Chapter 20
[1] In the year when Tanathan came to Azotus, when he was sent by Arna king of the Assyrians, and warred against Azotus, and took it; [2] then the Lord spoke to Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and take the sackcloth off thy loins, and loose thy sandals from off thy feet, and do thus, going naked and barefoot. [3] And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, there shall be three years for signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians; [4] for thus shall the king of the Assyrians lead the captivity of Egypt and the Ethiopians, young men and old, naked and barefoot, having the shame of Egypt exposed. [5] And the Egyptians being defeated shall be ashamed of the Ethiopians, in whom they had trusted; for they were their glory. [6] And they that dwell in this island shall say in that day, Behold, we trusted to flee to them for help, who could not save themselves from the king of the Assyrians: and how shall we be saved?
Chapter 21
[1] THE VISION OF THE DESERT.
As though a whirlwind should pass through the desert, coming from a desert, even from such a land, [2] so a fearful and a grievous vision was declared to me: he that is treacherous deals treacherously, the transgressor transgresses. The Elamites are upon me, and the ambassadors of the Persians come against me: now will I groan and comfort myself. [3] Therefore are my loins filled with feebleness, and pangs have seized me as a travailing woman: I dealt wrongfully that I might not hear; I hasted that I might not see. [4] My heart wanders, and transgression overwhelms me; my soul is occupied with fear. [5] Prepare the table, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and prepare your shields. [6] For thus said the Lord to me, Go and station a watchman for thyself, and declare whatever thou shalt see. [7] And I saw two mounted horsemen, and a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel. [8] Hearken with great attention, and call thou Urias to the watch-tower: the Lord has spoken. I stood continually during the day, and I stood in the camp all night: [9] and, behold, he comes riding in a chariot and pair: and he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all her images and her idols have been crushed to the ground. [10] Hear, ye that are left, and ye that are in pain, hear what things I have heard of the Lord of hosts which the God of Israel has declared to us.
THE VISION OF IDUMEA.
[11] Call to me out of Seir; guard ye the bulwarks. [12] I watch in the morning and the night: if thou wouldest enquire, enquire, and dwell by me. [13] Thou mayest lodge in the forest in the evening, or in the way of Daedan. [14] Ye that dwell in the country of Thaeman, bring water to meet him that is thirsty; [15] meet the fugitives with bread, because of the multitude of the slain, and because of the multitude of them that lose their way, and because of the multitude of swords, and because of the multitude of bent bows, and because of the multitude of them that have fallen in war. [16] For thus said the Lord to me, Yet a year, as the year of an hireling, and the glory of the sons of Kedar shall fail: [17] and the remnant of the strong bows of the sons of Kedar shall be small: for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.
Chapter 22
[1] THE WORD OF THE VALLEY OF SION.
What has happened to thee, that now ye are all gone up to the housetops which help you not? [2] The city is filled with shouting men: thy slain are not slain with swords, nor are thy dead those who have died in battle. [3] All thy princes have fled, and thy captives are tightly bound, and the mighty men in thee have fled far away. [4] Therefore I said, Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me for the breach of the daughter of my people. [5] For it is a day of trouble, and of destruction, and of treading down, and there is perplexity sent from the Lord of hosts: they wander in the valley of Sion; they wander from the least to the greatest on the mountains. [6] And the Elamites took their quivers, and there were men mounted on horses, and there was a gathering for battle. [7] And it shall be that thy choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and horsemen shall block up thy gates. [8] And they shall uncover the gates of Juda, and they shall look in that day on the choice houses of the city. [9] And they shall uncover the secret places of the houses of the citadel of David: and they saw that they were many, and that one had turned the water of the old pool into the city; [10] and that they had pulled down the houses of Jerusalem, to fortify the wall of the city. [11] And ye procured to yourselves water between the two walls within the ancient pool: but ye looked not to him that made it from the beginning, and regarded not him that created it. [12] And the Lord, the Lord of hosts, called in that day for weeping, and lamentation, and baldness, and for girding with sackcloth: [13] but they engaged in joy and gladness, slaying calves, and killing sheep, so as to eat flesh, and drink wine; saying, Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. [14] And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of hosts: for this sin shall not be forgiven you, until ye die.
[15] Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Go into the chamber, to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him, Why art thou here? [16] and what hast thou to do here, that thou hast here hewn thyself a sepulchre, and madest thyself a sepulchre on high, and hast graven for thyself a dwelling in the rock? [17] Behold now, the Lord of hosts casts forth and will utterly destroy such a man, and will take away thy robe and thy glorious crown, [18] and will cast thee into a great and unmeasured land, and there thou shalt die: and he will bring thy fair chariot to shame, and the house of thy prince to be trodden down. [19] And thou shalt be removed from thy stewardship, and from thy place. [20] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelcias: [21] and I will put on him thy robe, and I will grant him thy crown with power, and I will give thy stewardship into his hands: and he shall be as a father to them that dwell in Jerusalem, and to them that dwell in Juda. [22] And I will give him the glory of David; and he shall rule, and there shall be none to speak against him: and I will give him the key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open. [23] And I will make him a ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne of his father’s house. [24] And every one that is glorious in the house of his father shall trust in him, from the least to the greatest; and they shall depend upon him in that day. [25] Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The man that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed and be taken away, and shall fall; and the glory that is upon him shall be utterly destroyed: for the Lord has spoken it.
