1

1 The vision of Yeshayahu son of Amots, which he saw concerning Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim in the days of Uzziyahu, Yotham, Aḥaz, Ḥizqiyahu — sovereigns of Yehuḏah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth! For יהוה has spoken, “I have reared and brought up children, but they have transgressed against Me.

3 An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master’s crib — Yisra’ĕl does not know, My people have not understood.”

4 Alas, sinning nation, a people loaded with crookedness, a seed of evil-doers, sons acting corruptly! They have forsaken יהוה, they have provoked the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, they went backward.

5 Why should you be stricken any more? You continue in apostasy! All the head is sick, and all the heart faints.

6 From the sole of the foot, to the head, there is no soundness in it — wounds and bruises and open sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.

7 Your land is laid waste, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land in your presence. And it is laid waste, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Tsiyon is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Unless יהוה of hosts had left to us a small remnant, we would have become like Seḏom, we would have been made like Amorah.

10 Hear the word of יהוה, you rulers of Seḏom; give ear to the Torah of our Elohim, you people of Amorah!

11 “Of what use to Me are your many slaughterings?” declares יהוה. “I have had enough of ascending offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.

12 “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courtyards?

13 “Stop bringing futile offerings, incense, it is an abomination to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, the calling of gatherings — I am unable to bear unrighteousness and assembly.

14 “My being hates your New Moons and your appointed times, they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

15 “And when you spread out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I do not hear. Your hands have become filled with blood.

16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Stop doing evil!

17 “Learn to do good! Seek right-ruling, reprove the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” says יהוה. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 “If you submit and obey, you shall eat the good of the land;

20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword,” for the mouth of יהוה has spoken.

21 How the steadfast city has become a whore! I have filled it with right-ruling; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

22 Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.

23 Your rulers are stubborn, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and runs after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow reach them.

24 Therefore the Master declares, יהוה of hosts, the Mighty One of Yisra’ĕl, “Ah, I shall be eased of My adversaries, and I shall be avenged of My enemies.

25 “And I shall turn My hand against you, and shall refine your dross as with lye, and shall remove all your alloy.

26 “And I shall give back your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. After this you shall be called the city of righteousness, a steadfast city.”

27 Tsiyon shall be ransomed with right-ruling, and her returning ones with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of transgressors and of sinners is together, and those who forsake יהוה shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees which you have desired. And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen.

30 For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

31 The strong shall be for tow, and his work for a spark. And both shall burn together, with no one to extinguish.

2

1 The word that Yeshayahu the son of Amots saw concerning Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim:

2 And it shall be in the latter days that the mountain of the House of יהוה is established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills. And all nations shall flow to it.

3 And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of יהוה, to the House of the Elohim of Ya‛aqoḇ, and let Him teach us His ways, and let us walk in His paths, for out of Tsiyon comes forth the Torah, and the Word of יהוה from Yerushalayim.”

4 And He shall judge between the nations, and shall reprove many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither teach battle any more.

5 O house of Ya‛aqoḇ, come and let us walk in the light of יהוה.

6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Ya‛aqoḇ, because they have been filled from the East, and practise magic like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners.

7 And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. And their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

8 And their land is filled with idols; they bow themselves to the work of their own hands, to what their own fingers have made.

9 And the lowly bows down, and the high is humbled; therefore You do not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, because of the fear of יהוה and the splendour of His excellency.

11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the pride of men shall be bowed down, and יהוה alone shall be exalted in that day.

12 For יהוה of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, so that it is brought low;

13 and against all the cedars of Leḇanon that are high and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan;

14 and against all the high mountains, and against all the hills that are lifted up;

15 and against every lofty tower, and against every strong wall;

16 and against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the desirable craft.

17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the pride of men shall be brought low. And יהוה alone shall be exalted in that day,

18 and the idols completely pass away.

19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from dread of יהוה and the splendour of His excellency, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.

20 In that day man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats,

21 to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, because of the fear of יהוה and the splendour of His excellency, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.

22 Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for in what is he to be reckoned upon?

3

1 For look, the Master, יהוה of hosts, is turning aside from Yerushalayim and from Yehuḏah the stock and the store, all the supply of bread and all the supply of water;

2 the mighty man and the man of battle, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder;

3 the commander of fifty and the highly respected man, and the counsellor and the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.

4 “And I shall make youths their heads, and children shall rule over them.

5 And the people shall exert pressure, man on man, man on his neighbour; the young rise up against the older, and the lightly esteemed against the highly esteemed.”

6 When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, by the garment, and says, “Come, be a chief over us, and let this ruin be under your hand,”

7 he shall swear in that day, saying, “I am not a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor garment; do not make me a chief of the people.”

8 For Yerushalayim has stumbled, and Yehuḏah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against יהוה, to provoke the eyes of His esteem.

9 The look on their faces witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Seḏom; they do not hide it. Woe to their being! For they have brought evil upon themselves.

10 “Say to the righteous it is well, for they eat the fruit of their doings.

11 “Woe to the wrong — evil! For the reward of his hand is done to him.

12 “My people! Youths exert pressure on them, and women rule over them. O My people! Your leaders lead you astray, and swallow the way of your paths.”

13 יהוה shall stand up to plead, and is standing to judge the peoples.

14 יהוה enters into judgment with the elders of His people and its heads, “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard, the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

15 “What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Master, יהוה of hosts.

16 And יהוה says, “Because the daughters of Tsiyon are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet,

17 therefore יהוה shall smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Tsiyon, and יהוה expose their nakedness.”

18 In that day יהוה takes away the finery of the anklets, and the headbands, and the crescents,

19 the pendants, the bracelets and the veils,

20 the headdresses, and the leg ornaments, and the sashes, and the perfume bottles, and the amulets,

21 the rings, and the nose jewels,

22 the costly robes, and the cloaks, and the shawls, and the purses,

23 the mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the large veils.

24 And it shall be: Instead of a sweet fragrance, a smell of decay; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a festal robe, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of loveliness.

25 Your men shall fall by the sword, and your strength in battle.

26 And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, deserted, shall sit on the ground.

4

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We shall eat our own food and wear our own clothes; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.”

2 In that day the Branch of יהוה shall be splendid and esteemed. And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for the escaped ones of Yisra’ĕl.

3 And it shall be that he who is left in Tsiyon and he who remains in Yerushalayim is called set-apart, everyone who is written among the living in Yerushalayim.

4 When יהוה has washed away the filth of the daughters of Tsiyon, and rinsed away the blood of Yerushalayim from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

5 then יהוה shall create above every dwelling place of Mount Tsiyon, and above her gatherings, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the esteem shall be a covering,

6 and a booth for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

5

1 Please let me sing to the One I love, a song for my loved One regarding His vineyard: my loved One has a vineyard on a fertile hill.

2 And He dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a watchtower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it. And He waited for the yielding of grapes, but it yielded rotten ones.

3 “And now, O inhabitant of Yerushalayim and man of Yehuḏah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.

4 “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I waited for the yielding of grapes, did it yield rotten ones?

5 “And now, please let Me inform you what I am doing to My vineyard: To take away its hedge and it shall be burned; to break down its wall and it shall be trampled down;

6 and I lay it waste; it is not pruned or dug and thornbushes and weeds shall come up; and I command the clouds not to rain on it.”

7 For the vineyard of יהוה of hosts is the house of Yisra’ĕl, and the man of Yehuḏah is His pleasant plant. He looked for right-ruling, but see, oppression; for righteousness, but see, weeping.

8 Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

9 In my hearing יהוה of hosts said, “Truly, many houses shall be a waste — big and fine ones, without inhabitant.

10 “For ten acres of vineyard yield one bath, and a ḥomer of seed yields one ĕphah.”

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning pursuing strong drink, who stay up late at night — wine inflames them!

12 And the lyre and the harp, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of יהוה, nor see the work of His hands.

13 Therefore my people have gone into exile, because they have no knowledge. And their esteemed men are starved, and their crowd dried up with thirst.

14 Therefore She’ol has made itself wide and opened its mouth without law. Their splendour and their crowd and their uproar, and he who is exulting within her, shall go down into it.

15 And man is bowed down, and mortal man humbled, and the eyes of the proud are humbled.

16 But יהוה of hosts is exalted in judgment, and the set-apart Ěl is set-apart in righteousness.

17 And the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and strangers shall eat in the waste places of the fat ones.

18 Woe to those who draw crookedness with cords of falsehood, and sin as with wagon ropes,

19 who are saying, “Let Him hurry! Let Him hasten His work, so that we see it! And let the counsel of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl draw near and come, so that we know.”

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight!

22 Woe to the mighty to drink wine, and brave men to mix strong drink,

23 who declare right the wrong for a bribe, and the righteousness of the righteous they turn aside from him!

24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, their root is as rottenness, and their blossom goes up like dust — because they have rejected the Torah of יהוה of hosts, and despised the Word of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

25 Therefore the displeasure of יהוה has burned against His people, and He stretches out His hand against them and strikes them, and the mountains tremble. And their carcass is as filth in the middle of the streets. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out!

26 And He shall lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and shall whistle to them from the end of the earth. And see, they come with speed, swiftly!

27 Not one of them is weary or stumbling, not one slumbers or sleeps. Not a belt shall be loosened on their loins, nor the thong of their sandals be broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hooves shall seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

29 Their roar is like that of a lion, they roar like young lions. And they growl and seize prey, and slip away, with no one to rescue.

30 And in that day they shall growl over it as with the growling of the sea. And one shall look at the earth, and see, darkness and distress! And light shall be darkened by the clouds.

6

1 In the year that Sovereign Uzziyahu died, I saw יהוה sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the Hĕḵal.

2 Above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

3 And one cried to another and said, “Set-apart, set-apart, set-apart is יהוה of hosts; all the earth is filled with His esteem!”

4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 And I said, “Woe to me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips — for my eyes have seen the Sovereign, יהוה of hosts.”

6 And one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the slaughter-place.

7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your crookedness is taken away, and your sin is covered.”

8 And I heard the voice of יהוה, saying, “Whom do I send, and who would go for Us?” And I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

9 And He said, “Go, and you shall say to this people, ‘Hearing, you hear, but do not understand; and seeing, you see, but do not know.’

10 “Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and shall turn and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “יהוה, until when?” And He answered, “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land is laid waste, a ruin,

12 and יהוה has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.

13 “But still, there is a tenth part in it, and it shall again be for a burning, like a terebinth tree and like an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. The set-apart seed is its stump!”

7

1 And it came to be in the days of Aḥaz son of Yotham, son of Uzziyahu, sovereign of Yehuḏah, that Retsin sovereign of Aram and Peqaḥ son of Remalyahu, sovereign of Yisra’ĕl, went up to Yerushalayim to fight against it, but could not prevail against it.

2 And it was reported to the house of Dawiḏ, saying, “Aram has set up camp in Ephrayim.” And his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind.

3 And יהוה said to Yeshayahu, “Go out now to meet Aḥaz, you and She’ar-Yashuḇ your son, at the end of the channel of the upper pool, on the highway of the Launderer’s Field,

4 and say to him, ‘Take heed, and be calm; do not fear or be faint-hearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce displeasure of Retsin and Aram, and the son of Remalyahu.

5 Because Aram, Ephrayim, and the son of Remalyahu have plotted evil against you, saying,

6 “Let us go up against Yehuḏah and tear it apart, and break it open for ourselves, and set a sovereign over them, the son of Taḇe’ĕl.”

7 Thus said the Master יהוה, “It is not going to stand, nor shall it take place.

8 “For the head of Aram is Dammeseq, and the head of Dammeseq is Retsin. And within sixty-five years Ephrayim is to be broken as a people.

9 “And the head of Ephrayim is Shomeron, and the head of Shomeron is the son of Remalyahu. If you do not believe, you are not steadfast.” ’ ”

10 And יהוה spoke again to Aḥaz, saying,

11 “Ask a sign for yourself from יהוה your Elohim; make deep the request or make it high.”

12 But Aḥaz said, “I do not ask nor try יהוה!”

13 And he said, “Hear now, O house of Dawiḏ! Is it not enough that you weary men, that you weary my Elohim also?

14 “Therefore יהוה Himself gives you a sign: Look, the ‘almah’ conceives and gives birth to a son, and shall call His Name Immanu’ĕl.

15 “He eats curds and honey when He knows to refuse evil and choose the good.

16 “For before the child knows to refuse evil and choose the good, the land that you dread is to be forsaken by both her sovereigns.

17 “יהוה brings on you and your people and your father’s house days that have not come since the day that Ephrayim turned away from Yehuḏah — the sovereign of Ashshur.”

18 And it shall be in that day that יהוה whistles for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Mitsrayim, and for the bee that is in the land of Ashshur.

19 And they shall come, and all of them shall rest in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all weeds and in all pastures.

20 In that day יהוה shall shave with a razor hired beyond the River — with the sovereign of Ashshur — the head and the hair of the legs, and also remove the beard.

21 And it shall be in that day that a man keeps alive a young cow and two sheep.

22 And it shall be, that he shall eat curds because of the plenty milk he gets, for everyone left in the land shall eat curds.

23 And it shall be in that day, every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand sheqels of silver, let it be for thornbushes and weeds.

24 With arrows and bows one shall go there, because all the land shall be thornbushes and weeds.

25 And to all the hills which were tilled with the hoe, you do not go for fear of thornbushes and weeds; but it shall be for sending oxen to, and a place for sheep to roam.

8

1 And יהוה said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Mahĕr-Shalal-Ḥash-Baz.

2 “And let Me take reliable witnesses to record, Uriyah the priest and Zeḵaryahu son of Yeḇereḵyahu.”

3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And יהוה said to me, “Call his name Mahĕr-Shalal-Ḥash-Baz;

4 for before the child knows to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Dammeseq and the spoil of Shomeron is taken away before the sovereign of Ashshur.”

5 And יהוה spoke to me again, saying,

6 “Inasmuch as these people refused the waters of Shiloaḥ that flow softly, and rejoice in Retsin and in Remalyahu’s son;

7 now therefore, see, יהוה brings up over them the waters of the River, strong and mighty — the sovereign of Ashshur and all his esteem. And he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks.

8 “And he shall pass through Yehuḏah, he shall overflow and pass over, reaching up to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanu’ĕl.

9 “Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from the far places of the earth. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

10 “Take counsel, and it comes to naught; speak a word, and it does not stand, for Ěl is with us.”

11 For יהוה spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

13 “יהוה of hosts, Him you shall set apart. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

14 “And He shall be for a set-apart place, but a stone of stumbling and a rock that makes for falling to both the houses of Yisra’ĕl, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.

15 “And many among them shall stumble and fall, and be broken and snared and taken.”

16 Bind up the witness, seal the Torah among my taught ones.

17 And I shall wait on יהוה, who hides His face from the house of Ya‛aqoḇ. And I shall look for Him.

18 Look, I and the children whom יהוה has given me — for signs and wonders in Yisra’ĕl from יהוה of hosts, who dwells in Mount Tsiyon.

19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their Elohim? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

20 To the Torah and to the witness! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because they have no daybreak.

21 And they shall pass through it hard pressed and hungry. And it shall be, when they are hungry, that they shall be wroth and curse their sovereign and their Elohim, looking upward.

22 And they shall look to the earth and see distress and darkness, gloom of hard times, and be driven into thick darkness.

9

1 But there is no gloom upon her who is distressed, as when at first He humbled the land of Zeḇulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Yardĕn, in Galil of the nations.

2 The people who were walking in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death a light has shone.

3 You shall increase the nation; You shall make its joy great. They shall rejoice before You, as in the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4 For You shall break the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Miḏyan.

5 For every boot of one trampling in tumult, and coat rolled in blood, shall be used for burning and fuel of fire.

6 For a Child is born unto us, a Son is given unto us, and the rule is on His shoulder. And His Name is called Wonder, Counsellor, Strong Ěl, Father of Continuity, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of His rule and peace there is no end, upon the throne of Dawiḏ and over His reign, to establish it and sustain it with right-ruling and with righteousness from now on, even forever. The ardour of יהוה of hosts does this.

