Chapter 44

14:1For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.14:2The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh's land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.14:3It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,14:4that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!"14:5Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,14:6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.14:7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song.14:8Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us."14:9Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.14:10They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?"14:11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

14:12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!14:13You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!14:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!"14:15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.14:16Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;14:17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?"

14:18All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.14:19But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.14:20You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of evil-doers will not be named forever.14:21Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.14:22"I will rise up against them," says Yahweh of Armies, "and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son," says Yahweh.14:23"I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says Yahweh of Armies.14:24Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:14:25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.14:26This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.14:27For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"

14:28This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.14:29Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.14:30The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.

14:31Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.14:32What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.

15:1The burden of Moab: for in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing.15:2They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.15:3In their streets, they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.15:4Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.15:5My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for in the way of Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction.15:6For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.15:7Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.15:8For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab; its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim.15:9For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

16:1Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.16:2For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.16:3Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don't betray the fugitive!16:4Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.16:5A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

16:6We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.16:7Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.16:8For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.16:9Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.16:10Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.16:11Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.16:12It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.16:13This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past.16:14But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble."

17:1The burden of Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.17:2The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.17:3The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel," says Yahweh of Armies.17:4"It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.17:5It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.17:6Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree," says Yahweh, the God of Israel.17:7In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.17:8They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the incense altars.17:9In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.17:10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.17:11In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.17:12Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!17:13The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.17:14At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

18:1Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;18:2that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, "Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!"18:3All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!18:4For Yahweh said to me, "I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."18:5For 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 he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.18:6They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.18:7In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.

19:1The burden of Egypt: "Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.19:2I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.19:3The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.19:4I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.19:5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.19:6The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.19:7The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.19:8The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.19:9Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.19:10The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.19:11The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?"19:12Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.19:13The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.19:14Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.19:15Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.19:16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yahweh of Armies, which he shakes over them.19:17The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yahweh of Armies, which he determines against it.19:18In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of Armies. One will be called "The city of destruction."19:19In that day, there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border.19:20It will be for a sign and for a witness to Yahweh of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.19:21Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to Yahweh, and will perform it.19:22Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.19:23In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.19:24In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;19:25because Yahweh of Armies has blessed them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

20:1In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;20:2at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot.20:3Yahweh said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.20:5They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.20:6The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, 'Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?'"

21:1The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.21:2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media's sighing.21:3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.21:4My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.21:5They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!21:6For the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.21:7When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness."21:8He cried like a lion: "Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.21:9Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.21:10You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!" That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

21:11The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"21:12The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again."

21:13The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.21:14They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.21:15For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.21:16For the Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,21:17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it."

22:1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?22:2You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.22:3All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.22:4Therefore I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.22:5For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains."22:6Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.22:7It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.22:8He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.22:9You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.22:10You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.22:11You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.22:12In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:22:13and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."22:14Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

22:15Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, "Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,22:16'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?' Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!"22:17Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.22:18He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord's house.22:19I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

22:20It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,22:21and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.22:22I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.22:23I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house.22:24They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.22:25"In that day," says Yahweh of Armies, "the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken it."

23:1The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.23:2Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.23:3On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.23:4Be ashamed, 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."23:5When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.23:6Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!23:7Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?23:8Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?23:9Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.23:10Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.23:11He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds.23:12He said, "You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest."

23:13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.23:14Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste!23:15It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.23:16Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.23:17It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.23:18Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

24:1Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.24:2It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.24:3The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word.24:4The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish.24:5The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.24:6Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.24:7The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh.24:8The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases.24:9They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.24:10The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.24:11There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone.24:12The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.24:13For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.24:14These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud from the sea.24:15Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea!24:16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, "I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!" The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.24:17Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabitant the earth.24:18It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.24:19The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently.24:20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.24:21It shall happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.24:22They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited.24:23Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders will be glory.

25:1Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.25:2For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.25:3Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you.25:4For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.25:5As the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.25:6In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.25:7He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.25:8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.25:9It shall be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!"25:10For in this mountain the hand of Yahweh will rest.

Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.25:11He will spread out his hands in its midst, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands.25:12He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

26:1In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.26:9With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.26:10Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's majesty.26:11Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.26:12Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us.26:13Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.26:14The dead shall not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.26:15You have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.26:16Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.26:17Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.26:18We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.26:19Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.

26:20Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.26:21For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

27:1In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.27:2In that day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard!27:3I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.27:4Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.27:5Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."

27:6In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.27:7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?27:8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.27:9Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.27:10For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.27:12It will happen in that day, that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.27:13It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

28:1Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!28:2Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.28:3The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.28:4The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.28:5In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;28:6and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.28:7They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.28:8For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.28:9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?28:10For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.28:11But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language;28:12to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.28:13Therefore the word of Yahweh will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.28:14Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:28:15"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"28:16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.28:17I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.28:18Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.28:19As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message."28:20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.28:21For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.28:22Now therefore don't be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.

28:23Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!28:24Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?28:25When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?28:26For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.28:27For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.28:28Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don't grind it.28:29This also comes forth from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

29:1Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;29:2then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as analtar hearth.29:3I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.29:4You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.29:5But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.29:6She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.29:7The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.29:8It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.29:9Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.29:10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.29:11All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"29:12and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."29:13The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;29:14therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."

29:15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?"29:16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He didn't make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

29:17Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?29:18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.29:19The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.29:20For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off--29:21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.29:22Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.29:23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.29:24They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction."

30:1"Woe to the rebellious children," says Yahweh, "who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,30:2who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!30:3Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.30:4For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.30:5They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

30:6The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.30:7For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.30:8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.30:9For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh;30:10who tell the seers, "Don't see!" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.30:11Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."30:12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;30:13therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.30:14He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."30:15For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,30:16but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;" therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;" therefore those who pursue you will be swift.30:17One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.30:18Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.30:19For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.30:20Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;30:21and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."30:22You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"30:23He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.30:24The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.30:25There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.30:26Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

30:27Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.30:28His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.30:29You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh's mountain, to Israel's Rock.30:30Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.30:31For through the voice of Yahweh the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.30:32Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which Yahweh will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.30:33For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

31:1

Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.31:7For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold--sin which your own hands have made for you.

31:8

32:1

36:1Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them.36:2The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway.36:3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.36:4Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust?36:5I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?36:6Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.36:7But if you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God,' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar?'"36:8Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.36:9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?36:10Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'"


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