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 Isaiah

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. ³The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. ⁴Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. ⁵Why will you still be stricken, that you revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ⁶From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither soothed with oil. ⁷Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. ⁸And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. ⁹Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of Jehovah, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. ¹¹To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? says Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. ¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? ¹³Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies,-- I cannot: away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. ¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash, make yourself clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; ¹⁷learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. ¹⁸Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.

²¹How is the faithful city become a harlot! she that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. ²²Your silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water. ²³Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loves bribes, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. ²⁴Therefore says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies; ²⁵and I will turn my hand upon you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin; ²⁶and I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town. ²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness. ²⁸But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed. ²⁹For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen. ³⁰For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water. ³¹And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ²And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³And many peoples shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. ⁴And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁵O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

⁶For you have forsaken your people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. ⁷And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. ⁸Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. ⁹And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not.

¹⁰You, enter into the rock and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty. ¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹²For there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low; ¹³and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, ¹⁴and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, ¹⁵and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall, ¹⁶and upon all the ships of Tar-shish, and upon all pleasant imagery. ¹⁷And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹⁸And the idols shall utterly pass away. ¹⁹And men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake mightily the earth. ²⁰In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats; ²¹to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake mightily the earth. ²²Cease you from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

3 For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; ²the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; ³the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the expert artisan, and the skillful orator. ⁴And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. ⁵And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. ⁶When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, you have clothing, be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand; ⁷in that day shall he lift up his voice, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: you shall not make me ruler of the people. ⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

⁹The look of their countenance does witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves. ¹⁰You say of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. ¹¹Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him. ¹²As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths. ¹³Jehovah stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples. ¹⁴Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: It is you that have eaten up the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses: ¹⁵what do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁶Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; ¹⁷therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts. ¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents; ¹⁹the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers; ²⁰the headdress, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets; ²¹the rings, and the nose-jewels; ²²the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels; ²³the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils. ²⁴And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty. ²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. ²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground.

4 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name; to take away our reproach.

²In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. ³And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; ⁴when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. ⁵And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. ⁶And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.

5 Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: ²and he dug in it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he waited that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. ³And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. ⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes? ⁵And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: ⁶and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. ⁷For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry.

⁸Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land! ⁹In my ears says Jehovah of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. ¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah. ¹¹Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflames them! ¹²And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands. ¹³Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst. ¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices among them, descend into it. ¹⁵And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled: ¹⁶but Jehovah of hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness. ¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.

¹⁸Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope; ¹⁹that say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it! ²⁰Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ²¹Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ²²Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; ²³that justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. ²⁵Therefore is the anger of Jehovah kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has affected them; and the mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. ²⁶And he will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. ²⁷None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: ²⁸whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hoofs shall be accounted as flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind: ²⁹their roaring shall be like a lioness, they shall roar like young lions; yes, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver. ³⁰And they shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof.

6 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. ³And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts. ⁶Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven. ⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me.

⁹And he said, Go, and tell this people, You shall indeed hear, but understand not; and you shall indeed see, but perceive not. ¹⁰Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; unless they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed. ¹¹Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be wasted without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, ¹²and Jehovah has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. ¹³And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof.

7 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. ²And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind. ³Then said Jehovah unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field; ⁴and say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let your heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against you, saying, ⁶Let us go up against Judah, and agitate it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel; ⁷thus says the Lord Jehovah, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. ⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people: ⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.

¹⁰And Jehovah spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, ¹¹Ask you a sign of Jehovah your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. ¹²But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. ¹³And he said, Hear now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that you will weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ¹⁵Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you hate shall be forsaken.