8 יהוה sent a word against Ya‛aqoḇ, and it has fallen on Yisra’ĕl.

9 And the people shall know, all of them, Ephrayim and the inhabitant of Shomeron, who say in pride and greatness of heart:

10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we replace them with cedars.”

11 And יהוה set up the adversaries of Retsin against him, and stirred up his enemies,

12 the Arameans before and the Philistines behind. And they devour Yisra’ĕl with an open mouth. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.

13 And the people have not turned back to Him who strikes them, nor have they sought יהוה of hosts.

14 And יהוה cuts off head and tail from Yisra’ĕl, palm branch and reed in one day.

15 Elder and highly respected, he is the head; the prophet who teaches falsehood, he is the tail.

16 For the leaders of this people lead them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.

17 Therefore יהוה does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is defiled and evil, and every mouth speaks foolishness. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.

18 For wrongness burns as the fire; it consumes thornbushes and weeds, and sets the bushes of the forest ablaze, and they roll up like rising smoke.

19 The land shall be burned up by the wrath of יהוה of hosts, and the people be as fuel for the fire. A man shall not spare his brother,

20 and cut down on the right hand, but shall be hungry; and he devours on the left hand, but shall not be satisfied; each one devouring the flesh of his own arm:

21 Menashsheh Ephrayim, and Ephrayim Menashsheh; together they are against Yehuḏah. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.

10

1 “Woe to those making unrighteous inscriptions, and writers who have prescribed toil,

2 to keep the needy back from right-ruling, and to take what is right from the poor of My people, that widows become their prey, and orphans their plunder.

3 “What shall you do in the day of visitation, and in the ruin which comes from afar? To whom would you run for help? And where would you leave your wealth?

4 “Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and fall among the killed.” With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.

5 “Woe to Ashshur, the rod of My displeasure and the staff in whose hand is My displeasure.

6 “Against a defiled nation I send him, and against the people of My wrath I command him to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mud of the streets.

7 “But he does not intend so, nor does his heart think so, for it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.

8 “For he says, ‘Are not my princes sovereigns?

9 Is not Kalno like Karkemish? Is not Ḥamath like Arpaḏ? Is not Shomeron like Dammeseq?

10 As my hand has found the reigns of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Yerushalayim and Shomeron,

11 as I have done to Shomeron and her idols, do I not do also to Yerushalayim and her idols?’

12 “And it shall be, when יהוה has performed all His work on Mount Tsiyon and on Yerushalayim, that I shall punish the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the sovereign of Ashshur, and the boasting of his haughty looks.

13 “For he has said, ‘By the power of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have been clever. And I remove the boundaries of the people, and have robbed their treasuries. And I put down the inhabitants like a strong one.

14 And my hand finds the riches of the people like a nest. And I have gathered all the earth like forsaken eggs are gathered. And there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.’ ”

15 Would the axe boast itself over him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself over him who saws with it? As a rod waving those who lift it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!

16 Therefore the Master, יהוה of hosts, sends leanness among his fat ones. And under his esteem he kindles a burning like the burning of a fire.

17 And the Light of Yisra’ĕl shall be for a fire, and his Set-apart One for a flame. And it shall burn and devour his weeds and his thornbushes in one day,

18 and consume the esteem of his forest and of his fertile field, both life and flesh. And they shall be as when a sick man wastes away,

19 and the remaining trees of his forest shall be so few in number that a child records them.

20 And in that day it shall be that the remnant of Yisra’ĕl, and those who have escaped of the house of Ya‛aqoḇ, never again lean upon him who struck them, but shall lean upon יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, in truth.

21 A remnant shall return, the remnant of Ya‛aqoḇ, to the Mighty Ěl.

22 For though your people, O Yisra’ĕl, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return — a decisive end, overflowing with righteousness.

23 For the Master יהוה of hosts is making a complete end, as decided, in the midst of all the earth.

24 Therefore thus said the Master יהוה of hosts, “My people, who dwell in Tsiyon, be not afraid of Ashshur, who struck you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you, in the way of Mitsrayim.

25 “For yet a little while and the displeasure shall be completed, and My displeasure be to their destruction.”

26 And יהוה of hosts stirs up a lash for him as the smiting of Miḏyan at the rock of Orĕḇ. And as His rod was on the sea, so shall He lift it up in the way of Mitsrayim.

27 And in that day it shall be that his burden is removed from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

28 He has come upon Ayath, he has passed Miḡron. At Miḵmash he stored his supplies.

29 They have gone through the pass, they have taken up lodging at Geḇa. Ramah is afraid, Giḇ‛ah of Sha’ul has fled.

30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Galliym! Listen, Layishah — O poor Anathoth!

31 Maḏmĕnah has fled, the inhabitants of Gĕḇim sought refuge.

32 Yet he remains at Noḇ that day; he shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Tsiyon, the hill of Yerushalayim.

33 Look, the Master, יהוה of hosts, is lopping off a branch with an awesome crash, and the tall ones are cut down, and the lofty ones are laid low.

34 And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Leḇanon shall fall as a mighty one!

11

1 And a Rod shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, and a Sprout from his roots shall be fruitful.

2 The Spirit of יהוה shall rest upon Him — the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of יהוה,

3 and shall make Him breathe in the fear of יהוה. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears.

4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and shall decide with straightness for the meek ones of the earth, and shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and slay the wrong with the breath of His lips.

5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and trustworthiness the girdle of His waist.

6 And a wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and a leopard lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child leads them.

7 And cow and bear shall feed, their young ones lie down together, and a lion eat straw like an ox.

8 And the nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den.

9 They do no evil nor destroy in all My set-apart mountain, for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of יהוה as the waters cover the sea.

10 And in that day there shall be a Root of Yishai, standing as a banner to the people. Unto Him the nations shall seek, and His rest shall be esteem.

11 And it shall be in that day that יהוה sets His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Ashshur and from Mitsrayim, from Pathros and from Kush, from Ěylam and from Shin‛ar, from Ḥamath and from the islands of the sea.

12 And He shall raise a banner for the nations, and gather the outcasts of Yisra’ĕl, and assemble the dispersed of Yehuḏah from the four corners of the earth.

13 And the envy of Ephrayim shall turn aside, and the adversaries of Yehuḏah be cut off. Ephrayim shall not envy Yehuḏah, and Yehuḏah not trouble Ephrayim.

14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; together they plunder the people of the east, their hand stretching forth on Eḏom and Mo’aḇ, and the children of Ammon shall be subject to them.

15 And יהוה shall put under the ban the tongue of the Sea of Mitsrayim, and He shall wave His hand over the River with the might of His Spirit, and shall strike it in the seven streams, and shall cause men to tread it in sandals.

16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, those left from Ashshur, as it was for Yisra’ĕl in the day when he came up from the land of Mitsrayim.

12

1 And in that day you shall say, “I thank You יהוה, though You were enraged with me, Your displeasure has turned back, and You have comforted me.

2 “See, Ěl is my deliverance, I trust and am not afraid. For Yah, יהוה, is my strength and my song; and He has become my deliverance.”

3 And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of deliverance.

4 And in that day you shall say, “Praise יהוה, call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted.

5 “Sing to יהוה, For He has done excellently; this is known in all the earth.

6 “Cry aloud and shout, O inhabitant of Tsiyon, for great is the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl in your midst!”

13

1 The message concerning Baḇel which Yeshayahu son of Amots saw.

2 “Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your voice to them; wave your hand, let them enter the gates of the nobles.

3 “I have commanded My set-apart ones; I have also called My mighty men for My displeasure, My proudly exulting ones.”

4 The noise of an uproar in the mountains, like that of many people! A noise of uproar of the reigns of nations gathered together! יהוה of hosts is gathering an army for battle.

5 They are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, even יהוה and His weapons of displeasure, to destroy all the earth.

6 Howl, for the day of יהוה is near! It comes as a destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands go limp, every man’s heart melts,

8 and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, they are in pain as a woman in labour; they are amazed at one another, their faces aflame!

9 See, the day of יהוה is coming, fierce, with wrath and heat of displeasure, to lay the earth waste, and destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give off their light. The sun shall be dark at its rising, and the moon not send out its light.

11 “And I shall punish the world for its evil, and the wrong for their crookedness, and shall put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

12 “I shall make mortal man scarcer than fine gold, and mankind scarcer than the gold of Ophir.

13 “So I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake from her place, in the wrath of יהוה of hosts and in the day of the heat of His displeasure.

14 “And it shall be as the hunted gazelle, and as a sheep that no man takes up — every man turns to his own people, and everyone flees to his own land.

15 “Whoever is found is thrust through, and everyone taken falls by the sword.

16 “And their children are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered and their wives ravished.

17 “See, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who do not regard silver, and as for gold, they do not delight in it.

18 “And bows dash the young to pieces, and they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb, their eye spares no children.

19 “And Baḇel, the splendour of reigns, the comeliness of the pride of the Kasdim, shall be as when Elohim overthrew Seḏom and Amorah.

20 “She shall never be inhabited, nor be settled from generation to generation; nor shall the Araḇian pitch tents there, nor shepherds rest their flocks there.

21 “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be filled with owls. And ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats frolic there.

22 “And hyenas shall cry in their citadels, and jackals in their pleasant palaces. And her time is near to come, and her days are not drawn out.”

14

1 Because יהוה has compassion on Ya‛aqoḇ, and shall again choose Yisra’ĕl, and give them rest in their own land. And the strangers shall join them, and they shall cling to the house of Ya‛aqoḇ.

2 And peoples shall take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Yisra’ĕl shall possess them for servants and female servants in the land of יהוה. And they shall make captives of their captors, and rule over their oppressors.

3 And it shall be, in the day יהוה gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble and the hard service in which you were made to serve,

4 that you shall take up this proverb against the sovereign of Baḇel, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, the gold-gatherer ceased!

5 “יהוה has broken the staff of the wrong, the sceptre of the rulers,

6 he who struck the people in wrath with ceaseless blows, he who ruled the nations in displeasure, is persecuted and no one restrains.

7 “All the earth is at rest and at peace, they shall break forth into singing.

8 “Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Leḇanon, saying, ‘Since you were cut down, no woodcutter has come up against us.’

9 “She’ol from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the sovereigns of the nations.

10 “All of them respond and say to you, ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?

11 Your arrogance has been brought down to She’ol, and the sound of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you.’

12 “How you have fallen from the heavens, O Hĕlĕl, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the ground, you who laid low the nations!

13 “For you have said in your heart, ‘Let me go up to the heavens, let me raise my throne above the stars of Ěl, and let me sit in the mount of appointment on the sides of the north;

14 let me go up above the heights of the clouds, let me be like the Most High.’

15 “But you are brought down to She’ol, to the sides of the pit.

16 “Those who see you stare at you, and ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook reigns,

17 who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who would not open the house of his prisoners?’

18 “All the sovereigns of the nations, all of them, were laid in esteem, everyone in his own house;

19 but you have been thrown from your burial-site like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are killed, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.

20 “You are not joined with them in the burial-place, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the seed of evil-doers never be mentioned.

21 “Prepare his children for slaughter, because of the crookedness of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess the land, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “And I shall rise up against them,” declares יהוה of hosts, “and shall cut off from Baḇel the name and remnant, and offspring and descendant,” declares יהוה.

23 “And I shall make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water; and shall sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares יהוה of hosts.

24 יהוה of hosts has sworn, saying, “Truly, as I have planned, so shall it be; and as I have purposed, so it stands:

25 “To break Ashshur in My land, and tread him down on My mountains. And his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders.

26 “This is the counsel that is counselled for all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

27 “For יהוה of hosts has counselled, and who annuls it? And His hand that is stretched out, who turns it back?”

28 This is the message which came in the year that Sovereign Aḥaz died:

29 “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s roots comes forth an adder, and its offspring is a fiery flying serpent.

30 “And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy lie down in safety. And I shall kill your roots with scarcity of food, and it shall kill your remnant.

31 “Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Melt away, all you of Philistia! For smoke shall come from the north, and there is no stranger in his ranks.”

32 And what does one answer the messengers of a nation? “That יהוה has founded Tsiyon, and the poor of His people take refuge in it.”

15

1 The message concerning Mo’aḇ. Because in the night Ar of Mo’aḇ was laid waste, was silenced! Because in the night Qir of Mo’aḇ was laid waste, was silenced!

2 He has gone up to the house and Diḇon, to the high places to weep. Mo’aḇ is wailing over Neḇo and over Mĕyḏeḇa; on all their heads is baldness, and every beard is cut off.

3 In their streets they shall put on sackcloth; on the tops of their houses and in their streets everyone wails, weeping bitterly.

4 And Ḥeshbon and El‛alĕh cry out, their voice shall be heard as far as Yahats. Therefore the armed ones of Mo’aḇ shout; his being shall tremble within him.

5 My own heart is toward Mo’aḇ; her fugitives cry unto Tso‛ar, like a three-year-old heifer. For by the ascent of Luḥith they go up with weeping; for in the way of Ḥoronayim they raise a cry of destruction.

6 For the waters of Nimrim are wastes, for the green grass has withered away; the grass fails, there is no greenness.

7 Therefore the wealth, acquired and stored up, they take away to the wadi of the Willows.

8 For the cry has gone all around the borders of Mo’aḇ, its wailing to Eḡlayim and its wailing to Be’ĕr Ělim.

9 “For the waters of Dimon shall be filled with blood; for I shall bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him who escapes from Mo’aḇ, and on the remnant of the land.”

16

1 Send a lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Tsiyon.

2 And it shall be, like a wandering bird, a nest thrown out, so are the daughters of Mo’aḇ at the fords of Arnon.

3 “Bring counsel, execute judgment; make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day; hide the outcasts, do not betray him who escapes.

4 “Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Mo’aḇ; be a shelter to them from the face of the ravager. For the oppressor has met his end, destruction has ceased, those trampling down have perished from the land.

5 “And in loving-commitment the throne shall be established. And One shall sit on it in truth, in the Tent of Dawiḏ, judging and seeking right-ruling, and speeding righteousness.”

6 We have heard of the pride of Mo’aḇ — very proud — of his pride, his arrogance and his rage. His boastings are not true.

7 So Mo’aḇ wails for Mo’aḇ, everyone wails. For the raisin-cakes of Qir Ḥareseth they moan. They are utterly smitten.

8 For the fields of Ḥeshbon languish — the vine of Siḇmah. The masters of the nations have broken down its choice plants, which have reached to Ya‛zĕr and wandered through the wilderness. Her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.

9 Therefore I bewail the vine of Siḇmah, with the weeping of Ya‛zĕr. I water you with my tears, O Ḥeshbon and El‛alĕh, for acclamation has fallen over your summer fruit and your harvest.

10 Gladness is taken away, and joy from the orchard; in the vineyards there is no singing, nor shouting; No treaders tread out wine in their presses; I have made their acclamation cease.

11 Therefore my inward parts sound like a lyre for Mo’aḇ, and my inner being for Qir Ḥeres.

12 And it shall be, when it is seen that Mo’aḇ has wearied herself on the high place, that she shall come to her set-apart place to pray, but not be able.

13 This is the word which יהוה has spoken concerning Mo’aḇ since that time.

14 But now יהוה has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the esteem of Mo’aḇ is to be despised with all its great throng, and the remnant be few, small and weak.”

17

1 The message concerning Dammeseq. “See, Dammeseq ceases to be a city, and shall become a heap of ruins.

2 “The cities of Aro‛ĕr are forsaken, they are for flocks which shall lie down, with no one to frighten.

3 “And the stronghold shall cease from Ephrayim, and the reign from Dammeseq, and the remnant of Aram be as the esteem of the sons of Yisra’ĕl,” declares יהוה of hosts.

4 “And in that day it shall be that the esteem of Ya‛aqoḇ wanes, and the fatness of his flesh grows lean.

5 “And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, and reaps the heads with his arm. And it shall be as he who gathers heads of grain in the Valley of Repha’im.

6 “And gleaning grapes shall be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives at the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in its most fruit-bearing branches,” declares יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.

7 In that day man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes turn to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

8 And he shall not look to the slaughter-places, the work of his hands; and he shall not see that which his own fingers made, nor the Ashĕrim nor the sun-pillars.

