 CHAPTER XIII. The Burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw. Set up a banner on the bare mountain, lift up your voice to them, wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my consecrated ones. Yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people, the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together. Yahweh of armies is mustering the army for the battle. They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven. Even Yahweh and the weapons of His indignation to destroy the whole land. Whale, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt. They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. Behold the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make people more rare than find gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of armies, and in the day of His fierce anger. It will happen like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land. Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their infants will also be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped. Behold, I will stir up the meads against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold they will not delight in it. Their bows will dash the young men in pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited. Neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there. Neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. But while the animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals, ostriches will dwell there, and while goats will frolic there, wolves will cry in their castles and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. CHAPTER XIV For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob. The peoples will take them and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh's land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your troubles, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon and say, How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased. Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with the persecution that none restrained. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song, yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us. Sheol, from beneath, has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It is raised up from their thrones, all the kings of the nations. They all will answer and ask you, Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us? Your pomp is brought down to Sheol with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mountain of assembly in the far north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. Yet you shall be bought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn't release its prisoners to their home? All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, every one in his own house. But you are cast away from your tomb, like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trodden underfoot. You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of evildoers will not be named forever. Prepare for slaughter of its children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they will not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities. I will rise up against them, says Yahweh of armies, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son, says Yahweh. I will also make it a possession for the porcupine and pools of water. I will sleep it with the broom of destruction, says Yahweh of armies. Yahweh of armies has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it happen. And as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land and tread him underfoot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders. This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For Yahweh of armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? The burden was in the year that King Ahaz died. Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken. For out of the serpent's root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery, flying serpent. The first born of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety, and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed. Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia! All of you, for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge. Chapter 15 The Burden of Moab For in a night air of Moab is laid waste and brought to nothing. For in a night cure of Moab is laid waste and brought to nothing. They have gone up to Baeleth and Doudibaun, to the high places to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Mediba. Baldness is on all their heads. Every beard is cut off. In their streets they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops every one wails, weeping abundantly. Hezbon cries out with Ilylia. Their voice is heard, even to Jehaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them. My heart cries out for Moab, her nobles flee to Zohar, to Aglath Salishia. For they go up by the ascent of Luhith for weeping. For in the way of Horonayim they raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate. For the grasses withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing. Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up over the brook of Willows. For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab. It's wailing to Aglayim, and it's wailing to Baer Ilym. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood. For I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape and on the remnant of the land. CHAPTER XVI. Send the lambs for the ruler of the land, from Sheila to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion, for it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Aeron. Give counsel, execute justice. Take your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday. Hide the outcasts. Don't betray the fugitive. Let my outcasts dwell with you. As for Moab, be a hiding place for him, from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land. A throne will be established in loving-kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness. We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud, even of his arrogance, his pride and his wrath. His boastings are nothing. Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin-cakes of Kier Har Seth, utterly stricken. For the fields of Hezbon languish with the vine of Sibma. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jezhar, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea. Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jezhar, for the vine of Sibma. I will water you with my tears, Hezbon, and Alele, for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle-shout has fallen. Darkness has taken away and joy out of the fruitful field. And in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noises. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop. Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kier Har Seth. It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to a sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail. This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past. But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble. CHAPTER 17 The Burden of Damascus Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap. The cities of Arrowair are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel, says Yahweh of armies. It will happen in the day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleams grain in the valley of Refai'im. Yet gleaning will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bow, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree, says Yahweh, the god of Israel. In that day people will look to their maker, and their eyes will have respect for the holy one of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the ashram or the incense altars. In that day their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountaintop, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel, and it will be a desolation. For you have forgotten the god of your salvation and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings. In the day of your planting you hedge it in. In the morning you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of many waters. The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us. CHAPTER XVIII. Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, Go ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and trades down, whose land the rivers divide, all ye inhabitants of the world and ye dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! For Yahweh said to me, I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling-place, like a clear heat and sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flowers become a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them. In that time a present will be brought to Yahweh of armies, from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and trades down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of armies, Mount Zion. CHAPTER XIX THE BIRDON OF EGYPT Behold Yahweh rides on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy its council. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them, says the lord, Yahweh of armies. The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. Moreover, those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. The princes of Zohan are utterly foolish. The council of the wisest councilors, Ephero, has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where, then, are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them know what Yahweh of armies has proposed concerning Egypt. The princes of Zohan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes. Yahweh has mixed the spirit of perverseness in the midst of her, and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Neither shall there be for Egypt any work. Which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do. In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yahweh of armies, which he shakes over them. The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yahweh of armies, which he determines against it. In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of armies. One will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border. It will be for a sign, and for a witness to Yahweh of armies in the land of Egypt, for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them. Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to Yahweh, and will perform it. Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them. In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt, and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, because Yahweh of armies has blessed them, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people. Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. Chapter 20 In the year that Tartan came to Ashtad, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashtad and took it. At that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah, the son of Amos, saying, go and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off your feet. He did so, walking naked in barefoot. Yahweh said, as my servant Isaiah has walked naked in barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked in barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. They will be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory. The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, behold, this is our expectation. Where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape? Chapter 21 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam, attack. I have stopped all of Medea's sighing. Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see. My heart flutters, horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield. For the Lord has said to me, Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. When he sees a troop, horsemen and pears, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness. He cried like a lion, Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen and pears. He answered, fallen, fallen is Babylon and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground. You are my threshing and the grain of my floor. That which I have heard from Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. The burden of Douma, one calls to me out of stare. Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, the morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire, come back again. The burden on Arabia, in the forest of Arabia, you will lodge. You caravans of didonites. They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Temma met the fugitives with their bread, for they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. For the Lord said to me, within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Qedar will fail and the residue of the number of the archers. The mighty men of the children of Qedar will be few, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it. Chapter 22 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now that you have all gone up to the housetops, that you are full of shouting, a tumulus city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. Therefore I said, look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of confusion and of trading down and of perplexity from the Lord Yahweh of armies in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls and a crying to the mountains. Elam carried his quiver with chariots of men and horsemen and Kier uncovered the shield. It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. He took away the covering of Judah and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. You saw the breeches of the city of David that they were many and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him who had done this. Neither did you have respect for him who proposed it long ago. In that day the Lord Yahweh of armies called to weeping and to mourning and to boldness and to dressing in sackcloth and behold joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die. Yahweh of armies revealed himself in my ears. Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die. Says the Lord Yahweh of armies. Thus says the Lord Yahweh of armies. Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna who was over the house and say. What are you doing here? Who has you here that you have dug out a tomb here? Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock. Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. He will surely wind you around and around and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die and there the chariots of your glory will be. You shame of your Lord's house. I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station. It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkayah, and I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open and no one will shut. He will shut and no one will open. I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house. They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pictures. In that day, says Yahweh of armies, the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off for Yahweh has spoken it. Chapter 23 The Burden of Tyre Howl you ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. On great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations. Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not prevailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins. When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. Pass over to Tarshish. Whale, you inhabitants of the coast, is this your joyous city, whose iniquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel? Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? Yahweh of armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more. He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan strongholds. He said, you shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest. Behold the line of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years, it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. Take a harp. Go about the city you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs that you may be remembered. It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. And she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not be treasured nor laid up, for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing. Chapter 24. Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. It will be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master, as with the maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the creditor, so with the debtor, as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste, for Yahweh has spoken this word. The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left. The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There was a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleaning when the vintage is done. These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud from the sea. Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs, glory to the righteous. But I say, I pine away. I pine away, woe is me. The treacherous have been dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have been dealt very treacherously. Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit, and he who comes out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare. For the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again. It shall happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. For Yahweh of armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his elders will be glory. Chapter 25. Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things. Things planned long ago in complete faithfulness and truth. For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built. Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress. A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded winds is like a storm against the wall. As the heat in a dry place you will bring down the noise of strangers. As the heat by the shade of a cloud the song of the dreaded winds will be brought low. In this mountain Yahweh of armies will make all people a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined choice wines. He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that has spread over all nations. He has swallowed up death forever. The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it. It shall be said in that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is Yahweh. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain the hand of Yahweh will rest. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dung hill. He will spread out his hands in its midst, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low and brought to the ground, even to the dust. Chapter 26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city, God appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the one which keeps faith. You will keep whoever's mind is dead-fast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever, for in Yah Yahweh is an everlasting rock, for he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low, he lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the paths of righteous level. Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, we have waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's majesty. Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see, but they will see your zeal for the people and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries. Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us. Yahweh, our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name. The dead shall not live, the deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish. You have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have increased the nation. You are glorified. You have enlarged all the borders of the land. Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them, like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs. So we have been before you, Yahweh. We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth. Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead. Come, my people, enter into your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Find yourselves for a little moment until the indignation is past. For behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will also disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain. CHAPTER 27 In that day Yahweh, with his hard and great and strong sword, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. In that day sing to her, a pleasant vineyard, I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment, lest any one damage it, I will keep at night and day. Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briars and thorns I would do battle. I would march on them and I would burn them together, or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me. In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. Has he struck them, as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed, like those who killed them were killed? In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. Therefore, by this, the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin, that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the ashram and the incense altars shall rise no more. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down and consume its branches. When its bowser withered they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favour. It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Ephraedes to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel. It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who are ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come, and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. End of chapter 13 through 27 of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 28 through 39 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. Read for you today by Don Larson in Minnesota. Isaiah chapters 28 through 39 from the world English Bible. Chapter 28. Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, of those who are overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand. The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot. The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. In that day Yahweh of armies will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. They also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They air in vision. They stumble in judgment. For all tables are completely full of filthy, vomit, and filthiness. Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? For it is precept on precept, precept on precept, line on line, line on line. Here a little, there a little. But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips, and in another language, to whom he said, This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary, and this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. Therefore the word of Yahweh will be to them, precept on precept, precept on precept, line on line, line on line. Here a little, there a little. That they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken. Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem. Because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. As often as it passes through it will seize you, for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night, and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message. For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Parazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. Now, therefore, don't be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong, for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth. Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech. Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat and rose, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him. For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cartwheel turned over the cumin, but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. Bread flour must be ground, so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don't grind it. This also comes forth from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom. Chapter 29 Woe to Ariel, Ariel the city where David encamped. Add year to year, let the feasts come around, then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth. I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. You will be brought down and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her in her stronghold and who distress her will be like a dream, a vision of the night. It will be like when a hungry man dreams and behold he eats, but he awakes and his hunger isn't satisfied, or like when a thirsty man dreams and behold he drinks, but he awakes and behold he is faint and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that. Pause and wonder, blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunken but not with wine. They stagger but not with strong drink. For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers. All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated saying, read this please, and he says, I can't for it is sealed, and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying read this please, and he says I can't read. The Lord said, because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden. Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh and whose works are in the dark and who say, who sees us and who knows us, you turn things upside down. Should the potter be thought to be like clay that the thing mage should say about him who made it, he didn't make me, or the thing formed say of him who formed it, he has no understanding. Isn't it yet a very little while and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh and the poor among men will rejoice in the holy one of Israel. For the ruthless is brought to nothing and the scoffer ceases and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off, who cause a person to be indicated by a word and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. Therefore thus says Yahweh who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob. Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. But when he sees his children the work of my hands in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the holy one of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. They also who err in spirit will come to understanding and those who grumble will receive instruction. Chapter 30. Woe to the rebellious children says Yahweh who take counsel but not from me and who make an alliance but not with my spirit that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt and have not asked my advice to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion for their princes are at zone and their ambassadors have come to Haines. They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit but a shame and also a reproach. The burden of the animals of the south through the land of trouble and anguish of the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels to an unprofitable people. For Egypt helps in vain and to no purpose. Therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still. Now go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. For it is a rebellious people lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh who tell the seers, don't see and to the prophets, don't prophesy to us, write things, tell us pleasant things. Prophecy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel. Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on it, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken breaking it into pieces without sparing so that there won't be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth or to dip up water out of the cistern. For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence. You refused, but you said, No, for we will flee on horses, therefore you will flee. And we will ride on the swift. Therefore those who pursue you will be swift. 1,000 will flee at the thread of one. At the thread of five you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain and like a banner on a hill. Therefore Yahweh will wait that he may be gracious to you and therefore he will be exalted that he may have mercy on you for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity in the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers. And when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way. Walk in it. You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, go away. He will give the rain for your seed with which you will sow the ground and the bread of increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day your livestock will feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provinder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people and heals the wounds they were struck with. Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with his anger and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation and his tongue is as a devouring fire. His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples. You will have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh's mountain to Israel's rock. Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard and will show the descent of his arm with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire with a blast storm and hail stones. For through the voice of Yahweh, the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod. Every stroke of the rod of punishment which Yahweh will lay on him will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. Chapter 31. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but they don't look to the Holy One of Israel and they don't seek Yahweh. Yet he also is wise and will bring disaster and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble and he who is helped shall fall and they all shall be consumed together. For thus says Yahweh to me. As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him will not be dismayed at their voice nor abase himself for their noise. So Yahweh of armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. As birds hovering, so Yahweh of armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it. Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted children of Israel for in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold. Sin which your own hands have made for you. The Assyrian will fall by the sword not of man and the sword not of mankind shall devour him. He will flee from the sword and his young man will become subject to forced labor. His rock will pass away by reason of terror and his princes will be afraid of the banner. Says Yahweh whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem. Chapter 32. Behold the king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule injustice. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the storm as streams of water in a dry place as the shade of a large rock in a weary land. The eyes of those who see will not be dim and the ears of those who hear will listen. The heart of the rash will understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. The fool will no longer be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected. For the fool will speak folly and his heart will work in equity to practice profanity and to utter error against Yahweh to make empty the soul of the hungry and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words. Even when the needy speaks right. But the noble devises noble things and he will continue in noble things. Rise up you women who are at ease, hear my voice. You careless daughters give ear to my speech. Four days beyond a year. You will be troubled, you careless women. For the vintage shall fail. The harvest won't come. Trimble you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you careless ones. Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked and put sackcloth on your waist. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land. Yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city will be deserted, the hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks. Until the spirit is poured on us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field is considered a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings and in quiet resting places. Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey. Chapter 33 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed and who betray, but nobody betrayed you. When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed. Yahweh be gracious to us, we have waited for you, be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of the thunder the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts sleep. Yahweh is exalted for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure. Behold, their valiant ones cry outside. The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. The highways are desolate, the traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken, he has despised the cities. He doesn't respect man. The land mourns in languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. Now I will arise, says Yahweh. Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. You will conceive chaff, you will bring forth stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire. Here you who are far off, what I have done and you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood and shuts his eyes from looking at evil, he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers? You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend with the strange language that you can't understand. Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there. For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us. Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey. The inhabitant won't say, I am sick. The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity. Chapter 34. Come near you nations to hear. Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear, the world and everything that comes from it, for Yahweh is enraged against all the nations and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. Their slain will also be cast out and the stench of their dead bodies will come up and the mountains will melt in their blood. All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll and all its armies will fade away as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom and on the people of my curse for judgment. Yahweh's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild oxen will come down with them and the young bulls with the mighty bulls and their land will be drunken with blood and their dust made greasy with fat. For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur and its land will become burning pitch. It won't be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it, the owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it and the plum line of emptiness. They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there and she'll find herself a place of rest. The arrow snake will make her nest there and lay, hatch and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate. Search in the book of Yahweh and read. Not one of these will be missing, none will lack her mate, for my mouth has commanded and his spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it. Chapter 35. The wilderness and the dry land will be glad, the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon's glory, Lebanon will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh's glory, the excellence of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Tell those who have a fearful heart, be strong, don't be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing, for waters will break out in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals where they lay. A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called the holy way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the way. Wicked fools will not go there. No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there. The Yahweh's ransomed ones will return and come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Chapter 36. Now it happened in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. The king of Assyria sent Robchakah from Lakish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the Fullersfield highway. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. Robchakah said to them, Now tell Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you tell me, we trust in Yahweh our God, isn't that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Now therefore please make a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Then Eliacum Shabna and Joa said to Rabshaka, please speak to your servants in Arabic, for we understand it and don't speak to us in the Jews language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. But Rabshaka said, has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you? Then Rabshaka stood and called out with a loud voice in the Jews language and said, hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Don't listen to Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me and come out to me and each of you eat from his vine and each one from his fig tree and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware, lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying Yahweh will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But they remained silent and said nothing in reply for the king's commandment was don't answer him. Then Eliacum, son of Hezekiah, who was over the household and Shabna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaf, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshaka. Chapter 37. It happened when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's house. He sent Eliacum, who was over the household, and Shabna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. They said to him, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of rejection, for the children have come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth. It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshaka, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left, so the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. Isaiah said to them, tell your master, thus says Yahweh, don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me, behold I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news and will return to his own land, I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. So Rabshaka returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he had heard that he was departed from Lakish. He heard news concerning Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia. He has come out to fight against you. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying Jerusalem won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed? Gozan, Heron, Rezef, and the children of Eden, who were in Tel-Azar? Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Erepad and the king of the city of Sefarvahim of Hina and Eva? Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messenger and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh's house and spread it before Yahweh. Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib who has sent to defy the living God. Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods but the work of men's hands, wood, and stone, therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore Yahweh our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only. Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah saying, thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib the king of Assyria, this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the holy one of Israel. By your servants you have defied the Lord and have said, with the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest heights the forest of its fruitful field. I have dug and drunk water and with the soul of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt. Have you not heard how I have done it long ago and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops and like the field before its crops had grown. But I know you're sitting down, you're going out, you're coming in and you're raging against me. Because of your raging against me and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips and I will turn you back by the way which you came. This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself and in the second year that which springs from the same and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of armies will perform this. Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria. He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city, says Yahweh. For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. The angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Sosanacharyb, king of Assyria, departed, went away, returned to Nivia, and stayed there. It happened as he was worshiping in the house of Nisraq, his god, that Adramalek and Cherazur, his son struck him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Erorat. Isar Haddon, his son, reigned in his place. Chapter 38 In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came to him and said to him, thus says Yahweh, set your house in order, for you will die and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, and said, remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, go and tell Hezekiah, thus says Yahweh, the god of David, your father. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will answer your prayers. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. This shall be a sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backwards ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down. The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered of his sickness. I said in the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up like a weaver my life. He will cut me off from the loom, from the day even to the night. You will make an end of me. I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weakened looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security. What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. Lord, men live by these things, and my spirit finds life in all of them. You restore me and cause me to live. Behold, for peace I had great anguish. But you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. For you have cast all my sins behind your back. For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth. The living, the living He shall praise you, as I do this day. The Father shall make known your truth to the children. Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments, all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh. Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh? Chapter 39 At that time Meridoc Baladin, son of Baladin, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show him. Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah and asked him, What did these men say? Where did they come from to you? Hezekiah said, They have come from a country, far from me, even from Babylon. Then he asked, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house, There is nothing among my treasures, that I have not shown them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the words of Yahweh of armies, Behold the days are coming when all that is in your house, And that which your fathers have stored up until this day, Will be carried to Babylon, nothing will be left, says Yahweh. They will take away your sons, who will issue from you whom you shall father, And they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Yahweh's word which you have spoken is good. He said moreover, For there will be peace and truth in my days. End of chapters 28 through 39 of the Book of Isaiah from the World English Bible. Please visit LibriVox.org Recording by J. A. Carter. The Book of Isaiah from the World English Bible. Chapters 40 through 46. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, And call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, That her iniquity is pardoned, That she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins. The voice of one who calls out, Prepare the way of Yahweh and the wilderness, Make a level highway and the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, And every mountain and hill shall be made low, The uneven shall be made level, And the rough places a plain. The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together, For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it. The voice of one saying, Cry. One said, What shall I cry? All flesh is like grass, And all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because Yahweh's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. You who tell good news to Zion, Go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, Lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, And his arm will rule for him. Behold his reward is with him, And his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, And carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, And marked off the sky with his span, And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, And waved the mountains in scales, And the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of Yahweh, Or has taught him as his counselor? Who did he take counsel with, And who instructed him, And taught him in the path of justice, And taught him knowledge, And showed him the way of understanding? Behold the nations are like a drop in a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, And vanity. To whom, then, will you liken God, Or what likeness will you compare to him? A workman has cast an image, And the goldsmith overlays it with gold, And casts silver chains for it. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman To set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved. Haven't you known? Haven't you heard yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, Who brings princes to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth like meaninglessness. They are planted scarcely, They are sown scarcely, Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them. And they wither, And the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. To whom, then, will you liken me? Who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these, Who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, And because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking. Why do you say, Jacob, and speak Israel? My way is hidden from Yahweh, And the justice do me is disregarded by my God. Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The creator of the ends of the earth, Doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. Even the youths faint and get weary, And the young men utterly fall. But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint. Chapter 41 Keep silent before me, islands, And let the people renew their strength. Let them come near and let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment. Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, Like the driven stubble to his bow. He pursues them and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. Who has worked and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am He. The islands have seen and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come. Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, Be strong. So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer encourages him Who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good. And he fastens it with nails that it might not totter. But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The seed of Abraham, my friend, You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, And called from its corners, and said to you, You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you away. Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all those who are incensed against you Will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, And shall perish. You will seek them, and won't find them, Even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, As a non-existent thing. For I, Yahweh, your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, Don't be afraid. I will help you. Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you, says Yahweh, And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made you into a sharp threshing instrument With teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, And will make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, And the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, And springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, And oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, And box trees together in the desert, That they may see, know, consider, and understand together, That the hand of Yahweh has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it. Produce your cause, says Yahweh. Bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob. Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, That we may consider them, and know the latter end of them, Or show us things to come. Declare the things that are to come after, That we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. I have raised up one from the north, and he has come, From the rising of the sun one who calls on my name, And he shall come on rulers as on mortar, And as the potter treads clay. Who has declared it from the beginning that we may know, And before that we may say he is right? Surely there is no one who declares. Surely there is no one who shows. Surely there is no one who hears your words. I am the first to say to Zion, Behold, look at them, and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. When I look, there is no man. Even among them there is no counselor who, When I ask of them, can answer a word. Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion. Chapter 42 Behold, my servant whom I uphold, My chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout, nor raise his voice, Nor cause it to be heard in the street. He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. He will not fail nor be discouraged Until he has set justice in the earth, And the islands will wait for his law. Thus says God Yahweh, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, He who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, He who gives breath to its people, And spirit to those who walk in it. I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, And will hold your hand and will keep you, And make you a covenant for the people, As a light for the nations, To open the blind eyes, To bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, And those who sit in darkness, out of the prison. I am Yahweh, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, Nor my praise to engraved images. Behold, the former things have happened, And I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up. Sing to Yahweh a new song, And his praise from the end of the earth, You who go down into the sea, And all that is therein, The islands and their inhabitants. Let the wilderness and its cities Raise their voices with the villages that Kidar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to Yahweh, And declare his praise in the islands. Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies. I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a trebailing woman. I will both gasp and pant. I will destroy mountains and hills, And dry up all their herbs. I will make the river's islands, And will dry up the pools. I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know. I will lead them in paths that they don't know. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. I will do these things, And I will not forsake them. Those who trust in engraved images, Who tell molten images you are our gods, Will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed. Here you deaf, And look you blind, That you may see. Who is blind but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, And as blind as Yahweh's servant? You see many things, But don't observe. His ears are open, But he doesn't listen. It pleased Yahweh, For his righteousness's sake, To magnify the law and make it honourable. But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, And they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey, And no one delivers, And a spoil, And no one says restore them. Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob as plunder, And Israel to the robbers? Didn't Yahweh, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, And they disobeyed his law. Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, And the strength of battle, And it set on fire all around, But he didn't know. And it burned him, But he didn't take it to heart. Chapter 43 But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, And he who formed you, Israel. Don't be afraid, For I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, They will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, You will not be burned, And flame will not scorch you. For I am Yahweh, your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Siba in your place. Since you have been precious And honoured in my sight, And I have loved you, Therefore I give people in your place, And nations instead of your life. Don't be afraid, For I am with you. I will bring your seed from the east, And gather you from the west. I will tell the north, Give them up, And tell the south, Don't hold them back. Bring my sons from far, And my daughters from the ends of the earth, Everyone who is called by my name, And whom I have created for my glory, Whom I have formed, Yes, whom I have made. Bring out the blind people who have eyes, And the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, And let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, And show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, That they may be justified, Or let them hear and say that is true. You are my witnesses, says Yahweh, With my servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe me, And understand that I am He. Before me there was no God formed, Neither will there be after me. I myself am Yahweh, And besides me there is no Saviour. I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown, And there was no strange God among you. Therefore you are my witnesses, says Yahweh, And I am God. Yes, since the day was, I am He, And there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it? Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel. For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And I will bring all of them down as fugitives, Even the Chaldeans in the ships of their rejoicing. I am Yahweh, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King. Thus says Yahweh who makes a way in the sea, And a path in the mighty waters, Who brings forth the chariot and horse, The army and the mighty man. They lie down together, they will not rise, They are extinct, they are quenched like a wick. Don't remember the former things, And don't consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs forth now. Don't you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, And rivers in the desert. The animals of the field shall honor me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give water in the wilderness, And rivers in the desert, To give drink to my people, my chosen, The people which I formed for myself, That they might set forth my praise. Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, But you have been weary of me, Israel. You have not brought me of your sheep For burnt offerings, Either have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, Nor wearied you with frankincense. You have brought me no sweet cane with money, Nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions For my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Set forth your case, that you may be justified. Your first father sinned, And your teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, And I will make Jacob a curse, And Israel a reviling. Chapter 44 Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, And Israel whom I have chosen. This is what Yahweh, who made you, And formed you from the womb, Who will help you, says. Don't be afraid, Jacob my servant, And you, Jeshron, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your seed, And my blessing on your offspring, And they will spring up among the grass, As willows by the water-courses. One will say, I am Yahweh's, And another will be called by the name of Jacob, And another will write with his hand, To Yahweh, and honor the name of Israel. This is what Yahweh, the king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Yahweh of armies, says. I am the first and I am the last, And besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Who will call and will declare it, And set it in order for me, Since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, And that will happen. Don't fear, neither be afraid. Haven't I declared it to you long ago, And shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed there is not. I don't know any other rock. Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see nor know that they may be disappointed. Who has fashioned a God or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed, And the workmen are mere men. Let them be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, Fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, And shapes it like the figure of a man, With the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. He cuts down cedars for himself, And takes the cypress and the oak, And strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it. Then it will be for a man to burn, And he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he burns it and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god and worships it. He makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it. He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire. The rest of it he makes into a god. Even his engraved image. He bows down to it, and worships, And prays to it, and says, Deliver me, for you are my god. They don't know, neither do they consider, For he has shut their eyes, that they can't see, And their hearts, that they can't understand. No one thinks, neither is their knowledge, Nor understanding, to say, I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree-trunk? He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside, And he can't deliver his soul, Nor say, isn't there a lie in my right hand? Remember these things, Jacob and Israel. For you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out as a thick cloud Your transgressions, and as a cloud Your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it. Shout, you lower parts of the earth. Break out into singing you mountains. O forest, all your trees, For Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, And will glorify himself in Israel. Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, And he who formed you in the womb. I am Yahweh, who makes all things, Who alone stretches out the heavens, Who spreads out the earth by myself, Who frustrates the signs of the liars, And makes diviners mad, Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolish, Who confirms the word of his servant, And performs the counsel of his messengers, Who says to Jerusalem, She will be inhabited, And to the cities of Judah, They will be built, And I will raise up its waste places. Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers. Who says to Cyrus, He is my shepherd, And shall perform all my pleasure. Even saying to Jerusalem, She will be built, And of the temple, Your foundation will be laid. Chapter 45 Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, To subdue nations before him, And strip kings of their armor, To open the doors before him, And the gates shall not be shut. I will go before you, And make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of brass and pieces, And cut apart the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, Even the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake, And Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surname to you, Though you have not known me. I am Yahweh, and there is none else. Besides me there is no God. I will strengthen you, Though you have not known me, That they may know from the rising of the sun, And from the west, That there is none besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things. Distill you heavens from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, Let it may bring forth salvation, And let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it. Woe to him who strives with his maker, A clay pot among the clay pots of the earth. Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, What are you making? Or your work? He has no hands. Woe to him who says to a father, What have you become the father of? Or to a mother? To what have you given birth? Thus says Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, And his maker. You ask me about the things that are to come, Concerning my sons, And you command me concerning the work of my hands. I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, And all their army have I commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will make straight all his ways. He shall build my city, And he shall let my exiles go free, Not for price nor reward, says Yahweh of armies. Thus says Yahweh, the labour of Egypt, And the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabaeans, Men of stature shall come over to you, And they shall be yours. They shall go after you. In chains they shall come over, And they shall fall down to you. They shall make supplication to you. Surely God is in you, and there is none else. There is no other God. Most certainly you are a God who hid yourself, God of Israel, the Saviour. They shall be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. They shall go into confusion together, Who are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by Yahweh With an everlasting salvation. You shall not be disappointed nor confounded, World without end. For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens, The God who formed the earth and made it, Who established it and didn't create it a waste, Who formed it to be inhabited. I am Yahweh, and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, In a place of the land of darkness. I didn't say to the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain. I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves, and come, Draw near together you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge who carry the wood Of their engraved image and pray to a God that can't save. Declare you, and bring it forth, Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Have an eye, Yahweh, and there is no God Else besides me, a just God and a Saviour. There is no one besides me. Look to me, and be you saved, All the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else. By myself have I sworn the word is gone forth Out of my mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, that to me Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Only in Yahweh it is said of me Is righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come, And all those who were incensed against him Shall be disappointed. In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel Be justified, and shall glory. Bell bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are on the animals and on the livestock. The things that you carried about are made A load, a burden to the weary animal. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, But themselves are gone into captivity. Listen to me, House of Jacob, And all the remnant of the House of Israel, That have been born by me from their birth, That have been carried from the womb, And even to old age I am he, And even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made and I will bear, Yes, I will carry and will deliver. To whom will you liken me, And make me equal, and compare me, That we may be like? Some pour out gold from the bag And weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith and he makes it a god. They fall down, yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder, They carry it and set it in its place, And it stands, from its place it shall not move. Yes, one may cry to it, Yet it cannot answer, Nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, My counsel shall stand, And I will do all my pleasure, Calling a ravenous bird from the east, The man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, and I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will also do it. Listen to me, you stout-hearted, Who are far from righteousness. I bring nearer my righteousness, It shall not be far off, And my salvation shall not wait, And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, My glory.