 Chapter 47-55 Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Caldeans. For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil. Strip off the train. Uncover the leg. Pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered. Yes, your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and will spare no man. Our Redeemer Yahweh of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit you silent and get you into darkness, daughter of the Caldeans, for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You did show them no mercy. On the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke. You said, I shall be mistress for ever, so that you did not lay these things to your heart. Neither did remember the latter end of it. Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow. Neither shall I know the loss of children. But these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. In their full measure shall they come to you, in the multitude of your sorceries and the great abundance of your enchantments. For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, none sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. Therefore evil will come on you. You won't know when it dawns, and mischief will fall on you. You will not be able to put it away, and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know. Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth. If so be you shall be able to profit. If so be you may prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your councils. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that shall come on you. Behold, these shall be a stubble. The fire shall burn them. They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. Thus shall the things be to which you have labored. Those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander every one to his quarter. There shall be none to save you. CHAPTER 48 Hear you this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel. Yahweh of armies is his name. I have declared the former things from of old. Yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them. Suddenly I did them, and they happened. Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is as an iron sinew, and your brow brass. Therefore I have declared it to you from of old, before it came to pass I showed it to you, lest you should say, my idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image have commanded them. You have heard it, see all this, and you will you not declare it. I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. They are created now, and not from of old, and before this day you didn't hear them, lest you should say, behold I knew them. Yes, you didn't hear. Yes, you didn't know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb. For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it. For how should my name be profaned, and my glory I will not give to another? Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, my called. I am he, I am the first, I also am the last. Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. When I call them, they stand up together. Assemble yourselves, all you and here, who among them has declared these things. He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. Come you near me, hear you this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time that it was, there am I. And now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, and his spirit. Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who lead you by the way that you should go. O, that you had listened to my commandments. Then had your peace been as a river and your righteousness as the waves of the sea, your seed also had been as the sand and the offspring of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me. Go you forth from Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it, even to the end of the earth. Say you, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob. They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out. There is no peace, says Yahweh, to the wicked. CHAPTER 49 Listen, islands, to me, and listen, you peoples, from afar. Yahweh has called me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name, and he has made my voice like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and he has made me a polished shaft. In his quiver has he kept me close, and he said to me, You are my servant, Israel in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh and my recompense with my God. Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him. For I am honourable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become my strength. Yes, he says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall worship, because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. Thus says Yahweh, in an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you, and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant to the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage, saying to those who are bound, go forth. To those who are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways and on all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun strike them. For he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them. I will make all my mountains away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinem. Sing, heavens, and be joyful earth, and break forth into singing mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continuously before me. Your children make haste, your destroyers, and those who made you waste shall go forth from you. Lift up your eyes all around and see. All these gather themselves together and come to you. As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and gird yourself with them like a bride. For as for your waste and your desolate places and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away. The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, the place is too small for me. Give place to me that I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart, Who has conceived these for me, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, in exile, and wandering back and forth. And who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. These, where were they? Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet, and you shall know that I am Yahweh, and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? But thus says Yahweh, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine. And all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your saviour, and your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Chapter 50 Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother's divorce with which I have put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away. Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers of wilderness, their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting, for the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed. He is near who justifies me. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me. Who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment. The moth shall eat them up. Who is among you who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God. Behold, all who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves about with fire-brands, walk you in the flame of your fire and among the brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand. You shall lie down in sorrow. CHAPTER 51 Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock, whence you were cut, and to the hold of the pit, whence you were dug. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you. For when he was but one, I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste-places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Attend to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation. For a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples. The island shall wait for me, and on my arms shall they trust. CHAPTER 2 Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and those who dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don't you fear the reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation to all generations. Awake! Awake! Put on strength arm of Yahweh! Awake! as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who did cut Rahab in pieces who pierced the monster? Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea away for the redeemed to pass over? The ransomed of Yahweh shall return and come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made his grass, and have forgotten Yahweh your maker, who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor when he makes ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be freed, and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. For I am Yahweh, your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of armies is his name. I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, you are my people. Wake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth. Neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction and the famine and the sword. How shall I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets as an antelope and a net. They are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. Therefore hear now this, you afflicted and drunken, but now with wine. Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You shall no more drink it again, and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down that we may go over, and you have laid your back as the ground and as the street to those who go over. Chapter 52 Awake! Awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no more come unto you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust. Arise, sit on your throne, Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion. For thus says Yahweh, you were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord Yahweh. My people went down at the first into Egypt a sojourn there, and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. Now, therefore, what do I hear, says Yahweh, seeing that my people is taken away for nothing. Those who rule over them do howl, says Yahweh, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who does speak. Behold, it is I. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up the voice, together do they sing, for they shall see, eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem. For Yahweh has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Depart you, depart you, go you out from there. Touch no unclean thing. Go you out of the midst of her. Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh. For you shall not go out in haste. Neither shall you go out by flight. For Yahweh will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rearguard. Behold, my servant shall deal wisely. He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like as many were astonished at you, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of man. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they understand. Chapter 53 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness when we see him. There is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face, and we didn't respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering. Yet we considered him plagued, struck by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way, and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth. As a lamb that has led to the slaughter and as a sheep that before it shears his mute so he didn't open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Chapter 54 Sing, O baron, you who didn't bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says Yahweh. Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations. Don't spare. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you shall spread out on the right hand and on the left, and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Don't be afraid, for you shall not be ashamed, neither be confounded, for you shall not be disappointed, for you shall forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more. For your maker is your husband. Yahweh of armies is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even as a wife of youth, when she is cast off, says your God. For a small moment have I forsaken you. But with great mercies will I gather you. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment. But with everlasting loving-kindness will I have mercy on you, says Yahweh, your Redeemer. For this is like the waters of Noah to me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my loving-kindness shall not depart from you. Neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, says Yahweh, who has mercy on you. You afflicted, tossed with storms and not comforted. Behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies and your gates of sparkling jewels and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught of Yahweh, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid, from terror, for it shall not come near you. Behold, they may gather together, but not by me. Whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and brings forth a weapon for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against you will prevail, and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their righteousness which is of me, says Yahweh. CHAPTER 55 Come, every one who thirsts to the waters. Come, he who has no money, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Turn diligently to me and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Turn your ear and come to me. Here and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you didn't know, and a nation that didn't know you shall run to you because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, and who are God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahweh. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky and doesn't return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to Yahweh for a name or an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. End of CHAPTERS 47 THROUGH 55 OF THE BOOK OF ISAEA CHAPTERS 56 THROUGH 66 OF THE BOOK OF ISAEA FROM THE WORLD INGLISH BIBLE. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. RECORDING BY J. A. CARTER THE BOOK OF ISAEA FROM THE WORLD INGLISH BIBLE CHAPTERS 56 THROUGH 66 CHAPTER 56 THUS SAYS YAHWEI. KEEP JUSTICE AND DO RIGHTEOUSNESS, FOR MY SALVATION IS NEAR TO COME AND MY RIGHTEOUSNESS TO BE REVEALED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO DOES THIS AND THE SON OF MAN WHO HOLDS IT FAST, WHO KEEPTS THE SAVATH FROM PROPHAINING IT AND KEEPTS HIS HAND FROM DOING ANY EVIL. NEITHER LET THE FOREINER, WHO HAS JOINED HIMSELF TO YAHWEI, SPEAK SAYING, YAHWEI WILL SURELY SEPARATE ME FROM HIS PEOPLE. NEITHER LET THE UNIX SAY, BEHOLD, I AM A DRIVE TREE. FOR THUS SAYS YAHWEI, TO THE UNIX WHO KEEP MY SAVATH AND CHOOSE THE THINGS THAT PLEASE ME, AND HOLD FAST MY COVENANT. TO THEM I WILL GIVE IN MY HOUSE AND WITHIN MY WALLS A MEMORIAL AND A NAME BETTER THAN OF SONS AND OF DAUGHTERS. I WILL GIVE THEM AN EVILASTING NAME, THAT SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF. ALSO THE FOREINERS WHO JOINED THEMSELVES TO YAHWEI, TO MINISTER TO HIM, AND TO LOVE THE NAME OF YAHWEI, TO BE HIS SERVANCE, EVERYONE WHO KEEPTS THE SAVATH FROM PROPHAINING IT AND HOLDS FAST MY COVENANT. EVEN THEM WILL I BRING TO MY HOLY MOUNTAIN AND MAKE THEM JOYFUL IN MY HOUSE OF PRAYER. THEIR BURNED OFFERINGS AND THEIR SACRIFICES SHALL BE ACCEPTED ON MY ALTER, FOR MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER, FOR ALL PEOPLE'S. THE LORD YAHWEI, WHO GATHERS THE OUTCASTS OF ISRAEL, SAYS, YET WILL I GATHER OTHERS TO HIM, BESIDES HIS OWN WHO ARE GATHERED. ALL YOU ANIMALS IN THE FIELD, COME TO DEVOUR ALL YOU ANIMALS IN THE FOREST. HIS WATCHMAN ARE BLIND, THEY ARE ALL WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE, THEY ARE ALL MUTE DOGS, THEY CAN'T BARK, DREAMING, LIING DOWN, LOVING TO SLUMBER. YES, THE DOGS ARE GREETY, THEY CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH, AND THESE ARE SHEPARDS WHO CAN'T UNDERSTAND. THEY HAVE ALL TURNED TO THEIR OWN WAY, EACH ONE TO HIS Gain, FROM EVERY QUARTER. COME, SAY THEY, I WILL GET WINE, AND WE WILL FILL OURSELVES WITH STRONG DRINK, AND TOMORROW SHALL BE AS THIS DAY, GREAT BEYOND MEASURE. CHAPTER 57 The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart, and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil. He enters into peace, they rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness. But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute, against whom do you sport yourselves, against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood, you who inflame yourselves among the oaks under every green tree, who kill the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, THEY, are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. There also you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial. For you have uncovered to some one besides me and have gone up. You have enlarged your bed and made you a covenant with them. You loved their bed where you saw it. You went to the king with oil and increased your perfumes and sent your ambassadors far off and debased yourself even to Sheol. You were wearied with the length of your way, yet you didn't say it is in vain. You found a reviving of your strength, therefore you weren't faint. Of whom have you been afraid and in fear that you lie and have not remembered me nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time and you don't fear me? I will declare your righteousness, and as for your works they shall not profit you. When you cry, let those who have gathered deliver you, but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. He will say, Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite, for I will not contend forever. Neither will I be always angry, for the spirit would faint before me and the souls who I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry and struck him. I hid myself and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will lead him also and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says Yahweh, and I will heal them. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, for it can't rest and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. CHAPTER XVIII Cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience and to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness and didn't forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me my righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. Why have we fasted, say they, and you don't see? Why have we afflicted our soul and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact all your labours. Behold, you fast for strife and contention and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don't fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen, the day for a man to afflict his soul, is it to bow down his head as a rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to Yahweh? Is it this the fast that I have chosen, to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke? Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house, when you see the naked that you cover him and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth as the morning and your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of Yahweh shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and Yahweh will answer. You shall cry and he will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and speaking wickedly, and if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in darkness and your obscurity be as the noonday, and Yahweh will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in dry places and make strong your bones, and you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters don't fail. Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy of Yahweh honourable, and shall honour it not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it. CHAPTER 59 Behold Yahweh's hand is not shortened that it can't save, neither his ear heavy that it can't hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. None sews in righteousness, and none pleads in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adder's eggs, and weave the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they don't know, and there is no justice in their goings. They have made them crooked paths. Whoever goes therein does not know peace. Therefore is justice far from us. Neither does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but behold darkness. For brightness, but we walk in obscurity. We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the twilight. Among those who are lusty, we are as dead men. We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we know them. Transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness it upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate at a helmet of salvation on his head, and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the islands he will pay recompense. So shall they fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun, for he will come as a rushing stream which the breath of Yahweh drives. A redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob, says Yahweh. As for me this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh, my spirit, who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says Yahweh, from henceforth and for ever. CHAPTER 60 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather themselves together. They come to you. Your sun shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nations shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover you. The drama-daries of Midian and Ifa. All they from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold in frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of Yahweh. All the flocks of Qadar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Nabioth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Who are these who fly as a cloud and as the doves to their windows? Surely the island shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. Foreigners shall build up your walls, and the kings shall minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favour have I had mercy on you. Your gates also shall be open continually, and shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive. For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish. Yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you, and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you the city of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. As you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man pass through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. You shall drink the milk of the nations, and shall nurse from royal breasts, and you shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make your officers peace and righteousness your ruler. Your sons shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders, but you shall call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. The sun shall be no more your light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself, for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your morning shall be Your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I may be glorified. The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one, a strong nation, I, Yahweh, will hasten it in its time. The spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh's favour, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to appoint to those who mourn in Zion to give them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh that He may be glorified. They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers. But you shall be named the priests of Yahweh. Men will call you the ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory. Instead of your shame you shall have double. And instead of dishonour you shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be to them. For I Yahweh love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity, and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which Yahweh has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with the garland, and his bride adorns herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, and the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, though the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. CHAPTER 62 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The nations shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh shall name. You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Yahweh, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be called Forsaken. Neither shall your name be any more termed Desolate. But you shall be called Hefseba, and your land Bula, for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your son shall marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. You who call on Yahweh take no rest and give Him no rest until He establishes, and until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Yahweh has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength. Surely I will no more give your grain to be food to your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored. For those who have garnered it shall eat it and praise Yahweh, and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way of the people, cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples. Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. They shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of Yahweh, and you shall be called sought out, a city not forsaken. CHAPTER 63 Who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bortsa, this who is glorious in his clothing marching in the greatness of his might? It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine-vat? I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the peoples there was no man with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath, and their life-blood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me, and my wrath it upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their life-blood on the earth. I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh, and the praises of Yahweh according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely, so he was their saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and grieved his holy spirit. Therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his holy spirit in their midst, who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths as a horse in the wilderness so that they didn't stumble? As the livestock that go down into the valley, the spirit of Yahweh caused them to rest, so you led your people to make yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where are your zeal and your mighty acts? The yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me. For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel doesn't acknowledge us. You, Yahweh, are our Father. Our Redeemer, from everlasting, is your name. O Yahweh, why do you make us err from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name. CHAPTER 64 O that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil. To make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things which we didn't look for, you came down. The mountains quaked at your presence. For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God beside you, who works for him, who waits for him. You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you are angry and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time, and shall we be saved? For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness as a polluted garment. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities. But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter, and we all are the work of your hand. Don't be furious, Yahweh. Neither remember iniquity for ever. See, look, we beg you, we are all your people. Your holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire, and all our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you refrain yourself from these things, Yahweh? Will you hold your peace and afflict us very severely? CHAPTER 65 I am inquired of by those who didn't ask. I am found by those who didn't seek me. I said, see me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good after their own thoughts, a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks, who sit among the graves and lodge in the secret places, who eat pigs' flesh and broth of abominable things in their vessels, who say, stand by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day. Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom, your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh, who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed me on the hills, therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom. Thus says Yahweh, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it. So will I do for my servant's sake that I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servant shall dwell there. Charon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Acor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me. But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to destiny. I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called you didn't answer, when I spoke you didn't listen, but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, my servant shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servant shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servant shall rejoice, but you shall be disappointed. Behold, my servant shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit. You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen, and the Lord Yahweh will kill you, and he will call his servants by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of Truth, and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth, because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes. For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. There shall be no more an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days, for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner, being one hundred years old, shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build, and another inhabit. They shall not plant, and another eat. For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity, for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh, and their offspring with them. It shall happen that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain," says Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me, and what place shall be my rest? For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be, says Yahweh. But to this man will I look, even to him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Who kills an ox is as he who kills a man. He who sacrifices a lamb as he who breaks a dog's neck. He who offers an offering as he who offers pigs' blood. He who burns frankincense as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights and their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them. Because when I called no one answered, and when I spoke they didn't listen. But they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight. Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name's sake have said, Let Yahweh be glorified that we may see your joy, but it is those who shall be disappointed. A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Yahweh that renders recompense to his enemies. Before she travailed she brought forth. Before her pain came she delivered a son. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, says Yahweh? Shall I who cause to bring forth shut the womb, says your God? Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus says Yahweh, Behold I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side and will be dandled on her knees, as one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass, and the hand of Yahweh shall be known toward his servant, and he will have indignation against his enemies. For behold Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariot shall be like the whirlwind, to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will Yahweh execute judgment, and by his sword on all flesh, and the slain of Yahweh shall be many. Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the midst eating pig's flesh and the abomination and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, says Yahweh. For I know their works and their thoughts. The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they shall come and shall see my glory. I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul and Ludd, who draw the bow, to Tubol and Javan, to the nations afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations. They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries. To my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the house of Yahweh. Of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says Yahweh. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says Yahweh. So your seed and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says Yahweh. They shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worms shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind. End of chapters 56 through 66 of the Book of Isaiah. CHAPTERS 1-6 of Jeremiah from the World English Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Missy, Guangzhou, China. Jeremiah from the World English Bible. Chapters 1 through 6. CHAPTER 1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkayah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Now, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then said I, Oh Lord Yahweh, behold, I don't know how to speak, for I am a child. But Yahweh said to me, Don't say I am a child. For to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak. Don't be afraid because of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says Yahweh. Then Yahweh put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? I said I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said Yahweh to me, You have well seen, for I watch over my word to perform it. The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said I see a boiling cauldron, and its face is from the north. Then Yahweh said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Yahweh, and they shall come