| RSV Books | notes
| 23 | Revised Standard Version | |
| The oracle concerning Tyre. for Tyre is laid waste, without house or haven! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. | A message about Phoenicia. Is.23.1-18 | |
| Be still, O inhabitants of the coast, O merchants of Sidon; your messengers passed over the sea | ||
| and were on many waters; your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations. | ||
| Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: "I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up virgins." | ||
| When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. | ||
| Pass over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast! | ||
| Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle afar? | ||
| Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? | ||
| The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. | ||
| Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more. | ||
| He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. | ||
| And he said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, pass over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest." | ||
| Behold the land of the Chalde'ans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild beasts. They erected their siegetowers, they razed her palaces, they made her a ruin. | ||
| Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. | ||
| In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: | ||
| "Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot! Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered." | ||
| At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire, and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. | ||
| Her merchandise and her hire will be dedicated to the LORD; it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD. | ||
| Behold, the LORD will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. | The LORD will punish the earth. Is.24.1-23 | |
| And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. | ||
| The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for the LORD has spoken this word. | ||
| The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. | ||
| The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. | ||
| Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left. | ||
| The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. | ||
| The mirth of the timbrels is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. | ||
| No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. | ||
| The city of chaos is broken down, every house is shut up so that none can enter. | ||
| There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished. | ||
| Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins. | ||
| For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the vintage is done. | ||
| They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west. | ||
| Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. | ||
| From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, "I pine away, I pine away. Woe is me! For the treacherous deal treacherously, the treacherous deal very treacherously." | ||
| Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! | ||
| He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit; and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. | ||
| The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is violently shaken. | ||
| The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. | ||
| On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. | ||
| They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. | ||
| Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders he will manifest his glory. | ||
| O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. | A Hymn of praise. Is.25.1-5 | |
| For thou hast made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. | ||
| Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee; cities of ruthless nations will fear thee. | ||
| For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, | ||
| like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. | ||
| On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. | God prepares a banquet. Is.25.6-9 | |
| And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. | ||
| He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. | ||
| It will be said on that day, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." | ||
| For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit. | God will punish Moab. Is.25.10-12 | |
| And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim; but the LORD will lay low his pride together with the skill of his hands. | ||
| And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust. | ||
| In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. | God will give his people victory. Is.26.1-19 | |
| Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in. | ||
| Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. | ||
| Trust in the LORD for ever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. | ||
| For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. | ||
| The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy." | ||
| The way of the righteous is level; thou dost make smooth the path of the righteous. | ||
| In the path of thy judgments, O LORD, we wait for thee; thy memorial name is the desire of our soul. | ||
| My soul yearns for thee in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. | ||
| If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals perversely and does not see the majesty of the LORD. | ||
| O LORD, thy hand is lifted up, but they see it not. Let them see thy zeal for thy people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them. | ||
| O LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us, thou hast wrought for us all our works. | ||
| O LORD our God, other lords besides thee have ruled over us, but thy name alone we acknowledge. | ||
| They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end thou hast visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. | ||
| But thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land. | ||
| O LORD, in distress they sought thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. | ||
| Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs, when she is near her time, so were we because of thee, O LORD; | ||
| we were with child, we writhed, we have as it were brought forth wind. We have wrought no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. | ||
| Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For thy dew is a dew of light, and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall. | ||
| Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past. | Judgement & restoration. Is.26.20-27.13 | |
| For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her, and will no more cover her slain. | ||
| In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. | ||
| In that day: "A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! | ||
| I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest any one harm it, I guard it night and day; | ||
| I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would set out against them, I would burn them up together. | ||
| Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me." | ||
| In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit. | ||
| Has he smitten them as he smote those who smote them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? | ||
| Measure by measure, by exile thou didst contend with them; he removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind. | ||
| Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Ashe'rim or incense altars will remain standing. | ||
| For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes, there he lies down, and strips its branches. | ||
| When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, he that formed them will show them no favor. | ||
| In that day from the river Euphra'tes to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. | ||
| And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. | ||
| Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of E'phraim, and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! | A warning to Israel. Is.28.1-6 | |
| Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he will cast down to the earth with violence. | ||
| The proud crown of the drunkards of E'phraim will be trodden under foot; | ||
| and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when a man sees it, he eats it up as soon as it is in his hand. | ||
| In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant 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. | ||
| These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused with wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. | Isaiah & the drunken prophets of Judah. Is.28.7-13 | |
| For all tables are full of vomit, no place is without filthiness. | ||
| "Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? | ||
| For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little." | ||
| Nay, but by men of strange lips and with an alien tongue the LORD will speak to this people, | ||
| to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose"; yet they would not hear. | ||
| Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. | ||
| Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! | ||
| Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter"; | A cornerstone of Zion. Is.28.14-22 | |
| therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'He who believes will not be in haste.' | ||
| And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter." | ||
| Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through you will be beaten down by it. | ||
| As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message. | ||
| For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it. | ||
| For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Pera'zim, he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; to do his deed - strange is his deed! and to work his work - alien is his work! | ||
| Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land. | ||
| Give ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. | God's wisdom. Is.28.23-29 | |
| Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? does he continually open and harrow his ground? | ||
| When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cummin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and spelt as the border? | ||
| For he is instructed aright; his God teaches him. | ||
| Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin; but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cummin with a rod. | ||
| Does one crush bread grain? No, he does not thresh it for ever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. | ||
| This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom. | ||
| Ho Ar'iel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. | The fate of Jerusalem. Is.29.1-8 | |
| Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. | ||
| And I will encamp against you round about, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you. | ||
| Then deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust your words shall come; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust. | ||
| But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, | ||
| you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. | ||
| And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. | ||
| As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. | ||
| Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! | Disregarded warnings. Is.29.9-14 | |
| For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers. | ||
| And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." | ||
| And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot read." | ||
| And the Lord said: and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; | ||
| therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid." | ||
| Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?" | Hope for the future. Is.29.15-24 | |
| You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? | ||
| Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? | ||
| In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. | ||
| The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. | ||
| For the ruthless shall come to nought and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, | ||
| who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. | ||
| For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. | ||
| And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction." | ||
| "Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not mine; and who make a league, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin; | A useless treaty with Egypt. Is.30.1-7 | |
| who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! | ||
| Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. | ||
| For though his officials are at Zo'an and his envoys reach Ha'nes, | ||
| every one comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace." | ||
| An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. from where come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them. | ||
| For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her "Rahab who sits still." | ||
| And now, go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness for ever. | The disobedient people. Is.30.8-18 | |
| For they are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the instruction of the LORD; | ||
| who say to the seers, "See not"; and to the prophets, "Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, | ||
| leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel." | ||
| Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them; | ||
| therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant; | ||
| and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel which is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern." | ||
| For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." And you would not, | ||
| but you said, "No! We will speed upon horses," therefore you shall speed away; and, "We will ride upon swift steeds," therefore your pursuers shall be swift. | ||
| A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. | ||
| Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. | ||
| Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. | God will bless his people. Is.30.19-26 | |
| And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. | ||
| And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. | ||
| Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and your gold-plated molten images. You will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them, "Begone!" | ||
| And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures; | ||
| and the oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. | ||
| And upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. | ||
| Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. | ||
| Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; | God will punish Assyria. Is.30.27-33 | |
| his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. | ||
| You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. | ||
| And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones. | ||
| The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he smites with his rod. | ||
| And every stroke of the staff of punishment which the LORD lays upon them will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with brandished arm he will fight with them. | ||
| For a burning place has long been prepared; yea, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it. | ||
| Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! | God will protect Jerusalem. Is.31.1-9 | |
| And yet he is wise and brings disaster, he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. | ||
| The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. | ||
| For thus the LORD said to me, As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called forth against him is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill. | ||
| Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it. | ||
| Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. | ||