9 In that day his strong cities become like a forsaken forest and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Yisra’ĕl. And it shall become a ruin.

10 Because you have forgotten the Elohim of your deliverance, and have not remembered the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings,

11 by day make your plant to grow, and in the morning make your seed to flourish — but the harvest is a heap in the day of grief and incurable pain.

12 Woe to the uproar of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters —

13 nations rushing like the rushing of many waters. But He shall rebuke them and they shall flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like whirling dust before the whirlwind.

14 At eventide, look! Alarm! Before morning, it is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

18

1 Woe to the land shadowed with whirring wings, which is beyond the rivers of Kush,

2 which sends envoys by sea, even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, “Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people dreaded from their beginning onward, a nation mighty and trampling, whose land the rivers divide.”

3 All inhabitants of the world, and you that dwell on the earth: When a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! And when a shophar is blown, hear!

4 For thus יהוה said to me, “I am still, and I watch in My dwelling place like dazzling heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5 For before harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, then He shall cut off the twigs with pruning hooks, and shall cut down and take away the spreading branches.

6 They are left together for the mountain birds of prey and for the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey shall summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth winter on them.

7 In that time a present shall be brought to יהוה of hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, and from a people awesome from their beginning onward — a nation mighty and trampling, whose land the rivers have divided — to the place of the Name of יהוה of hosts, to Mount Tsiyon.

19

1 The message concerning Mitsrayim. See, יהוה is riding on a swift cloud, and He shall come into Mitsrayim. And the idols of Mitsrayim shall tremble at His presence, and the heart of Mitsrayim melt in its midst.

2 “And I shall stir up Mitsrites against Mitsrites, and they shall fight, each one against his brother, and each one against his neighbour, city against city, reign against reign.

3 “And the spirit of Mitsrayim shall vanish within them, and I destroy their counsel. And they shall seek the idols and the mutterers, the mediums and the sorcerers.

4 “And I shall deliver the Mitsrites into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce sovereign to rule over them,” declares the Master, יהוה of hosts.

5 And waters shall fail from the sea, and the river wasted and dried up.

6 And the rivers shall stink, and the streams shall be weak and dried up. Reeds and rushes shall wither.

7 Bare places by the River, by the mouth of the River, and every sown field by the River shall wither. It shall be driven away, and be no more.

8 And the fishermen shall lament, and all those who cast hooks into the River shall mourn, and they who spread nets on the waters shall pine away.

9 And those who work in fine flax, and those who weave fine fabric shall become ashamed.

10 And its foundations shall be crushed, all the wage workers grieved in being.

11 The princes of Tso‛an are only fools; the counsel of Pharaoh’s wise ones has become senseless. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient sovereigns?”

12 Where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them show you, and let them know what יהוה of hosts has counselled against Mitsrayim.

13 The princes of Tso‛an have become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived. They, the corner-stone of her tribes, have led Mitsrayim astray.

14 יהוה has mixed a perverse spirit in her midst. And they have led Mitsrayim astray in all her work, as a drunkard strays in his vomit.

15 And there is no work for Mitsrayim, by either head or tail, palm branch or bulrush.

16 In that day Mitsrayim shall become like women, and tremble and fear because of the waving of the hand of יהוה of hosts, which He waves over it.

17 And the land of Yehuḏah shall be a fear to Mitsrayim, everyone who mentions it fears for himself, because of the counsel of יהוה of hosts which He has counselled against it.

18 In that day five cities in the land of Mitsrayim shall speak the language of Kena‛an and swear by יהוה of hosts; one is called the City of Destruction.

19 In that day a slaughter-place to יהוה shall be in the midst of the land of Mitsrayim, and a standing column to יהוה at its border.

20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness to יהוה of hosts in the land of Mitsrayim. When they cry to יהוה because of the oppressors, He sends them a Saviour and a great one, and shall deliver them.

21 And יהוה shall be known to Mitsrayim, and the Mitsrites shall know יהוה in that day, and make slaughtering and meal offering, and shall make a vow to יהוה and pay it.

22 And יהוה shall smite Mitsrayim, smite it and heal it. And they shall turn to יהוה, and He shall hear them and heal them.

23 In that day there shall be a highway from Mitsrayim to Ashshur, and Ashshur shall come into Mitsrayim and Mitsrayim into Ashshur, and Mitsrayim shall serve with Ashshur.

24 In that day Yisra’ĕl shall be one of three with Mitsrayim and Ashshur, even a blessing in the midst of the earth,

25 whom יהוה of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Mitsrayim My people, and Ashshur the work of My hands, and Yisra’ĕl My inheritance.”

20

1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdoḏ, when Sargon the sovereign of Ashshur sent him, and he fought against Ashdoḏ and took it,

2 at that same time יהוה spoke by means of Yeshayahu son of Amots, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

3 And יהוה said, “As My servant Yeshayahu has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Mitsrayim and Kush,

4 so does the sovereign of Ashshur lead away the captives of Mitsrayim and the exiles of Kush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered — the shame of Mitsrayim.

5 “And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Kush, their expectation, and of Mitsrayim, their boast.

6 “And the inhabitant of this coastland shall say in that day, ‘See, such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the sovereign of Ashshur. And how do we escape?’ ”

21

1 The message concerning the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep on, so it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

2 A distressing vision is revealed to me: the treacherous betrays, and the ravager ravages. Go up, O Ěylam! Besiege, O Media! All the groaning I bring to an end.

3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labour. I was distressed when I heard it; I was troubled when I saw it.

4 My heart reeled, horror overwhelmed me; the night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 Prepare the table, spread the mat, eat and drink. Arise, you princes, anoint the shield!

6 For יהוה has said this to me, “Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.”

7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, and he listened attentively, very attentively.

8 Then he cried, “A lion, O יהוה! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and I have sat at my post every night.

9 “And see this, a chariot of men coming with a pair of horsemen!” And he spoke up and said, “Baḇel is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her mighty ones He has broken to the ground.”

10 Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, I have declared to you.

11 The message concerning Dumah. He calls to me out of Sĕ‛ir, “Watchman, how much of the night is passed? Watchman, how much of the night has passed?”

12 The watchman said, “Morning came, and also the night. If you inquire, inquire. Come again!”

13 The message concerning Araḇia. In the forest in Araḇia you stay, O you travelling companies of Deḏanites.

14 You who dwell in the land of Tĕma, bring water to him who is thirsty, meet the fugitive with bread.

15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the stress of battle.

16 For thus יהוה has said to me, “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the esteem of Qĕḏar shall come to an end,

17 and the rest of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Qĕḏar, shall be few. For יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl has spoken.”

22

1 The message concerning the Valley of Vision. What troubles you now, that you have all gone up to the house-tops,

2 you who are filled with turmoils, a noisy city, a city of revelry? Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor the dead in battle.

3 All your rulers have fled together; without a bow they were taken captive. All who are found in you are bound together, who have fled from afar.

4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me, let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me because of the ravaging of the daughter of my people.”

5 For it is a day of uproar and treading down and perplexity by the Master יהוה of hosts in the Valley of Vision — breaking down of a wall and of crying to the mountain.

6 And Ěylam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Qir bared the shield.

7 And it shall be that your choicest valleys shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall take up positions at the gate.

8 Then He removed the covering of Yehuḏah. And you looked in that day to the weapons of the House of the Forest.

9 And you saw the breaches of the city of Dawiḏ, that it was great. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10 And you counted the houses of Yerushalayim, and the houses you broke down to strengthen the wall.

11 And you dug a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you have not looked to its Maker, nor have you seen Him who fashioned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Master יהוה of hosts called for weeping and for mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

13 Then see! Joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaying sheep, eating meat and drinking wine, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

14 And it was revealed in my hearing by יהוה of hosts, “For this crookedness shall certainly not be pardoned until you die,” said the Master יהוה of hosts.

15 Thus said the Master יהוה of hosts, “Go, come to this steward, to Sheḇnah, who is over the house, and say,

16 What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have hewn a burial-site here, as he who hews himself a burial-site on high, inscribing a resting place for himself in a rock?

17 See, יהוה is hurling you away, O man, and is firmly grasping you,

18 rolling you up tightly like a ball, into a wide land. There you are to die, and there your esteemed chariots are to be the shame of your master’s house.

19 And I shall drive you from your office, and you shall be ousted from your position.

20 And it shall be in that day, that I shall call My servant Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu.

21 And I shall put your robe on him, and strengthen him with your girdle, and give your authority into his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and to the house of Yehuḏah.

22 And I shall place the key of the house of Dawiḏ on his shoulder. And he shall open, and no one shuts; and shall shut, and no one opens.

23 And I shall fasten him like a peg in a steadfast place, and he shall become a throne of esteem to his father’s house.

24 And they shall hang on him all the weight of his father’s house, the offspring and the offshoots, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the jars.

25 In that day,’ declares יהוה of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the steadfast place shall be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it shall be cut off. For יהוה has spoken.’ ”

23

1 The message concerning Tsor. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it has been destroyed, without house, without harbour. From the land of Kittim it has been revealed to them.

2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Tsiḏon, who passed over the sea, they filled you.

3 And on great waters the grain of Shiḥor, the harvest of the River, was her increase. And she was a market-place for the nations.

4 Be ashamed, O Tsiḏon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not laboured, nor brought forth children; neither have I reared young men, brought up maidens.”

5 Like the report of Mitsrayim, they too are grieved at the report of Tsor.

6 Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!

7 Is this your city of revelry, whose antiquity is from days of old, whose feet carried her far off to sojourn?

8 Who has counselled this against Tsor, the crowning city, whose merchants are chiefs, whose traders are the esteemed of the earth?

9 יהוה of hosts has counselled it, to defile the pride of all splendour, and to shame all the esteemed of the earth.

10 Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more strength.

11 He has stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the reigns; יהוה has given a command against Kena‛an to destroy its strongholds.

12 And He said, “Never again shall you exult, O you oppressed maiden daughter of Tsiḏon. Arise, pass over to Kittim, even there you shall find no rest.”

13 See the land of the Kasdim — this people did not exist. Ashshur founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up their siege-towers, they demolished her palaces, and made her a ruin.

14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste!

15 And in that day it shall be that Tsor is forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one sovereign. At the end of seventy years it shall be to Tsor as in the song of the whore:

16 “Take a lyre, go about the city, you forgotten whore; make sweet playing, sing many songs, so that you might be remembered.”

17 And at the end of seventy years it shall be that יהוה visits Tsor. And she shall return to her harlot-fee and commit whoring with all the reigns of the earth on the face of the soil.

18 And her goods and her harlot-fee shall be set apart for יהוה, not treasured nor laid up, for her gain is for those who dwell before יהוה, to eat sufficiently, and for a choice covering.

24

1 See, יהוה is making the earth empty and making it waste, and shall overturn its surface, and shall scatter abroad its inhabitants.

2 And it shall be — as with the people so with the priest, as with the servant so with his master, as with the female servant so with her mistress, as with the buyer so with the seller, as with the lender so with the borrower, as with the creditor so with the debtor;

3 the earth is completely emptied and utterly plundered, for יהוה has spoken this word.

4 The earth shall mourn and wither, the world shall languish and wither, the haughty people of the earth shall languish.

5 For the earth has been defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the Torot, changed the law, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, and those who dwell in it be punished. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few men shall be left.

7 The new wine shall fail, the vine shall languish, all those glad at heart shall sigh.

8 The joy of the tambourine shall cease, the noise of those who rejoice shall end, the joy of the lyre shall cease.

9 No more do they drink wine with a song, strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

10 The deserted city shall be broken down, every house shall be shut, no one enters.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy shall be darkened, the gladness of the earth shall be gone.

12 The city is left in ruins, and the gate is stricken with destruction.

13 For thus it is to be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, like the shaking of an olive tree, like the gleaning of grapes when the grape harvest is done.

14 They lift up their voice, they sing of the excellency of יהוה, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

15 Therefore praise יהוה in the east, the Name of יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl in the coastlands of the sea.

16 From the ends of the earth we shall hear songs, “Splendour to the Righteous One!” But I say, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray, with treachery the treacherous betray.”

17 Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear falls into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit is caught in the snare. For the windows from on high shall be opened, and the foundations of the earth be shaken.

19 The earth shall be utterly broken, the earth shall be completely shattered, the earth shall be fiercely shaken.

20 The earth shall stagger like a drunkard. And it shall totter like a hut, and its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21 And in that day it shall be that יהוה punishes on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the sovereigns of the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and be punished after many days.

23 And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, for יהוה of hosts shall reign on Mount Tsiyon, and in Yerushalayim, and before His elders, in esteem!

25

1 O יהוה, You are my Elohim. I exalt You, I praise Your Name, for You shall do a wonder — counsels of long ago, trustworthiness, truth.

2 For You shall make a city a heap, a walled city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more — never to be rebuilt.

3 Therefore a strong people praise You, the city of the ruthless nations fear You.

4 For You shall be a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the spirit of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall.

5 You subdue the noise of foreigners, as heat in a dry place; as heat in the shadow of a cloud, the singing of the ruthless is subdued.

6 And in this mountain יהוה of hosts shall make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of old wines, of choice pieces with marrow, of old wines, well-refined.

7 And He shall swallow up on this mountain the surface of the covering which covers all people, and the veil which is spread over all nations.

8 He shall swallow up death forever, and the Master יהוה shall wipe away tears from all faces, and take away the reproach of His people from all the earth. For יהוה has spoken.

9 And it shall be said in that day, “See, this is our Elohim. We have waited for Him, and He saves us. This is יהוה, we have waited for Him, let us be glad and rejoice in His deliverance.”

10 For the hand of יהוה rests on this mountain, and Mo’aḇ is trodden down under Him, as straw is trodden down in the water of a dunghill.

11 And He shall spread out His hands in their midst as he who swims spreads out his hands to swim, and He shall bring down their pride together, with the skill of His hands.

12 And the high stronghold of your walls He shall bring down, lay it low, levelled to the ground, down to the dust.

26

1 In that day this song is sung in the land of Yehuḏah, “We have a strong city — He sets up deliverance, walls and ramparts.

2 “Open the gates, let the righteous nation which guards the truth enter in.

3 “The one steadfast of mind You guard in perfect peace, for he trusts in You.

4 “Trust in יהוה forever, for in Yah, יהוה, is a rock of ages.

5 “For He shall bring down those who dwell on high. He lays the exalted city low, He lays it low to the earth, He brings it down to the dust.

6 “A foot tramples it down — feet of the poor, footsteps of the needy.”

7 The path of the righteous is uprightness; O upright One, You weigh the course of the righteous.

8 Also, in the path of Your right-rulings, O יהוה, we have waited for You; the longing of our being is for Your Name and for the remembrance of You.

9 My being longs for You in the night, also, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly. For when Your right-rulings are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness.

10 The wrong finds favour, yet he shall not learn righteousness; in the land of straightforwardness he acts perversely, and does not see the excellency of יהוה.

11 O יהוה, Your hand is high, they do not see. They see the ardour of the people and are ashamed; also, let the fire for Your adversaries consume them.

12 O יהוה, You establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us.

13 O יהוה our Elohim, other masters besides You have had rule over us; only in You do we make mention of Your Name.

14 The dead do not live; the departed spirits do not rise. Therefore You have visited and destroyed them, and made all their remembrance to perish.

15 You shall increase the nation, O יהוה, You shall increase the nation; You are esteemed; You shall expand all the borders of the land.

16 O יהוה, in distress they shall visit You, they shall pour out a prayer when Your disciplining is upon them.

17 As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so shall we be before Your face, O יהוה.

18 We have conceived, we writhed in pain; we have given birth to wind. We have not accomplished deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Let Your dead live, together with my dead body, let them arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for Your dew is a dew of light, and let the earth give birth to the departed spirits.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little while, until the displeasure is past.

21 For look, יהוה is coming out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their crookedness. And the earth shall disclose her blood, and no longer cover her killed ones.

27

1 In that day יהוה with His severe sword, great and strong, punishes Liwiathan the fleeing serpent, Liwiathan that twisted serpent. And He shall kill the monster that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing to her, “A vineyard of red wine!