and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah. I will utter my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worship the works of their own hands. You therefore, gird up your waist and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Don't be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them. For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. They shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, says Yahweh, to deliver you. CHAPTER 2 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Go! and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings, how you went after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty, evil shall come on them, says Yahweh. Hear you the word of Yahweh, O House of Jacob, and all the families of the House of Israel. Thus says Yahweh, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, where as Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through and where no man lived. I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests didn't say where as Yahweh, and those who handled the law didn't know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Therefore I will yet contend with you, says Yahweh, and with your children's children will I contend. For pass over to the islands of Kittim and see, and send to Kedar and consider diligently and see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods which yet are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be you very desolate, says Yahweh. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Is Israel a servant? Is he a native born slave? Why has he become a prey? The young lions have roared on him and yelled, and they have made his land waste. His cities are burned up without inhabitant. The children also of Memphis and Tappanese have broken the crown of your head. Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your god when he led you by the way? Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Shaihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria to drink the waters of the river? Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that you have forsaken Yahweh your god, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of armies. For of old time I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds, and you've said, I will not serve. For on every high hill and under every green tree you did bow yourself playing the prostitute. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, holy a right seed. How then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me? For though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Yahweh. How can you say I am not defiled, I have not gone after the bales. See your way in the valley, know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways, a wild donkey used to the wilderness that snuffs up the wind in her desire, in her occasion who can turn her away. All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month they shall find her. Withhold your foot from being unshod and your throat from thirst, but you said, it is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed. They, their kings, their princes and their priests and their prophets, who tell a stock, you are my father, and to a stone you have brought me forth. For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us. But where are your gods that you have made you? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah. Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me, says Yahweh. In vain have I struck your children. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion. Generations, see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why say my people we are broken loose, we will come no more to you? Can a virgin forget her ornaments or abride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How trimest you your way to seek love? Therefore even the wicked women have you taught your ways. Also in your skirts has found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor. You did not find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things. Yet you said I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me. Behold I will enter into judgment with you because you say I have not sinned. Why go you about so much to change your way? You shall be ashamed of Egypt also as you were ashamed of Assyria. From there also you shall go forth with your hands on your head. For Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust and you shall not prosper with them. Chapter 3 They say if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man, will he return to her again? Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers. Yet return again to me says Yahweh. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been lain with? By the ways you have sat for them as an Arabian in the wilderness and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain. Yet you have a prostitute's forehead. You refuse to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, my father, you are the guide of my youth? Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things and have had your way. Moreover Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there has played the prostitute. I said after she had done all these things she will return to me but she didn't return and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. I saw when for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce. Yet treacherous Judah her sister didn't fear but she also went and played the prostitute. It happened through the lightness of her prostitution that the land was polluted and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart but only in pretense says Yahweh. Yahweh said to me backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say return you backsliding Israel says Yahweh. I will not look in anger on you for I am merciful says Yahweh. I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree and you have not obeyed my voice says Yahweh. Return backsliding children says Yahweh for I am a husband to you and I will take you one of a city and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion and I will give you shepherds according to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. It shall come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days says Yahweh they shall say no more the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh neither shall it come to mine neither shall they remember it neither shall they miss it neither shall it be made any more at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh and all the nations shall be gathered to it to the name of Yahweh to Jerusalem neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart in those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your father but I said how will I put you among the children and give you a pleasant land a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations and I said you shall call me my father and shall not turn away from following me surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband so you have dealt treacherously with me house of Israel says Yahweh a voice is heard on the bear height the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way they've forgotten Yahweh their God return you backsliding children I will heal your backsliding behold we are come to you for you are Yahweh our God truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills the tumult on the mountains truly in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel but the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth their flocks and their herds their sons and their daughters let us lie down in our shame and let our confusion cover us for we have sinned against Yahweh our God we and our fathers from our youth even to this day and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God chapter four if you will return Israel says Yahweh if you will return to me and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight then you shall not be removed and you shall swear as Yahweh lives in truth injustice and in righteousness and the nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory for thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem break up your fellow ground and don't sew among thorns circumcise yourselves to Yahweh and take away the foreskins of your heart you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn so that none can quench it because of the evil of your doing declare you in Judah and publish in Jerusalem and say blow you the trumpet in the land cry aloud and say assemble yourselves and let us go into the fortified cities set up