| For in that day every one shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. | ||
| "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. | ||
| His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic," says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. | ||
| Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. | A king with integrity. Is.32.1-8 | |
| Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. | ||
| Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will hearken. | ||
| The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly. | ||
| The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to be honorable. | ||
| For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink. | ||
| The knaveries of the knave are evil; he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. | ||
| But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands. | ||
| Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. | Judgement & restoration. Is.32.9-20 | |
| In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come. | ||
| Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. | ||
| Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, | ||
| for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyful city. | ||
| For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; | ||
| until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. | ||
| Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. | ||
| And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever. | ||
| My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. | ||
| And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be utterly laid low. | ||
| Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free. | ||
| Woe to you, destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed; you treacherous one, with whom none has dealt treacherously! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously. | A prayer for help. Is.33.1-9 | |
| O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for thee. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. | ||
| At the thunderous noise peoples flee, at the lifting up of thyself nations are scattered; | ||
| and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, men leap upon it. | ||
| The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness; | ||
| and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his treasure. | ||
| Behold, the valiant ones cry without; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. | ||
| The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases. Covenants are broken, witnesses are despised, there is no regard for man. | ||
| The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. | ||
| "Now I will arise," says the LORD, "now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted. | The LORD warns his enemies. Is.33.10-16 | |
| You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you. | ||
| And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire." | ||
| Hear, 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: "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" | ||
| He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil, | ||
| he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. | ||
| Your eyes will see the king in his beauty; they will behold a land that stretches afar. | The glorious future. Is.33.17-24 | |
| Your mind will muse on the terror: "Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?" | ||
| You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech which you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue which you cannot understand. | ||
| Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. | ||
| But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. | ||
| For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king; he will save us. | ||
| Your tackle hangs loose; it cannot hold the mast firm in its place, or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey. | ||
| And no inhabitant will say, "I am sick"; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. | ||
| Draw near, O nations, to hear, and hearken, O peoples! Let the earth listen, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. | God will punish his enemies. Is.34.1-17 | |
| For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host, he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter. | ||
| Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. | ||
| All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. | ||
| For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed. | ||
| The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. | ||
| Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat. | ||
| For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. | ||
| And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch. | ||
| Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. | ||
| But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles. | ||
| They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing. | ||
| Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. | ||
| And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight, and find for herself a resting place. | ||
| There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, each one with her mate. | ||
| Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. | ||
| He has cast the lot for them, his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. | ||
| The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus | The Way of Holiness. Is.35.1-10 | |
| it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. | ||
| Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. | ||
| Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you." | ||
| Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; | ||
| then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; | ||
| the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. | ||
| And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein. | ||
| No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. | ||
| And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. | ||
| In the fourteenth year of King Hezeki'ah, Sennach'erib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. | The Assyrians threaten Jerusalem. Is.36.1-22 | 2Kgs.18.13-27 | 2Chr.32.1-19 | |
| And the king of Assyria sent the Rab'shakeh from Lachish to King Hezeki'ah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller's Field. | ||
| And there came out to him Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of Asaph, the recorder. | ||
| And the Rab'shakeh said to them, "Say to Hezeki'ah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this confidence of yours? | ||
| Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? | ||
| Behold, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. | ||
| But if you say to me, "We rely on the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezeki'ah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"? | ||
| Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. | ||
| How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? | ||
| Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.'" | ||
| Then Eli'akim, Shebna, and Jo'ah said to the Rab'shakeh, "Pray, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall." | ||
| But the Rab'shakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?" | ||
| Then the Rab'shakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! | ||
| Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezeki'ah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. | ||
| Do not let Hezeki'ah make you rely on the LORD by saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." | ||
| Do not listen to Hezeki'ah; for thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern; | ||
| until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. | ||
| Beware lest Hezeki'ah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? | ||
| Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharva'im? Have they delivered Sama'ria out of my hand? | ||
| Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" | ||
| But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him." | ||
| Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezeki'ah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of the Rab'shakeh. | ||
| When King Hezeki'ah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. | Hezekiah asks Isaiah's advice. Is.37.1-7 | 2Kgs.19.1-7 | |
| And he sent Eli'akim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, clothed with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. | ||
| They said to him, "Thus says Hezeki'ah, 'This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. | ||
| It may be that the LORD your God heard the words of the Rab'shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'" | ||
| When the servants of King Hezeki'ah came to Isaiah, | ||
| ISAIAH said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. | ||
| Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'" | ||
| The Rab'shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. | The Assyrians send another threat. Is.37.8-20 | 2Kgs.19.8-19 | |
| Now the king heard concerning Tirha'kah king of Ethiopia, "He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezeki'ah, saying, | ||
| "Thus shall you speak to Hezeki'ah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. | ||
| Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered? | ||
| Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? | ||
| Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharva'im, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'" | ||
| Hezeki'ah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezeki'ah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. | ||
| And Hezeki'ah prayed to the LORD: | ||
| "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. | ||
| Incline thy ear, O LORD, and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennach'erib, which he has sent to mock the living God. | ||
| Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, | ||
| 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 were destroyed. | ||
| So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou alone art the LORD." | ||
| Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezeki'ah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennach'erib king of Assyria, | Isaiah's message to Hezekiah. Is.37.21-38 | 2Kgs.19.20-37 | |
| this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you - the daughter of Jerusalem. | ||
| 'Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! | ||
| By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I came to its remotest height, its densest forest. | ||
| I dug wells and drank waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt. | ||
| 'Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, | ||
| while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. | ||
| 'I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. | ||
| Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.' | ||
| "And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same; then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. | ||
| And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; | ||
| for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this. | ||
| "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. | ||
| By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. | ||
| For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." | ||
| And the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. | ||
| Then Sennach'erib king of Assyria departed, and went home and dwelt at Nin'eveh. | ||
| And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adram'melech and Share'zer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ar'arat. And E'sar-had'don his son reigned in his stead. | ||
| In those days Hezeki'ah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover." | Hezekiah's illness & recovery. Is.38.1-22 | 2Kgs.20.1-11 | 2Chr.32.24-26 | |
| Then Hezeki'ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, | ||
| and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight." And Hezeki'ah wept bitterly. | ||
| Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: | ||
| "Go and say to Hezeki'ah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, 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 defend this city. | ||
| "This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised: | ||
| Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined. | ||
| A writing of Hezeki'ah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: | Hezekiah's psalm of praise. | |
| I said, In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. | ||
| I said, I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon man no more among the inhabitants of the world. | ||
| My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night thou dost bring me to an end; | ||
| I cry for help until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night thou dost bring me to an end. | ||
| Like a swallow or a crane I clamor, I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be thou my security! | ||
| But what can I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. All my sleep has fled because of the bitterness of my soul. | ||
| O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live! | ||
| Lo, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but thou hast held back my life from the pit of destruction, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. | ||
| For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness. | ||
| The living, the living, he thanks thee, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children thy faithfulness. | ||
| The LORD will save me, and we will sing to stringed instruments all the days of our life, at the house of the LORD. | ||
| Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, that he may recover." | ||
| Hezeki'ah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?" | ||
| At that time Mer'odach-bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezeki'ah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. | Messengers from Babylon. Is.39.1-8 | 2Kgs.20.12-19 | |
| And Hezeki'ah welcomed them; and he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezeki'ah did not show them. | ||
| Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezeki'ah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And whence did they come to you?" Hezeki'ah said, "They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon." | ||
| He said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezeki'ah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them." | ||
| Then Isaiah said to Hezeki'ah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: | ||
| Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. | ||
| And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." | ||
| Then said Hezeki'ah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days." | ||
| Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. | ISAIAH 2. (The Exile). Words of hope. Is.40.1-11 | |
| Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. | ||
| A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. | ||
| Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. | ||
| And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." | ||
| A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. | ||
| The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass. | ||
| The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. | ||
| Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" | ||
| Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules 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 arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. | ||
| Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? | The LORD of the universe. Is.40.12-31 | |
| Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as his counselor has instructed him? | ||
| Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? | ||
| Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust. | ||
| Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. | ||
| All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. | ||
| To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? | ||
| The idol? A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. | ||
