shall take hold of them—
pain and sorrow and sighing have fled
         away.

36 And it happened in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekias that Sennacherim, king of the Assyrians, came up against the strong cities of Judea and took them. ²The king of the Assyrians sent Rapsakes from Lachis to Ierousalem, to King Hezekias, with a great force. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the Fuller’s Field. ³And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Chelkias, the steward, and Somnas, the secretary, and Ioach the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And Rapsakes said to them, “Say to Hezekias: This is what the great king, the king of the Assyrians, says: Why are you trusting? ⁵Does marshalling take place through counsel or by words of the lips? And now in whom do you trust, that you are rebelling against me? ⁶See, you are trusting in Egypt, this broken reed-rod; whoever leans on it, it will go into his hand. Such is Pharao, king of Egypt, and all who trust in him. ⁷But if you say, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ ⁸come in contact now with my lord the king of the Assyrians. I will give you two thousand horses, if you will be able to set riders on them. ⁹How then are you able to ^aturn back to the face of^a one district governor? Those who trust in Egypt for horse and rider are domestics. ¹⁰And now, is it without the Lord that we have come up against this country to war against it?”

11 Then Eliakim, Somnas and Ioach said to him, “Speak to your servants in Syrian, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean. And why do you speak to the ears of the people who are on the wall?” ¹²But Rapsakes said to them, “Has my lord sent me to speak these words to your lord or to you? Is it not to the people sitting on the wall so that they may eat dung and drink urine together with you?”

13 Then Rapsakes stood and called out in a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians! ¹⁴This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekias deceive you with words that will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵ Do not let Hezekias say to you, God will deliver you, and this city will not be given up into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.’ ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekias. This is what the king of the Assyrians says: ‘If you wish to be blessed, come out to me; then everyone of you will eat from his own vine and fig trees and drink water from your own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and wine and breads and vineyards. ¹⁸Do not let Hezekias deceive you by saying, Your God will deliver you. Have the gods of the nations delivered each one his own country out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

¹⁹ Where is the god of Hemath and Arphad? And where is the god of the city of Seppharim? Have they been able to deliver Samaria out of my hand? ²⁰Which of the gods of all these nations has delivered his land out of my hand, that God should deliver Ierousalem out of my hand?’”

21 But they were silent, and no one answered him a word, because the king had ordered that no one should answer. ²²Then Eliakim the son of Chelkias, the steward, and Somnas, the secretary of the army, and Ioach the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekias with their tunics torn and reported to him the words of Rapsakes.

37 And it happened, when King Hezekias heard it, that he tore his clothes, put sackcloth about him and went up into the house of the Lord. ²And he sent Eliakim the steward and Somnas, the secretary, and the senior priests, with sack-cloth about them, to the prophet Esaias son of Amos. ³They said to him, “This is what Hezekias says, Today is a day of affliction and of reproach and of rebuke and of anger, because the pangs have come to the woman giving birth, but she has no strength to give birth. ⁴May the Lord, your God, listen to the words of Rapsakes, which the king of the Assyrians has sent to revile the living God, yes, to revile with the words that the Lord, your God, has heard; therefore you will pray to the Lord your God concerning these that are left.”

⁵ And the servants of the king came to Esaias, ⁶and Esaias said to them, “Thus you will say to your lord, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ambassadors of the king of the Assyrians have reviled me. ⁷Look, I will put a spirit in him, and when he hears a report, he will return to his country, and he will fall by the dagger in his own land.’ “

8 Rapsakes returned and found the king besieging Lomna. ⁹And the king of the Assyrians heard that ⁽⁹⁾Tharaka, king of the Ethiopians, had gone out to besiege him. When he heard it, he turned back and sent messengers to Hezekias, saying, ¹⁰“Thus shall you speak to King Hezekias of Judea: Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, Ierousalem will not be given over into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. ¹¹Or have you not heard the things that the kings of the Assyrians have done—how they have destroyed the whole earth? ¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers destroyed, both Goza and Charran and Raphes, which are in the country of Thelsad? ¹³Where are the kings of Hemath and Arphad and of the city of Seppharim, of Hanag, of Ougaua?”

14 Hezekias received the letter from the messengers and opened it before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekias prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁶“O Lord Sabaoth, God of Israel, who sits upon the cheroubin, you alone are God of every kingdom of the world; you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷Listen,

O Lord; look, O Lord, and see the words that Sennacherim has sent to revile the living God. ¹⁸For truly the kings of the Assyrians have made desolate the whole world and their country ¹⁹and have hurled their idols into the fire, for they were no gods, but the works of human hands—wood and stone—and they destroyed them. ²⁰But you, O Lord, our God, save us from their hand so that every kingdom of the earth may know that you alone are God.”

21 Then Esaias son of Amos was sent to Hezekias and said to him: “This is what the Lord says, the God of Israel: I have heard the things you have prayed to me concerning King Sennacherim of the Assyrians. ²²This is the word that God has spoken concerning him:

Virgin daughter Sion has despised and
         mocked you;

daughter Ierousalem has shaken her head
at you.

²³ Whom have you reviled and provoked?
Or against whom have you raised your
         voice?

And you did not lift your eyes on high
to the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴ Because by your messengers you have
         reviled the Lord,

for you said, ‘With the multitude of my
chariots

I have gone up to the height of the
         mountains
and to the utmost limits of Lebanon,

and I cut down the height of its cedar
and the beauty of its cypress,

and I entered into the height
of its forest region,

²⁵ and I built a bridge^a
and desolated the waters
and every gathering of water.’

²⁶ Have you not heard long ago
of these things that I have done?

From ancient days I ordained them,
but now I have exhibited them,

to make desolate the nations that are in
         strong places
and those who dwell in strong cities.

²⁷ I weakened their hands,
and they have withered,

and they have become like dry grass on
         housetops
and like wild grass.

²⁸ But now I know your resting place,
your going out and coming in.

²⁹ And your wrath with which you have raged
and your bitterness have come up to me;

so I will put a muzzle on your nose
and a bit on your lips;

I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.

30 “And this shall be the sign for you: This year eat what you have sown, and in the second year what is left; then in the third year sow, reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹And those that are left in Judea shall take root downward and bear seed upward, ³²because from Ierousalem shall be those who are left, and from Mount Sion those who are saved. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things.

33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city nor cast a missile against it nor bring a shield against it nor set up a rampart around it. ³⁴But by the way that he came, by the same he shall return. This is what the Lord says: ³⁵‘I will shield this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant Dauid.’ “

36 Then the angel of the Lord set out and destroyed one hundred eighty-five thousand out of the camp of the Assyrians; when they arose in the early morning, they found all the dead bodies. ³⁷Then the king of the Assyrians turned back, departed and lived at Nineue. ³⁸And as he was doing obeisance to his patachron^b in the house of Nasarach, his sons Adramelech and Sarasar smote him with daggers, but they escaped into Armenia. His son Asoradan reigned in his stead.

38 Now it happened at that time that Hezekias became sick to the point of death. And the prophet Esaias son of Amos came to him and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: Make arrangements concerning your house, for you shall die; you shall not live.” ²Then Hezekias turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord: ³“Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you with truth, with a true heart, and have done the things that are pleasing in your sight.” And Hezekias wept with a great weeping.

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Esaias, saying: ⁵“Go, and say to Hezekias, This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor Dauid, says: I have heard the voice of your prayer and have seen your tears; look, I am adding fifteen years to your time. ⁶And I will save you out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians and shield this city.

7 “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that God will do this thing: ⁸The shadow of the steps on which the sun has gone down—the ten steps of the house of your father—I will turn back the sun those ten steps.” So the sun went up the ten steps on which the shadow had gone down.

⁹Prayer of King Hezekias of Judea, when he had become sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ I said: At the height of my days, in the gates
         of Hades,

I shall leave behind my remaining years.

¹¹ I said, No longer shall I see
the salvation of God on the earth;

no longer shall I see a man

¹²      from my kindred.

I have left behind the rest of my life;
it has gone out and departed from me
like the one who having pitched a tent
         takes it down;

my spirit in me became like the web
of a weaver who approaches to cut it off.

¹³ In that day I was given over

⁽¹³⁾      as to a lion until morning;

thus he broke my bones,
for I was given over from day to night.

¹⁴ Like a swallow, so will I cry out,
and like a dove, so will I mutter^a;

for my eyes have ^bfailed from looking^b
to the height of heaven,

toward the Lord, who rescued me

⁽¹⁵⁾ and took away ¹⁵the pain of my soul.

¹⁶ Lord, you were indeed told concerning it,
and you revived my breath,
and I, comforted, came to life!

¹⁷ For you have chosen my soul
so that it may not perish,

and you have cast all my sins
behind me.

¹⁸ For those who are in Hades will not praise
         you,
nor will the dead bless you,

nor will those who are in Hades hope
for your mercy.

¹⁹ The living will praise you,
as I also do,

for from today I will produce children
who will declare your righteousness,

²⁰      O Lord of my salvation.

And I will not cease praising you with a
         harp
all the days of my life,
before the house of the Lord.

21 And Esaias said to Hezekias, “Take a cake of figs, and mash it, and apply it as plaster, and you will be well.” ²²And Hezekias said, “This is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord God.”

39 At that time Marodach son of Laadan, the king of Babylonia, sent letters and ambassadors and presents to Hezekias, for he heard that he had been sick to the point of death and had recovered. ²And Hezekias rejoiced over them with great joy, and he showed them the house of the nechotha^c and of the oil of myrrh and of the incense and of the perfume and of the silver and of the gold and all the houses of the vessels of the treasure and all the things that were in his storehouses. And there was nothing that Hezekias did not show them in his house. ³Then the prophet Esaias came to King Hezekias and said to him, “What do these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekias said, “They have come to me from a land far away, from Babylon.” ⁴And Esaias said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekias said, “They have seen all the things that are in my house—and there is nothing in my house that they have not seen—but also the things in my storehouses.”

5 Then Esaias said to him, “Hear the word of the Lord Sabaoth: ⁶Look, days are coming, says the Lord, when they will take all the things that are in your house, and whatever your fathers have collected up until this day shall go to Babylon, and they shall leave nothing behind. And God has said ⁷that they shall take also some of your children whom you have begotten and shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.” ⁸Then Hezekias said to Esaias, “The word of the Lord that he has spoken is good. Let there now be peace and righteousness in my days.”

