Chapters 17-32 (2)

Chapters 17-32 (2)

CHAPTER 25

1 O Jehovah, thou art my God;
I will exalt thee;
I will praise thy name;
For thou hast done a wonderful thing;
Counsels which have been already decreed of old;
Firm truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city a heap;
A fortified city to be a ruin;
A palace of foreigners, that it may not be a city,
That it may never be built.

3 Therefore shall the mighty people glorify thee;
The city of the powerful nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been strength to the poor;
Strength to the needy in his affliction;
A refuge from the flood,
A shadow from the heat;
For the breath of the strong ones
Was as a storm against the wall.

Note 382. Or, Of the violent ones.

Note 383. Or, As a flood.

5 As the heat in a dry place,
Thou wilt lay low the noise of foreigners,
As the heat by the shadow of a cloud;
The shouting of the strong ones wilt thou lay low.

Note 384. Or, The singing; or, The cutting off.

6 And Jehovah of hosts will make
For all people in that mountain
A feast of fat things,
A feast of liquids purified,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of liquids purified.

7 And he will destroy in that mountain
The face of the covering with which all nations were covered,
And the veil which was spread over all nations.

8 He hath destroyed death eternally.
And the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from all faces,
And will take away the disgrace of his people from all the earth;
For Jehovah hath spoken it.

9 And it shall he said in that day:
Lo, this is our God;
We have waited for him,
And he will save us;
This is Jehovah;
We have waited for him;
We will rejoice and be glad in his salvation.

10 For the hand of Jehovah shall rest on that mountain;
And Moab shall be trodden down under him,
As straw is trodden down on the dunghill.

11 And he will spread out his hand under the midst of them,
As a swimmer spreadeth forth his hands to swim;
And he will lay low their pride,
With the arms of their hands.

12 And the fortress of the loftiness of thy walls
He will bring down,
He will lay low,
And he will cast down to the ground,
To the dust.

CHAPTER 26

1 In that day shall a song be sung in the land of Judah;
We have a city of strength;
He hath made salvation to be walls and a rampart.

2 Open ye the gates,
And the righteous nation shall enter,
Which keepeth the truth.

3 The thought is fixed;
Thou wilt keep peace, peace;
For they have trusted in thee.

4 Hope ye in Jehovah for ever;
For in Jah Jehovah is the strength of ages.

5 For he will bow down the inhabitants of loftiness;
He will lay low the elevated city;
He will lay it low to the ground;
He will bring it to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down;
The feet of the poor,
The steps of the needy.

7 Straightnesses are the path of the righteous man;
The straight way of the righteous man thou wilt weigh.

Note 385. Or, Thou, who art upright, wilt weigh (or, wilt direct) the path of the righteous man.

8 Even in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah,
We have waited for thee;
To thy name,
And to the remembrance of thee,
Is the desire of the soul.

9 My soul hath desired thee in the night;
Yea, with my spirit within me I will seek thee in the morning;
For so soon as thy judgments shall be in the earth,
The inhabitants of the earth shall learn righteousness.

Note 386. Or, Earnestly.

10 The wicked man will obtain favour,
And will not learn righteousness;
In the land of upright actions he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.

11 Jehovah, though thy hand is lifted up,
They will not see;
They shall see, and be ashamed,
Through their envy of the people;
Yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 O Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us;
For thou also hast wrought all our works for us.

13 O Jehovah our God,
Lords besides thee have had dominion over us;
By thee only will we call thy name to remembrance.

14 The dead shall not live;
The slain shall not rise again;
Therefore thou hast visited and driven them away,
And hast destroyed all remembrance of them.

15 Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah!
Thou hast added to the nation;
Thou art glorified;
Thou hast enlarged all the boundaries of the earth.

16 O Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee;
They poured out a prayer, when thy chastening was upon them.

17 As a woman with child, who draweth near to her delivery,
Is in pain, and crieth out in her pains;
So have we been before thy face, O Jehovah.

18 We have been in labour,
We have had pain,
As if we had brought forth wind;
Salvation hath not been wrought for the earth,
And the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live;
My dead body, they shall arise;
Awake and sing, ye inhabitants of the dust;
For thy dew is the dew of herbs;
And the earth shall cast out the dead.

Note 387. Or, Thou wilt overthrow the land of the giants; or, The earth will cause the giants to fall.

20 Come, O my people;
Enter thou into thy chambers;
Shut the door behind thee;
Hide thyself a little for a moment,
Till the indignation pass over.

21 For, behold, Jehovah cometh out of his place,
To visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him;
And the earth shall disclose her blood,
And shall no longer cover her slain.