| He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. | ||
| Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not 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 like a tent to dwell in; | ||
| who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. | ||
| Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. | ||
| To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. | ||
| Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. | ||
| Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? | ||
| Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. | ||
| He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. | ||
| Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; | ||
| but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. | ||
| Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment. | God's assurance to Israel. Is.41.1-20 | |
| Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. | ||
| He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have not trod. | ||
| Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He. | ||
| The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come. | ||
| Every one helps his neighbor, and says to his brother, "Take courage!" | ||
| The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good"; and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved. | ||
| But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; | ||
| you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off"; | ||
| fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. | ||
| Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. | ||
| You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. | ||
| For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you." | ||
| Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. | ||
| Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; | ||
| You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory. | ||
| When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. | ||
| I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains 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 in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together; | ||
| that men may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. | ||
| Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. | The LORD's challenge to false gods. Is.41.21-29 | |
| Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. | ||
| Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. | ||
| Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nought; an abomination is he who chooses you. | ||
| I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call on my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. | ||
| Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforetime, that we might say, "He is right"? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. | ||
| I first have declared it to Zion, and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings. | ||
| But when I look there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. | ||
| Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their molten images are empty wind. | ||
| Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. | The servant of the LORD. Is.42.1-9 | |
| He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; | ||
| a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. | ||
| He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. | ||
| Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: | ||
| "I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, | ||
| to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. | ||
| I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. | ||
| Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." | ||
| Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. | A song of praise. Is.42.10-13 | |
| Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. | ||
| Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the coastlands. | ||
| The LORD goes forth like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. | ||
| For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant. | God promises to help his people. Is.42.14-17 | |
| I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. | ||
| And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them. | ||
| They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, "You are our gods." | ||
| Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see! | Israel's failure to learn. Is.42.18-25 | |
| Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? | ||
| He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. | ||
| The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. | ||
| But this is a people robbed and plundered, they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey with none to rescue, a spoil with none to say, "Restore!" | ||
| Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? | ||
| Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? | ||
| So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart. | ||
| But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. | God promises to rescue his people. Is.43.1-7 | |
| When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. | ||
| For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. | ||
| Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. | ||
| Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; | ||
| I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, | ||
| every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." | ||
| Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! | Israel is the LORD's witness. Is.43.8-13 | |
| Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, It is true. | ||
| "You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. | ||
| I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no saviour. | ||
| I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," says the LORD. | ||
| "I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?" | ||
| Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I will send to Babylon and break down all the bars, and the shouting of the Chalde'ans will be turned to lamentations. | Escape from Babylon. Is.43.14-21 | |
| I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." | ||
| Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, | ||
| who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: | ||
| "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. | ||
| Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. | ||
| The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, | ||
| the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. | ||
| "Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! | Israel's sin. Is.43.22-28 | |
| You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. | ||
| You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities. | ||
| "I, 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 argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. | ||
| Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. | ||
| Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, I delivered Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. | ||
| "But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! | The LORD is the only god. Is.44.1-8 | |
| Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshu'run whom I have chosen. | ||
| For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. | ||
| They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams. | ||
| This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and surname himself by the name of Israel." | ||
| Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. | ||
| Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. | ||
| Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any." | ||
| All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. | Idolatry ridiculed. Is.44.9-20 | |
| Who fashions a god or casts an image, that is profitable for nothing? | ||
| Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are but men; let them all assemble, let them stand forth, they shall be terrified, they shall be put to shame together. | ||
| The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals; he shapes it with hammers, and forges it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint. | ||
| The carpenter stretches a line, he marks it out with a pencil; he fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. | ||
| He cuts down cedars; or he chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest; he plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. | ||
| Then it becomes fuel for a man; he takes a part of it and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread; also he makes a god and worships it, he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. | ||
| Half of it he burns in the fire; over the half he eats flesh, he roasts meat and is satisfied; also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" | ||
| And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol; and falls down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for thou art my god!" | ||
| They know not, nor do they discern; for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their minds, so that they cannot understand. | ||
| No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, "Half of it I burned in the fire, I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted flesh and have eaten; and shall I make the residue of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" | ||
| He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" | ||
| Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. | The LORD, creator, saviour. Is.44.21-28 | |
| I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. | ||
| Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel. | ||
| Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth - Who was with me? - | ||
| who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish; | ||
| who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins'; | ||
| who says to the deep, 'Be dry, I will dry up your rivers'; | ||
| who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'" | ||
| Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: | Cyrus - The LORD's appointed king. Is.45.1-8 | |
| "I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, | ||
| I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. | ||
| For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. | ||
| I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I gird you, though you do not know me, | ||
| that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. | ||
| I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe, I am the LORD, who do all these things. | ||
| "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth, and let it cause righteousness to spring up also; I the LORD have created it. | ||
| "Woe to him who strives with his Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it, 'What are you making'? or 'Your work has no handles'? | The LORD of creation & history. Is.45.9-19 | |
| Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in travail?'" | ||
| Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? | ||
| I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. | ||
| I have aroused him in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts. | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabe'ans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours, they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying: 'God is with you only, and there is no other, no god besides him.'" | ||
| Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. | ||
| All of them are put to shame and confounded, the makers of idols go in confusion together. | ||
| But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. | ||
| For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. | ||
| I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in chaos.' I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right. | ||
| "Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. | The LORD of the universe & Babylon's idols. Is.45.20-46.13 | |
| Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none besides me. | ||
| "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. | ||
| By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.' | ||
| "Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed, all who were incensed against him. | ||
| In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory." | ||
| Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts. | ||
| They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. | ||
| "Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; | ||
| even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. | ||
| "To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? | ||
| Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! | ||
| They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. | ||
| "Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors, | ||
| remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, | ||
| declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' | ||
| calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. | ||
| "Hearken to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from deliverance: | ||
| I bring near my deliverance, it is not far off, and my salvation will not tarry; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory." | ||
| Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chalde'ans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. | Judgement on Babylon. Is.47.1-15 | |
| Take the millstones and grind meal, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers. | ||
| Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no man. | ||
| Our Redeemer - the LORD of hosts is his name - is the Holy One of Israel. | ||
| Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chalde'ans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. | ||
| I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. | ||
| You said, "I shall be mistress for ever," so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. | ||
| Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children": | ||
| These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. | ||
| You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." | ||
| But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate; and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing. | ||
| Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror. | ||
| You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. | ||
| Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! | ||
| Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own direction; there is no one to save you. | ||
| Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. | God is LORD of the Time. Is.48.1-11 | |
| For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name. | ||
| "The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. | ||
| Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, | ||
| I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, 'My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them.' | ||
| "You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known. | ||
| They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.' | ||
| You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel. | ||
| "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. | ||
| Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. | ||
| For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. | ||
| "Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am He, I am the first, and I am the last. | Cyrus - the LORD's chosen conqueror. Is.48.12-16 | |
| My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. | ||
| "Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chalde'ans. | ||
| I, even I, have spoken and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. | ||
| Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there." And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit. | ||
| Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. | the LORD's plan for his people. Is.48.17-22 | |
| O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; | ||
| your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me." | ||
| Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chalde'a, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!" | ||
| They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed out. | ||
| "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked." | ||
| Listen to me. O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. | Israel - a light to the nations. Is.49.1-7 | |
| He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. | ||
| And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." | ||
| But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God." | ||
| And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength - | ||
| he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." | ||
| Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "In a time of favor I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages; | The restoration of Jerusalem. Is.49.8-50.3 | |
| saying to the prisoners, 'Come forth,' to those who are in darkness, 'Appear.' They shall feed along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture; | ||
| they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. | ||
| And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised up. | ||
| Lo, these shall come from afar, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene." | ||
| Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. | ||
| But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." | ||
| "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. | ||
| Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. | ||
| Your builders outstrip your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go forth from you. | ||
| Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament, you shall bind them on as a bride does. | ||
| "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land - surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. | ||
| The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.' | ||
| Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; whence then have these come?'" | ||
| Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. | ||
| Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." | ||
| Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? | ||
| Surely, thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. | ||
| I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was put away. | ||
| Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst. | ||
| I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering." | ||
| The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. | The servant of the LORD. Is.50.4-11 | |
| The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. | ||
| I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. | ||
| For the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; | ||
| he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. | ||
| Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. | ||
| Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God? | ||
| Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who set brands alight! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the brands which you have kindled! This shall you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment. | ||
| "Hearken to me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the LORD; look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged. | Words of comfort to Jerusalem. Is.51.1-16 | |
| Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many. | ||
| For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. | ||
| "Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go forth from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples. | ||
| My deliverance draws near speedily, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. | ||
| Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be for ever, and my deliverance will never be ended. | ||
| "Hearken to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, and be not dismayed at their revilings. | ||
| For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my deliverance will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations." | ||
| Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the dragon? | ||
| Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that didst make the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? | ||
| And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. | ||
| "I, I am he that comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, | ||
| and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? | ||
| He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the Pit, neither shall his bread fail. | ||
| For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the LORD of hosts is his name. | ||
| And I have put my words in your mouth, and hid you in the shadow of my hand, stretching out the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'" | ||
| Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering. | The end of Jerusalem's suffering. Is.51.17-23 | |
| There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. | ||
| These two things have befallen you - who will condole with you? - devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? | ||
| Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God. | ||
| Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: | ||
| Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; | ||
| and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, 'Bow down, that we may pass over'; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over." | ||
| Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. | God will rescue Jerusalem. Is.52.1-12 | |
| Shake yourself from the dust, arise, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. | ||
| For thus says the LORD: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. | ||
| For thus says the Lord GOD: My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. | ||
| Now therefore what have I here, says the LORD, seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail, says the LORD, and continually all the day my name is despised. | ||
| Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I." | ||
| How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." | ||
| Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. | ||
| Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. | ||
| The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. | ||
| Depart, depart, go out thence, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD. | ||
| For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. | ||
| Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. | The suffering servant. Is.52.13-53.12 | |
| As many were astonished at him - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men - | ||
| so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand. | ||
| Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? | ||
| For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. | ||
| He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. | ||
| Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. | ||
| But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. | ||
| All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. | ||
| He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. | ||
| By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? | ||
| And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. | ||
| Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand; | ||
| he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities. | ||
| Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. | ||
| "Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in travail! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that is married, says the LORD. | The LORD's love for Israel. Is.54.1-10 | |
| Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. | ||
| For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. | ||
| "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. | ||
| For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. | ||
| For the LORD has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. | ||
| For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. | ||
| In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer. | ||
| "For this is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. | ||
| For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you. | ||
| "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. | The future Jerusalem. Is.54.11-17 | |
| I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones. | ||
| All your sons shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the prosperity of your sons. | ||
| In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. | ||
| If any one stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. | ||
| Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; | ||
| no weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, says the LORD." | ||
| "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. | God's offer of mercy. Is.55.1-13 | |
| Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in fatness. | ||
| Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. | ||
| Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. | ||
| Behold, you shall call nations that you know not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. | ||
| "Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; | ||
| let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. | ||
| For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. | ||
| For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. | ||
| "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, | ||
| so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. | ||
| "For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. | ||
| Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. | ISAIAH 3. God's people will include all nations. Is.56.1-8 | |
| Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." | ||
| Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from his people"; and let not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." | ||
| For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, | ||
| I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off. | ||
| "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, every one who keeps the sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant - | ||
| these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. | ||
| Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered." | ||
| All you beasts of the field, come to devour - all you beasts in the forest. | Israel's leaders are condemned. Is.56.9-12 | |
| His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. | ||
| The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. The shepherds also have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all. | ||
| "Come," they say, "let us get wine, let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure." | ||
| The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity, | Israel's idolatry condemned. Is.57.1-13 | |
| he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. | ||
| But you, draw near hither, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the harlot. | ||
| Of whom are you making sport? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and put out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit, | ||
| you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree; who slay your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? | ||
| Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a cereal offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? | ||
| Upon a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and thither you went up to offer sacrifice. | ||
| Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your symbol; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it, you have made it wide; and you have made a bargain for yourself with them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness. | ||
| You journeyed to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol. | ||
| You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, "It is hopeless"; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint. | ||
| Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not give me a thought? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and so you do not fear me? | ||
| I will tell of your righteousness and your doings, but they will not help you. | ||
| When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain. | ||
| And it shall be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way." | God's promise of help & healing. Is.57.14-21 | |
| For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. | ||
| For I will not contend for ever, nor will I always be angry; for from me proceeds the spirit, and I have made the breath of life. | ||
| Because of the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, I smote him, I hid my face and was angry; but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. | ||
| I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and requite him with comfort, creating for his mourners the fruit of the lips. | ||
| Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the LORD; and I will heal him. | ||
| But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. | ||
| There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked." | ||
| "Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. | True fasting. Is.58.1-12 | |
| Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. | ||
| 'Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. | ||
| Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. | ||
| Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? | ||
| "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? | ||
| Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? | ||
| Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. | ||
| Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, | ||
| if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. | ||
| And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. | ||
| And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. | ||
| "If you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; | Keeping the Sabbath. Is.58.13-14 | |
| then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." | ||
| Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; | The prophet condemns the people's sins. Is.59.1-8 | |
| but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear. | ||
| For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. | ||
| No one enters suit justly, no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. | ||
| They hatch adders' eggs, they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one which is crushed a viper is hatched. | ||
| Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. | ||
| Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways. | ||
| The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked, no one who goes in them knows peace. | ||
| Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we look for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. | The people confess their sin. Is.59.9-15 | |
| We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. | ||
| We all growl like bears, we moan and moan like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. | ||
| For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: | ||
| transgressing, and denying the LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. | ||
| Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. | ||
| Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. | ||
| He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intervene; then his own arm brought him victory, and his righteousness upheld him. | The LORD prepares to rescue his people. Is.59.16-21 | |
| He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle. | ||
| According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render requital. | ||
| So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives. | ||
| "And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the LORD. | ||
| "And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD: my spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of the mouth of your children's children, says the LORD, from this time forth and for evermore." | ||
| Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. | The future glory of Jerusalem. Is.60.1-22 | |
| For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. | ||
| And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. | ||
| Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. | ||
| Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. | ||
| A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Mid'ian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD. | ||
| All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebai'oth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious house. | ||
| Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? | ||
| For the coastlands shall wait for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you. | ||
| Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I smote you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. | ||
| Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. | ||
| For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. | ||
| The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. | ||
| The sons of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to you; and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. | ||
| Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic for ever, a joy from age to age. | ||
| You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. | ||
| Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness. | ||
| Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. | ||
| The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. | ||
| Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. | ||
| Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land for ever, the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. | ||
| The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it. | ||
| The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; | Good news of deliverance. Is.61.1-62.12 | |
| to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; | ||
| to grant to those who mourn in Zion - to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. | ||
| They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. | ||
| Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; | ||
| but you shall be called the priests of the LORD, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. | ||
| Instead of your shame you shall have a double portion, instead of dishonor you shall rejoice in your lot; therefore in your land you shall possess a double portion; yours shall be everlasting joy. | ||
| For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. | ||
| Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed. | ||
| I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. | ||
| For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. | ||
| For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. | ||
| The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will give. | ||
| You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. | ||
| You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. | ||
| For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. | ||
| Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, | ||
| and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. | ||
| The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: "I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored; | ||
| but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary." | ||
| Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples. | ||
| Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him." | ||
| And they shall be called The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought out, a city not forsaken. | ||
| Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save." | the LORD's victory over the nations. Is.63.1-6 | |
| Why is thy apparel red, and thy garments like his that treads in the wine press? | ||
| "I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. | ||
| For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come. | ||
| I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me victory, and my wrath upheld me. | ||
| I trod down the peoples in my anger, I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." | ||
| I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel which he has granted them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. | The LORD's goodness to Israel. Is.63.7-14 | |
| For he said, Surely they are my people, sons who will not deal falsely; and he became their Saviour. | ||
| In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. | ||
| But they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. | ||
| Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is he who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his holy Spirit, | ||
| who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, | ||
| who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. | ||
| Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So thou didst lead thy people, to make for thyself a glorious name. | ||
| Look down from heaven and see, from thy holy and glorious habitation. Where are thy zeal and thy might? The yearning of thy heart and thy compassion are withheld from me. | A prayer for mercy & help. Is.63.15-64.12 | |
| For thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer from of old is thy name. | ||
| O LORD, why dost thou make us err from thy ways and harden our heart, so that we fear thee not? Return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy heritage. | ||
| Thy holy people possessed thy sanctuary a little while; our adversaries have trodden it down. | ||
| We have become like those over whom thou hast never ruled, like those who are not called by thy name. | ||
| O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence - | ||
| as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil - to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence! | ||
| From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him. | ||
| Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? | ||
| Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? | ||
| There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities. | ||
| There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities. | ||
| Yet, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are the work of thy hand. | ||
| Be not exceedingly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity for ever. Behold, consider, we are all thy people. | ||
| Thy holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. | ||
| Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. | ||
| Wilt thou restrain thyself at these things, O LORD? Wilt you keep silent, and afflict us sorely? | ||
| I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to the nation that did not call my name. | God's punishment on the rebellious. Is.65.1-16 | |
| I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; | ||
| a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense upon bricks; | ||
| who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; | ||
| who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am set apart from you." These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. | ||
| Behold, it is written before me: "I will not keep silent, but I will repay, yea, I will repay into their bosom | ||
| their iniquities and their fathers' iniquities together, says the LORD; because they burned incense upon the mountains and reviled me upon the hills, I will measure into their bosom payment for their former doings." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, 'Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,' so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all. | ||
| I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah inheritors of my mountains; my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. | ||
| Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me. | ||
| But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny; | ||
| I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer, when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes, and chose what I did not delight in." | ||
| Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame; | ||
| behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit. | ||
| You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will slay you; but his servants he will call by a different name. | ||
| So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hid from my eyes. | ||
| "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. | The new creation. Is.65.17-25 | |
| But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. | ||
| I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. | ||
| No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. | ||
| They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. | ||
| They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. | ||
| They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their children with them. | ||
| Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. | ||
| The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? | The LORD judges the nations. Is.66.1-24 | |
| All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. | ||
| "He who slaughters an ox is like him who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like him who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a cereal offering, like him who offers swine's blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like him who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; | ||
| I also will choose affliction for them, and bring their fears upon them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight." | ||
| Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: "Your brethren who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame. | ||
| "Hark, an uproar from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies! | ||
| "Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she was delivered of a son. | ||
| Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her sons. | ||
| Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? says the LORD; shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb? says your God. | ||
| "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; | ||
| that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory." | ||
| For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried upon her hip, and dandled upon her knees. | ||
| As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. | ||
| You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies. | ||
| "For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the stormwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. | ||
| For by fire will the LORD execute judgment, and by his sword, upon all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many. | ||
| "Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, says the LORD. | ||
| "For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory, | ||
| and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. | ||
| And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their cereal offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. | ||
| And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. | ||
| "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain. | ||
| From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD. | ||
| "And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." | ||
| The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilki'ah, of the priests who were in An'athoth in the land of Benjamin, | JEREMIAH. (7th-6th cent. BCE). Jr.1.1-3 | |
| to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josi'ah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. | ||
| It came also in the days of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedeki'ah, the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. | ||
| Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, | The call of Jeremiah. Jr.1.4-10 | |
| "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." | ||
| Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth." | ||
| But the LORD said to me, for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak. | ||
| Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." | ||
| Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, | ||
| See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." | ||
| And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a rod of almond." | ||
| Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it." | Two visions. Jr.1.12-19 | |
| The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north." | ||
| Then the LORD said to me, "Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. | ||
| For, lo, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah. | ||
| And I will utter my judgments against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. | ||
| But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. | ||
| And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. | ||
| They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you." | ||
| The word of the LORD came to me, saying, | God's care for Israel. Jr.2.1-3 | |
| "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. | ||
| Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it became guilty; evil came upon them, says the LORD." | ||
| Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. | The sin of Israel's ancestors. Jr.2.4-13 | |
| Thus says the LORD: that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? | ||
| They did not say, 'Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?' | ||
| And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. | ||
| The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba'al, and went after things that do not profit. | ||
| "Therefore I still contend with you, says the LORD, and with your children's children I will contend. | ||
| For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. | ||
| Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. | ||
| Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, | ||
| for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. | ||
| "Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey? | What Israel's unfaithfulness led to. Jr.2.14-19 | |
| The lions have roared against him, they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant. | ||
| Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tah'panhes have broken the crown of your head. | ||
| Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, when he led you in the way? | ||
| And now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphra'tes? | ||
| Your wickedness will chasten you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, says the Lord GOD of hosts. | ||
| "For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve.' Yea, upon every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down as a harlot. | Israel refuses to worship the LORD. Jr.2.20-25 | |
| Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? | ||
| Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord GOD. | ||
| How can you say, 'I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Ba'als'? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done - a restive young camel interlacing her tracks, | ||
| a wild ass used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. | ||
| Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.' | ||
| "As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, | Israel deserves to be punished. Jr.2.26-37 | |
| who say to a tree, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave me birth.' For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us!' | ||
| But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. | ||
| "Why do you complain against me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD. | ||
| In vain have I smitten your children, they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. | ||
| And you, O generation, heed the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, 'We are free, we will come no more to thee'? | ||
| Can a maiden forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. | ||
| "How well you direct your course to seek lovers! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways. | ||
| Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things | ||