40 Comfort, O comfort my people, says God.
² O priests, speak to the heart of Ierousalem;
comfort her,

because her humiliation has been fulfilled,
her sin has been done away with,

because she has received from the Lord’s
         hand
double that of her sins.

³ A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight the paths of our God.

⁴ Every ravine shall be filled up,
and every mountain and hill be made
         low,

and all the crooked ways shall become
         straight,

and the rough place shall become
plains.

⁵ Then the glory of the Lord shall appear,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of
         God,
because the Lord has spoken.”

⁶ A voice of one saying, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All flesh is grass;
all the glory of man is like the flower of
         grass.

⁷ The grass has withered, and the flower has
         fallen,

⁸ but the word of our God remains forever.

⁹ Go up on a high mountain,
you who bring good tidings to Sion;

lift up your voice with strength,
you who bring good tidings to
         Ierousalem;

lift^d it up; do not fear^d;

say to the cities of Ioudas,
“See, your God!”

¹⁰ See, the Lord comes with strength,
and his arm with authority;

see, his reward is with him,
and his work before him.

¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd
and gather lambs with his arm
and comfort those that are with young.

¹² Who has measured the water with his hand
and heaven with a span
and all the earth by handful?

Who has weighed the mountains with a
         scale
and the forests with a balance?

¹³ Who has known the mind of the Lord,
and who has been his counselor to
         instruct him?

¹⁴ Or with whom did he consult, and he
         instructed him?

Or who showed him judgment?

Or who showed him the way of
understanding?

¹⁵ If all the nations have been accounted as a
         drop from a jar
and as the sinking of a balance,
they will also be accounted as spittle.

¹⁶ Lebanon is not enough for burning,
nor are all the quadrupeds enough for a
         whole burnt offering.

¹⁷ And all the nations are as nothing,
and they have been accounted as
         nothing.

¹⁸ To whom have you likened the Lord,
or with what likeness have you likened
         him?

¹⁹ Has an artisan made an image,
or has a goldsmith, after casting gold,
gilded it—prepared a likeness of it?

²⁰ For an artisan chooses wood that will not
         rot,

then inquires wisely how he should set
up his image

and ^awhat to do^a so that it will not
topple.

²¹ Will you not know? Will you not hear?

Has it not been declared to you from the
beginning?

Have you not known the foundations of
the earth?

²² It is he who holds the circle of the earth,
and those who dwell in it are like
         grasshoppers,

who has set up heaven like a vault
and stretched it out like a tent to live in,

²³ who has appointed rulers to rule for
         naught
and has made the earth as nothing.

²⁴ For they will not sow, nor will they plant,
neither will their root take root in the
         earth;

he blew upon them, and they withered,
and a tempest will carry them off like
         brushwood.

²⁵ Now therefore to whom did you liken me
and will I be made equal? said the Holy
         One.

²⁶ Look up on high with your eyes, and see:
Who has exhibited all these?

He who brings out his ornamentation by
         number,
he will call them all by name;

because of abundant glory
and by might of strength,
nothing has escaped you.

²⁷ For do not say, O Iakob,
and why have you spoken, O Israel,

“My way was hidden from God,
and my God has taken away my
         judgment and has withdrawn”?

²⁸ And now, have you not known? Have you
         not heard?

God everlasting,
God who prepared the ends of the earth,

will not hunger or grow weary—
nor is there searching of his
         understanding—

²⁹ giving strength to those who hunger
and sorrow to those who are not grieving.

³⁰ For youths will hunger,
and the young will be weary,
and the chosen will be powerless,

³¹ but those who wait for God shall change
         their strength;

they shall grow wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not hunger.

41 Be dedicated to me, O islands,
for the rulers will change strength;

let them approach and speak together;
then let them declare judgment.

² Who has roused righteousness from the
         east,
called it to its feet and it will go?

He will place it before nations
and astonish kings,

and he will place their daggers in the earth,
and their bows like brushwood that is
         driven out.

³ And he will pursue them,
and the way of his feet will pass through
         in peace.

⁴ Who has wrought and done these things?

The one calling her from the beginning of
         generations

has called her.

I, God, am first,
and for the things that are coming, I am.

⁵ The nations saw and became afraid;
the ends of the earth drew near and came
         together,

⁶ each deciding to help
his neighbor and his brother.

And he will say:

⁷ The artisan man has become strong,
also the smith as he smites with the
         hammer
while at the same time striking.

At some time he will say, “The seam is
         good”;
they have strengthened them with nails;
they will set them up, and they will not
         be moved.

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant,
Iakob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraam, whom I have
         loved,

⁹ you whom I took hold of from the ends of
         the earth,

and I called you from its ^amountain
peaks^a,

and I said to you, “You are my servant;
I have chosen you and not forsaken you”;

¹⁰ do not fear, for I am with you;
do not ^bwander off^b, for I am your God
who has strengthened you,

and I have helped you,
and I have made you secure
with my righteous right hand.

¹¹ See, all who oppose you
shall be ashamed and disgraced,

for they shall be as though they were not,
and all your adversaries shall perish.

¹² You shall seek them,
but you shall not find
the men who shall treat you violently,

for they shall be as though they were not,
and those who war against you shall not
         be,

¹³ because I am your God,
who holds your right hand,

who says to you, “Do not fear,

¹⁴ O Iakob, O small Israel.”

I have helped you, says God
who redeems you, O Israel.

¹⁵ Look, I made you as the threshing wheels of
         a cart,
new and saw-shaped,

and you shall thresh mountains
and grind hills to powder
and make them like dust.

¹⁶ And you shall winnow them, and a wind
         shall take them,
and a tempest shall scatter them.

But you shall rejoice in the holy things^c of
         Israel.

¹⁷ And the poor and needy shall be glad,
for they shall seek water, and there will
         be none;

their tongue has been dried up from
thirst.

I, the Lord God, I, the God of Israel,
will listen and will not forsake them.

¹⁸ But I will open rivers on the mountains
and fountains in the midst of the
         plains;

I will make the wilderness into marshlands
and the thirsty land as watercourses.

¹⁹ I will put in the dry land a cedar
and a box tree and a myrtle
and a cypress and a white poplar

²⁰ so that together they may see and know
and consider and understand

that the hand of the Lord has done all these
         things,

and the Holy One of Israel has exhibited
them.

²¹ Your judgment draws near, says the Lord
         God;

your counsels have drawn near, says the
King of Iakob.

²² Let them draw near and declare to you
the things that will happen

or speak of the former things, what they
         were,
and we will apply our mind

and know what the last things will be—
and tell us the things that are coming.

²³ Declare the things that are coming at the
         end,
and we will know that you are gods;

do good, and do harm,
and we will wonder as well as see.

²⁴ Because whence are you
and whence is your work?

From the earth.

They have chosen you as an
abomination.

²⁵ But I stirred up the one who is from the
         north

and the one who is from the rising of the
sun;

they shall be called by my name.

Let rulers come, and like potter’s clay—
even as a potter treading clay—
so shall you be trodden down.

²⁶ For who shall declare the things that were
         from the beginning
so that we might know them,

and the former things,
and we will say that they are true?

There is none who foretells
nor any who hears your words.

²⁷ I will give dominion^d to Sion,
and I will comfort Ierousalem on the way.

²⁸ For from among the nations, behold, no
         one,

and from among their idols, there was
none who declared.

And if I should ask them, Whence are you?
they will not answer me,

²⁹ for ^ethey are the ones who make you^e
and those who flead you astray^f are vain.

42 Iakob is my servant; I will lay hold of him;
Israel is my chosen; my soul has accepted
         him;

I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth judgment to the
         nations.

² He will not cry out or send forth ^ahis voice^a,
nor will his voice be heard outside;

³ a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoking wick he will not quench,
but he will bring forth judgment for truth.

⁴ He will blaze up and not be overwhelmed
until he has established judgment on the
         earth,
and nations will hope in his name^b.

⁵ Thus says the Lord God,
who created heaven and established it,
who bolstered the earth and the things
         that are in it

and who gave breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who tread on it:

⁶ I, the Lord God, have called you in
         righteousness,

and I will take hold of your hand and
strengthen you;

I have given you as a covenant to a race,
as a light to nations,

⁷       to open the eyes of the blind,

to bring out from bonds those who are
         bound

and from the prison house those who sit
in darkness.

⁸ I am the Lord God; this is my name;
my glory I will not give to another,
nor my excellences to the graven images.

⁹ As for the things that were from the
         beginning,
see, they have come;

also new things,
which I myself will declare,

and before they sprang forth,
they were made plain to you.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song,
[you, his dominion]!

Glorify his name from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea and sail it,
you islands and those who inhabit them.

¹¹ Rejoice, O wilderness and its villages,
O homesteads and those who inhabit
         Kedar.

Those who inhabit Petra will rejoice;
they will shout from the tops of the
         mountains.

¹² They will give glory to God;
they will declare his excellences in the
         islands.

¹³ The Lord God of the powers^c will go forth
and crush the war;

he will stir up jealousy
and shout against his foes with strength.

¹⁴ I have been silent.

Shall I even always be silent and hold
back?

I have endured like a woman in labor;
I will amaze and wither at once.

¹⁵ And I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up marshlands.

¹⁶ And I will lead the blind
by a road they have not known,

and I will make them tread paths
they had no knowledge of.

I will turn the darkness into light for them
and the crooked places into a straight
         path.

I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷ But they turned away backwards!

Be ashamed with shame,
you who trust in the graven images,

who say to the cast images,
“You are our gods.”

¹⁸ Hear, you that are deaf,
and you that are blind, look up to see!

¹⁹ And who is blind but my servants,
and deaf but they who lord it over
         them?

Even God’s slaves have become blind.

²⁰ You have often seen but not observed;
your ears are open, but you have not
         heard.

²¹ The Lord God has willed to be justified
and to magnify praise.

And I saw,

²² and the people were plundered and spoiled,

for the snare was in the secret rooms
         everywhere,

as well as in houses where they hid them;

they have become plunder,
and there was no one to rescue the prey
and no one to say, “Restore!”

²³ Who is there among you that will give ear to
         these things,
that will listen for the things to come?

²⁴ Who gave Iakob for spoil
and Israel to those who plunder him?

Was it not God, against whom they have
         sinned,

and they would not walk in his ways

nor hear his law?

²⁵ So he brought upon them the anger of his
         wrath,

and war overpowered them,

as did those who were burning them all
         around.

And they—each of them—did not know,
nor did they take it to heart.

43 But now thus says the Lord God,

he who made you, O Iakob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are
         mine.