Chapter 23
[1] THE WORD CONCERNING TYRE.
Howl, ye ships of Carthage; for she has perished, and men no longer arrive from the land of the Citians: she is led captive. [2] To whom are the dwellers in the island become like, the merchants of Phoenice, passing over the sea [3] in great waters, a generation of merchants? as when the harvest is gathered in, so are these traders with the nations. [4] Be ashamed, O Sidon: the sea has said, yea, the strength of the sea has said, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor have I brought up young men, nor reared virgins. [5] Moreover when it shall be heard in Egypt, sorrow shall seize them for Tyre. [6] Depart ye to Carthage; howl, ye that dwell in this island. [7] Was not this your pride from the beginning, before she was given up? [8] Who has devised this counsel against Tyre? Is she inferior? or has she no strength? her merchants were the glorious princes of the earth. [9] The Lord of hosts has purposed to bring down all the pride of the glorious ones, and to disgrace every glorious thing on the earth. [10] Till thy land; for ships no more come out of Carthage. [11] And thy hand prevails no more by sea, which troubled kings: the Lord of hosts has given a command concerning Chanaan, to destroy the strength thereof. [12] And men shall say, Ye shall no longer at all continue to insult and injure the daughter of Sidon: and if thou depart to the Citians, neither there shalt thou have rest. [13] And if thou depart to the land of the Chaldeans, this also is laid waste by the Assyrians, for her wall is fallen. [14] Howl, ye ships of Carthage: for your strong hold is destroyed.
[15] And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be left seventy years, as the time of
a king, as the time of a man: and it shall come to pass after seventy years, that Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot. [16] Take a harp, go about, O city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; play well on the harp, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. [17] And it shall come to pass after the seventy years, that God will visit Tyre, and she shall be again restored to her primitive state, and she shall be a mart for all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. [18] And her trade and her gain shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be gathered for them, but for those that dwell before the Lord, even all her trade, to eat and drink and be filled, and for a covenant and a memorial before the Lord.
Chapter 24
[1] Behold, the Lord is about to lay waste the world, and will make it desolate, and will lay bare the surface of it, and scatter them that dwell therein. [2] And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as the lord, and the maid as the mistress; the buyer shall be as the seller, the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as his creditor.
[3] The earth shall be completely laid waste, and the earth shall be utterly spoiled: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. [4] The earth mourns, and the world is ruined, the lofty ones of the earth are mourning. [5] And she has sinned by reason of her inhabitants; because they have transgressed the law, and changed the ordinances, even the everlasting covenant. [6] Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, because the inhabitants thereof have sinned: therefore the dwellers in the earth shall be poor, and few men shall be left. [7] The wine shall mourn, the vine shall mourn, all the merry-hearted shall sigh. [8] The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the sound of the harp has ceased. [9] They are ashamed, they have not drunk wine; strong drink has become bitter to them that drink it. [10] All the city has become desolate: one shall shut his house so that none shall enter. [11] There is a howling for the wine everywhere; all the mirth of the land has ceased, all the mirth of the land has departed. [12] And cities shall be left desolate, and houses being left shall fall to ruin.
[13] All this shall be in the land in the midst of the nations, as if one should strip an olive tree, so shall they strip them; but when the vintage is done, [14] these shall cry aloud; and they that are left on the land shall rejoice together in the glory of the Lord: the water of the sea shall be troubled. [15] Therefore shall the glory of the Lord be in the isles of the sea; the name of the Lord shall be glorious.
[16] O Lord God of Israel, from the ends of the earth we have heard wonderful things, and there is hope to the godly: but they shall say, Woe to the despisers, that despise the law. [17] Fear, and a pit, and a snare, are upon you that dwell on the earth. [18] And it shall come to pass, that he that flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the pit shall be caught by the snare: for windows have been opened in heaven, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken, [19] the earth shall be utterly confounded, and the earth shall be completely perplexed. [20] It reels as a drunkard and one oppressed with wine, and the earth shall be shaken as a storehouse of fruits; for iniquity has prevailed upon it, and it shall fall, and shall not be able to rise.
[21] And God shall bring his hand upon the host of heaven, and upon the kings of the earth. [22] And they shall gather the multitude thereof into prisons, and they shall shut them into a strong hold: after many generations they shall be visited. [23] And the brick shall decay, and the wall shall fall; for the Lord shall reign from out of Sion, and out of Jerusalem, and shall be glorified before his elders.
Chapter 25
[1] O Lord God, I will glorify thee, I will sing to thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, even an ancient and faithful counsel. So be it. [2] For thou hast made cities a heap, even cities made strong that their foundations should not fall: the city of ungodly men shall not be built for ever. [3] Therefore shall the poor people bless thee, and cities of injured men shall bless thee. [4] For thou hast been a helper to every lowly city, and a shelter to them that were disheartened by reason of poverty: thou shalt deliver them from wicked men: thou hast been a shelter of them that thirst, and a refreshing air to injured men.