CHAPTER 27

1 In that day will Jehovah visit
With his hard, and great, and strong sword,
On leviathan the piercing serpent,
And on leviathan the crooked serpent;
And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing ye to the vineyard of redness.

3 I Jehovah keep it;
Every moment will I water it;
That (the enemy) may not visit it,
I will keep it night and day.

4 Fury doth not dwell in me.
Who shall engage me in battle with the brier and thorn?
I will pass through it in a hostile manner,
I will utterly burn it up.

Note 388. Or, Who shall set the brier against the thorn? or, Who shall set me as a brier and thorn?

5 Will she take hold of my strength,
That she may make peace with me?
Yea, that she may make peace with me?

6 Afterwards shall Jacob put forth roots;
Israel shall bud and blossom;
And the face of the world shall be filled with fruit.

7 Hath he smitten him according to the stroke of him that smote him?
Hath he been slain according to the slaughter of them that slew him?

8 In measure, in her shooting forth,
Thou wilt contend with her;
Even though he blow with his violent wind
In the day of the east wind.

9 Therefore in this manner shall the iniquity of Jacob be expiated;
And this is all the fruit,
The taking away of his sin;
When he shall make all the stones of the altar
As lime-stones broken in pieces,
That groves and images may not rise again.

10 Yet the fortified city shall be desolate;
The inhabited place shall be deserted,
And forsaken like a wilderness.
There the calf shall feed,
And there shall lie down,
And shall browse on its tops.

11 When its harvest shall wither, they shall break it;
Women coming shall burn it;
For it is a people that doth not understand;
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them,
And he who formed them will not be gracious to them.

Note 389. Or, Shall cut it down.

12 Yet in that day it shall come to pass
That Jehovah will thrash
From the channel of the river
To the river of Egypt;
And ye shall be gathered one by one,
O children of Israel.

13 It shall also come to pass in that day
That the great trumpet shall be blown;
And they shall come who were perishing in the land of Assyria,
And who had been scattered in the land of Egypt;
And they shall worship Jehovah
In the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 28

1 Wo to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim;
For the splendour of his glory shall be a fading flower,
Which is on the head of the valley of the fat ones,
Of them that are overcome by wine.

2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one;
As a deluge of hail,
A desolating whirlwind;
As the violence of mighty waters overflowing,
Casting down to the earth with the hand.

3 The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
Shall be trodden under feet.

4 And the splendour of his glory shall be a fading flower,
Which is on the head of the valley of the fat ones;
Like the premature fig before the summer,
Which, while he looketh at it,
While it is yet in his hand,
He that seeth it devoureth.

5 In that day will Jehovah of hosts
Become a crown of glory
And a diadem of excellence
To the remnant of his people,

6 And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth on the judgment-seat,
And strength to them that drive back the battle to the gate.

7 But they also have erred through wine;
Through strong drink they have gone astray.
The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink;
They have been swallowed up by wine;
They have gone astray through strong drink;
They have erred in vision,
They have stumbled in judgment.

8 For all tables are full of nauseous vomiting,
So that no place is unoccupied.

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk?
Them that are withdrawn from the breasts?

10 For precept must be on precept, precept on precept;
Instruction on instruction, instruction on instruction;
Here a little, there a little.

11 For with stammering lips will he speak to this people,
And with a foreign tongue.

12 For he said to them, This is the rest;
Cause the weary to rest;
And this is the refreshing;
And they refused to hear.

13 The word of Jehovah shall therefore be to them
Rule upon rule, rule upon rule;
Instruction upon instruction, instruction upon instruction;
Here a little, there a little;
Therefore they shall go, and shall fall backward,
Shall be broken, and snared, and taken.

14 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye scornful men,
Who govern this people, which is in Jerusalem.

15 Because ye have said,
We have struck a league with death,
And with hell have we made a compact;
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
It shall not come to us;
For we have made falsehood our refuge,
And under vanity have we hidden ourselves.

16 Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah:
Behold, I will lay in Zion a stone, a stone of trial,
A precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste.

17 And I will lay judgment to the line,
And righteousness to the measure.
The hail shall sweep away the reliance of falsehood,
And the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.

Note 390. Or, Plummet.

18 And your compact with death shall be disannulled;
Your agreement with hell shall not stand;
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
Then shall ye become a treading down to it.

19 From the time that it shall pass,
It shall seize you every morning,
And shall pass every day by day and by night;
And it shall be that terror alone
Shall cause them to understand the report.

Note 391. Or, Agitation of mind.

20 For the bed is short, so that it is not enough;
The covering shall be narrow for wrapping,

21 For as in Mount Perazim will Jehovah stand up,
And as in the valley of Gibeon will he be angry;
To do his work, his strange work;
To perform his act, his strange act.

Note 392. Or, He will make a noise.