² And if you should pass through water, I am
         with you,
and rivers shall not overwhelm you,

and if you should go through fire, you shall
         by no means be burned;
the flame shall not consume you,

³ because I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, who saves you.

^aI have made Egypt and Ethiopia and
         Soene
your exchange on your behalf^a.

⁴ Because you have become precious in my
         sight,

you have been glorified, and I have loved
    you,

and I will give many people on your behalf
and rulers on behalf of your head.

⁵ Do not fear, because I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;

⁶ I will say to the north, “Bring them,”
and to the southwest, “Do not hinder;

bring my sons from a land far away
and my daughters from the ends of the
         earth—

⁷      all who have been called by my name.

For I prepared him in my glory,
and I formed and made him.”

⁸ And I have brought forth a blind people,
and their eyes are likewise blind,
and they are deaf, though they have
         ears!

⁹ All the nations have gathered together,
and rulers will be gathered from among
         them.

Who will declare these things?
Or who will declare to you
the things that were from the beginning?

Let them bring their witnesses,
and let them be justified and speak
         truths.

¹⁰ Be my witnesses;
I too am a witness, says the Lord God,
and the servant whom I have chosen

so that you may know and believe
and understand that I am.

Before me there was no other god,
nor shall there be any after me.

¹¹ I am God,
and besides me there is none who saves.

¹² I declared and saved; I reproached,
and there was no stranger among you.

You are my witnesses;
I too am a witness, says the Lord God.

¹³ Even from the beginning
there is also no one who rescues from my
         hands;

I will do it, and who will turn it back?

¹⁴ Thus says the Lord God,
the one who redeems you, the Holy One
         of Israel:

For your sake I will send to Babylon
and stir up all who are fleeing,
and the Chaldeans will be bound in
         ships.

¹⁵ I am the Lord God, your Holy One,
the one who exhibited Israel as your
         king.

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord,
who provides a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty water,

¹⁷ who has brought out chariots and horse
and a mighty throng together;

they have lain down and will not rise;
they have been quenched like a wick that
         is quenched:

¹⁸ Do not remember the former things
or consider the things of old.

¹⁹ Look, I am doing new things that will now
         spring forth,
and you will know them,

and I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the dry land.

²⁰ The wild animals of the field will praise me,
sirens and the daughters of ostriches,

because I have provided water in the
         wilderness

and rivers in the dry land,

to give drink to my chosen race,

²¹ my people whom I have acquired
to set forth my excellences.

²² I have not called you now, O Iakob,
nor have I made you weary, O Israel.

²³ There are no sheep for me from your whole
         burnt offering,

nor have you glorified me with your
sacrifices,

nor have I made you tired with
frankincense,

²⁴      nor have you bought me incense with
         silver,

nor did I desire the fat of your sacrifices,
but in your sins and iniquities
I have stood before you.

²⁵ I am, I am
the one who blots out your acts of
         lawlessness,
and I will not remember them at all.

²⁶ But as for you, do remember, and let us be
         judged;

you state your acts of lawlessness first so
that you may be justified.

²⁷ Your fathers first,
also their rulers, acted lawlessly against
         me.

²⁸ And the rulers defiled my ^bholy things^b,
and I gave Iakob to destroy him,
and Israel for a reproach.

44 But now hear, O Iakob my servant
and Israel whom I have chosen!

² Thus says the Lord God who made you
and who formed you from the womb:

You will still be helped; do not fear, O Iakob
         my servant

and the beloved Israel whom I have
chosen,

³ because I will provide water in their thirst
to those who walk in a dry land;

I will put my spirit on your offspring
and my blessings on your children.

⁴ And they shall spring up like grass in the
         midst of water
and like a willow by flowing water.

⁵ This one will say, “I am God’s,”
and this one will call out in the name of
         Iakob;

yet another will inscribe, “I am God’s,”
in the name of Israel.

⁶ Thus says God, the king of Israel,
who delivered him, God Sabaoth:

I am first, and I am after these things;
besides me there is no god.

⁷ Who is like me? Let him stand; let him call,
and let him make ready for me,
inasmuch as I have made man forever,

and let them declare to you
the things that are coming
before they come.

⁸ Do not cover yourselves;
did you not give ear from the beginning,
and I declared it to you?

You are witnesses
whether there is a god besides me,
^aand they were not formerly.

9 All who fashion and carve are vain^a—those who do the things that are in their mind, which will not profit them. But they will be put to shame, ¹⁰ all who fashion a god or cast useless things, ¹¹and ^ball from where they came have withered and are mute from among men. Let them all assemble^b and stand together; let them be disgraced and put to shame together.

12 Because the artisan sharpened the iron, he fashioned it with an ax and bored it with a gimlet; he fashioned it with his strong arm; he also will become hungry and weak and will not drink water. ¹³ Having chosen ⁽¹³⁾a piece of wood, the artisan set it up with a measure and arranged it with glue; he made it like the form of a man, like human beauty, to set it up in a house. ¹⁴He cut this wood from the forest, which the Lord planted and the rain made grow, ¹⁵so that it might be for people to burn. And taking part of it, he warmed himself, and they burned ^cthe pieces^c and baked bread on them. But the rest they fashioned into gods, and they do obeisance to them. ¹⁶Half of it he burned up in the fire, and after roasting meat over it, he ate it and was satisfied. And having warmed himself, he said, “I am pleased, for I have been warmed and have seen the fire!” ¹⁷The rest he made into a graven god and does obeisance to it, and he prays, saying, “Rescue me, for you are my god!”

18 They did not know how to think, because they were blinded so as not to see with their eyes and understand with their heart. ¹⁹And he has not considered in his heart nor regarded in his soul nor known in his mind that half of it he burned in the fire and that he baked bread on its coals and roasted meat and ate and that the rest of it he made into an abomination, and they are doing obeisance to it. ²⁰Know that their heart is ashes, and they are going astray, and no one is able to deliver his soul. See, will you not say, “There is a lie in my right hand”?

²¹ Remember these things, O Iakob
and Israel, for you are my servant;

I formed you as my servant,
and you, Israel, do not forget me.

²² For see, I have blotted out your acts of
         lawlessness like a cloud
and your sins like darkness;

return to me, and I will redeem you.

²³ Rejoice, O heavens, because God has had
         mercy on Israel;
trumpet, O foundations of the earth;

shout for joy, O mountains,
the hills and all the trees that are in them,

because God has redeemed Iakob,
and Israel will be glorified!

²⁴ Thus says the Lord, who redeems you,
who forms you from the womb:

I am the Lord, who accomplishes all things;
I alone stretched out heaven,
and I bolstered the earth.

²⁵ Who else ⁽²⁵⁾will scatter the signs given by
         ventriloquists
and the divinations from the heart,

turning the wise backward
and making their counsel foolish

²⁶ and confirming the words of his servant
and proving true the counsel of his
         messengers?

The one who says to Ierousalem, “You shall
         be inhabited,”

and to the cities of Judea, “You shall be
built,”

and her deserted places shall arise^d,

²⁷ who says to the deep, “You will become
         desolate,
and I will dry up your rivers,”

²⁸ who tells Cyrus to be wise and says^c,
“He shall carry out all my wishes,”

who says to Ierousalem, “You shall be built,
and I will lay the foundations of my holy
         house.”

45 Thus says the Lord God to my anointed,
         Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped

so that nations will obey before him,
and I will break through the strength of
         kings;

I will open doors before him—
and cities shall not be closed:

² I will go before you
and level mountains;

I will break in pieces doors of bronze
and break off bars of iron,

³ and I will give you dark treasures;
hidden, unseen ones I will open for you

so that you may know that I am the Lord
         God,
the God of Israel, who calls your name.

⁴ For the sake of my servant Iakob
and Israel my chosen,

I will call you by my name
and receive you, but you did not know
         me,

⁵ because I am the Lord God,
and there is no other god besides me,
and you did not know me,

⁶ so that they who are from the rising of the
         sun
and from its going down

may know that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord God, and there is no other.

⁷ I am the one who has prepared light and
         made darkness,
who makes peace and creates evils;
I am the Lord who does all these things.

⁸ Let heaven rejoice from above,
and let the clouds shower down
         righteousness;

let the earth bring forth mercy,
and let it bring forth righteousness as
         well;

I am the Lord who created you.

⁹ What better thing have I formed like potter’s
         clay?

Shall the plowman plow the earth?

Shall the clay say to the potter, “What are
         you doing,

since you are not working, nor do you
have hands”?

^{10 a}It is like^a the one who says to his father,
         “What will you beget?”

and to his mother, “With what are you in
labor?”

¹¹ Because thus says the Lord God, the Holy
         One of Israel,

the one who has made the things that are
coming:

Ask me about my sons and about my
         daughters,

and command me concerning the works
of my hands.

¹² I made earth
and humankind upon it;

with my hand I bolstered heaven;
I commanded all the stars.

¹³ I have raised him with righteousness,
and all his paths shall be straight;

he shall build my city
and turn back the captivity of my people,

not with ransom or with gifts,
said the Lord Sabaoth.

¹⁴ Thus says the Lord Sabaoth:

Egypt has worked hard,
as has the commerce of the Ethiopians.

And the lofty men of Seboin shall come
         over to you,

and they shall be your slaves;

they shall follow behind you bound in
handcuffs.

They will do obeisance to you and pray in
         you,
because God is in you,

and they will say,
“There is no god besides you.”

¹⁵ For you are God, and we did not know it,
O God of Israel, Savior.

¹⁶ All who oppose him shall be ashamed and
         disgraced,

and they shall go in shame.

Dedicate yourselves to me, you islands!

¹⁷ Israel is being saved by the Lord
with everlasting salvation;

they shall not be ashamed or disgraced
forever.

¹⁸ Thus says the Lord,
who made heaven—

this is the God who displayed the earth and
         made it;
he himself marked its limits;

he did not make it to be empty
but to be inhabited:

I am, and there is no other.

¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret
nor in a dark place of the earth;

I did not say to the offspring of Iakob,
“Seek a vain thing.”

I am, I am the Lord,
speaking righteousness
and declaring truth.

²⁰ Assemble yourselves, and come;
take counsel together,
you who are being saved from among the
         nations!

They did not know—
those who lift up the wood, their graven
         image,

and pray as if to gods
that do not save.

²¹ If they will declare it,
let them draw near

so that they may know together

^awho made from the beginning

these things that are to be heard^a.