a standard towards Zion flee for safety don't stay for I will bring evil from the north and a great destruction a lion is gone up from his thicket and a destroyer of nations he is on his way he has gone forth from his place to make your land desolate that your cities be laid waste without inhabitant for this gird you with sackcloth lament and wail for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us it shall happen at that day says Yahweh that the heart of the king shall perish and the heart of the princes and the priests shall be astonished and the prophets shall wonder then said I ah lord Yahweh surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem saying you shall have peace whereas the sword reaches to the life at that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem a hot wind from the bear heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people not to winnow nor to cleanse a full wind from these shall come from me now will I also utter judgments against them behold he shall come up as clouds and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind his horses are swifter than eagles woe to us for we are ruined Jerusalem wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved how long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you for a voice declares from dan and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim make you mention to the nations behold publish against Jerusalem that watchers come from a far country and give out their voice against the cities of Judah as keepers of a field are they against her all around because she has been rebellious against me says Yahweh your way and your doings have procured these things to you this is your wickedness for it is bitter for it reaches to your heart my anguish my anguish i am pained at my very heart my heart is disquieted in me i can't hold my peace because you have heard oh my soul the sound of the trumpet the alarm of war destruction on destruction is cried for the whole land is laid waste suddenly are my tents destroyed and my curtains in a moment how long shall i see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet for my people are foolish they don't know me they are foolish children and they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge i saw the earth and behold it was waste and void and the heavens and they had no light i saw the mountains and behold they trembled and all the hills moved back and forth i saw and behold there was no man and all the birds of the sky had fled i saw and behold the fruitful field was a wilderness and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh and before his fierce anger for thus says Yahweh the whole land shall be a desolation yet will i not make a full end for this the shall the earth mourn and the heavens above be black because i have spoken it i have purposed it and i have not repented neither will i turn back from it every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers they go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks every city is forsaken and not a man dwells therein you when you are made desolate what will you do though you clothe yourself with scarlet though you deck you with ornaments of gold though you enlarge your eyes with paint in vain do you make yourself beautiful your lovers despise you they seek your life for i have heard a voice as of a woman in travail the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child the voice of the daughter of Zion who gasps for breath who spreads her hand saying woe is me now for my soul faints before the murderers chapter five run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places of it if you can find a man if there are any who does justly who seeks truth and i will pardon her though they say as Yahweh lives surely they swear falsely oh Yahweh don't your eyes look on truth you have stricken them but they were not grieved you have consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return then i said surely these are poor they are foolish for they don't know the way of Yahweh nor the law of their God i will get me to the great men and will speak to them for they know the way of Yahweh and the law of their God but these with one accord have broken the yoke and burst the bonds therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them a leopard shall watch against their cities everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces because their transgressions are many and their backsliding is increased how can i pardon you your children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods when i had fed them to the full they committed adultery and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitute's houses they were as fed horses roaming at large everyone nade after his neighbor's wife shall i not visit for these things says Yahweh and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this go up on her walls and destroy but don't make a full end take away her branches for they are not Yahweh for the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me says Yahweh they have denied Yahweh and said it is not he neither shall evil come on us neither shall we see sword nor famine and the prophets shall become wind and the word is not in them thus shall it be done to them therefore thus says Yahweh the god of armies because you speak this word behold i will make my words in your mouth fire and this people would and it shall devour them behold i will bring a nation on you from far house of Israel says Yahweh it is a mighty nation it is an ancient nation a nation whose language you don't know neither understand what they say their quiver is an open tomb they are all mighty men they shall eat up your harvest and your bread which your sons and daughters should eat they shall eat up your flocks and your herds they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees they shall beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword but even in those days says Yahweh i will not make a full end with you it shall happen when you shall say why has Yahweh our god done all these things to us then you shall say to them like as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours declare you this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah saying hear now this foolish people and without understanding who have eyes and don't see who have ears and don't hear don't you fear me says Yahweh won't you tremble at my presence who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it can't pass it and though its waves toss themselves yet they can't prevail though they roar yet they can't pass over it but this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart they are revolted and gone neither say they in their heart let us now fear Yahweh our god who gives rain both the former and the latter in its season who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest your iniquities have turned away these things and your sins have withheld good from you for among my people are found wicked men they watch as fowlers lie in wait they set a trap they catch man as a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and grew rich they are grew fat they shine yes they overpass in deeds of wickedness they don't plead the cause the cause of the fatherless that they may prosper and the right of the needy they don't judge shall I not visit for these things says Yahweh shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this a wonderful and horrible thing is happened in the land the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you do in the end of it chapter 6 flee for safety you children of Benjamin out of the midst of Jerusalem and blow the trumpet into koa and raise up a signal on Beth Hacheram for evil looks forth from the north and a great destruction the comely and delicate one the daughter of Zion will I cut off shepherds with their flocks shall come to her they shall pitch their tents against her all around they shall feed everyone in his place prepare you war against her arise and let us go up at noon woe to us for the day declines for the shadows of the evening are stretched out arise and let us go up by night and let us destroy her palaces for thus has Yahweh of army said cut down trees and cast up a mound against Jerusalem this is the city to be visited she is holy oppression in the midst of her as the well cast forth its waters so she cast forth her wickedness violence and destruction is heard in her before me continually is sickness and wounds be instructed Jerusalem lest my soul be alienated from you lest I make you a desolation a land not inhabited thus says Yahweh