[3] And Isaiah the prophet came to king Ezekias, and said to him, What say these men? and whence came they to thee? and Ezekias said, They are come to me from a land afar off, from Babylon. [4] And Isaiah said, What have they seen in thine house? and Ezekias said, They have seen everything in my house; and there is nothing in my house which they have not seen: yea, also the possessions in my treasuries. [5] And Isaiah said to him, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: [6] Behold, the days come, when they shall take all the things that are in thine house, and all that thy fathers have gathered until this day, shall go to Babylon; and they shall not leave anything at all: and God hath said, [7] that they shall take also of thy children whom thou shalt beget; and they shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians. [8] And Ezekias said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord, which he hath spoken: let there, I pray, be peace and righteousness in my days.
Chapter 40
[1] Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith God. [2] Speak, ye priests, to the heart of Jerusalem; comfort her, for her humiliation is accomplished, her sin is put away: for she has received of the Lord’s hand double the amount of her sins.
[3] The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. [4] Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough places plains. [5] And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord has spoken it. [6] The voice of one saying, Cry; and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: [7] 8 The grass withers, and the flower fades: but the word of our God abides for ever.
[9] O thou that bringest glad tidings to Zion, go up on the high mountain; lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest glad tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, fear not; say unto the cities of Juda, Behold your God! [10] Behold the Lord! The Lord is coming with strength, and his arm is with power: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. [11] He shall tend his flock as a shepherd, and he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and shall soothe them that are with young. [12] Who has measured the water in his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth in a handful? Who has weighed the mountains in scales, and the forests in a balance? [13] Who has known the mind of the Lord? and who has been his counsellor, to instruct him? [14] Or with whom has he taken counsel, and he has instructed him? or who has taught him judgement, or who has taught him the way of understanding; [15] since all the nations are counted as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, and shall be counted as spittle? [16] And Libanus is not enough to burn, nor all beasts enough for a whole-burnt offering: [17] and all the nations are as nothing, and counted as nothing.
[18] To whom have ye compared the Lord? and with what likeness have ye compared him? [19] Has not the artificer made an image, or the goldsmith having melted gold, gilt it over, and made it a similitude? [20] For the artificer chooses out a wood that will not rot, and will wisely enquire how he shall set up his image, and that so that it should not be moved. [21] Will ye not know? will ye not hear? has it not been told you of old? Have ye not known the foundations of the earth? [22] It is he that comprehends the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants in it are as grasshoppers; he that set up the heaven as a chamber, and stretched it out as a tent to dwell in: [23] he that appoints princes to rule as nothing, and has made the earth as nothing. [24] For they shall not plant, neither shall they sow, neither shall their root be fixed in the ground: he has blown upon them, and they are withered, and a storm shall carry them away like sticks.
[25] Now then to whom have ye compared me, that I may be exalted? saith the Holy One. [26] Lift up your eyes on high, and see, who has displayed all these things? even he that brings forth his host by number: he shall call them all by name by means of his great glory, and by the power of his might: nothing has escaped thee.
[27] For say not thou, O Jacob, and why hast thou spoken, Israel, saying, My way is hid from God, and my God has taken away my judgement, and has departed? [28] And now, hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? the eternal God, the God that formed the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, nor be weary, and there is no searching of his understanding. [29] He gives strength to the hungry, and sorrow to them that are not suffering. [30] For the young men shall hunger, and the youths shall be weary, and the choice men shall be powerless: [31] but they that wait on God shall renew their strength; they shall put forth new feathers like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not hunger.
Chapter 41
[1] Hold a feast to me, ye islands: for the princes shall renew their strength: let them draw nigh and speak together: then let them declare judgement.
[2] Who raised up righteousness from the east, and called it to his feet, so that it should go? shall appoint it an adversary of Gentiles, and shall dismay kings, and bury their swords in the earth, and cast forth their bows and arrows as sticks? [3] And he shall pursue them; the way of his feet shall proceed in peace. [4] Who has wrought and done these things? he has called it who called it from the generations of old; I God, the first and to all futurity, I AM.
[5] The nations saw, and feared; the ends of the earth drew nigh, and came together, [6] every one judging for his neighbor and that to assist his brother: and one will say, [7] The artificer has become strong, and the coppersmith that smites with the hammer, and forges also: sometimes he will say, It is a piece well joined: they have fastened them with nails; they will fix them, and they shall not be moved.
[8] But thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, and he whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraam, whom I have loved: [9] whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and from the high places of it I have called thee, and said to thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and I have not forsaken thee. [10] Fear not; for I am with thee: wander not; for I am thy God, who have strengthened thee; and I have helped thee, and have established thee with my just right hand.