Then it was declared to you,
I am God, and there is no other besides
         me;

there is no righteous one or savior except
me.

²² Turn to me, and you shall be saved,
you who are from the end of the earth!
I am God, and there is no other.

²³ By myself I swear,

“Verily righteousness shall go forth from my
         mouth;
my words shall not be turned back,

because to me every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall acknowledge God,

²⁴ saying, Righteousness and glory shall come
         to him,

and all who separate themselves shall be
ashamed.”

²⁵ By the Lord shall they be justified,
and all the offspring of the sons of Israel
shall be glorified in God.

46 Bel has fallen; Dagon has been crushed;
their graven images have become for
         beasts and cattle;

you carry them bound
as a burden for the weary

² and the hungry as well as for the feeble
who has no strength,

who will not be able to be saved from war,
but themselves have been led captive.

³ Hear me, O house of Iakob
and everyone who is left of Israel,

you who are being carried from the womb
and trained from ^bthe time you were^b a
         child.

⁴ Until your old age, I am,
and until you grow old, I am;

I bear with you;

I have made, and I will set free;

I will take up and save you.

⁵ To whom have you likened me?
See, act with cunning,
you who are going astray!

⁶ Those who contribute gold from a bag
and silver in a balance
will set it on a scale,

and after hiring a goldsmith, they made
         handiwork^c,

and bowing down they do obeisance to
them!

⁷ They carry it on their shoulders and go,
and if they set it up, it stays in its place;
it will not move.

And whoever cries out to him, he will not
         listen;
he will not save him from evils.

⁸ Remember these things and groan;
repent, you who have gone astray;
turn in your heart,

⁹ and remember the former things of old,
because I am God, and there is no other
         besides me,

¹⁰ declaring the last things first, before they
         happen,
and at once they came to pass,

and I said, “My whole plan shall stand,
and I will do all the things I have
         planned,”

¹¹ calling a bird from the east

and from a far country those concerning
         whom I have planned.

I have spoken and brought it;
I have created and made it.

¹² Hear me, you who have ruined your heart,
you who are far from righteousness:

¹³ I brought near my righteousness,
and I will not delay the salvation that
         comes from me;

I have provided salvation in Sion
to Israel for glorying.

47 Come down; sit on the ground,
virgin daughter of Babylon!

Enter the darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans,

because you shall no longer be called
tender and delicate!

² Take a millstone; grind meal;
uncover your covering;

expose your gray hairs; bare your legs;
pass through rivers.

³ Your shame shall be uncovered;
your reproaches shall be seen.

I will take from you what is right;
I will no longer deliver you over to men.

⁴ He who delivered you—
the Lord Sabaoth is his name,
the Holy One of Israel—
has said:

⁵ Sit distressed^d; enter the darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans!

You shall no more be called
the strength of a kingdom.

⁶ I was provoked at my people;
you defiled my heritage.

I gave them into your hand,
but you granted no mercy to them;

you made the yoke of the elder
exceedingly heavy.

⁷ And you said, “I shall be a ruler forever”;
you did not consider these things in your
         heart,

nor did you remember the last things.

⁸ But now hear these things, you delicate
         woman,
who sits securely, who says in her heart,
“I am, and there is no other;

I shall not sit as a widow
or know bereavement.”

⁹ But now both these things shall come upon
         you
suddenly, in one day:

widowhood and loss of children
shall come upon you suddenly in your
         witchcraft,

exceedingly in the strength of your
         enchantments^a,

¹⁰      in the hope of your evil,

for you said, “I am and there is no other.”

Know that the understanding of these things
and your evil shall be your shame.

And you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no other.”

¹¹ But destruction shall come upon you,
and you will not realize it;
a pit, and you shall fall into it.

And wretchedness shall come upon you,
and you will not be able to become clean
         of it,

and destruction shall come upon you
         suddenly,
and you will not realize it.

¹² Stand now in your enchantments
and your abundant witchcraft,

which you learned from your youth,
if you will be able to receive benefit.

¹³ You have become weary with your
         counsels;
let the astrologers of heaven

stand up and save you,
those who look at the stars;

let them declare to you
what is about to come upon you.

¹⁴ See, they all will be burned
like brushwood on a fire,

and they will not deliver their soul
from the flame;

since you have coals of fire,
sit on them—

¹⁵      these will be a help to you.

You have labored in your traffic from your
         youth;
a man has wandered ^bby himself^b,
but for you there will be no salvation.

48 Hear these things, O house of Iakob,
who are called by the name of Israel
and who came forth out of Ioudas,

who swear by the name of the Lord God of
         Israel,

remembering^c it, not with truth or with
righteousness,

² and clinging to the name of the holy city
and leaning on the God of Israel;
the Lord Sabaoth is his name.

³ The former things I have moreover declared,
and they went out from my mouth and
         came to be heard;

suddenly I did them, and they came to
pass.

⁴ I know that you are unyielding,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your forehead brass,

⁵ and I declared to you the things of old;
before they came upon you I made them
         to be heard by you;

do not say, “The idols did them for me,”
and do not say, “The graven and the cast
         images commanded me.”

⁶ You have heard all things,
and you yourselves have not known.

But I have also made to be heard by you,
         from now on,
the new things that shall come to pass;
yet you did not speak^d.

⁷ They are happening now, not long ago;
in former days you did not hear of them;
do not say, “Yes, I know them.”

⁸ You have neither known nor understood,
nor did I open your ears from the
         beginning.

For I knew that ^ebetraying you would
         betray^e,

and that even from the womb you would
be called a lawless one.

⁹ For my name’s sake I will show you my
         wrath;

I will bring my glorious deeds upon you

so that I may not utterly destroy you.

¹⁰ See, I have sold you, not for silver,
but I delivered you from the furnace of
         poverty.

¹¹ For my own sake will I do this to you,
because my name is being profaned,
and my glory I will not give to another.

¹² Hear me, O Iakob,
and Israel, whom I call:

I am the first,
and I am forever.

¹³ And my hand laid the foundation of the
         earth,
and my right hand bolstered heaven;

I will call them,
and they will stand together.

¹⁴ And all of them will be gathered and hear.
Who has declared these things to them?

Because I love you,
I have performed your will on Babylon,
to do away with the offspring of the
         Chaldeans.

¹⁵ I have spoken; I have called,
brought him and made his way
         prosperous.

¹⁶ Draw near to me, and hear these things!

From the beginning I have not spoken in
secret;

when it happened I was there,
and now the Lord has sent me and his
         spirit.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord who delivered you,
the Holy One of Israel:

I am your God;
I have shown you how to find
the way in which you should go.

¹⁸ And if you had heard my commandments,
your peace would have become like a
         river,

and your righteousness like a wave of the
sea;

¹⁹ your offspring would have become like the
         sand,

and the descendants of your womb like
the dust of the earth.

Now neither will you be utterly destroyed,
nor will your name perish before me.

²⁰ Go out from Babylon, fleeing from the
         Chaldeans;

proclaim a voice of joy, and let this be
heard;

report it to the end of the earth;
say, “The Lord has delivered his slave
         Iakob!”

²¹ Even if they are thirsty, he will lead them
         through the wilderness;

he will bring forth water for them out of
a rock;

a rock will be split, and water will flow,
[and my people will drink].

²² “There is no rejoicing,” says the Lord, “for
         the impious.”

49 Hear me, O islands;
pay attention, O nations!

After a long time it shall stand,
says the Lord.

From my mother’s womb he called my
         name

²     and made my mouth like a sharp dagger,

and under the shelter of his hand he hid
me;

he made me like a chosen arrow,
and in his quiver he sheltered me.

³ And he said to me, “You are my slave,
Israel, and in you I will be glorified.”

⁴ But I said, “I have labored vainly,
and I have given my strength in vain and
         for nothing;

therefore my judgment is with the Lord,
and my toil before my God.”

⁵ And now thus says the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be his
         own slave,

to gather Iakob and Israel to him;

I will be gathered and glorified before the
         Lord,
and my God shall become my strength.

⁶ And he said to me,

“It is a great thing for you to be called my
         servant

so that you may set up the tribes of Iakob

and turn back the dispersion of Israel.

See, I have made you a light of nations,
that you may be for salvation to the end
         of the earth.”

⁷ Thus says the Lord who delivered you,
the God of Israel:

“Sanctify him who despises his own soul,
who is abhorred by the nations, the
         slaves of rulers;

kings shall see him, and rulers shall stand
         up

and do obeisance to him for the Lord’s
sake,

because the Holy One of Israel is faithful,
and I have chosen you.”

⁸ Thus says the Lord:

In an acceptable time I have listened to you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;

I gave you as a covenant to nations,
to establish the land,
and to inherit^a a wilderness heritage,

⁹ saying to those who are in bonds, “Come
         out,”

and to those who are in darkness that
they be revealed.

And they shall feed in all their ways;
in all the paths shall be their pasture;

¹⁰ they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither shall burning heat nor sun strike
         them down,

but he who has mercy on them will comfort
         them

and through springs of water will lead
them.

¹¹ And I will turn every mountain into a road
and every path into a pasture for them.

¹² Lo, these come from far away,
these from the north and these from the
         sea

but others from the land of the Persians.

¹³ Rejoice, O heavens, and let the earth be
         glad;

let the mountains break forth with joy,

^band the hills with righteousness^b,

because God has had mercy on his people
and he has comforted the humble of his
         people.

¹⁴ But Sion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
the Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵ Will a mother forget her child so as not to have mercy on the
descendants of her womb?

But even if a woman should forget these,
yet I will not forget you, said the Lord.

¹⁶ See, I have painted your walls on my hands,
and you are continually before me.

¹⁷ And soon you will be built by those by
         whom you were destroyed,

and those who made you desolate will go
forth from you.

¹⁸ Lift up your eyes all around, and see them
         all;

look, they have gathered and have come
to you.

I live, says the Lord;
you shall clothe yourself with all of them
and put them on like a bride’s
         ornament.

¹⁹ Because your desolate and spoiled and
         ruined places

will now be crowded on account of your
inhabitants,

and those who swallow you up will be far
away from you.

²⁰ For your sons whom you have lost
will say in your ears:

“The place is too narrow for me;
make a place for me so that I may
         settle.”

²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has begotten me these?

But I was childless and a widow,
so who has reared these for me?

But I was left all alone,
so ^afrom where have these come to me^a?”

²² Thus says the Lord:

Look, I am lifting up my hand to the
         nations,
and I will lift my signal to the islands,

and they shall bring your sons in their
         bosom,

and your daughters shall they lift on their
shoulders.