[5] We were as faint-hearted men thirsting in Sion, by reason of ungodly men to whom thou didst deliver us. [6] And the Lord of hosts shall make a feast for all the nations: on this mount they shall drink gladness, they shall drink wine: [7] they shall anoint themselves with ointment in this mountain. Impart thou all these things to the nations; for this is God’s counsel upon all the nations. [8] Death has prevailed and swallowed men up; but again the Lord God has taken away every tear from every face. He has taken away the reproach of his people from all the earth: for the mouth off the Lord has spoken it. [9] And in that day they shall say, behold our God in whom we have trusted, and he shall save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, and we have exulted, and will rejoice in our salvation.
[10] God will give rest on this mountain, and the country of Moab shall be trodden down, as they tread the floor with waggons. [11] And he shall spread forth his hands, even as he also brings down man to destroy him: and he shall bring low his pride in regard to the thing on which he has laid his hands. [12] And he shall bring down the height of the refuge of the wall, and it shall come down even to the ground.
Chapter 26
[1] In that day they shall sing this song in the land of Judea; Behold a strong city; and he shall make salvation its wall and bulwark. [2] Open ye the gates, let the nation enter that keeps righteousness, and keeps truth, [3] supporting truth, and keeping peace: for on thee, O Lord, [4] they have trusted with confidence for ever, the great, the eternal God; [5] who hast humbled and brought down them that dwell on high thou shalt cast down strong cities, and bring them to the ground. [6] And the feet of the meek and lowly shall trample them.
[7] The way of the godly is made straight: the way of the godly is also prepared. [8] For the way of the Lord is judgement: we have hoped in thy name, and on the remembrance of thee, [9] which our soul longs for: my spirit seeks thee very early in the morning, O God, for thy commandments are a light on the earth: learn righteousness, ye that dwell upon the earth. [10] For the ungodly one is put down: no one who will not learn righteousness on the earth, shall be able to do the truth: let the ungodly be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord. [11] O Lord, thine arm is exalted, yet they knew it not: but when they know they shall be ashamed: jealously shall seize upon an untaught nation, and now fire shall devour the adversaries. [12] O Lord our God, give us peace: for thou hast rendered to us all things. [13] O Lord our God, take possession of us: O Lord, we know not any other beside thee: we name thy name.
[14] But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians by any means raise them up: therefore thou hast brought wrath upon them, and slain them, and hast taken away every male of them. Bring more evils upon them, O Lord; [15] bring more evils on the glorious ones of the earth.
[16] Lord, in affliction I remembered thee; thy chastening was to us with small affliction. [17] And as a woman in travail draws nigh to be delivered, and cries out in her pain; so have we been to thy beloved. [18] We have conceived, O Lord, because of thy fear, and have been in pain, and have brought forth the breath of thy salvation, which we have wrought upon the earth: we shall not fall, but all that dwell upon the land shall fall. [19] The dead shall rise, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from thee is healing to them: but the land of the ungodly shall perish. [20] Go, my people, enter into thy closets, shut thy door, hide thyself for a little season, until the anger of the Lord have passed away. [21] For, behold, the Lord is bringing wrath from his holy place upon the dwellers on the earth: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall not cover her slain.
Chapter 27
[1] In that day God shall bring his holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, even the serpent that flees, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent: he shall destroy the dragon. [2] In that day there shall be a fair vineyard, and a desire to
commence a song concerning it. [3] I am a strong city, a city in a siege: in vain shall I water it; for it shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall. [4] There is no woman that has not taken hold of it; who will set me to watch stubble in the field? because of this enemy I have set her aside; therefore on this account the Lord has done all that he appointed. [5] I am burnt up; they that dwell in her shall cry, Let us make peace with him, let us make peace, [6] they that are coming are the children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.
[7] Shall he himself be thus smitten, even as he smote? and as he slew, shall he be thus slain? [8] Fighting and reproaching he will dismiss them; didst thou not meditate with a harsh spirit, to slay them with a wrathful spirit? [9] Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be taken away; and this is his blessing, when I shall have taken away his sin; when they shall have broken to pieces all the stones of the altars as fine dust, and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut off, as a thicket afar off. [10] The flock that dwelt there shall be left, as a deserted flock; and the ground shall be for a long time for pasture, and there shall flocks lie down to rest. [11] And after a time there shall be in it no green thing because of the grass being parched. Come hither, ye woman that come from a sight; for it is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them shall have no pity upon them, and he that formed them shall have no mercy upon them.
[12] And it shall come to pass in that day that God shall fence men off from the channel of the river as far as Rhinocorura; but do ye gather one by one the children of Israel. [13] And it shall come to pass in that day that they shall blow the great trumpet, and the lost ones in the land of the Assyrians shall come, and the lost ones in Egypt, and shall worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
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