3 “I, יהוה, do guard it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I guard it night and day.

4 “Wrath is not in Me. Who would set thornbushes and weeds against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

5 “Or let him take hold of My strength and make peace with Me. Let him make peace with Me!”

6 Those who come He causes to take root in Ya‛aqoḇ, Yisra’ĕl shall blossom and bud. And they shall fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 Has He smitten him as he struck the ones who were striking him? Or as a killer — was he killed as he was killing?

8 In measure, by sending her away, You contended with her. He shall take away by His rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9 Therefore by this the crookedness of Ya‛aqoḇ is covered. And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: when he makes all the stones of the slaughter-place like chalkstones that are beaten to dust — Ashĕrim and sun-pillars rise no more.

10 For the city of defence is lonely, a home forsaken and left like a wilderness — there the calf feeds, and there it lies down, and shall consume its branches.

11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off, women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding, therefore He who made them has no compassion on them, and He who formed them shows them no favour.

12 And in that day it shall be that יהוה threshes, from the channel of the River to the wadi of Mitsrayim. And you shall be gathered one by one, O children of Yisra’ĕl.

13 And in that day it shall be that a great shophar is blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Ashshur and the outcasts in the land of Mitsrayim shall come, and shall worship יהוה on the set-apart mountain, in Yerushalayim.

28

1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephrayim, and to the fading flower of its splendid comeliness that is on the head of the fertile valley, to those who are overcome with wine!

2 See, יהוה has one who is strong and potent, like a downpour of hail and a destroying storm, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, who casts down to the earth with the hand.

3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephrayim, is trampled under foot;

4 and the fading flower of its splendid comeliness that is on the head of the fertile valley, like the first fruit before the summer, which, when one sees it, he eats it up while it is still in his hand.

5 In that day יהוה of hosts is for a crown of splendour and a head-dress of comeliness to the remnant of His people,

6 and a spirit of right-ruling to him who sits in right-ruling, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 And these too have gone astray through wine, and through strong drink wandered about. Priest and prophet have gone astray through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they wander about through strong drink, they go astray in vision, they stumble in right-ruling.

8 For all tables shall be covered with vomit, no place without filth.

9 Whom would He teach knowledge? And whom would He make to understand the message? Those weaned from milk, those taken from the breasts!

10 For it is: command upon command, command upon command, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.

11 For with a jabbering lip and a foreign tongue He speaks to this people,

12 to whom He said, “This is the rest, give rest to the weary,” and, “This is the refreshing.” But they would not hear.

13 But the Word of יהוה was to them, “Command upon command, command upon command, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” so that they go and shall stumble backward, and be broken and snared and taken captive.

14 Therefore hear the Word of יהוה, you men of scorn, who rule this people who are in Yerushalayim,

15 because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with She’ol we have effected a vision. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it does not come to us, for we have made lying our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

16 Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, “See, I am laying in Tsiyon a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a settled foundation. He who trusts shall not hasten away.

17 And I shall make right-ruling the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lying, and the waters overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your vision with She’ol not stand. When an overflowing scourge passes through, then you shall be trampled down by it.

19 As often as it passes through it shall take you, for it shall pass through every morning, and by day and by night. And it shall be only trembling to understand the message.”

20 For the bed shall be too short for a man to stretch out on, and the covering shall be too narrow to wrap himself in it.

21 For יהוה rises up as at Mount Peratsim, and He is wroth as at the Valley of Giḇ‛on, to do His work, His strange work, and to do His deed, His strange deed.

22 And now, do not be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong. For I have heard from the Master יהוה of hosts, a destruction decreed upon all the earth.

23 Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my Word.

24 Does the ploughman keep ploughing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

25 When he has levelled its surface, does he not sow the caraway and scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

26 For He instructs him for right-ruling, his Elohim teaches him.

27 For caraway is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a wagon wheel rolled over cummin, but caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cummin with a rod.

28 Grain is crushed, so one does not go on threshing it forever, nor break it with his wagon wheel, nor crush it with his horsemen.

29 Even this has come from יהוה of hosts, who did wonders in counsel, who made wisdom great.

29

1 Woe to Ari’ĕl, to Ari’ĕl, the city where Dawiḏ dwelt! Add year to year, let festivals come around.

2 “And I shall distress Ari’ĕl, and there shall be mourning and sorrow, and it shall be to Me as Ari’ĕl.

3 “And I shall encamp against you all around, I shall lay siege against you with a mound, and I shall raise siege-works against you.

4 “And you shall be brought low and speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low, out of the dust. And your voice shall be like a medium’s, out of the ground, and your speech whisper out of the dust.

5 “But the crowd of those strange to you shall be like fine dust, and the crowd of the ruthless ones as chaff blowing away. And it shall be in an instant, suddenly!”

6 You shall be visited by יהוה of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and flame of devouring fire.

7 Then the crowd of all the nations who fight against Ari’ĕl, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.

8 And it shall be as when a hungry man dreams, and see, he eats; but he awakes, and his being is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and see, he drinks; but he awakes, and see, he is faint, and his being is longing. Thus shall the crowd of all the nations be who fight against Mount Tsiyon.

9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

10 For יהוה has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets. And He has covered your heads, the seers.

11 And the entire vision is to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men give to one who knows books, saying, “Read this, please.” And he said, “I am unable, for it is sealed.”

12 And the book is given to one who does not know books, saying, “Read this, please.” And he said, “I have not known books.”

13 And יהוה says, “Because this people has drawn near with its mouth, and with its lips they have esteemed Me, and it has kept its heart far from Me, and their fear of Me has become a command of men that is taught!

14 “Therefore, see, I am again doing a marvellous work among this people, a marvellous work and a wonder. And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their clever men shall be hidden.”

15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from יהוה, and their works are in the dark; they say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”

16 How perverse of you! Should the potter be reckoned as the clay? Should what is made say of its Maker, “He did not make me”? And what is formed say of Him who formed it, “He did not understand”?

17 Is it not yet a little while, and Leḇanon shall be turned into garden land, and garden land be reckoned as a forest?

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

19 And the meek ones shall increase their joy in יהוה, and the poor among men rejoice in the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

20 For the ruthless one is brought to naught, the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for evil shall be cut off,

21 those who make a man to sin in word, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the righteous with empty reasoning.

22 Therefore thus said יהוה, who ransomed Aḇraham, concerning the house of Ya‛aqoḇ, “Ya‛aqoḇ is no longer put to shame, no longer does his face grow pale.

23 “For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they shall set apart My Name, and set apart the Set-apart One of Ya‛aqoḇ, and fear the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.

24 “And those who went astray in spirit shall come to understanding, and the grumblers accept instruction.”

30

1 “Woe to the stubborn children,” declares יהוה, “to make counsel, but not from Me, and to devise plans, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;

2 who are setting out to go down to Mitsrayim, and have not asked My mouth, to be strengthened in the strength of Pharaoh, and to seek refuge in the shadow of Mitsrayim!

3 “And the strength of Pharaoh shall become your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Mitsrayim your confusion.

4 “For his princes were at Tso‛an, and his messengers came to Ḥanes.

5 “They were all ashamed of a people who do not profit them, not for help or profit, but a shame and also a reproach.”

6 The message concerning the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and distress, from which came the lioness and lion, the adder and fiery flying serpent, they convey their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people,

7 even Mitsrayim, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore I have called her Rahaḇ-Hĕm-Sheḇeth.

8 And go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it on a scroll, that it is for a latter day, a witness forever:

9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who refuse to hear the Torah of יהוה,

10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us what is smooth, prophesy deceits.

11 “Turn aside from the way, swerve from the path, cause the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl to cease from before us.”

12 Therefore thus said the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them,

13 therefore this crookedness is to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, swiftly.”

14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, which is broken in pieces, without sparing, so that there is not found among its fragments a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern.

15 For thus said the Master יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “In returning and rest you are saved, in stillness and trust is your strength.” But you would not,

16 and you said, “No, for we flee upon horses,” therefore you flee! And, “We ride on swift horses,” therefore those who pursue you are swift!

17 One thousand flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee until you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a sign on a hill.

18 And therefore יהוה shall wait, to show you favour. And therefore He shall be exalted, to have compassion on you. For יהוה is an Elohim of right-ruling. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

19 For the people shall dwell in Tsiyon at Yerushalayim, you shall weep no more. He shall show much favour to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He shall answer you.

20 Though יהוה gave you bread of adversity and water of affliction, your Teacher shall no longer be hidden. But your eyes shall see your Teacher,

21 and your ears hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the Way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right, or whenever you turn to the left.

22 And you shall defile the covering of your graven images of silver, and the plating of your moulded images of gold. You shall throw them away as a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Be gone!”

23 And He shall give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the earth. And it shall be fat and rich, your cattle grazing in an enlarged pasture in that day,

24 and the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground eat seasoned fodder winnowed with shovel and fan.

25 And on every high mountain and on every high hill there shall be rivers and streams of waters, in the day of great killing, when the towers fall.

26 And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that יהוה binds up the breach of His people, and heals the wound of His blows.

27 See, the Name of יהוה is coming from afar, burning with His wrath, and heavy smoke. His lips shall be filled with rage, and His tongue be as a devouring fire;

28 and His breath shall be as an overflowing stream, which reaches up to the neck, to sift the nations with a sieve of falsehood, and a misleading bridle on the jaws of the peoples.

29 Let the song be to you as in a night set apart for a festival, and gladness of heart as he who is going with a flute, to come into the mountain of יהוה, to the Rock of Yisra’ĕl.

30 And יהוה shall cause His excellent voice to be heard, and show the coming down of His arm, with raging wrath and the flame of a consuming fire, with scattering, downpour and hailstones.

31 For through the voice of יהוה Ashshur is broken down, with a rod He strikes.

32 And every passage of the ordained staff which יהוה lays on him, shall be with tambourines and lyres, when He shall fight with it, battling with a brandishing arm.

33 For Topheth was ordained of old, even for the sovereign it has been prepared. He has made it deep and large, its fire pit with much wood; the breath of יהוה, as a stream of burning sulphur, is burning in it!

31

1 Woe to those who go down to Mitsrayim for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, nor seek יהוה!

2 And He also is wise, and has brought evil, and has not turned aside His words. And He shall rise up against the house of evil-doers, and against the help of workers of wickedness.

3 And the Mitsrites are men, and not Ěl. And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And when יהוה stretches out His hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall. And they shall all fall, together.

4 For this is what יהוה has said to me, “As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey, though a band of shepherds is called out against him, he is not afraid of their voice nor disturbed by their noise, so יהוה of hosts shall come down to fight upon Mount Tsiyon and upon its hill.

5 “Like hovering birds, so does יהוה of hosts protect Yerushalayim — protecting and delivering, passing over and rescuing.”

6 Turn back to Him from whom the children of Yisra’ĕl have deeply fallen away.

7 For in that day, let each man reject his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made for yourselves, as a sin.

8 “And Ashshur shall fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become slave labour,

9 and his strength pass away because of fear, and his commanders shall be afraid of the banner,” declares יהוה, whose light is in Tsiyon and whose furnace is in Yerushalayim.

32

1 See, a sovereign shall reign in righteousness, and rulers rule in right-ruling.

2 And each one shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the downpour, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

3 And the eyes of those who see are not dim, and the ears of those who hear listen.

4 And the heart of the rash understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers hurries to speak plainly.

5 A fool is no longer called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be respectable;

6 for a fool speaks folly, and his heart works wickedness: to practise filthiness, and to speak against יהוה that which misleads, to starve the being of the hungry, and to withhold the drink from the thirsty.

7 And the methods of the scoundrel are evil — he has devised wicked plans to destroy the poor with words of falsehood, even when the needy pleads for right-ruling.

8 But the generous one devises what is generous, and by generous deeds he rises up.

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; rise up you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.

10 In little more than a year you shall be troubled, you complacent women; for the grape harvest shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.

11 Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you complacent ones; strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists.

12 Lament upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruit-bearing vine.

13 Weeds and thornbushes come up over the ground of My people, indeed, over all the houses of joy, the city of revelry;

14 for the palace is abandoned, the crowded city deserted. Hill and watchtower serve as caves forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall become garden-land, and the garden-land be reckoned as a forest.

16 Then right-ruling shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the garden-land.

17 The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the service of righteousness be rest and safety forever.

18 And My people shall dwell in a home of peace, and in safe dwellings, and in undisturbed resting places,

19 even when hail shall fall, felling the forest, and the city be brought low in humiliation.

20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the foot of the ox and the donkey.

33

1 Woe to you ravager, while you have not been ravaged, and you treacherous, while they have not betrayed you! When you have ceased ravaging, you shall be ravaged. And when you stop betraying, they shall betray you.

2 O יהוה, show us favour, for we have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, our deliverance also in time of distress.

3 At the noise of the rumbling the people shall flee. When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered.

4 And Your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; as locusts rush about, they rush upon them.

5 יהוה is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Tsiyon with right-ruling and righteousness.

6 And He shall be the trustworthiness of your times, a wealth of deliverance, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of יהוה — that is His treasure.

7 See, their brave ones shall cry outside, the messengers of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways shall be deserted, the wayfaring man shall have ceased. He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he respected no man.

9 The earth shall mourn and languish, Leḇanon shall be ashamed. Sharon shall be withered like a desert, and Bashan and Karmel be shaking.

10 “Now I rise up,” declares יהוה. “Now I am exalted, now I am lifted up.

11 “You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble, your spirit devours you like fire.

12 “And peoples shall be like the burnings of lime, like thorns cut up they are burned in the fire.

13 “You who are afar off, hear what I shall do; and you who are near, know My might.”

14 Sinners in Tsiyon shall be afraid; trembling shall grip the defiled ones, “Who of us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who of us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

15 He who walks righteously and speaks what is straight, he who rejects the gain of oppressions, who keeps his hands from accepting bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil —

16 he shall inhabit the heights; strongholds of rocks be his refuge. His bread shall be given him, his water be steadfast.

17 Your eyes shall see the Sovereign in His comeliness, see a land that is far off.

18 Your heart ponders fear, “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 No longer shall you see a fierce people, a people of too deep a lip to hear, of a jabbering tongue no one understands.

20 See Tsiyon, the city of our appointed time; your eyes shall see Yerushalayim, an undisturbed home, a tent not taken down. Its stakes are never removed, nor any of its cords broken.

21 But there, great is יהוה for us; a place of broad rivers, streams, in which no boat with oars sails, nor big ships pass by —

22 for יהוה is our Judge, יהוה is our Inscriber, יהוה is our Sovereign, He saves us —

23 your ropes shall be slack, they do not strengthen their mast, they shall not spread the sail. Then the prey of great plunder shall be divided, the lame shall take the prey.

24 Neither shall the inhabitant say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell in it is forgiven their crookedness!

34

1 Come near, you nations, to hear. And listen, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world and all its offspring.

2 For the displeasure of יהוה is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their divisions. He shall put them under the ban, He shall give them over to the slaughter,

3 and their slain be thrown out, and their stench rise from their corpses. And mountains shall be melted with their blood.

4 And all the host of the heavens shall rot away. And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host fade like a leaf fading on the vine, and like the fading one of a fig tree.

5 “For My sword shall be drenched in the heavens. Look, it comes down on Eḏom, and on the people of My curse, for judgment.

6 “The sword of יהוה shall be filled with blood, it shall be made overflowing with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For יהוה has a slaughtering in Botsrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Eḏom.

7 “And wild oxen shall come down with them, and young bulls with bulls. And their land shall be drenched with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.”

8 For it is the day of the vengeance of יהוה, the year of recompense for the cause of Tsiyon.

9 And its streams shall be turned into tar, and its dust into sulphur, and its land shall become burning tar,

10 that is not quenched night or day, its smoke going up forever. From generation to generation it lies waste, no one passes through it forever and ever,

11 so that the pelican and the porcupine possess it, also the owl and the raven dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it the line of formlessness and stones of emptiness.

12 Its caves, with no one in them, is called a reign, but all its rulers have vanished.

13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its strongholds. And it shall be a home for jackals, a courtyard for ostriches.