[11] Behold, all thine adversaries shall be ashamed and confounded; for they shall be as if they were not: and all thine opponents shall perish. [12] Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find the men who shall insolently rage against thee: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against thee shall not be. [13] For I am thy God, who holdeth thy right hand, who saith to thee, [14] Fear not, Jacob, and thou Israel few in number; I have helped thee, saith thy God, he that redeems thee, O Israel. [15] Behold, I have made thee as new saw-shaped threshing wheels of a waggon; and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat the hills to powder, and make them as chaff: [16] and thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them: but thou shalt rejoice in the holy ones of Israel.
[17] And the poor and the needy shall exult; for when they shall seek water, and there shall be none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hear, and will not forsake them: [18] but I will open rivers on the mountains, and fountains in the midst of plains: I will make the desert pools of water, and a thirsty land watercourses. [19] I will plant in the dry land the cedar and box, the myrtle and cypress, and white poplar: [20] that they may see, and know, and perceive, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has wrought these works, and the Holy One of Israel has displayed them.
[21] Your judgement draws nigh, saith the Lord God; your counsel have drawn nigh, saith the King of Jacob. [22] Let them draw nigh, and declare to you what things shall come to pass; or tell us what things were of old, and we will apply our understanding, and we shall know what are the last and the future things: [23] tell us, declare ye to us the things that are coming on at the last time, and we shall know that ye are gods: do good, and do evil, and we shall wonder, and see at the same time [24] whence ye are, and whence is your works: they have chosen you an abomination out of the earth.
[25] But I have raised up him that comes
from the north, and him that comes from the rising of the sun: they shall be called by my name: let the princes come, and as potter’s clay, and as a potter treading clay, so shall ye be trodden down. [26] For who will declare the things from the beginning, that we may know also the former things, and we will say that they are true? there is no one that speaks beforehand, nor anyone that hears your words. [27] I will give dominion to Sion, and will comfort Jerusalem by the way. [28] For from among the nations, behold, there was no one; and of their idols there was none to declare anything: and if I should ask them, Whence are ye? they could not answer me. [29] For these are your makers, as ye think, and they that cause you to err in vain.
Chapter 42
[1] Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. [2] He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor shall his voice be heard without. [3] A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bring forth judgement to truth. [4] He shall shine out, and shall not be discouraged, until he have set judgement on the earth: and in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
[5] Thus saith the Lord God, who made the heaven, and established it; who settled the earth, and the things in it, and gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to them that tread on it: [6] I the Lord God have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will strengthen thee: and I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles: [7] to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the bound and them that sit in darkness out of bonds and the prison-house.
[8] I am the Lord God: that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praises to graven images. [9] Behold, the ancient things have come to pass, and so will the new things which I tell you: yea, before I tell them they are made known to you.
[10] Sing a new hymn to the Lord: ye who are his dominion, glorify his name from the end of the earth: ye that go down to the sea, and sail upon it; the islands, and they that dwell in them. [11] Rejoice, thou wilderness, and the villages thereof, the hamlets, and the dwellers in Kedar: the inhabitants of the rock shall rejoice, they shall shout from the top of the mountains. [12] They shall give glory to God, and shall proclaim his praises in the islands.
[13] The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and crush the war: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout mightily against his enemies. [14] I have been silent: shall I also always be silent and forbear: I have endured like a travailing woman: I will now amaze and wither at once. [15] I will make desolate mountains and hills, and will dry up all their grass; and I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools. [16] And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, and I will cause them to tread paths which they have not known: I will turn darkness into light for them, and crooked things into straight. These things will I do, and will not forsake them. [17] But they are turned back: be ye utterly ashamed that trust in graven images, who say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
[18] Hear, ye deaf, and look up, ye blind, to see. [19] And who is blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that rule over them? yea, the servants of God have been made blind. [20] Ye have often seen, and have not taken heed; your ears have been opened, and ye have not heard. [21] The Lord God has taken counsel that he might be justified, and might magnify his praise. [22] And I beheld, and the people were spoiled and plundered: for there is a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them: they became a spoil, and there was no one that delivered the prey, and there was none who said, Restore.
[23] Who is there among you that will give ear to these things? hearken ye to the things which are coming to pass. [24] For what did he give to Jacob up to spoil, and Israel to them that plundered him? Did not God do it against whom they sinned? and they would not walk in his ways, nor hearken to his law. [25] So he brought upon them the fury of his wrath; and the war, and those that burnt round about them, prevailed against them; yet no one of them knew it, neither did they lay it to heart.