of armies they shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine turn again your hand as a great gatherer into the basket to whom shall I speak and testify that they may hear behold their ears on circumcised and they can't listen behold the word of Yahweh is become to them a reproach they have no delight in it therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh I am weary withholding in pour it out on the children in the street and on the assembly of young men together for even the husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him who is full of days their houses shall be turned to others their fields and their wives together for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land says Yahweh for from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely they have healed also the hurt of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among those who fall at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down says Yahweh thus says Yahweh stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk there in and you shall find rest for your souls but they said we will not walk therein I said watchmen over you saying listen to the sound of the trumpet but they said we will not listen therefore hear you nations and no congregation what is among them hear earth behold I will bring evil on this people even the fruit of their thought because they have not listened to my words and as for my law they have rejected it to what purpose comes there to me frankincense from sheba and the sweet cane from a far country your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices pleasing to me therefore thus says Yahweh behold I will lay stumbling blocks before this people and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them the neighbor and his friend shall perish thus says Yahweh behold a people comes from the north country and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth they lay hold on bow and spear they are cruel and have no mercy their voice roars like the sea and they ride on horses everyone set in array as a man to the battle against you daughter of Zion we have heard its report our hands wax feeble anguish has taken hold of us and pangs as of a woman in travail don't go forth into the field nor walk by the way for the sword of the enemy and terror are on every side daughter of my people gird you with sackcloth and wallow yourself in ashes make you mourning as for an only son most bitter lamentation for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us i have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people that you may know and try their way they are all grievous rebels going about with slanders they are brass and iron they all of them deal corruptly the bellows blow fiercely the lead is consumed of the fire in vain do they go on refining for the wicked are not plucked away refuse silver shall men call them because Yahweh has rejected them end of Jeremiah chapters one to six chapter seven through ten of the book of Jeremiah from the world english bible this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by J. A. Carter www.pleonic.com the book of Jeremiah from the world english bible chapter seven through ten chapter seven the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh saying stand in the gate of Yahweh's house and proclaim there this word and say hear the word of Yahweh all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place don't you trust in lying words saying the temple of Yahweh the temple of Yahweh the temple of Yahweh are these for if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor if you don't oppress the foreigner the fatherless and the widow and don't shed innocent blood in this place neither walk after other gods to your own hurt then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers from of old even for evermore behold you trust in lying words that can't profit will you steal murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense to bail and walk after other gods that you have not known and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say we are delivered that you may do all these abominations is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes behold I even I have seen it says Yahweh but go you now to my place which was in Shiloh where I caused my name to dwell at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel now because you have done all these work says Yahweh and I spoke to you rising up early and speaking but you didn't hear and I called you but you didn't answer therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name in which you trust and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers as I did to Shiloh I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brothers even the whole seed of Ephraim therefore don't you pray for this people neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear you don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the children gather wood and their fathers kindle the fire and the women need the dough to make cakes to the queen of the sky and to pour out drink offerings to other gods that they may provoke me to anger do they provoke me to anger says Yahweh do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh behold my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place on man and on animal and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground and it shall burn and shall not be quenched thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat for I didn't speak to your fathers nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices but this thing I commanded them saying listen to my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk you in all the way that I command you that it may be well with you but they didn't listen nor turn their ear but walked in their own councils and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets daily rising up early and sending them yet they didn't listen to me nor incline their ear but made their next stiff they did worse than their fathers you shall speak all these words to them but they will not listen to you you shall also call to them but they will not answer you you shall tell them this is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God nor received instruction truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth cut off your hair Jerusalem and cast it away and take up a lamentation on the bear heights for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath for the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight says Yahweh they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to defile it they have built the high places of Topheth which is in the valley of the son of Hennem to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I didn't command nor did it come into my mind therefore behold the days come says Yahweh that it shall no more be called Topheth nor the valley of the son of Hennem but the valley of slaughter for they shall bury in Topheth until there be no place to bury the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth and none shall frighten them away then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride for the land shall become a waste chapter eight at that time says Yahweh they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the army of the sky which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked and which they have sought and which they have worshiped they shall not be gathered nor be buried they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family that remain in all the places where I have driven them says Yahweh of armies moreover you shall tell them thus says Yahweh shall men fall and not rise up again shall one turn away and not return why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding they hold fast deceit they refuse to return I listened and heard but they didn't speak a right no man repents him of his wickedness saying what have I done everyone turns to his course as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle yes the stork in the sky knows her appointed times and the turtle dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming but my people don't know Yahweh's law how do you say we are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us but behold the false pin of the scribes has worked falsely the wise men are disappointed they are dismayed and taken behold they have rejected the word of Yahweh and what manner of wisdom is in them therefore will I give their wives to others and their fields to those who shall possess them for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush therefore shall they fall among those who fall in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down says Yahweh I will utterly consume them says Yahweh there shall be no grapes on the vine nor figs on the fig tree and the leaf shall fade and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them why do we sit still assemble yourselves and let us enter into the fortified cities and let us be silent there for Yahweh our God has put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink because we have sinned against Yahweh we looked for peace but no good came and for a time of healing and behold dismay the snorting of his horses is heard from Dan at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it the city and those who dwell therein for behold I will send serpents adders among you which will not be charmed and they shall bite you says Yahweh oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow my heart is faint within me behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off isn't Yahweh in Zion isn't her king in her why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images and with foreign vanities the harvest is past the summer is ended and we are not saved for the hurt of the daughter of my people and my hurt I mourn dismay has taken hold on me is there no balm in Gilead is there no physician there why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered chapter nine oh that my head were waters and my eyes a spring of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them for they are all adulterers and assembly of treacherous men they bend their tongue as it were their bow for falsehood and they are grown strong in the land but not for truth for they proceed from evil to evil and they don't know me says Yahweh take you heed every one of his neighbor and don't you trust in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbor will go about with slanders they will deceive every one his neighbor and will not speak the truth they have taught their tongue to speak lies they weary themselves to commit iniquity your habitation is in the midst of deceit through deceit they refuse to know me says Yahweh therefore thus says Yahweh of armies behold I will melt them and try them for how else should I do because of the daughter of my people their tongue is a deadly arrow it speaks deceit one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth but in his heart he lays weight for him shall I not visit them for these things says Yahweh shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this for the mountains will I take up a weeping and a wailing and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation because they are burned up so that none passes through neither can men hear the voice of the livestock both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled they are gone I will make Jerusalem heaps a dwelling place of jackals and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant who is the wise man that may understand this and who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken that he may declare it why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness so that none passes through Yahweh says because they have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not obeyed my voice neither walk therein but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the bales which their fathers taught them therefore thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel behold I will feed them even this people with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink I will scatter them also among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them thus says Yahweh of armies consider you and call for the morning women that they may come and send for the skillful women that they may come and let them make haste and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters for a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion how are we ruined we are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land because they have cast down our dwellings yet hear the word of Yahweh you women and let your ear receive the word of his mouth and teach your daughters wailing and everyone her neighbor lamentation for death is come up into our windows it is entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside and the young men from the streets speak thus says Yahweh the dead bodies of men shall fall his dung on the open field and as the handful after the harvester and none shall gather them thus says Yahweh don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might don't let the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glories glory in this that he has understanding and knows me that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness justice and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight says Yahweh behold the days come says Yahweh that I will punish all those who are circumcised in their uncircumcision Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all that have the corners of their hair cut off who dwell in the wilderness for all the nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart chapter 10 hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you house of Israel thus says Yahweh don't learn the way of the nations and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky for the nations are dismayed at them for the customs of the people are vanity for one cuts a tree out of the forest the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe they deck it with silver and with gold they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it not move they are like a palm tree of turned work and don't speak they must be carried because they can't go don't be afraid of them for they can't do evil neither is it in them to do good there is none like you Yahweh you are great and your name is great in might who should not fear you king of the nations for to you does it appertain because among all the wise men of the nations and in all their royal estate there is none like you but they are together brutish and foolish the instruction of idols it is but a stock there is silver beaten into plates which is brought from Tarshish and gold from Ufa's the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith blue and purple for their clothing they are all the work of skillful men but Yahweh is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting king at his wrath the earth trembles and the nations are not able to abide his indignation you shall say this to them the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth these shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens he has made the earth by his power he has established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding as he stretched out the heavens when he utters his voice there is a tumult of water in the heavens and he causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth he makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries every man has become brutish and is without knowledge every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image for his molten image is falsehood and there is no breath in them they are vanity a work of delusion in the time of their visitation they shall perish the portion of Jacob is not like these for he is the former of all things and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance Yahweh of armies is his name gather up your wares out of the land you who abide in the siege for thus says Yahweh behold I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time and will distress them that they may feel it woe is me because of my hurt my wound is grievous but I said truly this is my grief and I must bear it my tent is destroyed and all my cords are broken my children are gone forth for me and they are no more there is none to spread my tent anymore and to set up my curtains for the shepherds are become brutish and have not inquired of Yahweh therefore they have not prospered and all their flocks are scattered the voice of news behold it comes and a great commotion out of the North country to make the cities of Judah a desolation a dwelling place of jackals Yahweh I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man who walks to direct his steps Yahweh correct me but in measure not in your anger lest you bring me to nothing pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you and on the families that don't call on your name for they have devoured Jacob yes they have devoured him and consumed him and have laid waste his habitation end of chapter seven through ten of the book of Jeremiah