²³ And kings shall be your foster fathers,
and the women who rule, your nurses.

On the face of the earth they shall do
         obeisance to you,

and they shall lick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord,
and you shall not be put to shame.

²⁴ Will anyone take spoils from a ^bmighty
         one^b?

And if one should take a captive unjustly,
shall he be saved?

²⁵ Thus says the Lord:

If one should take a ^bmighty one^b captive,
he will take spoils,

and by taking them from a strong one,
he will be saved.

And I will judge your cause,
and I will rescue your sons.

²⁶ And those who afflicted you shall eat their
         own flesh,

and they shall drink their own blood like
new wine and be drunk.

Then all flesh shall perceive
that I am the Lord who rescued you,
who assists the strength of Iakob.

50 Thus says the Lord:
Of what kind was your mother’s bill of
         divorce

with which I sent her away?

Or to which creditor
have I sold you?

Look, for your sins you were sold,
and for your acts of lawlessness I sent
         away your mother.

² Why was it that I came and no man was
         there?

I called, and there was none to answer?

Is not my hand strong to deliver?
Or am I not strong to rescue?

Look, by my threat I will make the sea
         desolate,
and the rivers I will make deserts,

and their fish shall be dried up because
         there is no water,

and they will die by thirst.

³ And I will clothe heaven with darkness
and make its covering like sackcloth.

⁴ The Lord gives me
the tongue of instruction,

that I may know ^cin season^c
when it is necessary to speak a word.

He assigned it to me in the morning;
he added to me an ear to hear.

⁵ And the instruction of the Lord opens my
         ears,
and I do not disobey nor contradict.

⁶ I have given my back to scourges
and my cheeks to blows,

but I did not turn away my face
from the shame of spittings.

⁷ And the Lord became my helper;
therefore I was not disgraced,

but I have set my face like solid rock,
and I realized that I would not be put to
         shame,

⁸     because he who justified me draws near.

Who is the one who contends with me?
Let him confront me at once.

Yes, who is the one who contends with me?
Let him draw near me.

⁹ Look, the Lord helps me;
who will harm me?

Look, all of you will become old like a
         garment,
and as it were a moth will devour you.

¹⁰ Who among you is the one who fears the
         Lord?
Let him hear the voice of his servant.

Those who walk in darkness—
they have no light;

trust in the name of the Lord,
and lean upon God.

¹¹ Look, all of you, kindle a fire,
and make a flame stronger.

Walk by the light of your fire
and by the flame you have kindled.

Because of me, these things came upon you;
you shall lie down in sorrow.

51 Hear me, you that pursue what is righteous,
  and seek the Lord.

Look to the solid rock that you hewed
and to the hole of the pit that you dug.

² Look to Abraam your father
and to Sarra who bore you;

because he was but one, then I called him
and blessed him and loved him and
         multiplied him.

³ And I will comfort you now, Sion;
I comforted all her desolate places,

and I will make her desolate places
like the garden of the Lord;

in her they will find joy and gladness,
confession and the voice of praise.

⁴ Hear me; hear, my people,
and you kings, give ear to me,

because a law will go out from me,
and my judgment for a light to nations.

⁵ My righteousness draws near swiftly;
my salvation will go out,
and the nations will hope in my arm;

the islands will wait for me
and hope in my arm.

⁶ Lift up your eyes to heaven,
and look at the earth beneath,

because heaven was strengthened like
         smoke,

and the earth will become old like a
garment,

and those who live on the earth will die
like these things,

but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not fail.

⁷ Hear me, you who know judgment,
my people, you in whose heart is my law;

do not fear the reproach of men,
and do not be dismayed by their
         contempt.

⁸ For just as a garment it will be devoured by
         time,

and like wool it will be devoured by a
moth,

but my righteousness will be forever
and my salvation for generations of
         generations.

⁹ Awake, awake, O Ierousalem;
put on the strength of your arm!

Awake, as at the beginning of a day,
like a generation of long ago!

Are you not ¹⁰she who made desolate the
         sea,

the water, the abundance of the deep,

who made the depths of the sea a way of
         passage
for those being delivered

¹¹     and those who have been ransomed?

For by the Lord they shall be returned
and come to Sion with joy
and everlasting gladness;

for gladness and praise shall be upon their
         heads

and joy shall take hold of them;

pain and sorrow and sighing have fled
away.

¹² I am, I am he who comforts you.

Acknowledge of whom you were cautious;
you were afraid because of a mortal man

and a son of man, who have dried up like
grass.

¹³ And you have forgotten God who made you,
who made heaven
and laid the foundations of the earth.

And always, all the days, you feared
the face of the fury of the one who was
         oppressing you,

for just as he planned to do away with you,
and where now is the fury of the one
         who was oppressing you?

¹⁴ For when you are saved,
he will not stand nor linger,

¹⁵ because I am your God,
who stirs up the sea and makes its waves
         to sound—

the Lord Sabaoth is my name.

¹⁶ I will put my words in your mouth
and shelter you under the shadow of my
         hand,

by which I established heaven
and laid the foundations of the earth.

And he^a will say to Sion,
“You are my people.”

¹⁷ Awake, awake!
Stand up, O Ierousalem,

you who have drunk from the hand of the
         Lord

the cup of his wrath,

for you have drained dry and emptied
the cup of ruin, the goblet of wrath.

¹⁸ And there was none who comforted you
from among all your children whom you
         have borne,

and there was none who took hold of your
         hand,

not even from among all your sons,
whom you have raised.

¹⁹ These two things are set against you—
who will grieve with you?—

ruin and destruction, famine and dagger—
who will comfort you?

²⁰ Your sons are the ones perplexed,
who lie down at the head of every street
like a half-cooked beet,

who are full of the wrath of the Lord,
made feeble by the Lord God.

²¹ Therefore hear, you who are humbled,
who are drunk, but not with wine.

²² Thus says the Lord God,
who judges his people:

See, I have taken from your hand
the cup of ruin, the goblet of wrath,
and you shall not continue to drink it
         any longer.

²³ And I will put it into the hands
of those who have wronged you and
         humbled you,

who have said to your soul,
“Bow down, that we may pass by,”

and you put your back level to the ground,
outside, for those who were going by.

52 Awake, awake, O Sion!
 Put on your strength, O Sion,

and put on your glory,
O Ierousalem, the holy city;

the uncircumcised and unclean
shall no longer continue to pass through
         you.

² Shake off the dust, and rise up;
sit down, O Ierousalem;

take off the bond from your neck,
O captive daughter Sion!

3 Because this is what the Lord says: You were sold for nothing, and not with money you shall be redeemed. ⁴Thus says the Lord: Formerly, my people went down into Egypt to sojourn there, and they were led by force to the Assyrians. ⁵And now, why are you here? This is what the Lord says, Because my people were taken for nothing, you marvel and howl. This is what the Lord says, Because of you, my name is continually blasphemed among the nations. ⁶Therefore my people shall know my name in that day, because I myself am the one who speaks: I am here,

⁷ like season upon the mountains,
like the feet of one bringing glad tidings
         of a report of peace,

like one bringing glad tidings of good
things,

because I will make your salvation heard,
saying to Sion, “Your God shall reign,”

⁸ because the voice of those who watch over
         you was lifted up,

and with their voice they shall rejoice
together,

because eyes shall look at eyes
when the Lord will have mercy on Sion.

⁹ Let the desolate places of Ierousalem
break forth together in joy,

because the Lord has had mercy on her
and has delivered Ierousalem.

¹⁰ And the Lord shall reveal his holy arm
before all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation that comes from God.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there,
and touch no unclean thing;

go out from the midst of it; be separated,
you who carry the vessels of the Lord,

¹² because you shall not go out with
         confusion,

nor shall you go in flight,

for the Lord will go before you,
and the Lord God of Israel
is the one who gathers you together.

¹³ See, my servant shall understand^a,
and he shall be exalted and glorified
         exceedingly.

¹⁴ Just as many shall be astonished at you—
so shall your appearance ^bbe without
         glory from men^b,

and your glory ^cbe absent^c from the
men—

¹⁵ so shall many nations be astonished at him,
and kings shall shut their mouth,

because those who were not informed about
         him shall see

and those who did not hear shall
understand.

53 Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord
         been revealed?

² He grew up before him like a child,
like a root in a thirsty land;

he has no form or glory,
and we saw him, and he had no form or
         beauty.

³ But his form was without honor, failing
         beyond all men,

a man being in calamity and knowing
how to bear sickness;

because his face is turned away,
he was dishonored and not esteemed.

⁴ This one bears our sins
and suffers pain for us,

and we accounted him to be in trouble
and calamity and ill-treatment.

⁵ But he was wounded because of our acts of
         lawlessness

and has been weakened because of our
sins;

upon him was the discipline^d of our peace;
by his bruise we were healed.

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
a man has strayed in his own way,
and the Lord gave him over to our sins.

⁷ And he, because he has been ill-treated,
does not open his mouth;

like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and as a lamb is silent before the one
         shearing it,

so he does not open his mouth.

⁸ In his humiliation his judgment was taken
         away.

Who will describe his generation?

Because his life is being taken from the
         earth,

he was led to death ^aon account of^a the
acts of lawlessness of my people.

⁹ And I will give the wicked for his burial
and the rich for his death,

because he committed no lawlessness,
nor was deceit found in his mouth.

¹⁰ And the Lord desires
to cleanse him from his blow.

If you offer for sin,
your soul shall see a long-lived
         offspring.

And the Lord wishes to take away

¹¹     from the pain of his soul,

to show him light
and fill^b him with understanding,

to justify a righteous one who is well subject
         to many,

and he himself shall bear their sins.

¹² Therefore ^che shall inherit many^c,
and he shall divide the spoils of the
         strong,

because his soul was given over to death,
and he was reckoned among the lawless,

and he bore the sins of many,
and because of their sins he was given
         over.

54 Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth, and shout,
you who are not in labor!

Because more are the children of the
         desolate woman

than of her that has a husband,

for the Lord has spoken^d.

² Enlarge the site of your tent
and of your curtains;

make it firm; do not hold back;
lengthen your cords^e, and strengthen
         your stakes,

³ because you must spread out to the right
         and to the left,

and your offspring will inherit the
nations

and will inhabit the cities that have
become desolate.