| you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.' | ||
| How lightly you gad about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria. | ||
| From it too you will come away with your hands upon your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them. | ||
| "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me? says the LORD. | Unfaithful Israel. Jr.3.1-5 | |
| Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile harlotry. | ||
| Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have a harlot's brow, you refuse to be ashamed. | ||
| Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, thou art the friend of my youth - | ||
| will he be angry for ever, will he be indignant to the end?' Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could." | ||
| The LORD said to me in the days of King Josi'ah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot? | Israel & Judah must repent. Jr.3.6-18 | |
| And I thought, 'After she has done all this she will return to me'; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. | ||
| She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot. | ||
| Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. | ||
| Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretence, says the LORD." | ||
| And the LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. | ||
| Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, says the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the LORD; I will not be angry for ever. | ||
| Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD. | ||
| Return, O faithless children, says the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. | ||
| "'And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. | ||
| And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; it shall not be made again. | ||
| At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. | ||
| In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. | ||
| "'I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. | The idolatry of God's people. Jr.3.19-25 | |
| Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.'" | ||
| A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God. | ||
| "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the LORD our God. | ||
| Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. | ||
| "But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. | ||
| Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God." | ||
| "If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, to me you should return. If you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver, | A call to repentance. Jr.4.1-4 | |
| and if you swear, 'As the LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." | ||
| For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and sow not among thorns. | ||
| Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings." | ||
| Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, cry aloud and say, 'Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!' | Judah threatened with invasion. Jr.4.5-12 | |
| Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction. | ||
| A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. | ||
| For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us." | ||
| "In that day, says the LORD, courage shall fail both king and princes; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded." | ||
| Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, surely thou hast utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'It shall be well with you'; whereas the sword has reached their very life." | ||
| At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, | ||
| a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them." | ||
| Behold, he comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles - woe to us, for we are ruined! | Judah surrounded by enemies. Jr.4.13-18 | |
| O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? | ||
| For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil from Mount E'phraim. | ||
| Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, "Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. | ||
| Like keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has rebelled against me, says the LORD. | ||
| Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart." | ||
| My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. | Jeremiah's sorrow for his people. Jr.4.19-22 | |
| Disaster follows hard on disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment. | ||
| How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? | ||
| "For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but how to do good they know not." | ||
| I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. | A vision of coming destruction. Jr.4.23-31 | |
| I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. | ||
| I looked, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. | ||
| I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. | ||
| For thus says the LORD, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. | ||
| For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back." | ||
| At the noise of horseman and archer every city takes to flight; they enter thickets; they climb among rocks; all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwells in them. | ||
| And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life. | ||
| For I heard a cry as of a woman in travail, anguish as of one bringing forth her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, "Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers." | ||
| Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth; that I may pardon her. | The sin of Jerusalem. Jr.5.1-11 | |
| Though they say, "As the LORD lives," yet they swear falsely. | ||
| O LORD, do not thy eyes look for truth? Thou hast smitten them, but they felt no anguish; thou hast consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent. | ||
| Then I said, "These are only the poor, they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the law of their God. | ||
| I will go to the great, and will speak to them; for they know the way of the LORD, the law of their God." But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds. | ||
| Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, a wolf from the desert shall destroy them. A leopard is watching against their cities, every one who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great. | ||
| "How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of harlots. | ||
| They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife. | ||
| Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? | ||
| "Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD's. | ||
| For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly faithless to me, says the LORD. | ||
| They have spoken falsely of the LORD, and have said, 'He will do nothing; no evil will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. | The LORD rejects Israel. Jr.5.12-19 | |
| The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!'" | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: "Because they have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them. | ||
| Behold, I am bringing upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. | ||
| Their quiver is like an open tomb, they are all mighty men. | ||
| They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall destroy with the sword." | ||
| "But even in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. | ||
| And when your people say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'" | ||
| Declare this in the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah: | God warns his people. Jr.5.20-31 | |
| "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. | ||
| Do you not fear me? says the LORD; Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the bound for the sea, a perpetual barrier which it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it. | ||
| But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. | ||
| They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' | ||
| Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. | ||
| For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men. | ||
| Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, | ||
| they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. | ||
| Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" | ||
| An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: | ||
| the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? | ||
| Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Teko'a, and raise a signal on Beth-hacche'rem; for evil looms out of the north, and great destruction. | Jerusalem surrounded by enemies. Jr.6.1-8 | |
| The comely and delicately bred I will destroy, the daughter of Zion. | ||
| Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch their tents around her, they shall pasture, each in his place. | ||
| "Prepare war against her; up, and let us attack at noon!" "Woe to us, for the day declines, for the shadows of evening lengthen!" | ||
| "Up, and let us attack by night, and destroy her palaces!" | ||
| For thus says the LORD of hosts: "Hew down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city which must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her. | ||
| As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me. | ||
| Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land." | ||
| Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer pass your hand again over its branches." | Rebellious Israel. Jr.6.9-15 | |
| To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it. | ||
| Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. "Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the old folk and the very aged. | ||
| Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. | ||
| "For from the least to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, every one deals falsely. | ||
| They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. | ||
| Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown," says the LORD. | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' | Israel rejects God's way. Jr.6.16-21 | |
| I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not give heed.' | ||
| Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. | ||
| Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not given heed to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. | ||
| To what purpose does frankincense come to me from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.'" | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. | Invasion from the north. Jr.6.22-30 | |
| They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy, the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!" | ||
| We have heard the report of it, our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in travail. | ||
| Go not forth into the field, nor walk on the road; for the enemy has a sword, terror is on every side. | ||
| O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. | ||
| "I have made you an assayer and tester among my people, that you may know and assay their ways. | ||
| They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly. | ||
| The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. | ||
| Refuse silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them." | ||
| The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: | Jeremiah preaches at the temple. Jr.7.1-15 | |
| "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. | ||
| Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place. | ||
| Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' | ||
| "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, | ||
| if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, | ||
| then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever. | ||
| "Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. | ||
| Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Ba'al, and go after other gods that you have not known, | ||
| and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!' - only to go on doing all these abominations? | ||
| Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the LORD. | ||
| Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. | ||
| And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, | ||
| therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. | ||
| And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of E'phraim. | ||
| "As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I do not hear you. | The disobedience of the people. Jr.7.16-28 | |
| Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? | ||
| The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. | ||
| Is it I whom they provoke? says the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own confusion? | ||
| Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched." | ||
| Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. | ||
| For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. | ||
| But this command I gave them, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' | ||
| But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. | ||
| From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; | ||
| yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. | ||
| "So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. | ||
| And you shall say to them, 'This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips. | ||
| Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.' | Sinful deeds in the valley of Hinnom. Jr.7.29-8.3 | |
| "For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. | ||
| And they have built the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. | ||
| Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. | ||
| And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away. | ||
| And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste. | ||
| "At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs; | ||
| and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshipped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. | ||
| Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts. | ||
| "You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? | Sin & punishment. Jr.8.4-17 | |
| Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return. | ||
| I have given heed and listened, but they have not spoken aright; no man repents of his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' Every one turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. | ||
| Even the stork in the heavens knows her times; and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming; but my people know not the ordinance of the LORD. | ||
| "How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. | ||
| The wise men shall be put to shame, they shall be dismayed and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD, and what wisdom is in them? | ||
| Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest every one is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest every one deals falsely. | ||
| They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. | ||
| Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD. | ||
| When I would gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them." | ||
| Why do we sit still? Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there; for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish, and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. | ||
| We looked for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but behold, terror. | ||
| "The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. | ||
| For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you," says the LORD. | ||
| My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me. | Jeremiah's sorrow for his people. Jr.8.18-9.16 | |
| Hark, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with their foreign idols?" | ||
| "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." | ||
| For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. | ||
| Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? | ||
| O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! | ||
| O that I had in the desert a wayfarers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. | ||