Chapter 43
[1] And now thus saith the Lord God that made thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. [2] And if thou pass through water, I am with thee; and the rivers shall not overflow thee: and if thou go through fire, thou shalt not be burned; the flame shall not burn thee. [3] For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, that saves thee: I have made Egypt and Ethiopia thy ransom, and given Soene for thee. [4] Since thou becamest precious in my sight, thou hast become glorious, and I have loved thee: and I will give men for thee, and princes for thy life. [5] Fear not; for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and will gather thee from the west. [6] I will say to the north, Bring; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from the land afar off, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; [7] even all who are called by my name: for I have prepared him for my glory, and I have formed him, and have made him: [8] and I have brought forth the blind people; for their eyes are alike blind, and they that have ears are deaf.
[9] All the nations are gathered together, and princes shall be gathered out of them: who will declare these things? or who will declare to you things from the beginning? let them bring forth their witnesses, and be justified; and let them hear, and declare the truth.
[10] Be ye my witnesses, and I too am a witness, saith the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I an he: before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none. [11] I am God; and beside me there is no Saviour. [12] I have declared, and have saved; I have reproached, and there was no strange god among you: ye are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God, [13] even from the beginning; and there is none that can deliver out of my hands: I will work, and who shall turn it back?
[14] Thus saith the Lord God that redeems you, the Holy One of Israel; for your sakes I will send to Babylon, and I will stir up all that flee, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships. [15] I am the Lord God, your Holy One, who have appointed for Israel your king.
[16] Thus saith the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty water; [17] who brought forth chariots and horse, and a mighty multitude: but they have lain down, and shall not rise: they are extinct, as quenched flax. [18] Remember ye not the former things, and consider not the ancient things.
[19] Behold, I will do new things, which shall presently spring forth, and ye shall know them: and I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land. [20] the beasts of the field shall bless me, the owls and young ostriches; for I have given water in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land, to give drink to my chosen race, [21] my people whom I have preserved to tell forth my praises.
[22] I have not now called thee, O Jacob; neither have I made thee weary, O Israel. [23] Thou hast not brought me the sheep of thy whole-burnt-offering; neither hast thou glorified me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with sacrifices, neither have I wearied thee with frankincense. [24] Neither hast thou purchased for me victims for silver, neither have I desired the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou didst stand before me in thy sins, and in thine iniquities. [25] I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and thy sins; and I will not remember them. [26] But do thou remember, and let us plead together: do thou first confess thy transgressions, that thou mayest be justified. [27] Your fathers first, and your princes have transgressed against me. [28] And the princes have defiled my sanctuaries: so I gave Jacob to enemies to destroy, and Israel to reproach.
Chapter 44
[1] But now hear, Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen. [2] Thus saith the Lord God that made thee, and he that formed thee from the womb; Thou shalt yet be helped: fear not, my servant Jacob; and beloved Israel, whom I have chosen. [3] For I will give water to the thirsty that walk in a dry land: I will put my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessings
upon thy children: [4] and they shall spring up as grass between brooks, and as willows on the banks of running water. [5] One shall say, I am God’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand, I am God’s, and shall call himself by the name of Israel.
[6] Thus saith God the King of Israel, and the God of hosts that delivered him; I am the first, and I am hereafter: beside me there is no God. [7] Who is like me? let him stand, and call, and declare, and prepare for me from the time that I made man for ever; and let them tell you the things that are coming before they arrive. [8] Hide not yourselves, nor go astray: have ye not heard from the beginning, and have not I told you? ye are witnesses if there is a God beside me.
[9] But they that framed false gods did not then hearken; and they that graved images are all vain, performing their own desires, which shall not profit them, but they shall be ashamed [10] that form a god, and all that grave worthless things: [11] and all by whom they were made are withered: yea, let all the deaf be gathered from among men, and let them stand together; and let them be ashamed and confounded together:
[12] For the artificer sharpens the iron; he fashions the idol with an axe, and fixes it with an awl, and fashions it with the strength of his arm: and he will be hungry and weak, and will drink no water. [13] The artificer having chosen a piece of wood, marks it out with a rule, and fits it with glue, and makes it as the form of a man, and as the beauty of a man, to set it up in the house. [14] He cuts wood out of the forest, which the Lord planted, even a pine tree, and the rain made it grow, [15] that it might be for men to burn: and having taken part of it he warms himself; yea, they burn part of it, and bake loaves thereon; and of the rest they make for themselves gods, and they worship them. [16] Half thereof he burns in the fire, and with half of it he bakes loaves on the coals; and having roasted flesh on it he eats, and is satisfied, and having warmed himself he says, I am comfortable, for I have warmed myself, and have seen the fire. [17] And the rest he makes a graven god, and worships, and prays, saying, Deliver me; for thou art my God.
Delphi Septuagint Page 173