⁴ Do not fear because you were put to shame,
neither feel disgraced because you were
         reproached,

because you will forget your ancient shame
and the reproach of your widowhood you
         will not remember,

⁵ because the Lord is the one who makes you,
the Lord Sabaoth is his name,

and the one who delivered you is the very^f
         God of Israel;

he shall be called thus^g in all the earth.

⁶ The Lord has not called you
as a forsaken and faint-hearted woman,

nor as a woman hated from youth,
your God has said.

⁷ For a brief moment I forsook you,
but with great mercy I will have mercy on
         you.

⁸ With a little wrath
I turned my face away from you,

but with everlasting mercy I have had mercy
         on you,
the Lord who delivered you has said.

⁹ From the water at the time of Noe, this is
         my oath^g:

Just as I swore to him at that time
that I would no more be angry at the
         earth because of you,

nor as a threat to you

¹⁰     would I remove the mountains,

nor would the hills be shifted,

so neither shall the mercy that comes from
         me to you fail,

nor shall the covenant of your peace be
removed,

for ^hthe Lord said he would be^h merciful
to you.

¹¹ O humbled and unsteady one,
you have not been comforted;

see, I am preparing for you charcoal as your
         stone
and lapis lazuli as your foundations.

¹² And I will make your battlements of jasper
and your gates of crystal stones
and your enclosure of precious stones.

¹³ And ^gI will make^g all your sons taught by God
and your children to be in great peace.

¹⁴ And in righteousness you shall be built;
keep away from injustice, and you shall
         not be afraid, and trembling shall not come near you.

¹⁵ See, guests shall approach you through me
and flee to you for refuge.

¹⁶ See, I create you,
not as a smith who blows the coals
and produces a vessel for work.

But I have created you not for destruction,
         to ruin

¹⁷ every perishable vessel.

I will not make it prosper against you—
and every voice that shall rise against you
         in judgment.

You will defeat all of them,
and those who are held by you shall be
         in sorrow.

There is a heritage for those who do service
         to the Lord,

and you shall be righteous to me, says the
Lord.

55 You who thirst,
go to water,

and as many of you as have no money,
go, buy, and drink wine and fat,
without money and without price.

² Why do you set a price with money
and your labor for that which does not
         satisfy?

Hear me, and you shall eat good things,
and your soul shall revel in good things.

³ Pay attention with your ears,
and follow my ways;

listen to me,
and your soul will live in good things.

I will make with you an everlasting
         covenant,

^athe sacred things of Dauid that are
sure^a.

⁴ See, I have given him as a testimony among
         the nations,
a ruler and commander for the nations.

⁵ Nations that did not know you shall call
         upon you,

and peoples that do not understand you
shall flee to you for refuge,

for the sake of your God, the Holy One of
         Israel,

because he has glorified you.

⁶ Seek God, and when you find him, call
         upon him,
and whenever he should draw near you,

⁷ let the impious forsake his ways,
and the lawless man his plans,

and let him return to the Lord, and he will
         have mercy,

because he will ^babundantly forgive^b your
sins.

⁸ For my plans are not like your plans,
nor are your ways like my ways, says the
         Lord.

⁹ But as heaven is far from the earth,
so is my way far from your ways
and your notions from my thought.

¹⁰ For as rain or snow comes down from
         heaven

and will not return until it has soaked the
earth

and brought forth and blossomed

and given seed to the sower and bread for
food,

¹¹ so shall my word be, whatever goes out
         from my mouth;
it shall not return

until whatever I have willed is fulfilled,
and I will prosper your ways and my
         commandments.

¹² For you shall go out with joy
and be taught with happiness;

for the mountains and the hills shall leap
         forth

as they welcome you with happiness,

and all the trees of the field shall clap
with their branches.

¹³ And instead of the brier shall come up a
         cypress,

and instead of the nettle shall come up a
myrtle,

and ^cthe Lord shall be^c for a name
and for an everlasting sign and shall not
         fail.

56 This is what the Lord says:
Keep judgment; do righteousness,

for my salvation has drawn near to arrive
and my mercy to be revealed.

² Happy is the man who does these things,
the person who holds them fast,

who keeps the sabbaths so as not to profane
         them,

and watches his hands so as not to do
wrong.

³ Let not the alien who clings to the Lord say,
“So then the Lord will separate me from
         his people,”

and let not the eunuch say,
“I am a dry tree.”

⁴ This is what the Lord says:

To the eunuchs, as many as keep my
         sabbaths
and choose the things that I want
and hold fast my covenant,

⁵ I will give to them, in my house and within
         my wall,
an esteemed place,
^dbetter than sons and daughters;

I will give^d them an everlasting name,
and it shall not fail.

⁶ And to the aliens who cling to the Lord,
to be subject to him, to love the name of
         the Lord,

so that they may be his male and female
slaves—

and as for all who keep my sabbaths so as
         not to profane them

and hold fast my covenant—

⁷ I will bring them into my holy mountain
and make them joyful in my house of
         prayer;

their whole burnt offerings and their
         sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,

for my house shall be called a house of
         prayer
for all the nations—

⁸ said the Lord, who gathers the dispersed of
         Israel—
for I will gather to him a gathering.

⁹ All you wild animals that live in the fields,
all you wild animals of the forest, come
         here; eat!

¹⁰ Observe that all have become totally blind;
they have not learned how to think;

they are all silent dogs;
they will not be able to bark,

dreaming in bed,
loving to slumber.

¹¹ The dogs are shameless in their soul,
not knowing satisfaction.

They are evil,
not knowing understanding.

They have all followed their own ways,
each in the same manner.

57 Observe how the righteous has perished,
and no one takes it to heart;

righteous men are being taken away,
and no one takes notice,

for the righteous has been taken away
from the presence of unrighteousness;

² his burial will be in peace;
he has been taken away from their midst.

³ But as for you, draw near here,
you lawless sons,

you offspring of adulterers and of a
whore.

⁴ In what have you indulged?
And against whom have you opened your
         mouth wide?

And against whom have you let loose
your tongue?

Are you not children of destruction,
a lawless offspring?

⁵ You are the ones who call on their idols
under thick trees,

slaughtering their children in the ravines,
among the rocks.

⁶ That is your portion;
this is your lot,

and to them you have poured out libations,
and to them you have brought a sacrifice.
Shall I not therefore be angry for these
         things?

⁷ Upon a high and lofty mountain,
there was your bed,
and there you brought up your sacrifices.

⁸ Behind the posts of your door
you have set up your memorials.

You supposed that if you should desert me,
you would obtain something greater.

You have loved those who lay with you

⁹ and multiplied your fornication with them,

and you have made many those who were
         far from you

and sent ambassadors beyond your
borders,

and you turned away and were humbled
even to Hades.

¹⁰ You grew weary with your long journeys,
but you did not say, “I will cease to regain
         strength.”

Because you have accomplished these things,
therefore you did not entreat me.

¹¹ Of whom were you cautious and afraid,
and you lied to me

and did not remember me,
nor did you take me into your thought
or into your heart?

And when I see you, I disregard you,
and you have not feared me.

¹² And I will declare my righteousness and
         your evils,
which will not help you.

¹³ When you cry out,
let them deliver you in your affliction!

For the wind will take all of these,
and a tempest will carry them away.

But those who cling to me shall possess the
         earth
and inherit my holy mountain.

¹⁴ And they shall say,
“Cleanse the ways before him,

and remove the obstructions^a from my
people’s way.”

¹⁵ This is what the Lord says, the Most High,
who ^bdwells forever^b in lofty places—

Holy among the holy ones is his name,
the Lord Most High who rests among the
         holy ones

and gives patience to the faint-hearted
and gives life to those who are broken of
         heart:

¹⁶ I will not punish you forever,
nor will I always be angry with you,

for a spirit shall go forth from me,
and I have made every breath.

¹⁷ Because of sin I grieved him a little while;
I struck him and turned my face away
         from him,

and he was grieved and went on sullen in
his ways.

¹⁸ I have seen his ways, and I healed him
and comforted him, yes, gave him true
         comfort—

¹⁹ peace upon peace to those that are far
and to those that are near.

And the Lord said,

I will heal them.

²⁰ But thus shall the unrighteous be tossed like
         waves
and shall not be able to rest.

²¹ There is no rejoicing for the impious, said
         the Lord God.

58 Cry out with strength, and do not hold
         back!

Lift up your voice like a trumpet,

and declare to my people their sins,
to the house of Iakob their acts of
         lawlessness.

² Day after day they seek me
and desire to know my ways.

Like a people that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their
         God,

they now ask of me righteous judgment,
and they desire to draw near to God,

³ saying, “Why is it that we have fasted, but
         you did not see,

humbled our souls, but you did not
know?”

For in the days of your fasts you find your
         own wishes
and goad all those who are under you.

⁴ If you fast for quarrels and fights
and you strike a humble person with
         your fists,

why do you fast for me as you do today
so that your voice may be heard by its
         clamor?

⁵ This is not the fast that I have chosen,
even a day for a person to humble
         himself;

not even if you bend your neck like a ring
and spread under you sackcloth and
         ashes—

not even so shall you call it
an acceptable fast.

⁶ I have not chosen such a fast, says the
         Lord;
rather loose every bond of injustice;

undo the knots of contracts made by force;
let the oppressed go free,
and tear up every unjust note.

⁷ Break your bread with the one who is
         hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your
house;

if you see one naked, clothe him,
and you shall not neglect
any of the relatives of your seed.

⁸ Then your light shall break forth early in the
         morning,
and your healings shall rise quickly,

and your righteousness shall go before you,
and the glory of God shall cover you.

⁹ Then you shall cry out, and God will listen
         to you;

while you are still speaking, he will say,
Here I am.

If you remove from you a bond
and a ^astretching of the hand^a and a
         murmuring word

¹⁰ and give to one who is hungry bread from
         your soul
and satisfy a soul that has been humbled,

then your light shall rise in the darkness,
and your darkness shall be like noonday.

¹¹ And your God will be with you continually,
and you shall be satisfied exactly as your
         soul desires,

and your bones shall be enriched,
and they shall be like a soaked garden
and like a spring whose water has never
         failed.

¹² And your ancient deserts shall be built,
and your foundations shall be everlasting,
for generations of generations,

and you shall be called a builder of fences,
and you shall cause the paths between
         them to rest.

¹³ If you turn your foot away from the sabbaths,
so as not to do the things you wish on
         the holy day,

and you shall call the sabbaths delightful^b,
holy to your God,

you shall not lift your foot for work
nor speak a word in anger out of your
         mouth;

¹⁴ then you shall trust in the Lord,
and he shall bring you up upon the good
         things of the earth

and feed you with the heritage of your
ancestor Iakob,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
these things.