14 And the wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, and the shaggy goat call to its companion. The night creature shall also settle there, and shall find for herself a place of rest.

15 The arrow snake shall nest there, and lay eggs and hatch, and gather them under her shadow. There too the vultures shall gather, each with its mate.

16 Search from the book of יהוה, and read: not one of these shall be missing, not one shall be without a mate, for He has commanded my mouth. And His Spirit shall gather them.

17 And He shall cast the lot for them, and His hand shall divide it among them with a measuring line — they possess it forever, from generation to generation they dwell in it.

35

1 Let the wilderness and the dry place be glad for them, and let the desert rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

2 It blossoms much and rejoices, even with joy and singing. The esteem of Leḇanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Karmel and Sharon. They shall see the esteem of יהוה, the excellency of our Elohim.

3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the weak knees.

4 Say to those with anxious heart, “Be strong, do not fear! See, your Elohim comes with vengeance, with the recompense of Elohim. He is coming to save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf be opened.

6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, because waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water — in the home for jackals, where each lay, grass with reeds and rushes.

8 And there shall be a highway, and a way, and it shall be called “The Way of Set-apartness.” The unclean does not pass over it, but it is for those who walk the way, and no fools wander on it.

9 No lion is there, nor any ravenous beast go up on it, it is not found there. But the redeemed shall walk there.

10 And the ransomed of יהוה shall return and enter Tsiyon with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

36

1 And it came to be in the fourteenth year of Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu that Sanḥĕriḇ sovereign of Ashshur came up against all the walled cities of Yehuḏah and took them.

2 And the sovereign of Ashshur sent the Raḇshaqĕh with a great army from Laḵish to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu at Yerushalayim. And he stood by the channel of the upper pool, on the highway to the Launderer’s Field.

3 And there came to him Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, who was over the household, and Sheḇnah the scribe, and Yo’aḥ son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 The Raḇshaqĕh then said to them, “Please say to Ḥizqiyahu, ‘Thus said the great sovereign, the sovereign of Ashshur, “What trust is this in which you trust?

5 “I say: You speak of having counsel and strength for battle, but they are vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

6 “Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Mitsrayim, on which if a man leans, it shall go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh the sovereign of Mitsrayim to all who trust in him.

7 “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in יהוה our Elohim,’ is it not He whose high places and whose slaughter-places Ḥizqiyahu has taken away, and has said to Yehuḏah and to Yerushalayim, ‘Bow yourselves before this slaughter-place’?

8 “And now, I urge you, please give a pledge to my master the sovereign of Ashshur, and I give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

9 “And how do you refuse one officer of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Mitsrayim for chariots and horsemen?

10 “And now, have I come up without יהוה against this land to destroy it? יהוה said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

11 And Elyaqim, Sheḇnah, and Yo’aḥ said to the Raḇshaqĕh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. And do not speak to us in the language of Yehuḏah in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

12 But the Raḇshaqĕh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

13 And the Raḇshaqĕh stood and called out with a loud voice in the language of Yehuḏah, and said, “Hear the words of the great sovereign, the sovereign of Ashshur!

14 “Thus said the sovereign, ‘Do not let Ḥizqiyahu deceive you, for he is unable to deliver you,

15 and do not let Ḥizqiyahu make you trust in יהוה, saying, “יהוה shall certainly deliver us, this city is not given into the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur.” ’

16 “Do not listen to Ḥizqiyahu, for thus said the sovereign of Ashshur, ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me. And let each of you eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree, and each of you drink the waters of his own cistern,

17 until I come. Then I shall take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 Beware lest Ḥizqiyahu mislead you, saying, “יהוה shall deliver us.” Has any one of the mighty ones of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur?

19 Where are the mighty ones of Ḥamath and Arpaḏ? Where are the mighty ones of Sepharwayim? And when have they delivered Shomeron from my hand?

20 Who among all the mighty ones of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that יהוה should deliver Yerushalayim from my hand?’ ”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the command of the sovereign was, “Do not answer him.”

22 And Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, who was over the household, Sheḇnah the scribe, and Yo’aḥ son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Ḥizqiyahu with their garments torn, and they reported to him the words of the Raḇshaqĕh.

37

1 And it came to be, when Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of יהוה,

2 and sent Elyaqim, who was over the household, and Sheḇnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, to Yeshayahu the prophet, the son of Amots.

3 And they said to him, “Thus said Ḥizqiyahu, ‘This day is a day of distress and rebuke and scorn, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring forth.

4 It could be that יהוה your Elohim does hear the words of the Raḇshaqĕh, whom his master the sovereign of Ashshur has sent to reproach the living Elohim, and shall rebuke the words which יהוה your Elohim has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

5 So the servants of Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu came to Yeshayahu,

6 and Yeshayahu said to them, “Say this to your master, ‘Thus said יהוה, “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the sovereign of Ashshur have reviled Me.

7 “See, I am putting a spirit in him, and he shall hear a report and return to his own land. And I shall cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

8 And the Raḇshaqĕh returned and found the sovereign of Ashshur fighting against Liḇnah, for he had heard that he had left Laḵish.

9 And he heard concerning Tirhaqah sovereign of Kush, “He has come out to fight with you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ḥizqiyahu, saying,

10 “Speak to Ḥizqiyahu the sovereign of Yehuḏah, saying, ‘Do not let your Elohim in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Yerushalayim is not given into the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur.”

11 See, you have heard what the sovereigns of Ashshur have done to all lands by putting them under the ban. And are you going to be delivered?

12 Have the mighty ones of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Ḥaran and Retseph, and the sons of Ěḏen who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the sovereign of Ḥamath, and the sovereign of Arpaḏ, and the sovereign of the city of Sepharwayim, Hĕna, and Iwwah?’ ”

14 And Ḥizqiyahu received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Ḥizqiyahu went up to the House of יהוה, and spread it before יהוה.

15 And Ḥizqiyahu prayed to יהוה, saying,

16 “O יהוה of hosts, Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, the One who dwells between the keruḇim, You are Elohim, You alone, of all the reigns of the earth. You have made the heavens and earth.

17 “Incline Your ear, O יהוה, and hear. Open Your eyes, O יהוה, and see. And hear all the words of Sanḥĕriḇ, who has sent to reproach the living Elohim.

18 “Truly, יהוה, the sovereigns of Ashshur have laid waste all the lands, and their land,

19 and have put their mighty ones into the fire, for they were not mighty ones, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. And they destroyed them.

20 “And now, O יהוה our Elohim, save us from his hand, so that all the reigns of the earth know that You are יהוה, You alone.”

21 Then Yeshayahu son of Amots sent to Ḥizqiyahu, saying, “Thus said יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sanḥĕriḇ sovereign of Ashshur,

22 this is the word which יהוה has spoken concerning him, “The maiden, the daughter of Tsiyon, has despised you, mocked you; the daughter of Yerushalayim has shaken her head behind you!

23 “Whom have you reproached and reviled? And against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes in pride? Against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl!

24 “By the hand of your servants you have reproached יהוה, and said, ‘With my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Leḇanon. And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. And I enter its farthest height, its thickest forest.

25 I have dug and drunk water, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of defence.’

26 “Have you not heard long ago how I made it, from days of old, that I formed it? Now I have brought it about, that you should be for crushing walled cities into heaps of ruins.

27 “And their inhabitants were powerless, they were overthrown and put to shame. They were as the grass of the field and as the green plant, as the grass on the house-tops and as grain blighted before it is grown.

28 “But I know your sitting down, and your going out and your coming in, and your rage against Me.

29 “Because your rage against Me and your pride have come up to My ears, I shall put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I shall turn you back by the way which you came.

30 “And this shall be the sign for you: This year you eat such as grows of itself, and the second year what springs from that, and in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

31 “And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Yehuḏah shall again take root downward, and be fruitful upward.

32 “For out of Yerushalayim comes forth a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Tsiyon — the ardour of יהוה of hosts does this.

33 “Therefore thus said יהוה concerning the sovereign of Ashshur, ‘He does not come into this city, nor does he shoot an arrow there, nor does he come before it with shield, nor does he build a siege mound against it.

34 By the way that he came, by the same he turns back. And into this city he does not come,’ declares יהוה.

35 And I shall defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant Dawiḏ.’ ”

36 And a messenger of יהוה went out, and struck in the camp of Ashshur one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose early in the morning, and saw all of them, dead bodies.

37 And Sanḥĕriḇ the sovereign of Ashshur broke camp and went away, and turned back, and remained at Ninewĕh.

38 And it came to be, as he was bowing himself in the house of Nisroḵ his mighty one, that his sons Aḏrammeleḵ and Shar’etser struck him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And his son Ěsarḥaddon reigned in his place.

38

1 In those days Ḥizqiyahu was sick and near death. And Yeshayahu the prophet, the son of Amots, came to him, and said to him, “Thus said יהוה, ‘Command your house, for you are going to die and not live.’ ”

2 And Ḥizqiyahu turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to יהוה,

3 and said, “I pray, O יהוה, please remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in Your eyes.” And Ḥizqiyahu wept bitterly.

4 And the word of יהוה came to Yeshayahu, saying,

5 “Go and say to Ḥizqiyahu, ‘Thus said יהוה, the Elohim of Dawiḏ your father, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. See, I am adding fifteen years to your days.

6 “And out of the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur I shall deliver you and this city, and protect this city.” ’

7 “And this is the sign to you from יהוה, that יהוה does this word which He has spoken:

8 “See, I am bringing the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Aḥaz, ten degrees backward.” And the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.

9 This is the writing of Ḥizqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

10 I said, “Am I to go into the gates of She’ol in the prime of my life? Shall I be deprived of the rest of my years?”

11 I said, “I shall not see Yah — Yah in the land of the living! I shall no longer look on man with the inhabitants of the world!

12 “My dwelling is plucked up, taken from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have cut off my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom. From day to night You make an end of me.

13 “I soothed myself until morning. Like a lion, so He shatters all my bones. From day to night You make an end of me.

14 “Like a swallow or a thrush, so I chattered; I moaned like a dove; my eyes look weakly on high. O יהוה, I am oppressed, undertake for me!

15 “What do I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has acted. Softly I go, all my years, because of the bitterness of my being.

16 “O יהוה, by these do men live, and my spirit finds life in all of them. Restore me and make me live.

17 “See, for peace I had what was bitter, bitter. But You have lovingly delivered my being from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18 “For She’ol does not thank You, nor death praise You; those who go down to the pit do not watch for Your truth.

19 “The living, the living — he is praising You, as I do this day. A father makes known Your truth to his children.

20 “יהוה, come to save me! And let us sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the House of יהוה.”

21 For Yeshayahu had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it on the boil, so that he lives.”

22 And Ḥizqiyahu asked, “What is the sign that I go up to the House of יהוה?”

39

1 At that time Meroḏaḵ-Balaḏan son of Balaḏan, sovereign of Baḇel, sent letters and a present to Ḥizqiyahu, for he heard that he had been sick and had become strong.

2 And Ḥizqiyahu was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armoury, and all that was found among his treasures. There was not an object in his house or in all his rule that Ḥizqiyahu did not show them.

3 And Yeshayahu the prophet went to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Ḥizqiyahu said, “They came to me from a distant land, from Baḇel.”

4 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Ḥizqiyahu said, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is not an object among my treasures that I did not show them.”

5 So Yeshayahu said to Ḥizqiyahu, “Hear the word of יהוה of hosts:

6 See, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be taken away to Baḇel; not a matter shall be left,’ declares יהוה.

7 And they shall take some of your sons who are born to you, whom you bring forth. And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the sovereign of Baḇel.’ ”

8 And Ḥizqiyahu said to Yeshayahu, “The word of יהוה which you have spoken is good!” And he said, “Because there is peace and truth in my days.”

40

1 “Comfort, comfort My people!” says your Elohim.

2 “Speak to the heart of Yerushalayim, and cry out to her, that her hard service is completed, that her crookedness is pardoned, that she has received from the hand of יהוה double for all her sins.”

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of יהוה; make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.

4 “Let every valley be raised, and every mountain and hill made low. And the steep ground shall become level, and the rough places smooth.

5 “And the esteem of יהוה shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see it. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken.”

6 The voice said, “Cry out!” and he said, “What do I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its loving-commitment is like the flower of the field.

7 “Grass shall wither, the flower shall fade, when the Spirit of יהוה has blown on it! Truly the people is grass!

8 “Grass shall wither, the flower shall fade, but the Word of our Elohim stands forever.”

9 You who bring good news to Tsiyon, get up into the high mountain. You who bring good news to Yerushalayim, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Yehuḏah, “See your Elohim!”

10 See, the Master יהוה comes with strength, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

11 He feeds His flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom, gently leading those who are with young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured the heavens with a span, and contained the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

13 Who has meted out the Spirit of יהוה, or as His counsellor taught Him?

14 With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of right-ruling? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?

15 See, nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are reckoned as dust on the balance. See, He lifts up isles as fine dust.

16 And Leḇanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for an ascending offering.

17 All nations before Him are as a non-entity, and they are reckoned by Him as less than a speck, and emptiness.

18 And to whom would you liken Ěl? And what likeness would you compare to Him?

19 The workman moulds a graven image, and the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains.

20 He who is too poor for such an offering chooses a tree that does not rot. He seeks for himself a skilled craftsman to prepare a carved image that does not totter.

21 Did you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,

23 who brings princes to naught, shall make the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24 Hardly have they been planted, hardly have they been sown, hardly has their stock taken root in the earth, when He shall blow on them and they wither, and a whirlwind take them away like stubble.

25 “And to whom then do you liken Me, or to whom am I compared?” says the Set-apart One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who has created these? He is bringing out their host by number, He calls them all by name, by the greatness of ability and potent of power, a man is not lacking.

27 Why do you say, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and speak, O Yisra’ĕl, “My way is hidden from יהוה, and my rights are overlooked by my Elohim”?

28 Did you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting Elohim, יהוה, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men stumble and fall,

31 but those who wait on יהוה renew their strength, they raise up the wing like eagles, they run and are not weary, they walk and do not faint.

41

1 “Be silent before Me, you coastlands, and let peoples renew their power! Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come together for right-ruling.

2 “Who raised up the righteous one from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made sovereigns submit to him? He gave them as the dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.

3 “He pursued them, passed over in safety, by a path that he had not gone with his feet.

4 “Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? ‘I, יהוה, am the first, and with the last I am He.’ ”

5 Coastlands see it and fear, the ends of the earth are afraid — they draw near and come.

6 Everyone helps his neighbour, and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

7 And the craftsman strengthens the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer inspires him who strikes the anvil, saying of the joining, “It is good.” And he strengthens it with nails, so it does not totter.

8 “But you, Yisra’ĕl, are My servant, Ya‛aqoḇ, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Aḇraham who loved Me,

9 whom I have strengthened from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest parts, and said to You, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

10 Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not look around, for I am your Elohim. I shall fortify you, I shall also help you, I shall also uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.’

11 “See, all those who raged against you are ashamed and blush, they are as non-existent. And the men who strive with you perish.

12 “You seek them but do not find them, those who struggle with you. Those who fight you are as non-existent, as naught.

13 “For I, יהוה your Elohim, am strengthening your right hand, saying to you, ‘Do not fear, I shall help you.’

14 “Do not fear, you worm Ya‛aqoḇ, you men of Yisra’ĕl! I shall help you,” declares יהוה and your Redeemer, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

15 “See, I shall make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth, let you thresh mountains and beat them small, and make hills like chaff.

16 “You winnow them, the wind lifts them up, and the whirlwind scatters them; but you, you rejoice in יהוה, and boast in the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

17 “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongues have failed for thirst, I, יהוה, do answer them; I, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, do not forsake them.

18 “I open rivers on bare hills, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I make a wilderness become a pool of water, and a dry land springs of water.

19 “I set in the wilderness cedar, acacia and myrtle and oil tree; I place in the desert cypress, pine and box tree together.

20 “So that they see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of יהוה has done this, and the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl has created it.

21 “Present your case,” says יהוה. “Let your strong ones come near,” says the Sovereign of Ya‛aqoḇ.