22 Now therefore be ye not mockers,
Lest your chains be more firmly fastened;
For I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts a consumption,
And a completion on the whole earth.

23 Listen ye, and hear my voice;
Hearken, and hear my speech.

24 Doth the ploughman plough every day, that he may sow?
Doth he open and break the clods of his field?

25 When he hath leveled its surface,
Will he not then scatter fitches, and sow cummin,
And allot wheat in measure, and barley measured,
And spelt in its order?

26 His God instructeth him,
And teacheth him what is right.

27 Certainly vetches shall not be thrashed with a toothed instrument,
Nor shall the wheel of a cart be turned round on the cummin;
For vetches are beaten with a staff,
And cummin with a rod.

28 Though wheat be bruised,
He doth not bruise it continually,
Nor always cause the wheel of his cart to grind it,
Lest he crush it with its teeth.

29 This also hath proceeded from Jehovah of hosts,
Who is wonderful in counsel,
And majestic in procedure.

CHAPTER 29

1 Alas! Ariel, Ariel,
The city which David inhabited,
Add ye year to year,
That the lambs may be slain.

2 Yet I will bring Ariel into distress,
And there shall be grief and sorrow,
And it shall be to me as Ariel.

3 And I will encamp against thee round about,
And will attack thee with a military force,
And will erect ramparts against thee.

4 Then shalt thou be brought low,
Thou shalt speak out of the earth,
And thy speech shall come out of the dust,
And thy voice shall be like that of a sorcerer out of the earth,
And thy speech shall mutter out of the dust.

5 And the sound of thy foreigners shall be as the small dust,
And the multitude of thy mighty men as the passing chaff,
And it shall be in a moment suddenly.

6 Thou shalt be visited by Jehovah of hosts
With thunder, and earthquake, and great noise,
With whirlwind and tempest,
And with the flame of devouring fire.

7 And as a dream of a vision of the night shall be
The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
Of every one that fighteth,
And that raiseth fortifications against her,
And that distresseth her.

8 It shall therefore be
As when a hungry man dreameth, and behold! he eateth,
But when he awaketh, his soul is empty;
And as when a thirsty man dreameth, And behold! He drinketh,
But when he awaketh, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite;
So shall be the multitude of all the nations
That fight against Mount Zion.

9 Tarry and wonder;
They are blinded and they blind;
They are drunken, but not with wine;
They stagger, and not with strong drink.

10 For Jehovah hath overpowered you with the spirit of slumber,
And hath closed your eyes;
Your prophets And principal seers
He hath struck with darkness.

11 Therefore every vision hath become to you
As the words of a sealed book;
Which if they deliver to one who knoweth letters,
And say, Read in it, I pray,
Then shall he say, I cannot,
For it is sealed:

12 And if the book be delivered to one who hath not learned letters,
And it be said, Read in it, I pray,
Then shall he say, I know not letters.

13 Therefore the Lord saith:
Because this people draw near to me with their mouth,
And honour me with their lips,
And have removed their heart far from me,
And their fear toward me hath been taught by the commandment of men;

14 Therefore, behold! I add to do
A wonderful work among this people,
A miracle and a prodigy;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the prudence of their prudent men shall vanish away.

15 Wo to them that conceal themselves from Jehovah,
That they may hide counsel;
For their works are in the dark, and they say,
Who seeth us? and, Who knoweth us?

16 Is your turning reckoned like potters clay?
Doth a work say of its author, He did not make me?
And doth a thing framed say of its framer, He did not understand?

17 Is it not yet a little, a little,
And Lebanon shall be changed into Carmel,
And Carmel shall be reckoned a forest?

18 And in that day shall the deaf hear
The words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see
Out of obscurity and out of darkness.

19 Then shall the humble again take joy in Jehovah,
And the poor of men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the violent man is brought to nought,
The mocker is despised;
And they who hastened early to iniquity are ruined.

21 Who make a man to offend in word,
Who have laid snares for him that reproveth in the gate,
And have turned aside the righteous man for nothing.

22 Therefore Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham,
Speaketh thus to the house of Jacob:
Jacob shall not now be confounded,
Nor shall his face now become pale.

23 For when he shall see in the midst of him
His children, the work of my hands,
They shall sanctify my name,
They shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
They shall fear the God of Israel.

24 Then they that erred in spirit shall learn understanding,
And the murmurers shall learn doctrine.

CHAPTER 30

1 Wo to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah,
That they may take counsel, and not from me;
That they may cover a secret, and not from my Spirit;
That they may add sin to sin.

Note 393. Or, Perverse.

Note 394. Or, That they may pour out a pouring out.