| They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD. | ||
| Let every one beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a supplanter, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. | ||
| Every one deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent. | ||
| Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, says the LORD. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? | ||
| Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peaceably to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. | ||
| Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? | ||
| "Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. | ||
| I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant." | ||
| Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? | ||
| And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accord with it, | ||
| but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Ba'als, as their fathers taught them. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisonous water to drink. | ||
| I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them." | ||
| Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilful women to come; | ||
| let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush with water. | The people of Jerusalem cry for help. Jr.9.17-26 | |
| For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'" | ||
| Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge. | ||
| For death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares. | ||
| Speak, "Thus says the LORD: 'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'" | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; | ||
| but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." | ||
| "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised but yet uncircumcised - | ||
| Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert that cut the corners of their hair; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart." | ||
| Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. | Idolatry & true worship. Jr.10.1-11 | |
| Thus says the LORD: nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, | ||
| for the customs of the peoples are false. A tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. | ||
| Men deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. | ||
| Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." | ||
| There is none like thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. | ||
| Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations? For this is thy due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like thee. | ||
| They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! | ||
| Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. | ||
| But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. | ||
| Thus shall you say to them: "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens." | ||
| It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. | A hymn of praise. Jr.10.12-16 | |
| When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. | ||
| Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. | ||
| They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. | ||
| Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name. | ||
| Gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who dwell under siege! | ||
| For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them, that they may feel it." | Coming exile. Jr.10.18-25 | |
| Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous. But I said, "Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it." | ||
| My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; my children have gone from me, and they are not; there is no one to spread my tent again, and to set up my curtains. | ||
| For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered. | ||
| Hark, a rumor! Behold, it comes! - a great commotion out of the north country to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals. | ||
| I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. | ||
| Correct me, O LORD, but in just measure; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. | ||
| Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the peoples that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation. | ||
| The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: | Jeremiah & the covenant. Jr.11.1-17 | |
| "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. | ||
| You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not heed the words of this covenant | ||
| which I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, | ||
| that I may perform the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day." Then I answered, "So be it, LORD." | ||
| And the LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. | ||
| For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. | ||
| Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but every one walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not." | ||
| Again the LORD said to me, "There is revolt among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. | ||
| They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. | ||
| Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing evil upon them which they cannot escape; though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. | ||
| Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. | ||
| For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to burn incense to Ba'al. | ||
| "Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. | ||
| What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? | ||
| The LORD once called you, 'A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit'; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. | ||
| The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil which the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by burning incense to Ba'al." | ||
| The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds. | A plot against Jeremiah's life. Jr.11.18-23 | |
| But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." | ||
| But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of An'athoth, who seek your life, and say, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand" - | ||
| therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; | ||
| and none of them shall be left. For I will bring evil upon the men of An'athoth, the year of their punishment." | ||
| Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I complain to thee; yet I would plead my case before thee. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? | Jeremiah questions the LORD. Jr.12.1-6 | |
| Thou plantest them, and they take root; they grow and bring forth fruit; thou art near in their mouth and far from their heart. | ||
| But thou, O LORD, knowest me; thou seest me, and triest my mind toward thee. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter. | ||
| How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away, because men said, "He will not see our latter end." | ||
| "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan? | ||
| For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; believe them not, though they speak fair words to you." | ||
| "I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. | The LORD's sorrow because of his people. Jr.12.7-13 | |
| My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest, she has lifted up her voice against me; therefore I hate her. | ||
| Is my heritage to me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her round about? Go, assemble all the wild beasts; bring them to devour. | ||
| Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my portion, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. | ||
| They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart. | ||
| Upon all the bare heights in the desert destroyers have come; for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other; no flesh has peace. | ||
| They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out but profit nothing. They shall be ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD." | ||
| Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage which I have given my people Israel to inherit: "Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. | The LORD's promise to Israel's neighbours. Jr.12.14-17 | |
| And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. | ||
| And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, 'As the LORD lives,' even as they taught my people to swear by Ba'al, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. | ||
| But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, says the Lord." | ||
| Thus said the LORD to me, "Go and buy a linen waistcloth, and put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water." | The linen waistcloth. Jr.13.1-11 | |
| So I bought a waistcloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins. | ||
| And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, | ||
| "Take the waistcloth which you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphra'tes, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock." | ||
| So I went, and hid it by the Euphra'tes, as the LORD commanded me. | ||
| And after many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphra'tes, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to hide there." | ||
| Then I went to the Euphra'tes, and dug, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. | ||
| Then the word of the LORD came to me: | ||
| "Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. | ||
| This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this waistcloth, which is good for nothing. | ||
| For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. | ||
| "You shall speak to them this word: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, "Every jar shall be filled with wine."' And they will say to you, 'Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?' | The wine-jar. Jr.13.12-14 | |
| Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. | ||
| And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, says the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.'" | ||
| Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the LORD has spoken. | A warning against pride. Jr.13.15-27 | |
| Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. | ||
| But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive. | ||
| Say to the king and the queen mother: "Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head." | ||
| The cities of the Negeb are shut up, with none to open them; all Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile. | ||
| "Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? | ||
| What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you? Will not pangs take hold of you, like those of a woman in travail? | ||
| And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things come upon me?' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up, and you suffer violence. | ||
| Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. | ||
| I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert. | ||
| This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, says the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies. | ||
| I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen. | ||
| I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd harlotries, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?" | ||
| The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: | The terrible drought. Jr.14.1-18 | |
| "Judah mourns and her gates languish; her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up. | ||
| Her nobles send their servants for water; they come to the cisterns, they find no water, they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed and confounded and cover their heads. | ||
| Because of the ground which is dismayed, since there is no rain on the land, the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads. | ||
| Even the hind in the field forsakes her newborn calf because there is no grass. | ||
| The wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no herbage. | ||
| "Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. | ||
| O thou hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why shouldst thou be like a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer who turns aside to tarry for a night? | ||
| Why shouldst thou be like a man confused, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not." | ||
| Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus, they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins." | ||
| The LORD said to me: "Do not pray for the welfare of this people. | ||
| Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence." | ||
| Then I said: "Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, 'You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'" | ||
| And the LORD said to me: "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not come on this land': By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. | ||
| And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them - them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their wickedness upon them. | ||
| "You shall say to them this word: 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow. | ||
| If I go out into the field, behold, those slain by the sword! And if I enter the city, behold, the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land, and have no knowledge.'" | ||
| Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Does thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast thou smitten us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror. | The people plead with the LORD. Jr.14.19-22 | |
| We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. | ||
| Do not spurn us, for thy name's sake; do not dishonor thy glorious throne; remember and do not break thy covenant with us. | ||
| Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art thou not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on thee, for thou doest all these things. | ||
| Then the LORD said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! | Doom for the people of Judah. Jr.15.1-9 | |
| And when they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity."' | ||
| "I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the LORD: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. | ||
| And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manas'seh the son of Hezeki'ah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem. | ||
| "Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will bemoan you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? | ||
| You have rejected me, says the LORD, you keep going backward; so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you; - I am weary of relenting. | ||
| I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways. | ||
| I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly. | ||
| She who bore seven has languished; she has swooned away; her sun went down while it was yet day; she has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD." | ||
| Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. | Jeremiah complains to the LORD. Jr.15.10-21 | |
| So let it be, O LORD, if I have not entreated thee for their good, if I have not pleaded with thee on behalf of the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress! | ||
| Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze? | ||
| "Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. | ||
| I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled which shall burn for ever." | ||
| O LORD, thou knowest; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In thy forbearance take me not away; know that for thy sake I bear reproach. | ||
| Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O LORD, God of hosts. | ||
| I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me, for thou hadst filled me with indignation. | ||
| Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Wilt thou be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. | ||
| And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the LORD. | ||
| I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless." | ||