22 “Let them draw near and declare to us what is going to take place; let them declare the former events, what they were, and we consider them, and know the latter end of them; or announce to us what is coming.

23 “Declare the events that are going to come hereafter, and we know that you are mighty ones; yes, do good or do evil, and let us be amazed and see it together.

24 “See, you are of naught, and your work a breath; he who chooses you is an abomination.

25 “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls on My Name. And he comes against princes as though mortar, as the potter treads clay.

26 “Who has declared from the beginning, and we know? and former times, and we say, ‘He is righteous’? No, no one is declaring; no, no one is proclaiming; no, no one is hearing your words.

27 “He who is First said to Tsiyon, ‘See, see them!’ And to Yerushalayim I give one who brings good news.

28 “And I see that there is no man, and of these, there is no counsellor, who, when I ask of them, answers a word.

29 “See, all of them are useless, their works are naught, their moulded images are wind and confusion.

42

1 “See, My Servant whom I uphold, My Chosen One My being has delighted in! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He brings forth right-ruling to the nations.

2 “He does not cry out, nor lifts up His voice, nor causes His voice to be heard in the street.

3 “A crushed reed He does not break, and smoking flax He does not quench. He brings forth right-ruling in accordance with truth.

4 “He does not become weak or crushed, until He has established right-ruling in the earth. And the coastlands wait for His Torah.”

5 Thus said the Ěl, יהוה, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:

6 “I, יהוה, have called You in righteousness, and I strengthen Your hand and guard You, and give You for a covenant to a people, for a light to the nations,

7 to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

8 “I am יהוה, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols.

9 “See, the former predictions have come, and new ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.”

10 Sing to יהוה a new song; His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages where Qĕḏar dwells. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12 Let them give esteem to יהוה, and declare His praise in the coastlands.

13 יהוה goes forth like a mighty man. He stirs up ardour like a fighter. He cries out, yes, shout aloud. Over His enemies He shows Himself mighty.

14 “I have kept silent from of old, I have been still and held Myself back. Like a woman in labour I now cry out, I pant and gasp at once.

15 “I lay waste mountains and hills, and I dry up all their plants. And I shall make rivers become coastlands, and I dry up pools.

16 “And I shall lead the blind by a way they have not known — in paths they have not known I lead them. I make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These matters I shall do for them, and I shall not forsake them.

17 “Those who trust in idols, who say to the moulded images, ‘You are our mighty ones,’ shall be turned back, utterly ashamed.

18 “Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, and see.

19 “Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is at peace, and blind as servant of יהוה?

20 “You see much, but do not guard; ears are open, but do not hear.”

21 It has delighted יהוה, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and esteemed.

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses. They have become a prey, with no one to deliver — for plunder, and no one to say, “Restore!”

23 Who among you gives ear to this, pays attention and hears for the time to come?

24 Who gave Ya‛aqoḇ for plunder, and Yisra’ĕl to the robbers? Was it not יהוה, He against whom we sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, and they did not obey His Torah!

25 So He has poured on him His burning displeasure and the strength of battle, and it set him on fire all around, yet he did not understand. And it burned against him, yet he did not take it to heart!

43

1 But now, thus said יהוה, your Creator, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and He who formed you, O Yisra’ĕl, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are Mine.

2 “When you pass through the waters, I am with you; and through rivers, they do not overflow you. When you walk through fire, you are not scorched, and a flame does not burn you.

3 “For I am יהוה your Elohim, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, your Saviour; I gave Mitsrayim for your ransom, Kush and Seḇa in your place.

4 “Since you were precious in My eyes, you have been esteemed, and I have loved you. And I give men in your place, and peoples for your life.

5 “Do not fear, for I am with you. I shall bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west.

6 “I shall say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth —

7 all those who are called by My Name, whom I have created, formed, even made for My esteem.”

8 He shall bring out a blind people who have eyes, and deaf ones who have ears.

9 All the nations shall be assembled, and the peoples be gathered. Who among them declares this, and show us former events? Let them give their witnesses, to be declared right; or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”

10 “You are My witnesses,” declares יהוה, “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no Ěl formed, nor after Me there is none.

11 “I, I am יהוה, and besides Me there is no saviour.

12 “I, I have declared and saved, and made known, and there was no foreign mighty one among you. And you are My witnesses,” declares יהוה, “that I am Ěl.

13 “Even from the day I am He, and no one delivers out of My hand. I work, and who turns it back?”

14 Thus said יהוה, your Redeemer, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “For your sake I shall send to Baḇel, and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Kasdim, who rejoice in their ships.

15 “I am יהוה, your Set-apart One, Creator of Yisra’ĕl, your Sovereign.”

16 Thus said יהוה, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters,

17 who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (they lie down together, they do not rise, they have been extinguished, they have been quenched like a wick):

18 “Do not remember the former events, nor consider the events of old.

19 “See, I am doing what is new, let it now spring forth. Do you not know it? I am even making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

20 “The beast of the field esteems Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen,

21 this people I have formed for Myself, let them relate My praise.

22 “But you have not called on Me, O Ya‛aqoḇ, for you have been weary of Me, O Yisra’ĕl.

23 “You have not brought Me the sheep for your ascending offerings, nor have you esteemed Me with your slaughterings. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense.

24 “You have not bought Me sweet cane with silver, nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your slaughterings. You have only burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your crookednesses.

25 “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and remember your sins no more.

26 “Remind Me, let us enter into judgment, together; relate, that you might be declared right.

27 “Your first father sinned, and your interpreters have transgressed against Me.

28 “So I have profaned the chief ones of the set-apart place, and I have delivered up Ya‛aqoḇ to the curse, and Yisra’ĕl to scorn.

44

1 “But now hear, O Ya‛aqoḇ My servant, and Yisra’ĕl whom I have chosen.

2 Thus said יהוה who made you and formed you from the womb, who helps you, ‘Do not fear, O Ya‛aqoḇ My servant, and Yeshurun, whom I have chosen.

3 For I pour water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. I pour My Spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring,

4 and they shall spring up among the grass like willows by streams of water.’

5 “One says, ‘I belong to יהוה; another calls himself by the name of Ya‛aqoḇ; another writes with his hand, ‘Unto יהוה,’ and names himself by the name of Yisra’ĕl.

6 “Thus said יהוה, Sovereign of Yisra’ĕl, and his Redeemer, יהוה of hosts, ‘I am the First and I am the Last, besides Me there is no Elohim.

7 And who is like Me? Let him call and declare it, and lay it before Me, since I appointed the everlasting people. And the events that are coming and those that do come, let them declare these to them.

8 Do not fear, nor be afraid. Have I not since made you hear, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there an Eloah besides Me? There is no other Rock, I know not one.’ ”

9 Those who make an idol, all of them are emptiness, and their delights do not profit. And they are their own witnesses; they neither see nor know, so that they are put to shame.

10 Who would form a mighty one or cast an idol that is of no value?

11 See, all his companions are ashamed, and the workmen, they are but men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, let them fear, let them be put to shame, altogether.

12 The craftsman in iron with the tools works one in the coals, and fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he shall be hungry, and has no strength; he drinks no water and is weary.

13 The carpenter stretches out his rule, he outlines it with chalk; he fashions it with a plane, and he outlines it with the compass, and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the comeliness of a man, to remain in the house.

14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes cypress and oak, which he raised among the trees of the forest. He has planted a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

15 And it shall be for a man to burn, for he takes some of it and warms himself. He also kindles it and shall bake bread. He also makes a mighty one and bows himself to it — has made it a carved image and falls down before it.

16 Half of it he shall burn in the fire; with this half he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.”

17 And the rest of it he makes into a mighty one, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships, prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my mighty one.”

18 They do not know nor understand, for He has smeared their eyes from seeing, and their hearts from understanding.

19 And no one recalls it to his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire, and I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Should I fall down before a log of wood?”

20 Feeding on ashes, a deceived heart turns him aside, and he does not deliver his being, nor says, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

21 “Remember these matters, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and Yisra’ĕl, for you are My servant! I have formed you, you are My servant, O Yisra’ĕl, do not forget Me!

22 “I shall wipe out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I shall redeem you.”

23 Sing, O heavens, for יהוה shall do it! Shout, O depths of the earth! Break forth into singing, O mountains, forest, and every tree in it! For יהוה shall redeem Ya‛aqoḇ, and make Himself clear in Yisra’ĕl.

24 Thus said יהוה, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb, “I am יהוה, doing all, stretching out the heavens all alone, spreading out the earth, with none beside Me,

25 frustrating the signs of the babblers, and driving diviners mad, turning wise men backward, and making their knowledge foolish,

26 confirming the word of His servant, and completing the counsel of His messengers, who says of Yerushalayim, ‘Be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Yehuḏah, ‘They shall be built, and her ruins raised up by Me,’

27 who is saying to the deep, ‘Be dry, and your rivers I dry up,’

28 who is saying of Koresh, ‘He is My shepherd, and he completes all My pleasure, even saying to Yerushalayim, “Let her be built,” and to the Hĕḵal, “Let her foundation be laid.” ’

45

1 “Thus said יהוה to His anointed, to Koresh, whose right hand I have strengthened, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of sovereigns, to open before him the double doors, so that gates are not shut:

2 I go before you and make the crooked places straight; I shatter the gates of bronze and cut down the bars of iron.

3 And I shall give you the treasures of darkness and hoarded wealth of secret places, so that you know that I, יהוה, who are calling you by your name, am the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.

4 For the sake of Ya‛aqoḇ My servant, and of Yisra’ĕl My chosen, I also call you by your name, I give you a title, though you have not known Me.

5 I am יהוה, and there is none else — there is no Elohim besides Me. I gird you, though you have not known Me,

6 so that they know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none but Me. I am יהוה, and there is none else,

7 forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil. I, יהוה, do all these.’

8 “Rain down, O heavens, from above, and let clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, let them bring forth deliverance, and let righteousness spring up together. I, יהוה, have created it.

9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! (a potsherd with the potsherds of the earth). Does clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

10 “Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you bringing forth?’ Or to the woman, ‘What are you labouring over?’ ”

11 Thus said יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, and his Maker, “Do you ask Me about My sons what is to come? And about the work of My hands do you command Me?

12 “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, My hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.

13 “I have stirred him up in righteousness, and all his ways I make straight. He builds My city and lets My exiles go, not for price nor reward,” declares יהוה of hosts.

14 Thus said יהוה, “The labour of Mitsrayim and merchandise of Kush and of the Seḇaites, men of size, come over to you and they are yours. They walk behind you, they come over in chains, and they bow down to you. They make supplication to you, saying, ‘Indeed, Ěl is in you, and there is none else, no mighty one.’ ”

15 Truly You are Ěl, who hide Yourself, O Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, Saviour!

16 They shall be put to shame, and even be humiliated, all of them — the makers of idols shall go away together in humiliation.

17 Yisra’ĕl shall be saved by יהוה with an everlasting deliverance. You are not to be ashamed nor hurt, forever and ever.

18 For thus said יהוה, Creator of the heavens, He is Elohim, Former of earth and its Maker, He established it, He did not create it to be empty, He formed it to be inhabited: “I am יהוה, and there is none else.

19 “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I have not said to the seed of Ya‛aqoḇ, ‘Seek Me in vain.’ I am יהוה, speaking righteousness, declaring matters that are straight.

20 “Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. No knowledge have they who are lifting up the wood of their carved image, and pray to a mighty one that does not save.

21 “Declare and bring near, let them even take counsel together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has declared it from that time? Is it not I, יהוה? And there is no mighty one besides Me, a righteous Ěl and a Saviour, there is none besides Me.

22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am Ěl, and there is none else.

23 “I have sworn by Myself, a word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, so that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear.

24 “One shall say, ‘Only in יהוה do I have righteousness and strength’ — he comes to Him. And all those displeased with Him shall be put to shame.

25 “In יהוה all the seed of Yisra’ĕl shall be declared right and boast.”

46

1 Bĕl has bowed down, Neḇo is stooping, their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. That which is carried is burdensome, a burden to the weary.

2 They have stooped, they have bowed down together, they were unable to deliver the burden, but they themselves went into captivity.

3 “Listen to Me, O house of Ya‛aqoḇ, and all the remnant of the house of Yisra’ĕl, who are borne from the belly, who are carried from the womb:

4 even to your old age, I am He, and even to grey hairs I carry! I have made and I bear, and I carry and rescue.

5 “To whom do you liken Me, and compare Me and make Me similar, that we should be alike?

6 “They pour gold out of the bag, and weigh silver on the scale. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a mighty one. They fall down, they also bow themselves.

7 “They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands — from its place it does not move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer, nor save him from his distress.

8 “Remember this, and show yourselves men; turn it back, you transgressors.

9 “Remember the former events of old, for I am Ěl, and there is no one else — Elohim, and there is no one like Me,

10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from of old that which has not yet been done, saying, ‘My counsel does stand, and all My delight I do,’

11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a distant land. Indeed I have spoken it, I also bring it to pass. I have planned it, I also do it.

12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness:

13 “I shall bring My righteousness near, it is not far off, and My deliverance, it is not delayed. And I shall give deliverance in Tsiyon, My esteem to Yisra’ĕl.

47

1 “Come down and sit in the dust, O maiden daughter of Baḇel. Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Kasdim! For no more do they call you tender and delicate.

2 “Take the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up the skirt, uncover the leg, pass through rivers.

3 “Let your nakedness be uncovered, let your shame also be exposed. I take vengeance, and meet no man.”

4 Our Redeemer, יהוה of hosts is His Name, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

5 “Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of Kasdim! For no more do they call you Mistress of Reigns.

6 “I was wroth with My people, I have profaned My inheritance and I gave them into your hand. You showed them no compassion, you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.

7 “And you said, ‘I am mistress forever,’ so that you did not take these matters to heart, and did not remember the latter end of them.

8 “And now, hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who dwells complacently, who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none but me. I do not sit as a widow, nor do I know the loss of children.’

9 “Both of these come to you suddenly, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in completeness, because of your many witchcrafts, for your numerous great potent spells.

10 “And you have trusted in your evil, you have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge have led you astray. And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none but me.’

11 “But evil shall come upon you, you not knowing from where it arises, and trouble fall upon you, you being unable to put it off, and ruin come upon you suddenly, which you know not.

12 “Stand now with your potent spells and your many witchcrafts, in which you have laboured from your youth, if so be you are able to profit, if so be you find strength.

13 “You are exhausted by your many counsels; let the astrologers, the stargazers, and those who prognosticate by the new moons stand up and save you from what is coming upon you.

14 “See, they shall be as stubble, fire shall burn them, they do not deliver themselves from the power of the flame, there is not a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before it!

15 “So they shall be to you with whom you have laboured, your merchants from your youth. They shall wander, each one his own way, there is none to save you.

48

1 “Hear this, O house of Ya‛aqoḇ, who are called by the name of Yisra’ĕl, and have come from the waters of Yehuḏah, who swear by the Name of יהוה, and profess the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl — though not in truth or in righteousness —

2 for they call themselves after the set-apart city, and lean on the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl — יהוה of hosts is His Name:

3 “I have declared the former events from the beginning, and they went forth from My mouth, and I made you hear them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to be.

4 “Because I knew that you were hard, and your neck was an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze,

5 therefore I declared it to you long ago. Before it came I made you hear, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my carved image and my moulded image commanded them.’

6 “You have heard, look at them all. And do you not declare it? From now on I shall make you hear new ones, even hidden ones, which you have not known.

7 “Now they shall be created and not long ago. And before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, ‘Look, I knew them.’

8 “No, you have not heard; no, you have not known; no, from of old your ear has not been open. Because I knew that you are indeed treacherous, and are called ‘a transgressor from the womb.’

9 “For My Name’s sake I postponed My displeasure, and for My praise I held it back from you, so as not to cut you off.

10 “See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it. For how is it profaned? And My esteem I do not give to another.

12 “Listen to Me, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and Yisra’ĕl, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.

13 “Also, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens. I call to them, let them stand together.

14 “All of you, gather yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these? יהוה has loved him. Let him do His pleasure on Baḇel, and His arm be on the Kasdim.