59 Is not the Lord’s hand strong to save?
Or has he made his ear heavy so as not to
         listen?

² Rather, your sinful acts separate
between you and God,

and because of your sins he has turned his
         face away from you
so as not to show mercy.

³ For your hands have been defiled with
         blood,
and your fingers with sins,

and your lips have spoken lawlessness,
and your tongue plots unrighteousness.

⁴ No one speaks righteous things,
nor is there true judgment;

they trust in vanities, and they speak empty
         words,

because they conceive trouble and give
birth to lawlessness.

⁵ They broke the eggs of asps
and weave the web of a spider, and the one who intended to eat their eggs,
upon breaking them found wind,
and in it was a basilisk.

⁶ Their web shall not become a garment,
nor shall they be clothed with their works,
for their works are works of lawlessness.

⁷ And their feet run to evil,
swift to shed blood,

and their reasonings are reasonings of fools;
destruction and wretchedness are in their
         ways.

⁸ And a way of peace they do not know,
and there is no judgment in their ways,

for their paths, through which they travel,
         are crooked,
and they do not know peace.

⁹ Therefore their judgment has departed from
         them,

and righteousness will not catch up with
them;

having awaited light, darkness came to
         them;

having waited for sunlight, they walked
in midnight.

¹⁰ They will grope like blind men for a wall,
and like those who have no eyes they will
         grope.

And they will fall at noon as at midnight;
like dying men they will groan.

¹¹ Like a bear and like a dove
they will walk together.

We waited for judgment, but there was
         none;
salvation has withdrawn far from us.

¹² For our lawlessness was great before you
and our sins have risen up against us;

for our acts of lawlessness are in us,
and we realized our wrongs;

¹³ we were impious and lied
and turned away from behind our God;

we spoke unrighteous things and disobeyed;
we conceived and rehearsed unrighteous
         words from our heart.

¹⁴ And we put away our judgment behind us,
and righteousness withdrew far away,

because truth was consumed in their ways,
and they could not travel through a
         straight path.

¹⁵ And truth was taken away,
and they removed their thought from
         understanding.

The Lord saw it, and it did not please him
that there was no judgment.

¹⁶ And he saw, and there was no man,
and he took notice, and there was none
         who helped;

so he defended them with his own arm,
and with his compassion he upheld
         them.

¹⁷ And he put on righteousness like a
         breastplate

and placed a helmet of salvation on his
head,

and he clothed himself with a garment of
         vengeance

and with his cloak, ¹⁸as one about to
render retribution,

reproach to his adversaries.

¹⁹ And those from the west shall fear the name
         of the Lord,

and those from the rising of the sun, his
glorious name,

for anger will come from the Lord like a
         rushing river—
it will come with wrath.

²⁰ And the one who delivers will come for
         Sion’s sake,
and he will turn impiety away from Iakob.

²¹ And this is the covenant to them from me, said the Lord, my spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not fail out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring, for the Lord has said it, from now on and forever.

60 ^aShine, shine^a, O Ierousalem, for your light
         has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon
you.

² Look, darkness and gloom
shall cover the earth upon the nations,

but the Lord will appear upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.

³ Kings shall walk by your light,
and nations by your brightness.

⁴ Lift up your eyes round about,
and see your children gathered together;

look, all your sons have come from far
         away,

and your daughters shall be carried on
shoulders.

⁵ Then you shall see and be afraid
and be amazed in your heart,

because the wealth of the sea and of nations
         and of peoples
shall change over to you.

And there shall come to you

⁶ herds of camels,

and the camels of Madiam and Gaiphar
shall cover you.

All those from Saba shall come,
bringing gold,

and they shall bring frankincense
and announce the good news of the
         salvation of the Lord.

⁷ And all the sheep of Kedar shall be gathered
         to you,

and the rams of Nabaioth shall come to
you,

and acceptable things shall be offered on
         my altar,
and my house of prayer shall be glorified.

⁸ Who are these that fly like clouds,
and like doves with their young?

⁹ The islands waited for me,
and the ships of Tharsis among the first,

to bring your children from far away,
and their silver and gold with them,

because of the holy name of the Lord
and because the Holy One of Israel is
         glorious.

¹⁰ And aliens shall build up your walls,
and their kings shall attend to you;

for because of my wrath I struck you down,
but because of my mercy I loved you.

¹¹ And your gates shall always be opened—
day and night they shall not be shut—

to bring to you the power of nations,
and kings who are being led away.

¹² For the nations and kings
that will not be subject to you shall perish,

and the nations shall be made desolate
with desolation.

¹³ And the glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
with cypress and pine and cedar together,
to glorify my holy place.

¹⁴ The sons of those who humbled and
         provoked you
shall come to you with dread;

you shall be called City of the Lord,
Sion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Because you have become forsaken and
         hated
and there was none who helped,

and^a I will make you an everlasting
         gladness,
a joy for generations of generations.

¹⁶ You shall suck the milk of nations,
and you shall eat the wealth of kings,

and you shall know that I am the Lord who
         saves you
and rescues you, the God of Israel.

¹⁷ And instead of bronze I will bring you gold;
instead of iron I will bring you silver;

instead of wood I will bring you bronze;
instead of stones, iron.

And I will appoint your rulers in peace
and your overseers in righteousness.

¹⁸ And injustice shall no more be heard in
         your land,

nor destruction or wretchedness within
your borders;

rather your walls shall be called Salvation,
and your gates Sculpture.

¹⁹ And the sun shall not be
to you as a light by day,

nor shall the rising of the moon
give light to you at night,

but the Lord will be to you an everlasting
         light,
and God will be your glory.

²⁰ For your sun shall not go down,
and your moon shall not fail;

for the Lord will be to you an everlasting
         light,

and the days of your mourning shall be
fulfilled.

²¹ Your people shall all be righteous,
and they shall inherit the land forever,

guarding their plant,
the works of their hands, for glory.

²² The smallest one shall become thousands,
and the least, a great nation;
I, the Lord, will gather them in due time.

61 The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the
         poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,

² to summon the acceptable year of the Lord
and the day of retribution,
to comfort all who mourn

³ so that to those who mourn for Sion
be given glory instead of ashes,

oil of joy ^bto those who mourn^b,
a garment of glory instead of a spirit of
         weariness.

They will be called generations of
         righteousness,
a plant of the Lord for glory.

⁴ They shall build the ^cdesolate places of old^c;
they shall raise up the former devastated
         places;

they shall renew the desolate cities,
places devastated for generations.

⁵ Aliens shall come, feeding your sheep,
and allophyles as plowmen and
         vinedressers,

⁶ but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
ministers of God;

you shall devour the strength of nations,
and with their wealth you shall be
         admired^d.

⁷ Thus they shall inherit the land a second
         time,

and everlasting joy shall be above their
head.

⁸ For I am the Lord, who loves righteousness
and hates spoils obtained by injustice;

I will give them their hard work righteously,
and I will make an everlasting covenant
         with them.

⁹ And their offspring and their descendants
shall be known among the nations;

everyone who sees them shall acknowledge
         them,

because these are an offspring blessed by
God,

¹⁰ and they will rejoice with rejoicing in the
         Lord.

Let my soul be glad in the Lord,
for he has clothed me with a garment of
         salvation
and with a tunic of joy;

he has put on me a headdress as on a
         bridegroom

and adorned me with ornaments like a
bride.

¹¹ And as the earth making its flowers grow,
and as a garden its seeds,

so the Lord will cause righteousness and
         gladness
to spring up before all the nations.

62 Because of Sion I will not be silent,
and because of Ierousalem I will not
         slacken

until my righteousness goes forth like light
and my salvation shall burn like a torch.

² And nations shall see your righteousness,
and kings your glory,

and he shall call you by your new name,
which the Lord will name.

³ And you shall be a crown of beauty in the
         hand of the Lord

and a royal diadem in the hand of your
God.

⁴ And you shall no more be called Forsaken,
and your land shall not be called
         Desolate,

for you shall be called My Will,
and your land, Inhabited.

⁵ And as a young man lives together in
         marriage with a virgin,
so shall your sons dwell with you,

and it shall be that as a bridegroom shall
         rejoice over a bride,
so shall the Lord rejoice over you.

⁶ And upon your walls, O Ierousalem,
I have posted sentinels

all day and all night,
who shall never be silent,
making mention of the Lord.

⁷ For ^ayou have none like him^a,
if he should restore Ierousalem
and make it a boast on the earth.

⁸ The Lord has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:

I will not again give your grain
and your food to your enemies,

and not again shall foreign sons drink your
         wine
for which you have labored,

⁹ but those who gather shall eat them
and praise the Lord,

and those who gather shall drink them
in my holy courts.

¹⁰ Go through my gates,
and make a way for my people,

and cast the stones out of the way;
lift up a signal for the nations.

¹¹ For see, the Lord has made it to be heard
to the end of the earth:

Say to daughter Sion,
“See, your Savior comes to you,

having his own reward
and his work before him.”

¹² And he shall call it a holy people,
redeemed by the Lord,

and you shall be called
“A City Sought After” and “Not Forsaken.”

63 “Who is this that comes from Edom,”
a redness of garments from Bosor,

so beautiful in apparel,
in might, with strength?”

“I discourse about righteousness
and judgment of salvation.”

² “Why are your garments red,
and your clothes as if from a trodden
         wine press?”

³ “^bI am^b full of a trampled ^bwine press^b,
and of the nations no man is with me,

and I trampled them in wrath
and crushed them like earth
and brought down their blood to the
         earth.

⁴ For a day of retribution has come upon
         them,
and a year of ransom is here.

⁵ And I looked, but no one was a helper,
and I observed, but no one was assisting;

so my own arm delivered them,
and my wrath was present.

⁶ And I trampled them down in my anger,
and I brought down their blood to the
         earth.”

⁷ I called to mind the mercy of the Lord,
the excellences of the Lord

in all the things with which the Lord
rewards us;

the Lord is a good judge to the house of
         Israel;
he provides for us according to his mercy,

according to the abundance of his
righteousness.

⁸ And he said, “Are they not my people—
children who will not ^cdeal falsely^c?”

And he became to them salvation

⁹ out of all affliction.

It was no ambassador or angel
but the Lord himself that saved them,

because he loved them and spared them;
he himself ransomed them and took
         them up
and lifted them up all the days of old.

