Isaiah, starting at chapter 28
{28:1} Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to
the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the
fat valley of those who are overcome with wine! {28:2} Behold, the
Lord has a mighty and strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying
storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing, will he cast down to
the earth with the hand. {28:3} The crown of pride of the drunkards of
Ephraim shall be trodden under foot: {28:4} and the fading flower of
his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be
as the first-ripe fig before the summer; which when he who looks on it
sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up. {28:5} In that day
will Yahweh of Hosts become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty,
to the residue of his people; {28:6} and a spirit of justice to him
who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle
at the gate. {28:7} Even these reel with wine, and stagger with strong
drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are
swallowed up of wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in
vision, they stumble in judgment. {28:8} For all tables are full of
vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no place [clean]. {28:9}
Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the
message? those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the
breasts? {28:10} For it is precept on precept, precept on precept;
line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little. {28:11} No,
but by [men of] strange lips and with another language will he speak
to this people; {28:12} to whom he said, This is the rest, give you
rest to him who is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would
not hear. {28:13} Therefore shall the word of Yahweh be to them
precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line;
here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken. {28:14} Why hear the word of
Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people that is in Jerusalem:
{28:15} Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and
with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our
refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: {28:16} therefore
thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a
stone, a tried stone, a precious corner -[stone] of sure foundation:
he who believes shall not be in haste. {28:17} I will make justice the
line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the
refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
{28:18} Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement
with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass
through, then you shall be trodden down by it. {28:19} As often as it
passes though, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass
through, by day and by night: and it shall be nothing but terror to
understand the message. {28:20} For the bed is shorter than that a man
can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can
wrap himself in it. {28:21} For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount
Perazim, he will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do
his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange
act. {28:22} Now therefore don't you be scoffers, lest your bonds be
made strong; for a decree of destruction have I heard from the Lord,
Yahweh of Hosts, on the whole earth. {28:23} Give you ear, and hear my
voice; listen, and hear my speech. {28:24} Does he who plows to sow
plow continually? does he [continually] open and harrow his ground?
{28:25} When he has leveled the surface of it, doesn't he cast abroad
the dill, and scatter the cumin, and put in the wheat in rows, and the
barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the border of it?
{28:26} For his God does instruct him aright, [and] does teach him.
{28:27} For the dill are not threshed with a sharp [threshing]
instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cumin; but the
dill are beaten out with a staff, and the cumin with a rod. {28:28}
Bread [grain] is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and
though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not
grind it. {28:29} This also comes forth from Yahweh of Hosts, who is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
{29:1} Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add you year
to year; let the feasts come round: {29:2} then will I distress Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation; and she shall be to me as
Ariel. {29:3} I will encamp against you round about, and will lay
siege against you with posted troops, and I will raise siege works
against you. {29:4} You shall be brought down, and shall speak out of
the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust; and your
voice shall be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground,
and your speech shall whisper out of the dust. {29:5} But the
multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of
the awesome ones as chaff that passes away: yes, it shall be in an
instant suddenly. {29:6} She shall be visited of Yahweh of Hosts with
thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and
tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. {29:7} The multitude of
all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against
her and her stronghold, and who distress her, shall be as a dream, a
vision of the night. {29:8} It shall be as when a hungry man dreams,
and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when
a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and,
behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude
of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion. {29:9} Stay you
and wonder; take your pleasure and be blind: they are drunken, but not
with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. {29:10} For Yahweh
has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your
eyes, the prophets; and your heads, the seers, has he covered. {29:11}
All vision is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed,
which men deliver to one who is learned, saying, Read this, I pray
you; and he says, I can't, for it is sealed: {29:12} and the book is
delivered to him who is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you;
and he says, I am not learned. {29:13} The Lord said, Because this
people draw near [to me], and with their mouth and with their lips to
honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of
me is a commandment of men which has been taught [them]; {29:14}
therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this
people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their
wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men
shall be hid. {29:15} Woe to those who hide deep their counsel from
Yahweh, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? and
who knows us? {29:16} You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be
esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him who made it,
He didn't make me; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, He
has no understanding? {29:17} Is it not yet a very little while, and
Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
shall be esteemed as a forest? {29:18} In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of
obscurity and out of darkness. {29:19} The humble also shall increase
their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy
One of Israel. {29:20} For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and
the scoffer ceases, and all those who watch for iniquity are cut off;
{29:21} that make a man an offender in [his] cause, and lay a snare
for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing
of nothing. {29:22} Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham,
concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither
shall his face now wax pale. {29:23} But when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my
name; yes, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall stand
in awe of the God of Israel. {29:24} They also who err in spirit shall
come to understanding, and those who murmur shall receive instruction.
{30:1} Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, who take
counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin, {30:2} that set out to go down into
Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the
strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! {30:3}
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge
in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. {30:4} For their princes are at
Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes. {30:5} They shall all
be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a
help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. {30:6} The burden
of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish,
from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying
serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not
profit [them]. {30:7} For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose:
therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still. {30:8} Now go, write
it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be
for the time to come forever and ever. {30:9} For it is a rebellious
people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh;
{30:10} who tell the seers, "Don't see;" and to the prophets, "Don't
prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy
deceits, {30:11} get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause
the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." {30:12} Therefore
thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and
trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon; {30:13}
therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall,
swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an
instant. {30:14} He shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken,
breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be
found among the pieces of it a broken piece with which to take fire
from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern." {30:15} For
thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and
rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your
strength. You would not: {30:16} but you said, No, for we will flee on
horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift;
therefore shall those who pursue you be swift. {30:17} One thousand
[shall flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you
flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as
an ensign on a hill. {30:18} Therefore will Yahweh wait, that he may
be gracious to you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have
mercy on you: for Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are all those
who wait for him. {30:19} For the people shall dwell in Zion at
Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you
at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear, he will answer you.
{30:20} Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water
of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be hidden anymore, but your
eyes shall see your teachers; {30:21} and your ears shall hear a word
behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it; when you turn to
the right hand, and when you turn to the left. {30:22} You shall
defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the
plating of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as an
unclean thing; you shall tell it, Get you hence. {30:23} He will give
the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and bread
of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In
that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures; {30:24} the oxen
likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat savory
provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
{30:25} There shall be on every lofty mountain, and on every high
hill, brooks [and] streams of waters, in the day of the great
slaughter, when the towers fall. {30:26} Moreover the light of the
moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall
be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds
up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
{30:27} Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far, burning with his
anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is as a devouring fire; {30:28} and his breath is as an
overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations
with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall
be] in the jaws of the peoples. {30:29} You shall have a song as in
the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when
one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of
Israel. {30:30} Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and
will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his]
anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest,
and hailstones. {30:31} For through the voice of Yahweh shall the
Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he strike [him]. {30:32} Every
stroke of the appointed staff, which Yahweh shall lay on him, shall be
with [the sound of] tambourines and harps; and in battles with the
brandishing [of his arm] will he fight with them. {30:33} For a
Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has
made it deep and large; the pile of it is fire and much wood; the
breath of Yahweh, like a stream of sulfur, does kindle it.
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