¹⁷Jehovah will bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--even the king of Assyria. ¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and upon all thorn-hedges, and upon all pastures. ²⁰In that day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. ²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep; ²²and it shall come to pass, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land. ²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall be for briers and thorns. ²⁴With arrows and with bow shall one come there, because all the land shall be briers and thorns. ²⁵And all the hills that were dug with the mattock, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

8 And Jehovah said unto me, Take a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ²and I will take unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. ³And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said Jehovah unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria. ⁵And Jehovah spoke unto me yet again, saying, ⁶Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; ⁷now therefore, behold, the Lord brought up upon them the waters of the River, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it shall come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks; ⁸and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹Make an uproar, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces. ¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. ¹¹For Jehovah spoke this to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ¹²Say not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people shall say, A conspiracy; neither fear you their fear, nor be in dread thereof. ¹³Jehovah of hosts, him shall you sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

¹⁶You, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷And I will wait for Jehovah, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. ¹⁸Behold, I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who dwells in mount Zion. ¹⁹And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? ²⁰To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. ²¹And they shall pass through it, very distressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward: ²²and they shall look unto the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away.

9 But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time has he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. ²The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. ³You have multiplied the nation, you have increased their joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. ⁴For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian. ⁵For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. ⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end: upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel. ⁹And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and in stoutness of heart, ¹⁰The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place. ¹¹Therefore Jehovah will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies, ¹²the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. ¹³Yet the people have not turned unto him that struck them, neither have they sought Jehovah of hosts. ¹⁴Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. ¹⁵The elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet that teach lies, he is the tail. ¹⁶For they that lead this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. ¹⁷Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for every one is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth spoke folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. ¹⁸For wickedness burns as the fire; it devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. ¹⁹Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spares his brother. ²⁰And one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: ²¹Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness; ²to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! ³And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory? ⁴They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! ⁶I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the plunder, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. ⁷Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations. ⁸For he says, Are not my princes all of them kings? ⁹Is not Calno as Car-che-mish? is not Ha-math as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? ¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; ¹¹shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? ¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. ¹³For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the borders of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down them that sit on thrones: ¹⁴and my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped. ¹⁵Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wields it? as if a rod should wield them that lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up him that is not wood. ¹⁶Therefore will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire. ¹⁷And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day. ¹⁸And he will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a standard-bearer faints. ¹⁹And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child may write them.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean upon him that struck them, but shall lean upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ²¹A remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. ²²For though your people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return: a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. ²³For a full end, and that determined, will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.

²⁴Therefore this says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, O my people that dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt. ²⁵For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you shall be accomplished, and my anger shall be directed to his destruction. ²⁶And Jehovah of hosts will stir up against him a scourge, as in the striking of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt. ²⁷And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness. ²⁸He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmash he lays up his baggage; ²⁹they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul is fled. ³⁰Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim! hearken, O Laishah! O you poor Anathoth! ³¹Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. ³²This very day shall he halt at Nob: he shakes his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. ³³Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low. ³⁴And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

11 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. ²And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. ³And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears; ⁴but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. ⁵And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. ⁶And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. ⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that stands for an sign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be glorious. ¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Path-ros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Ha-math, and from the islands of the sea. ¹²And he will set up an sign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that oppress Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not oppress Ephraim. ¹⁴And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they plunder the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Mo-ab; and the children of Am-mon shall obey them. ¹⁵And Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod. ¹⁶And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

12 And in that day you shall say, I will give thanks unto you, O Jehovah; for though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away and you comfort me. ²Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and song; and he is become my salvation. ³Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

⁴And in that day shall you say, Give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted. ⁵Sing unto Jehovah; for he has done excellent things: let this be known in all the earth. ⁶Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for great in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.