| The word of the LORD came to me: | The LORD's will for Jeremiah's life. Jr.16.1-13 | |
| "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. | ||
| For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who begot them in this land: | ||
| They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. | ||
| "For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, my steadfast love and mercy. | ||
| Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. | ||
| No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead; nor shall any one give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. | ||
| You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. | ||
| For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. | ||
| "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' | ||
| then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, | ||
| and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me; | ||
| therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.' | ||
| "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' | Return form exile. Jr.16.14-15 | |
| but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land which I gave to their fathers. | ||
| "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. | Coming punishment. Jr.16.16-18 | |
| For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. | ||
| And I will doubly recompense their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations." | ||
| O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. | Jeremiah's prayer. Jr.16.19-21 | |
| Can man make for himself gods? Such are no gods!" | ||
| "Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD." | ||
| "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, | The sin & punishment of Judah. Jr.17.1-4 | |
| while their children remember their altars and their Ashe'rim, beside every green tree, and on the high hills, | ||
| on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin throughout all your territory. | ||
| You shall loosen your hand from your heritage which I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled which shall burn for ever." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD. | Various sayings. Jr.17.5-13 | |
| He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. | ||
| "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. | ||
| He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." | ||
| The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? | ||
| "I the LORD search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." | ||
| Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by right; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. | ||
| A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. | ||
| O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake thee shall be put to shame; those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water. | ||
| Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise. | Jeremiah asks for help. Jr.17.14-18 | |
| Behold, they say to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come!" | ||
| I have not pressed thee to send evil, nor have I desired the day of disaster, thou knowest; that which came out of my lips was before thy face. | ||
| Be not a terror to me; thou art my refuge in the day of evil. | ||
| Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil; destroy them with double destruction! | ||
| Thus said the LORD to me: "Go and stand in the Benjamin Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, | Sabbath observance. Jr.17.19-27 | |
| and say: 'Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. | ||
| Thus says the LORD: Take heed for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. | ||
| And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the sabbath or do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. | ||
| Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction. | ||
| "'But if you listen to me, says the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it, | ||
| then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited for ever. | ||
| And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places round about Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephe'lah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, cereal offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. | ||
| But if you do not listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'" | ||
| The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: | Jeremiah at the potter's house. Jr.18.1-12 | |
| "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." | ||
| So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. | ||
| And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. | ||
| Then the word of the LORD came to me: | ||
| "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? says the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. | ||
| If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, | ||
| and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it. | ||
| And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, | ||
| and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it. | ||
| Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 'Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.' | ||
| "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.' | ||
| "Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations, who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. | The people reject the LORD. Jr.18.13-17 | |
| Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Si'rion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams? | ||
| But my people have forgotten me, they burn incense to false gods; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway, | ||
| making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at for ever. Every one who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head. | ||
| Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity." | ||
| Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words." | A plot against Jeremiah. Jr.18.18-23 | |
| Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to my plea. | ||
| Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them. | ||
| Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword, let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be slain by the sword in battle. | ||
| May a cry be heard from their houses, when thou bringest the marauder suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me, and laid snares for my feet. | ||
| Yet, thou, O LORD, knowest all their plotting to slay me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from thy sight. Let them be overthrown before thee; deal with them in the time of thine anger. | ||
| Thus said the LORD, "Go, buy a potter's earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, | The broken flask. Jr.19.1-15 | |
| and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. | ||
| You shall say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon this place that the ears of every one who hears of it will tingle. | ||
| Because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by burning incense in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, | ||
| and have built the high places of Ba'al to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind; | ||
| therefore, behold, days are coming, says the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. | ||
| And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. | ||
| And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; every one who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. | ||
| And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.' | ||
| "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, | ||
| and shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. | ||
| Thus will I do to this place, says the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. | ||
| The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah - all the houses upon whose roofs incense has been burned to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods - shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.'" | ||
| Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people: | ||
| "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words." | ||
| Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. | Jeremiah's conflict with Pashhur the priest. Jr.20.1-6 | |
| Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. | ||
| On the morrow, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on every side. | ||
| For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. | ||
| Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon. | ||
| And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity; to Babylon you shall go; and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely." | ||
| O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. | Jeremiah complains to the LORD. Jr.20.7-18 | |
| For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. | ||
| If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. | ||
| For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my familiar friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and take our revenge on him." | ||
| But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. | ||
| O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause. | ||
| Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. | ||
| Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! | ||
| Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is born to you," making him very glad. | ||
| Let that man be like the cities which the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, | ||
| because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb for ever great. | ||
| Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame? | ||
| This is the word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedeki'ah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchi'ah and Zephani'ah the priest, the son of Ma-asei'ah, saying, | Jerusalem's defeat predicted. Jr.21.1-10 | |
| "Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadrez'zar king of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds, and will make him withdraw from us." | ||
| Then Jeremiah said to them: | ||
| "Thus you shall say to Zedeki'ah, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chalde'ans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will bring them together into the midst of this city. | ||
| I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. | ||
| And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. | ||
| Afterward, says the LORD, I will give Zedeki'ah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrez'zar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them, or spare them, or have compassion.' | ||
| "And to this people you shall say: 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. | ||
| He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chalde'ans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. | ||
| For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.' | ||
| "And to the house of the king of Judah say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, | Jusgement on the royal house of Judah. Jr.21.11-14 | |
| O house of David! Thus says the LORD: and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil doings.'" | ||
| "Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, says the LORD; you who say, 'Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our habitations?' | ||
| I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the LORD; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her." | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, | Jeremiah's message to the royal house of Judah. Jr.22.1-9 | |
| and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O King of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. | ||
| Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. | ||
| For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. | ||
| But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. | ||
| For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: as the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city. | ||
| I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choicest cedars, and cast them into the fire. | ||
| "'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?" | ||
| And they will answer, "Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods and served them."'" | ||
| Weep not for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land. | Jeremiah's message concerning Joahaz. Jr.22.10-12 | |
| For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josi'ah his father, and who went away from this place: "He shall return here no more, | ||
| but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again." | ||
| "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages; | Jeremiah's message concerning Jehoiakim. Jr.22.13-19 | |
| who says, 'I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,' and cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion. | ||
| Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. | ||
| He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? says the LORD. | ||
| But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence." | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah: 'Ah my brother!' or 'Ah sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah lord!' or 'Ah his majesty!' | ||
| With the burial of an ass he shall be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." | ||
| "Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry from Ab'arim, for all your lovers are destroyed. | The Fate of Jerusalem. Jr.22.20-23 | |
| I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, 'I will not listen.' This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice. | ||
| The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your wickedness. | ||
| O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in travail!" | ||
| "As I live, says the LORD, though Coni'ah the son of Jehoi'akim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off | God's judgement on Jehoiakim. Jr.22.24-30 | |
| and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrez'zar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chalde'ans. | ||
| I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. | ||
| But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return." | ||
| Is this man Coni'ah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land which they do not know? | ||
| O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! | ||
| Thus says the LORD: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days; for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah." | ||
| "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" says the LORD. | Hope for the Future. Jr.23.1-8 | |
| Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. | ||
| Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. | ||
| I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the LORD. | ||
| "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. | ||
| In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.' | ||
| "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when men shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' | ||
| but 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land." | ||
| Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words. | Jeremiah's message about the prophets. Jr.23.9-32 | |
| For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. | ||
| "Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD. | ||
| Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall; for I will bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the LORD. | ||
| In the prophets of Sama'ria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Ba'al and led my people Israel astray. | ||
| But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomor'rah." | ||
| Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone forth into all the land." | ||
| Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes; they speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. | ||
| They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to every one who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No evil shall come upon you.'" | ||