 |
Isaiah 34
Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples: let the earth hear, and the fulness of it; the world, and all things that come forth from it. 2 For Yahweh has indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter. 3 Their killed also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall come up; and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as a fading leaf from the fig tree. 5 For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. 6 The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 And the wild-oxen shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9 And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and the dust of it into brimstone, and the land of it shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it: and the owl and the raven shall dwell in it: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness.
12 They shall call the nobles of it to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses of it; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. 14 And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yes, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest. 15 There shall the dartsnake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yes, there shall the kites be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek you out of the book of Yahweh, and read: no one of these shall be missing, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it has commanded, and his Spirit, it has gathered them. 17 And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them by line: they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation shall they dwell in it.
Isaiah 35
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Yahweh, the excellency of our Elohim.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your Elohim will come with vengeance, with the recompense of Elohim; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. 7 And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yes fools, shall not err in it. 9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: 10 and the ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 36
Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah came forth to him, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder.
4 And Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, In this manner says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say, your counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you trust upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust on him. 7 But if you say to me, We trust in Yahweh our Elohim: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8 Now therefore, I pray you, give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 And have I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah to Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall. 12 But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 In this manner says the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you: 15 neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 16 Listen not to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink every one the waters of his own cistern; 17 until I come and 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 Hezekiah persuades you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us. Has any of the elohim of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the elohim of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the elohim of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who are they among all the elohim of these countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not. 22 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