13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. ²Set you up an banner upon the bare mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. ³I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulted ones. ⁴The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host for the battle. ⁵They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶Wail; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ⁷Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt: ⁸and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flames. ⁹Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. ¹⁰For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine. ¹¹And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. ¹²I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir. ¹³Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. ¹⁴And it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land. ¹⁵Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is taken shall fall by the sword. ¹⁶Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished. ¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. ¹⁸And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal-de-ans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the A-ra-bi-an pitch a tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. ²¹But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. ²²And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

14 For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the sojourner shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. ³And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard service wherein you were made to serve,

⁴that you shall take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! ⁵Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers; ⁶that struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained. ⁷The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. ⁸Yes, the fir-trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are laid low, no hewer is come up against us. ⁹Sheol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. ¹⁰All they shall answer and say unto you, are you also become weak as we? are you become like unto us? ¹¹Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and worms cover you. ¹²How are you fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, that did lay low the nations! ¹³And you said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. ¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit. ¹⁶They that see you shall gaze at you, they shall consider you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; ¹⁷that made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; that let not loose his prisoners to their home? ¹⁸All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house. ¹⁹But you are cast forth away from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body trodden under foot. ²⁰You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever. ²¹Prepare a slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up, and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. ²²And I will rise up against them, says Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son, says Jehovah. ²³I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Jehovah of hosts.

²⁴Jehovah of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: ²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder. ²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. ²⁷For Jehovah of hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? ²⁸In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. ²⁹Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. ³⁰And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant shall be slain. ³¹Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you are melted away, O Philistia, all of you; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. ³²What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah has founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge.

15 The burden of Mo-ab. For in a night Ar of Mo-ab is laid waste, and brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Mo-ab is laid waste, and brought to nothing. ²They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Mo-ab wails over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off. ³In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one wails, weeping abundantly. ⁴And Heshbon cries out, and El-e-a-leh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Mo-ab cry aloud; his soul trembles within him. ⁵My heart cries out for Mo-ab; her nobles flee unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Hor-o-na-im they raise up a cry of destruction.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing. ⁷Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the brook of the willows. ⁸For the cry is gone round about the borders of Mo-ab; the wailing thereof unto Eglaim, and the wailing thereof unto Beer-elim. ⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon them of Mo-ab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land.

16 Send you the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. ²For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Mo-ab be at the fords of the Arnon. ³Give counsel, execute justice; make your shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive. ⁴Let my outcasts dwell with you; as for Mo-ab, be you a covert to him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing, destruction ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. ⁵And a throne shall be established in lovingkindness; and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Mo-ab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogancy, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nothing. ⁷Therefore shall Mo-ab wail for Mo-ab, every one shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken. ⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice branches thereof, which reached even unto Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea. ⁹Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon, and El-e-a-leh: for upon your summer fruits and upon your harvest the battle shout is fallen. ¹⁰And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vineyard shouts to cease. ¹¹Wherefore my heart sounds like a harp for Mo-ab, and my inward parts for Kir-heres. ¹²And it shall come to pass, when Mo-ab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail. ¹³This is the word that Jehovah spoke concerning Mo-ab in time past. ¹⁴But now Jehovah has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Mo-ab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.

17 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. ²The cities of A-ro-er are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. ³And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says Jehovah of hosts. ⁴And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean. ⁵And it shall be as when the harvestman gathers the standing grain, and his arm reaps the ears; yes, it shall be as when one gleans ears in the valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, says Jehovah, the God of Israel. ⁷In that day shall men look unto their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. ⁸And they shall not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.

⁹In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation. ¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength; therefore you planted pleasant plants, and set it with strange slips. ¹¹In the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom; but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! ¹³The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. ¹⁴At eventide, behold, terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that plunder us, and the lot of them that rob us.

18 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of E-thi-o-pi-a; ²that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that metes out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide! ³All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when an banner is lifted up on the mountains, you see; and when the trumpet is blown, you hear. ⁴For this has Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. ⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down. ⁶They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. ⁷In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that measure out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.