15 “I, I have spoken, I have also called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Master יהוה has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

17 Thus said יהוה, your Redeemer, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “I am יהוה your Elohim, teaching you what is best, leading you by the way you should go.

18 “If only you had listened to My commands! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 “And your seed would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your inward parts like the grains of sand. His name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me.

20 “Come out of Baḇel! Flee from the Kasdim! Declare this with a voice of singing, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth! Say, ‘יהוה has redeemed His servant Ya‛aqoḇ!’ ”

21 And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused waters from a rock to flow for them; He split the rock, and waters gushed out.

22 “There is no peace for the wrong,” said יהוה.”

49

1 Listen to Me, O coastlands, and hear, you peoples from afar! יהוה has called Me from the womb, from My mother’s belly He has caused My Name to be remembered.

2 And He made My mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand He hid Me, and made Me a polished shaft. In His quiver He hid Me.”

3 And He said to Me, ‘You are My servant, O Yisra’ĕl, in whom I am adorned.’

4 And I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for emptiness, and in vain. But my right-ruling is with יהוה, and my work with my Elohim.’ ”

5 And now said יהוה — who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Ya‛aqoḇ back to Him, though Yisra’ĕl is not gathered to Him, yet I am esteemed in the eyes of יהוה, and My Elohim has been My strength —

6 and He says, “Shall it be a small matter for You to be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Ya‛aqoḇ, and to bring back the preserved ones of Yisra’ĕl? And I shall give You as a light to the nations, to be My deliverance to the ends of the earth!”

7 Thus said יהוה, the Redeemer of Yisra’ĕl, their Set-apart One, to the despised, to the loathed One of the nation, to the Servant of rulers, “Sovereigns shall see and arise, rulers also shall bow themselves, because of יהוה who is steadfast, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl. And He has chosen You!”

8 Thus said יהוה, “In a favourable time I shall answer You, and in the day of deliverance I shall help You — and I guard You and give You for a covenant of the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the ruined inheritances,

9 to say to the prisoners, ‘Go out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ Let them feed on the ways, and let their pasture be on all bare hills.

10 “They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither heat or sun strike them, for He who has compassion on them shall lead them, even by fountains of water guide them.

11 “And I shall make all My mountains a way, and My highways raised up.

12 “See, these come from far away, and see, those from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”

13 Sing, O heavens, rejoice, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For יהוה shall comfort His people and have compassion on His afflicted ones.

14 But Tsiyon says, “יהוה has forsaken me, and יהוה has forgotten me.”

15 “Would a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Though they forget, I never forget you.

16 “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are always before Me.

17 “Your sons shall hurry, your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart from you.

18 “Lift up your eyes round about and see, all of them gather together and come to you. As I live,” declares יהוה, “you shall put on all of them as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does.

19 “For your wastes, and your deserted places, and the land of your destruction, shall soon be too narrow for the inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up are far away.

20 “The sons of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too narrow for me, make room for me to live.’

21 “And you shall say in your heart, ‘Who has brought forth these for me, since I am bereaved and barren, an exile, and wandering to and fro? And who reared them? See, I was left alone — from where did these come?’ ”

22 Thus said the Master יהוה, “See, I lift My hand up to the nations, and set up My banner for the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters carried on their shoulders;

23 “And sovereigns shall be your foster fathers, and their sovereignesses your nursing mothers. They bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. And you shall know that I am יהוה — those who wait for Me shall not be ashamed.”

24 Is prey taken from the mighty, and the captives of the righteous delivered?

25 Yet thus said יהוה, “Even the captives of the mighty are taken away, and the prey of the ruthless is delivered; and I strive with him who strives with you, and I save your children.

26 “And I shall feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and let them drink their own blood as sweet wine. All flesh shall know that I, יהוה, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Ya‛aqoḇ.”

50

1 Thus says יהוה, “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Look, you were sold for your crookednesses, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.

2 “When I came, why was there no man? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was My hand too short to ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? See, by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for there is not water, and die of thirst.

3 “I clothe the heavens with darkness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”

4 The Master יהוה has given Me the tongue of taught ones, that I should know to help the weary with a word. He wakes Me morning by morning, he wakes My ear to hear as taught ones.

5 The Master יהוה has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away.

6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard, I did not hide My face from humiliation and spitting.

7 And the Master יהוה helps Me, therefore I shall not be humiliated. So I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I am not put to shame.

8 Near is He who declares Me right. Who would contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.

9 See, the Master יהוה helps Me. Who would declare Me wrong? See, all of them wear out like a garment, a moth eats them.

10 Who among you is fearing יהוה, obeying the voice of His Servant, that has walked in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the Name of יהוה and lean upon his Elohim!

11 See, all you who light a fire, girding on burning arrows: walk in the light of your fire and in the burning arrows you have lit. From My hand you shall have this: you shall lie down in grief!

51

1 “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, seeking יהוה: Look to the rock you were hewn from, and to the hole of the pit you were dug from.

2 “Look to Aḇraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you. For he was alone when I called him, and I blessed him and increased him.

3 “For יהוה shall comfort Tsiyon, He shall comfort all her waste places. For He makes her wilderness like Ěḏen, and her desert like the garden of יהוה. Joy and gladness are found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

4 “Listen to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation, for the Torah goes forth from Me, and My right-ruling I set as a light to peoples.

5 “My righteousness is near, My deliverance shall go forth, and My arms judge peoples. Coastlands wait upon Me, and for My arm they wait expectantly.

6 “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth wear out like a garment, and those who dwell in it die as gnats. But My deliverance is forever, and My righteousness is not broken.

7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is My Torah: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings.

8 “For a moth eats them like a garment, and a worm eats them like wool; but My righteousness is forever, and My deliverance to all generations.”

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of יהוה! Awake as in days of old, everlasting generations. Was it not You who cut Rahaḇ apart, and pierced the Crocodile?

10 Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

11 And let the ransomed of יהוה return. And they shall come to Tsiyon with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. Let them attain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

12 “I, I am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of man that dies, and of the son of man who is made like grass?

13 “And you have forgotten יהוה your Maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you continually fear, all the day, because of the rage of the oppressor, as he has prepared to destroy. And where is the rage of the oppressor?

14 “Bowed, he hastens to be loosened, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail.

15 “But I am יהוה your Elohim, stirring up the sea, and its waves roar. יהוה of hosts is His Name.

16 “And I have put My Words in your mouth, and with the shadow of My hand I have covered you, to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Tsiyon, ‘You are My people.’ ”

17 Awake, awake yourself! Rise up, O Yerushalayim, you who have drunk at the hand of יהוה the cup of His wrath. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of reeling, and drained it out.

18 Of all the sons she bore, she has none to guide her. And of all the sons she has brought up, none is strengthening her hand.

19 Both these are coming upon you — who is sorry for you?: Ruin and destruction, scarcity of food and sword. How shall I comfort you?

20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, like a gazelle in a net. They are filled with the wrath of יהוה, the rebuke of your Elohim.

21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted and drunk, but not with wine.

22 Thus said your Master, יהוה and your Elohim, who pleads the cause of His people, “See, I shall take out of your hand the cup of reeling, the dregs of the cup of My wrath — never again shall you drink it.

23 “And I shall put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your being, ‘Bow down, and we pass over you.’ And you made your back like the ground, and as the street, to walk over.”

52

1 Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Tsiyon, put on your garments of splendour, O Yerushalayim, the set-apart city! For no more do the uncircumcised and the unclean come into you.

2 Shake yourself from the dust, arise, and sit down, O Yerushalayim. Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Tsiyon!

3 For thus said יהוה, “You have been sold for naught, and you are redeemed not with silver.”

4 For thus said the Master יהוה, “At first My people went down into Mitsrayim to sojourn there, and Ashshur oppressed them without cause.

5 “And now, what have I here,” declares יהוה, “that My people are taken away for naught? Those who rule over them make them wail,” declares יהוה, “and My Name is despised all day continually.

6 “Therefore My people shall know My Name, in that day, for I am the One who is speaking. See, it is I.”

7 How pleasant upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims deliverance, who says to Tsiyon, “Your Elohim reigns!”

8 The voice of your watchmen! They shall lift up their voices, together they shout for joy, because eye to eye they see the return of יהוה to Tsiyon.

9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Yerushalayim! For יהוה shall comfort His people, He shall redeem Yerushalayim.

10 יהוה shall lay bare His set-apart arm in the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the deliverance of our Elohim.

11 Turn aside! Turn aside! Come out from there, touch not the unclean. Come out of her midst, be clean, you who bear the vessels of יהוה.

12 For you shall not come out in haste, nor go in flight. For יהוה is going before you, and the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl is your rear guard.

13 See, My Servant shall work wisely, He shall be exalted and lifted up and very high.

14 As many were astonished at You — so the disfigurement beyond any man’s and His form beyond the sons of men —

15 He shall likewise startle many nations. Sovereigns shut their mouths at Him, for what had not been recounted to them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall understand.

53

1 Who has believed our report? And to whom was the arm of יהוה revealed?

2 For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or splendour that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should desire Him —

3 despised and rejected by men, a man of pains and knowing sickness. And as one from whom the face is hidden, being despised, and we did not consider Him.

4 Truly, He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. Yet we reckoned Him smitten, stricken by Elohim, and afflicted.

5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our crookednesses. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, went astray, each one of us has turned to his own way. And יהוה has laid on Him the crookedness of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, but He did not open His mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment. And as for His generation, who considered that He shall be cut off from the land of the living? For the transgression of My people He was stricken.

9 And He was appointed a burial-site with the wrong, and with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was deceit in His mouth.

10 But יהוה was pleased to crush Him, He laid sickness on Him, that when He made Himself an offering for guilt, He would see a seed, He would prolong His days and the pleasure of יהוה prosper in His hand.

11 He would see the result of the suffering of His life and be satisfied. Through His knowledge My righteous Servant makes many righteous, and He bears their crookednesses.

12 Therefore I give Him a portion among the great, and He divides the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His being unto death, and He was counted with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

54

1 “Sing, O barren one, you who did not bear! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not been in labour! For the children of the deserted one are more than the children of the married woman,” said יהוה.

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not. Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

3 “For you shall break forth to the right and to the left, and your seed inherit the nations, and make the deserted cities inhabited.

4 “Do not fear, for you shall not be put to shame, nor hurt, you shall not be humiliated. For the shame of your youth you shall forget, and not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.

5 “For your Maker is your husband, יהוה of hosts is His Name, and the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl is your Redeemer. He is called the Elohim of all the earth.

6 “For יהוה has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when you were refused,” declares your Elohim.

7 “For a little while I have forsaken you, but with great compassion I shall gather you.

8 “In an overflow of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving-commitment I shall have compassion on you,” said יהוה, your Redeemer.

9 “For this is the waters of Noaḥ to Me, in that I have sworn that the waters of Noaḥ would never again cover the earth, so have I sworn not to be wroth with you, nor to rebuke you.

10 “For though the mountains be removed and the hills be shaken, My loving-commitment is not removed from you, nor is My covenant of peace shaken,” said יהוה, who has compassion on you.

11 “O you afflicted one, tossed with storm, and not comforted, see, I am setting your stones in antimony, and shall lay your foundations with sapphires,

12 and shall make your battlements of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones,

13 and all your children taught by יהוה, and the peace of your children great.

14 “In righteousness you shall be established — far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and far from ruin, for it does not come near you.

15 “See, they shall indeed assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever shall assemble against you falls for your sake!

16 “See, I Myself have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work. And I have created the waster to destroy.

17 “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall prove wrong. This is the inheritance of the servants of יהוה, and their righteousness from Me,” declares יהוה.

55

1 “Oh everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no silver, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without price.

2 “Why do you weigh out silver for what is not bread, and your labour for what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and let your being delight itself in fatness.

3 “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, so that your being lives. And let Me make an everlasting covenant with you, the trustworthy loving-commitments of Dawiḏ.

4 “See, I have given Him as a witness to the people, a Leader and a Commander for the people.

5 “See, a nation you do not know you shall call, and a nation who does not know you run to you, because of יהוה your Elohim, and the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, for He has adorned you.”

6 Seek יהוה while He is to be found, call on Him while He is near.

7 Let the wrong forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to יהוה, who has compassion on him, and to our Elohim, for He pardons much.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares יהוה.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth — it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for.

12 “For with joy you go out, and with peace you are brought in — the mountains and the hills break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field clap the hands.

13 “Instead of the thorn the cypress comes up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle comes up. And it shall be to יהוה for a name, for an everlasting sign which is not cut off.”

56

1 Thus said יהוה, “Guard right-ruling, and do righteousness, for near is My deliverance to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.

2 “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who becomes strong in it, guarding the Sabbath lest he profane it, and guarding his hand from doing any evil.

3 “And let not the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to יהוה speak, saying, ‘יהוה has certainly separated me from His people,’ nor let the eunuch say, ‘Look I am a dry tree.’ ”

4 For thus said יהוה, “To the eunuchs who guard My Sabbaths, and have chosen what pleases Me, and are holding onto My covenant:

5 to them I shall give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters — I give them an everlasting name that is not cut off.

6 “Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to יהוה, to serve Him, and to love the Name of יהוה, to be His servants, all who guard the Sabbath, and not profane it, and are holding onto My covenant —

7 them I shall bring to My set-apart mountain, and let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their slaughterings are accepted on My slaughter-place, for My house is called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

8 The Master יהוה, who gathers the outcasts of Yisra’ĕl, declares, “I gather still others to him besides those who are gathered to him.”

9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts in the forest.

10 His watchmen are blind, all of them, they have not known. All of them are dumb dogs, unable to bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

11 And the dogs have a strong appetite, they never have enough. And they are shepherds! They have not known understanding. All of them look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own end, saying,

12 “Come, let me bring wine and fill ourselves with strong drink. And tomorrow shall be as today, even much greater.”

57

1 The righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart. And committed men are taken away, while no one understands that the righteous one is taken away from the presence of evil,

2 he enters into peace. They who walk in integrity rest on their beds.

3 “But come here, you sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the whore!

4 Against whom are you sporting? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood,

5 being inflamed with mighty ones under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

6 “Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, they, are your lot! Also to them you have poured a drink offering, you have offered a grain offering. Am I comforted in these?

7 “On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. There, too, you went up to slaughter a slaughtering.

8 “Also behind the doors and their posts you have set up your remembrance. For you have departed from Me, and have gone up to them. You have made your bed wide and made a covenant with them. You have loved their bed, where you saw their hand.

9 “And you went to the sovereign with ointment, and increased your perfumes. And you sent your messengers far off, and lowered yourself even to She’ol.

10 “You have wearied yourselves with your many wanderings, yet you did not say, ‘I give up!’ You have found the life of your hand, therefore you were not grieved.

11 “And of whom have you been afraid, or feared, that you have lied and not remembered Me, nor taken it to your heart? Have I not been silent, even from of old, and you have not feared Me?

12 “Let Me declare your righteousness and your works, for they do not profit you.

13 “When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind shall bear them all away, a breath take them. But he who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land, and possess My set-apart mountain.”

14 And one shall say, “Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, take the stumbling-block out of the way of My people.”

15 For thus declares the high and exalted One who dwells forever, whose Name is set-apart, “I dwell in the high and set-apart place, with him who has a bruised and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of bruised ones.

16 “For I would not strive forever, nor am I wroth forever, for the spirit would grow faint before Me, even the beings I have made.

17 “For the crookedness of his unfair gain I was wroth and I struck him. I hid Myself and was wroth, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

18 “I have seen his ways, but now I heal him, and I lead him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners,

19 creating the fruit of the lips: peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” said יהוה, “and I shall heal him.”

20 But the wrong are like the troubled sea, for it is unable to rest, and its waters cast up mud and dirt.

21 “There is no peace,” said my Elohim, “for the wrong.”

58

1 “Cry aloud, do not spare. Lift up your voice like the shophar. Declare to My people their transgression, and the house of Ya‛aqoḇ their sins.

2 “Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the right-ruling of their Elohim. They ask of Me rulings of righteousness, they delight in drawing near to Elohim.