¹⁰ But they disobeyed
and provoked his holy spirit; therefore he turned to them in enmity,
and he himself warred against them.

¹¹ Then the one who brought up from the land
the shepherd of the sheep
remembered the days of old:

Where is the one who put within them
his holy spirit,

¹² who led Moyses with his right hand?
^aWhere is^a his glorious arm?

He overcame^b the water from before him,
to make for himself an everlasting name.

¹³ He led them through the deep
like a horse through a wilderness,
and they did not become weary,

¹⁴ and like cattle through a plain.

A spirit came down from the Lord and
         guided them.

Thus you led your people,
to make for yourself a glorious name.

¹⁵ Turn from heaven, and see
from your holy house and glory.

Where are your zeal
and your strength?

Where is the abundance of your mercy
and of your compassions,
that you have ^cheld back from^c us?

¹⁶ For you are our father,
because Abraam did not know us
and Israel did not recognize us,

but you, O Lord, are our father;
deliver us; from the beginning your name
         is upon us.

¹⁷ Why, O Lord, did you make us stray from
         your way

and harden our hearts so that we would
not fear you?

Turn back on account of your slaves,
on account of the tribes of your
         inheritance,

¹⁸ so that we may inherit a little of your holy
         mountain;

our adversaries have trampled down your
holy precinct.

¹⁹ We have become as at the beginning,
when you did not rule us,
nor ^dwas your name called upon us^d.

64 If you should open heaven,
trembling from you would seize the
         mountains,

and they would melt

²⁽¹⁾ as wax melts from the fire.

And fire shall burn up your adversaries,
and the name of the Lord shall be
         manifest among your adversaries;

nations shall be confused at your
presence!

³⁽²⁾ When you do your glorious deeds,
trembling from you will seize the
         mountains.

⁴⁽³⁾ From ages past we have not heard,
nor have our eyes seen any God besides
         you,

and your works, which you will do to
those who wait for mercy.

⁵⁽⁴⁾ For he will meet those who do what is
         right,
and they will remember your ways.

Look, you were angry, and we sinned;
therefore we went astray.

⁶⁽⁵⁾ And we have all become like unclean
         people;
all our righteousness is like the rag
of a ^ewoman who sits apart^e.

And we have fallen off like leaves because of
         our acts of lawlessness;
thus the wind will take us away.

⁷⁽⁶⁾ And there is no one who calls on your name
or remembers to take hold of you,

because you have turned your face away
         from us

and have delivered us over because of our
sins.

⁸⁽⁷⁾ And now, O Lord, you are our Father,
and we are clay;
we are all the work of your hands.

⁹⁽⁸⁾ Do not be exceedingly angry,
and do not remember our sins in season.
And now look upon us, because we are
         all your people.

¹⁰⁽⁹⁾ Your holy city has become a wilderness;
Sion has become like a wilderness,
Ierousalem a curse.

¹¹⁽¹⁰⁾ The house, our holy place,
even the glory that our fathers blessed,

has been burned by fire,
and all our glorious places have fallen in
         ruins.

¹²⁽¹¹⁾ And for all this
you have restrained yourself, O Lord,
and have kept silent and have humbled
         us severely.

65 I became visible to those who were not
         seeking me;

I was found by those who were not
         inquiring about me.

I said, “Here I am,”
to the nation that did not call my name.

² I stretched out my hands all day long
to a disobedient and contrary people,

who did not walk in a true way
but after their own sins.

³ These are the people who provoke me
to my face continually;

they sacrifice in the gardens
and burn incense on bricks
to the demons, which do not exist,

⁴ and they fall asleep in the tombs
and in the caves for the sake of dreams—

those who eat swine’s flesh
and broth of sacrifices

(all their vessels are defiled),

⁵ who say, “Stay far away from me;
do not come near me, for I am clean.”

This is the smoke of my wrath;
a fire burns in it all the days.

⁶ See, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent

until I repay into their bosom

⁷ their sins and those of their fathers—says
         the Lord—

who burned incense on the mountains
and reviled me on the hills;
I will repay their works into their bosom.

⁸ Thus says the Lord:

As the grape will be found in the cluster,
and they will say, “Do not destroy it,
because the blessing of the Lord is in it,”

so I will do for the sake of the one who is
         subject to me.

For the sake of this one I will not destroy
them all.

⁹ And I will bring forth the offspring
that comes from Iakob and from Ioudas,

and it will inherit my holy mountain,
and my chosen ones and my slaves
shall inherit it and dwell there.

¹⁰ And there shall be in the forest folds of flocks,
and the Ravine of Achor shall become a
         resting place of herds
for my people who have sought me.

¹¹ But as for you who forsake me
and forget my holy mountain

and prepare a table for the demon
and fill a mixed drink for Fortune,

¹² I will deliver you over to the dagger;
all of you shall fall by slaughter;

because I called you and you did not
         answer,
I spoke and you misheard,

and you did what was evil before me
and chose the things I did not desire.

¹³ Therefore this is what the Lord says:

See, those who are subject to me shall eat,
but you shall be hungry;

see, those who are subject to me shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;

see, those who are subject to me shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴ see, those who are subject to me shall be
         glad with joy,

but you shall cry out because of the pain
of your heart

and shall wail for crushing of spirit.

¹⁵ For you shall leave your name ^afor fullness
         to^a my chosen ones,
but the Lord will do away with you.

But to those who are subject to him, a new
         name shall be called,

¹⁶ which shall be blessed on the earth;

for they shall bless the true God,
and those who swear on the earth
shall swear by the true God,

for they shall forget their first affliction,
and it shall not come up into their heart.

¹⁷ For heaven will be new,
and the earth will be new,

and they shall not remember the former
         things,
nor shall they come upon their heart,

¹⁸ but they shall find joy and gladness in it,
because look, I am making Ierousalem as
         gladness,
and my people as a joy.

¹⁹ And I will be glad over Ierousalem
and rejoice over my people,

and no more shall a voice of weeping be
         heard in it,
nor a voice of crying.

²⁰ And there shall not be there
one ^bwho dies^b untimely
or an old person who will not fulfill his
         time;

for the young person will be a hundred
         years old,

but ^cthe one who dies a sinner will be a
hundred years old and accursed^c.

²¹ And they shall build houses and themselves
         shall inhabit them,

and they shall plant vineyards and
themselves shall eat their fruit,

²² and they shall not build, and others
         inhabit;
they shall not plant, and others eat,

for according to the days of the tree of life
shall the days of my people be;
they shall make old the works of their
         labors.

²³ And my chosen ones shall not labor in vain,
nor bear children for a curse,
because they are an offspring blessed by
         God.

²⁴ And it shall be that before they have cried
         out I will listen to them;

while they are yet speaking I will say,
What is it?

²⁵ Then wolves and lambs shall feed together,
and a lion shall eat straw like an ox,
but a snake ^bshall eat^b earth as bread!

They shall not do wrong or destroy
on my holy mountain,
says the Lord.

66 Thus says the Lord:

Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is the footstool of my feet;

what kind of house will you build for me,
or of what kind will be the place of my
         rest?

² For all these things my hand has made,
and all these things are mine, says the Lord.

And to whom will I look
but to the one who is humble and quiet
and trembles at my words?

³ But the lawless who sacrifices to me a calf
is like one who kills a dog,

and he who offers fine flour,
like ^aone who offers^a swine’s blood;

he who has given frankincense for a
         memorial,
like a blasphemer.

And these have chosen their own ways
and their abominations, which their soul
         wanted;

⁴ so I will choose mockeries for them
and repay them their sins,

because I called them and they did not
         answer me,
I spoke and they did not hear,

but they did what was evil in my sight
and chose the things I did not desire.

⁵ Hear the word of the Lord,
you who tremble at his word;

speak, our brothers,
to those who hate and abominate us

so that the name of the Lord may be glorified
and seen in their joy,
but those ones shall be put to shame.

⁶ A voice of crying from the city!
A voice from the shrine!

The voice of the Lord,
rendering retribution to his adversaries!

⁷ Before she who was in labor
gave birth,

before the pain of her pangs came,
she escaped and gave birth to a male.

⁸ Who has heard of such a thing?
And who has seen thus?

Did the earth give birth in one day?
Was also a nation born all at once?

Because Sion was in labor
and she gave birth to her children.

⁹ But I am the one who gave you this
         expectation,
and you did not remember me,
said the Lord;

see, was it not I who made the woman who
         gives birth
and the one who is barren?
said God.

¹⁰ Rejoice, O Ierousalem,
and celebrate a festival in her, all you
         who love her;

rejoice with joy,
all you who mourn over her—

¹¹ that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast,

that by much nursing you may take delight
from the entrance to her glory.

¹² Because this is what the Lord says:
See, I myself turn to them like a river of
         peace,

and like a wadi overflowing the glory of
nations;

their children shall be carried on shoulders
and comforted on knees.

¹³ As a mother will comfort someone,
so also I will comfort you,
and you shall be comforted in
         Ierousalem.

¹⁴ You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones shall grow like grass,

and the hand of the Lord shall be known to
         those who worship him,

and he shall threaten those who disobey
him.

¹⁵ For see, the Lord will come like fire,
and his chariots like a tempest,

to render vengeance with wrath
and repudiation with a flame of fire.

¹⁶ For by the fire of the Lord shall all the earth
         be judged,
and all flesh by his sword;
many shall be wounded by the Lord.

17 Those who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens and who in the porches eat swine’s flesh, the abominations and the mouse shall be consumed together, said the Lord.

18 And I understand their works and their reasonings; I am coming to gather all the nations and tongues, and they shall come and shall see my glory. ¹⁹And I will leave signs upon them, and from them I will send forth those who are saved to the nations, to Tharsis and Phoud and Loud and Mosoch and Thobel and to Greece and to the islands far away—those who have not heard my name or seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations. ²⁰They shall bring your kindred from all the nations as a gift to the Lord, with horses and chariots, in mule-drawn litters with sunshades, into the holy city Ierousalem, said the Lord, so that the sons of Israel may bring to me their sacrifices with music^b into the house of the Lord. ²¹And I will take for myself some of them as priests and as Leuites, said the Lord.

²² For as the new heaven and the new earth,
which I am making, remain before me,
         says the Lord,

so shall your offspring and your name
stand.

²³ And it shall be that month after month
and sabbath after sabbath

all flesh shall come before me to do
         obeisance in Ierousalem,
said the Lord.

24 And they shall go forth and see the limbs^c of the people who have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched and they shall become a spectacle to all flesh.