19 The burden of Egypt. Behold, Jehovah rides upon a swift cloud, and comes unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. ²And I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. ³And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. ⁴And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. ⁵And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and become dry. ⁶And the rivers shall become foul; the streams of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up; the reeds and flags shall where away. ⁷The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more. ⁸And the fishers shall lament, and all they that cast hook into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. ⁹Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave white cloth, shall be confounded. ¹⁰And the pillars of Egypt shall be broken in pieces; all they that work for hire shall be grieved in soul. ¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say you unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? ¹²Where then are your wise men? and let them tell you now; and let them know what Jehovah of hosts has purposed concerning Egypt. ¹³The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, that are the corner-stone of her tribes. ¹⁴Jehovah has mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. ¹⁵Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do. ¹⁶In that day shall the Egyptians be like unto a women; and they shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which he shakes over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah shall become a terror unto Egypt; every one to whom mention is made thereof shall be afraid, because of the purpose of Jehovah of hosts, which he purposed against it.

¹⁸In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Jehovah of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction. ¹⁹In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah. ²⁰And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto Jehovah because of oppressors, and he will send them a Saviour, and a defender, and he will deliver them. ²¹And Jehovah shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day; yes, they shall worship with sacrifice and oblation, and shall vow a vow unto Jehovah, and shall perform it. ²²And Jehovah will strike Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto Jehovah, and he will be petition of them, and will heal them. ²³In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. ²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; ²⁵for that Jehovah of hosts has blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.

20 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; ²at that time Jehovah spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoes from off your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. ³And Jehovah said, Like as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning E-thi-o-pi-a; ⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of E-thi-o-pi-a, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵And they shall be dismayed and confounded, because of E-thi-o-pi-a their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. ⁶And the inhabitant of this coast-land shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and we, how shall we escape?

21 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land. ²A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. ³Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see. ⁴My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling unto me. ⁵They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, you princes, anoint the shield. ⁶For this has the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman: let him declare what he sees: ⁷and when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed. ⁸And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights; ⁹and, behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground. ¹⁰O you my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

¹¹The burden of Dumah. One calls unto me out of Se-ir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? ¹²The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: turn you, come.

¹³The burden upon A-ra-bi-a. In the forest in A-ra-bi-a shall you lodge, O you caravans of De-danites. ¹⁴Unto him that was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread. ¹⁵For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. ¹⁶For this has the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Ke-dar shall fail; ¹⁷and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Ke-dar, shall be few; for Jehovah, the God of Israel, has spoken it.

22 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops? ²O you that are full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers; all that were found of you were bound together; they fled afar off. ⁴Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁵For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains. ⁶And Elam bare the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷And it came to pass, that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸And he took away the covering of Judah; and you did look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹And you saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool; ¹⁰and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you brake down the houses to fortify the wall; ¹¹ye made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you looked not unto him that had done this, neither had you respect unto him that purposed it long ago. ¹²And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: ¹³and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. ¹⁴And Jehovah of hosts revealed himself in my ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, Go, get you unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ¹⁶What do you here? and whom has you here, that you have hewed you out here a sepulchre? hewing him out a sepulchre on high, graving a habitation for himself in the rock! ¹⁷Behold, Jehovah, like a strong man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up closely. ¹⁸He will surely wind you round and round, and toss you like a ball into a large country; there shall you die, and there shall be the chariots of your glory, the shame of your lord’s house. ¹⁹And I will thrust you from your office; and from your station shall you be pulled down. ²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: ²¹and I will cloth him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. ²²And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. ²⁴And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flagons. ²⁵In that day, says Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for Jehovah has spoken it.

23 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tar-shish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. ²Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. ³And on great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations. ⁴Be you ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins. ⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. ⁶Pass over to Tar-shish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast. ⁷Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn? ⁸Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? ⁹Jehovah of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. ¹⁰Pass through your land as the Nile, O daughter of Tar-shish; there is no restraint any more. ¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms: Jehovah has given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the strongholds thereof. ¹²And he said, you shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon: arise, pass over to Kittim; even there shall you have no rest. ¹³Behold, the land of the Chal-de-ans: this people was not; the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the palaces thereof; they made it a ruin. ¹⁴Howl, you ships of Tar-shish; for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁵And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it shall be unto Tyre as in the song of the harlot. ¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, you harlot that have been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. ¹⁷And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. ¹⁸And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to Jehovah: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before Jehovah, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.