3 They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, and You took no note?’ ”Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your labourers.

4 “Look, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wrongness. You do not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.

5 “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to יהוה?

6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke?

7 “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, and cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 “Then your light would break forth like the morning, your healing spring forth speedily. And your righteousness shall go before you, the esteem of יהוה would be your rear guard.

9 “Then, when you call, יהוה would answer; when you cry, He would say, ‘Here I am.’ ”If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of unrighteousness,

10 if you extend your being to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted being, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness be as noon.

11 “Then יהוה would guide you continually, and satisfy your being in drought, and strengthen your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

12 “And those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. And you would be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

13 “If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath ‘a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,

14 then you shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Ya‛aqoḇ your father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken!”

59

1 Look, the hand of יהוה has not become too short to save, nor His ear too heavy to hear.

2 But your crookednesses have separated you from your Elohim. And your sins have hidden His face from you, from hearing.

3 For your hands have been defiled with blood, and your fingers with crookedness; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters unrighteousness.

4 No one calls for righteousness, and no one pleads for truth. They trust in emptiness and speak worthlessness; they conceive trouble and bring forth wickedness.

5 They have hatched adders’ eggs and they weave the spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs dies, and when one is broken an adder is hatched.

6 Their webs do not become garments, nor do they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of wickedness, and a deed of violence is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness, wasting and ruin are in their highways.

8 The way of peace they have not known, and there is no right-ruling in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves, whoever treads in them shall not know peace.

9 Therefore right-ruling has been far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness!

10 We feel for the wall like the blind, and we feel as without eyes. At noon we stumble as at twilight, in deserted places, like the dead.

11 All of us growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves. We look for right-ruling, but there is none; for deliverance, but it is far from us.

12 For our transgressions have increased before You, and our sins witnessed against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our crookednesses, we know them:

13 transgressing, and being untrue to יהוה, and turning away from our Elohim, speaking oppression and apostasy, conceiving and pondering words of falsehood from the heart.

14 And right-ruling is driven back, and righteousness stands far off. For truth has fallen in the street, and right is unable to enter.

15 And the truth is lacking, and whoever turns away from evil makes himself a prey. And יהוה saw, and it displeased Him that there was no right-ruling.

16 And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no intercessor. So His own arm saved for Him, and His righteousness upheld him.

17 And He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of deliverance on His head. And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself with ardour as a mantle.

18 According to their deeds, so He repays, wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies. He repays recompense to the coastlands.

19 And they shall fear the Name of יהוה from the west, and His esteem from the rising of the sun, when distress comes like a flood, the Spirit of יהוה drives at it.

20 “And the Redeemer shall come to Tsiyon, and to those turning from transgression in Ya‛aqoḇ,” declares יהוה.

21 “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” said יהוה: “My Spirit that is upon you, and My Words that I have put in your mouth, shall not be withdrawn from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” said יהוה, “from this time and forever.”

60

1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come! And the esteem of יהוה has risen upon you.

2 “For look, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But יהוה arises over you, and His esteem is seen upon you.

3 “And the nations shall come to your light, and sovereigns to the brightness of your rising.

4 “Lift up your eyes all around and see: all of them have gathered, they have come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are supported on the side.

5 “Then you shall see and be bright, and your heart shall throb and swell, for the wealth of the sea is turned to you, the riches of the nations come to you.

6 “A stream of camels cover your land, the dromedaries of Miḏyan and Ěphah; all those from Sheḇa come, bearing gold and incense, and proclaiming the praises of יהוה.

7 “All the flocks of Qĕḏar are gathered to you, the rams of Neḇayoth serve you; they come up for acceptance on My slaughter-place, and I embellish My esteemed House.

8 “Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?

9 “Because the coastlands wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the Name of יהוה your Elohim, and to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, because He has adorned you.

10 “And the sons of foreigners shall build your walls, and their sovereigns serve you. For in My wrath I have stricken you, but in My delight I shall have compassion on you.

11 “And your gates shall be open continually, they are not shut day or night, to bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their sovereigns in procession.

12 “For the nation and the reign that do not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly laid waste.

13 “The esteem of Leḇanon shall come to you, cypress, pine, and the box tree together, to embellish the place of My set-apart place. And I shall make the place of My feet esteemed.

14 “And the sons of those who afflicted you come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall bow themselves at the soles of your feet. And they shall call you: City of יהוה, Tsiyon of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

15 “Instead of you being forsaken and hated, so that no one passes through you, I shall make you an everlasting excellence, a joy of many generations.

16 “And you shall suck the milk of the nations, and shall suckle the breast of sovereigns. And you shall know that I, יהוה, your Saviour and your Redeemer, am the Mighty One of Ya‛aqoḇ.

17 “Instead of bronze I bring gold, and instead of iron I bring silver, and bronze instead of wood, and iron instead of stones. And I shall make your officers peace, and your magistrates righteousness.

18 “Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor ruin within your borders. And you shall call your walls Deliverance, and your gates Praise.

19 “No longer is the sun your light by day, nor does the moon give light to you for brightness, but יהוה shall be to you an everlasting light, and your Elohim your comeliness.

20 “No longer does your sun go down, nor your moon withdraw itself, for יהוה shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

21 “And your people, all of them righteous, shall inherit the earth forever — a branch of My planting, a work of My hands, to be adorned.

22 “The little shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. I, יהוה, shall hasten it in its time.”

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1 The Spirit of the Master יהוה is upon Me, because יהוה has anointed Me to bring good news to the meek. He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,

2 to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה, and the day of vengeance of our Elohim, to comfort all who mourn,

3 to appoint unto those who mourn in Tsiyon: to give them embellishment for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And they shall be called trees of righteousness, a planting of יהוה, to be adorned.

4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, raise up the former wastes. And they shall restore the ruined cities, the wastes of many generations.

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner be your ploughmen and your vinedressers.

6 But you shall be called, ‘Priests of יהוה,’ ‘Servants of our Elohim’ shall be said of you. You shall consume the strength of the nations, and boast in their esteem.

7 Instead of your shame and reproach, they rejoice a second time in their portion. Therefore they take possession a second time in their land, everlasting joy is theirs.

8 “For I, יהוה, love right-ruling; I hate robbery for ascending offering. And I shall give their reward in truth, and make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 “And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed יהוה has blessed.”

10 I greatly rejoice in יהוה, my being exults in my Elohim. For He has put garments of deliverance on me, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the seed to shoot up, so the Master יהוה causes righteousness and praise to shoot up before all the nations!

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1 For Tsiyon’s sake I am not silent, and for Yerushalayim’s sake I do not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her deliverance as a lamp that burns.

2 And the nations shall see your righteousness, and all sovereigns your esteem. And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of יהוה designates.

3 And you shall be a crown of comeliness in the hand of יהוה, and a royal head-dress in the hand of your Elohim.

4 No longer are you called “Forsaken,” and no longer is your land called “Deserted.” But you shall be called “Ḥephtsiḇah,” and your land “Married,” for יהוה shall delight in you, and your land be married.

5 For as a young man marries a maiden, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your Elohim rejoice over you.

6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Yerushalayim, all the day and all the night, continually, who are not silent. You who remember יהוה, give yourselves no rest,

7 and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Yerushalayim a praise in the earth.

8 יהוה has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength, “No more do I give your grain to be food for your enemies, nor do sons of the foreigner drink your new wine, for which you have laboured;

9 but those gathering it shall eat it, and praise יהוה. And those collecting it shall drink it in My set-apart courts.”

10 Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Lift up a banner for the peoples!

11 See, יהוה has proclaimed to the end of the earth: “Say to the daughter of Tsiyon, ‘See, your deliverance has come; see, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’ ”

12 And they shall be called, “The Set-apart People, the Redeemed of יהוה.” And you shall be called, “Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken.”

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1 Who is this coming from Eḏom, with garments of glowing colours from Botsrah, who is robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

2 Why is there red on Your raiment, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. And I trod them down in My displeasure, and I trampled them in My wrath. Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have defiled all My raiment.

4 “For a day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.

5 “And I looked, but there was none helping, and I was astonished that there was none upholding. So My own arm saved for Me, and My wrath upheld Me.

6 “And I trod down peoples in My displeasure, and made them drunk in My wrath, and brought down their strength to earth.”

7 Let me recount the loving-commitments of יהוה and the praises of יהוה, according to all that יהוה has done for us, and the great goodness toward the house of Yisra’ĕl, which He has done for them according to His compassion, and according to His many loving-commitments.

8 And He said, “They are My people, children who do not act falsely.” And He became their Saviour.

9 In all their distress He was distressed, and the Messenger of His Presence saved them. In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them, and He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled and grieved His Set-apart Spirit, so He turned against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.

11 Then He remembered the days of old, Mosheh, His people, “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Set-apart Spirit within him,

12 who led them by the right hand of Mosheh, with His comely arm, dividing the water before them to make for Himself an everlasting Name,

13 who led them through the deep? Like a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble.”

14 As a beast goes down into the valley, and the Spirit of יהוה causes him to rest, so You led Your people, to make Yourself a comely Name.

15 Look down from the heavens, and see from Your set-apart and comely dwelling. Where are Your ardour and Your might, the stirring of Your inward parts and Your compassion toward me? Are they withheld?

16 For You are our Father, though Aḇraham does not know us, and Yisra’ĕl does not recognise us. You, O יהוה, are our Father, our Redeemer — Your Name is from of old.

17 O יהוה, why do You make us stray from Your ways, and harden our heart from Your fear? Turn back, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your inheritance.

18 For a little while Your set-apart people possessed it — our adversaries have trodden down Your set-apart place.

19 We have become like those over whom You never ruled — Your Name is not called on them!

64

1 Oh, that You would tear the heavens open, come down, that mountains shall shake before You —

2 as when fire burns twigs, as fire makes water boil — to make Your Name known to Your adversaries, so that nations tremble before You.

3 When You did awesome matters, which we did not expect, You came down, mountains did shake before You!

4 Since the beginning of the ages they have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any Elohim besides You, who acts for those who wait for Him.

5 You shall meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. See, You were wroth when we sinned in them a long time. And should we be saved?

6 And all of us have become as one unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as soiled rags. And all of us fade like a leaf, and our crookednesses, like the wind, have taken us away.

7 And there is no one who calls on Your Name, who stirs himself up to be strengthened in You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our crookednesses.

8 And now, O יהוה, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter. And we are all the work of Your hand.

9 Do not be wroth, O יהוה, nor remember crookedness forever. See, please look, all of us are Your people!

10 Your set-apart cities have become a wilderness, Tsiyon has become a wilderness, Yerushalayim a waste.

11 Our set-apart and comely House, where our fathers praised You, has been burned up with fire. And all that we treasured has become a ruin.

12 In view of all this, would You restrain Yourself, O יהוה? Would You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

65

1 “I have let Myself be inquired of, not by those who asked; I was found, not by those who sought Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation not calling on My Name.

2 “I have held out My hands all day long to a stubborn people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

3 the people who provoke Me continually to My face, who slaughter in gardens, and burn incense on slaughter-places of brick;

4 who sit among the burial-sites, and spend the night in secret places, who eat flesh of pigs, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots,

5 who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am set-apart to you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all day.

6 “See, it is written before Me: I am not silent, but shall repay, and I shall repay into their bosom,

7 your crookednesses and the crookednesses of your fathers together,” said יהוה, “who burned incense on the mountains and reproached Me on the hills. And I shall measure their former work into their bosom.”

8 Thus said יהוה, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one shall say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is blessing in it,’ so I do for My servants’ sake, not to destroy them all.

9 “And I shall bring forth a seed from Ya‛aqoḇ, and from Yehuḏah an heir of My mountains. And My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants dwell there.

10 “And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Aḵor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me.

11 “But you are those who forsake יהוה, who forget My set-apart mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who fill a drink offering for Meni.

12 “And I shall allot you to the sword, and let you all bow down to the slaughter, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear, and you did evil before My eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”

13 Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, “See, My servants eat, but you hunger; see, My servants drink, but you thirst; see, My servants rejoice, but you are put to shame;

14 see, My servants sing for joy of heart, but you cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for breaking of spirit.

15 “And you shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen, for the Master יהוה shall put you to death, and call His servants by another name,

16 so that he who blesses himself in the earth does bless himself in the Elohim of truth. And he who swears in the earth does swear by the Elohim of truth. Because the former distresses shall be forgotten, and because they shall be hidden from My eyes.

17 “For look, I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to heart.

18 “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for look, I create Yerushalayim a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

19 “And I shall rejoice in Yerushalayim, and shall joy in My people, and let the voice of weeping no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

20 “No more is an infant from there going to live but a few days, nor an old man who does not complete his days, for the youth dies one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be lightly esteemed.

21 “And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 “They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat. For the days of My people are going to be as the days of a tree, and My chosen ones outlive the work of their hands.

23 “They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble. For they are the seed of the blessed of יהוה, and their offspring with them.

24 “And it shall be that before they call, I answer. And while they are still speaking, I hear.

25 “Wolf and lamb feed together, a lion eats straw as an ox, and dust is the snake’s food. They shall do no evil, nor destroy in all My set-apart mountain,” said יהוה.

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1 Thus said יהוה, “The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is this house that you build for Me? And where is this place of My rest?

2 “And all these My hand has made, and all these that exist,” declares יהוה. “Yet to such a one I look: on him who is poor and bruised of spirit, and who trembles at My Word.

3 "But whoever slays the bull strikes a man; whoever slaughters the lamb breaks a dog’s neck; whoever brings a grain offering — pig’s blood; whoever burns incense blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways, and their being delights in their abominations.

4 “I shall also choose their punishments, and bring their fears on them. Because I called, but no one answered. I spoke and they did not hear, and they did evil before My eyes, and chose what was displeasing to Me.”

5 Hear the Word of יהוה, you who tremble at His Word, “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for My Name’s sake, said, ‘Let יהוה be esteemed, so that we see your joy.’ But they are put to shame.”

6 “A roaring sound from the city, a voice from the Hĕḵal, the voice of יהוה, repaying His enemies!

7 “Before she laboured, she gave birth; before a pain came to her, she was delivered of a male child.

8 “Who has heard the like of this? Who has seen the like of these? Is a land brought forth in one day? Is a nation born at once? For as soon as Tsiyon laboured, she gave birth to her children.

9 “Shall I bring to birth, and not give delivery?” says יהוה. “Shall I who give delivery restrain birth?” said your Elohim.

10 “Rejoice with Yerushalayim, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn for her;

11 so that you feed, and shall be satisfied with the breast of her comforts, so that you drink deeply, and shall delight yourselves in her overflowing esteem.”

12 For thus said יהוה, “See, I am extending peace to her like a river, and the esteem of the nations like a flowing stream. And you shall feed; you shall be carried on the side, and be fondled on her knees.

13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I comfort you. And in Yerushalayim you are comforted.”

14 “And you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones flourish as tender grass. And the hand of יהוה shall be known to His servants, and His displeasure to His enemies.

15 “For look, יהוה comes with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His displeasure with burning, and His rebuke with flames of fire.

16 “For by fire and by His sword יהוה shall judge all flesh, and the slain of יהוה shall be many —

17 those who set themselves apart and cleanse themselves at the gardens after ‘one’ in the midst, eating flesh of pigs and the abomination and the mouse, are snatched away, together,” declares יהוה.

18 “And I, because of their works and their imaginations, am coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My esteem.

19 “And I shall set a sign among them, and shall send some of those who escape to the nations — Tarshish and Pul and Luḏ, who draw the bow, and Tuḇal and Yawan, the coastlands afar off who have not heard My report nor seen My esteem. And they shall declare My esteem among the nations.

20 “And they shall bring all your brothers as an offering to יהוה out of all the nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My set-apart mountain Yerushalayim,” declares יהוה, “as the children of Yisra’ĕl bring an offering in a clean vessel into the House of יהוה.

21 “And from them too I shall take for priests — for Lĕwites,” declares יהוה.

22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares יהוה, “so your seed and your name shall stand.

23 “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה.

24 “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire not be quenched. And they shall be repulsive to all flesh!”