2 Who set out that they may go down into Egypt,
And have not inquired at my mouth;
Strengthening themselves with the strength of Pharaoh,
And trusting in the shadow of Egypt.

3 But the strength of Pharaoh
Shall become to you shame;
And reliance on the shadow of Egypt
Shall become disgrace.

4 For his princes were in Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.

5 All shall be ashamed
Of a people that will not profit them,
And will not become a help,
And will not yield advantage,
But will become shame,
And even disgrace.

6 The burden of the beasts of the south.
In the land of trouble and anguish,
The lion and the stronger lion,
The viper and the flying serpent;
While they shall carry their riches
On the shoulders of young asses,
And on the bunches of camels,
To a people that will not profit them.

7 Surely the Egyptians are vanity,
And shall help in vain.
Therefore have I cried to her,
Their strength is to sit still.

8 Now go, and write this vision on a tablet before them,
And engrave it in a book,
That it may be till the last day,
For ever and ever.

9 For this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who refuse to hear the law of Jehovah.

10 Who say to the seers, Do not see,
And to the foreseers, Do not foresee to us right things;
Speak ye to us flatteries,
See ye errors.

11 Go out of the way;
Turn aside from the path;
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To depart from our presence.

12 Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel:
Because ye have disdained this word,
And have trusted in violence and wickedness,
And have rested on it;

13 Therefore shall your iniquity be to you
Like a breach falling,
Like the bulging out in a lofty wall,
The fall of which comes suddenly and unexpectedly.

14 And the breaking of it shall be
As the breaking of a potter’s vessel,
Which is broken without mercy;
And in its breaking there is not found a sherd
To carry fire from the hearth,
Or to draw water from a well.

15 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah,
The Holy One of Israel:
In rest and quietness shall you be safe;
In peace and confidence shall be your strength;
But ye would not.

16 And ye said, No, but we will flee on horses;
Therefore shall ye flee;
We will ride on the swift;
Therefore they that shall pursue you shall be more swift.

17 A thousand as one from the face of the rebuke of one,
From the face of the rebuke of five shall ye flee,
Until ye shall be left
As the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain,
And as a banner on a hill.

18 Therefore will Jehovah wait for you,
That he may have compassion on you;
And therefore will he be exalted,
That he may have compassion on you;
For Jehovah is a God of judgment:
Blessed are all they that wait for him.

19 Surely the people in Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem:
Weeping thou shalt not weep;
With compassion will he have compassion on thee;
At the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear it,
He will answer thee.

20 When the Lord shall have given to you
Bread of anguish
And water of affliction,
Thy rain shall not be withheld,
And thine eyes shall see thy rain.

21 Then shall thine ears hear a word behind thee,
Saying, This is the way;
Walk ye in it;
Whether ye go to the right,
Or go to the left.

22 Then shall ye profane
The covering of the graven images of thy silver,
And the covering of thy molten gold;
And thou shalt put it away from thee as a menstruous cloth,
And shalt say to it, Depart.

Note 395. Or, Begone!

23 Then will he give rain to thy seed,
When thou shalt have sowed the ground,
And bread of the produce of the earth;
And it shall be plentiful and fat;
And in that day thy cattle
Shall feed in large pastures.

24 Thine oxen also,
And the young asses that labour the ground,
Shall eat clean provender,
Which shall be winnowed with the shovel
And with the sieve.

25 And it shall come to pass,
That on every high mountain,
And on every lofty hill,
Shall be streams, streams of waters,
In the day of the great slaughter
When the towers shall have fallen.

26 And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day when Jehovah
Shall have bound up the breach of his people,
And shall have healed the stroke of their wound.

27 Behold! the name of Jehovah cometh
From a distant place:
His face burneth,
And the burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And his tongue as a devouring fire.

28 And his breath, as an overflowing torrent,
Shall divide even to the neck;
To sift the nations with a useless sieve;
And on the cheeks of the peoples
There shall be a bridle causing to err.

29 You shall have a song, as in the night
When a festival is kept,
And gladness of heart,
As of him that moveth to a pipe,
That he may come to the mountain of Jehovah,
To the Mighty One of Israel.

30 And Jehovah shall cause to be heard the power of his voice,
And shall cause to be seen the descent of his arm,
With rage of countenance,
And with the flame of devouring fire,
With scattering, with flood, and with hailstones.

31 Verily by the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be crushed,
Who smote with a rod.

32 And in every passage shall be the fastened staff,
Which Jehovah shall lay upon him
With tabrets and harps,
And with battles of lifting up
Shall he fight against her.

33 For Tophet is ordained since yesterday;
Yea, for the king it is prepared:
He hath made it deep and large;
The pile of it is fire, and much wood;
The breath of Jehovah, like a torrent of brimstone,
Doth kindle it.