of the earth; give ear, ye that have dominion over much people, and make
your boast in multitudes of nations. Because your dominion was given you
from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High, who shall search
out your works, and shall make inquisition of your counsels; because
being officers of his kingdom ye did not judge aright, neither kept ye
law, nor walked after the counsel of God. Awfully and swiftly shall he
come upon you, because a stern judgement befalleth them that be in high
place: for the man of low estate may be pardoned in mercy, but mighty
men shall be searched out mightily. For the Sovereign Lord of all will
not refrain himself for any man's person, neither will he reverence
greatness, because it is he that made both small and great. And alike he
taketh thought for all; but strict is the scrutiny that cometh upon the
powerful. Unto you, therefore, O princes, are my words, that ye may
learn wisdom and fall not from the right way. For they that have kept
holily the things that are holy shall themselves be hallowed; and they
that have been taught them shall find what to answer. Set your desire
therefore on my words; long for them, and ye shall be trained by their
discipline.
III
ISAIAH'S DISCOURSE
THE GREAT ARRAIGNMENT
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD hath spoken: I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth
not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly: they
have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they
are estranged and gone backward. Why will ye be still stricken, that ye
revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in
it; but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores: they have not been
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil. Your country is
desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour
it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And
the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a
garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had
left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we
should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of
our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more
vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath,
the calling of assemblies,--I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn
meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they
are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth
your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes; cease to do evil: learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve
the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and
let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good
of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the
sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! she that was full of
judgement! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Thy silver is
become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and
companions of thieves; every one loveth gifts, and followeth after
rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the
widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the
Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge
me of mine enemies: and I will turn my hand upon thee, and throughly
purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy alloy: and I will
restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the
beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, the
faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgement, and her converts
with righteousness. But the destruction of the transgressors and the
sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be
consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired,
and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye
shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no
water. And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they
shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
IV
ISAIAH'S DISCOURSE
THE COVENANT WITH DEATH
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
them that are overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and
strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of
mighty waters overflowing, shall he cast down to the earth with the
hand. The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden
under foot: and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on
the head of the fat valley, shall be as the firstripe fig before the
summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his
hand he eateth it up.
In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a
diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people: and for a spirit of
judgement to him that sitteth in judgement, and for strength to them
that turn back the battle at the gate.
But these also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are
gone astray; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are swallowed up of wine, they are gone astray through strong
drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgement. For all tables
are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place
clean.--'Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to
understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn
from the breasts? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.'--Nay,
but by men of strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this
people: to whom he said, This is the rest, give ye rest to him that is
weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. Therefore
shall the word of the LORD be unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a
little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared,
and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that
rule this people which is in Jerusalem: Because ye have said, We have
made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
therefore thus saith the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure
foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. And I will make
judgement the line, and righteousness the plummet: and the hail shall
sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding
place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. As often as it
passeth through, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass
through, by day and by night: and it shall be nought but terror to
understand the message. 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. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall
be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his
strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore
be ye not scorners, lest your bands be made strong: for a consummation,
and that determined, have I heard from the Lord, the LORD of hosts, upon
the whole earth.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the
plowman plow continually to sow? doth he continually open and break the
clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he
not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in the
wheat in rows and the barley in the appointed place and the spelt in the
border thereof? For his God doth instruct him aright, and doth teach
him. For the fitches are not threshed with a sharp threshing instrument,
neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches
are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Is bread corn
crushed? Nay, he will not ever be threshing it, and driving his cart
wheels and his horses over it; he doth not crush it. This also cometh
forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and
excellent in wisdom.
V
ISAIAH'S DISCOURSE
THE UTTER DESTRUCTION AND THE GREAT RESTORATION
1
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye peoples: let the earth
hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all things that come forth
of it. For the LORD hath indignation against all the nations, and fury
against all their host: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath
delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and
the stink of their carcases shall come up, and the mountains shall be
melted with their blood. 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 fadeth from off the vine, and as a fading
leaf from the fig tree. For my sword hath drunk its fill in heaven:
behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse,
to judgement. The sword of the LORD 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 the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great
slaughter in the land of Edom. 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. For it is the day of
the LORD'S vengeance, the year of recompence in the controversy of Zion.
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof
into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It
shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for
ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass
through it for ever and ever. But the pelican and the porcupine shall
possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he shall
stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness.
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be
there; and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in
her palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof: and it
shall be an habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. And the wild
beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the satyr shall cry
to his fellow; yea, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find
her a place of rest. There shall the arrowsnake make her nest, and lay,
and hatch, and gather under her shadow: yea, there shall the kites be
gathered, every one with her mate.
Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read:
No one of these shall be missing,
None shall want her mate:
For my mouth it hath commanded,
And his spirit it hath gathered them.
And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto
them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to
generation shall they dwell therein.
2
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert
shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and
rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given
unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory
of the LORD, the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands,
And confirm the feeble knees;
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompence of God he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the
tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break
out, and streams in the desert. 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. And an
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 those:
the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be
there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon, they shall not be
found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the
LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy
shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
VI
EZEKIEL'S DISCOURSE
THE SWORD OF THE LORD
1
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face
toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy
against the land of Israel; and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith
the LORD: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my SWORD out
of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked,
therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh
from the south to the north: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD
have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any
more. Sigh therefore, thou son of man; with the breaking of thy loins
and with bitterness shalt thou sigh before their eyes. And it shall be,
when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt say,
Because of the tidings, for it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and
all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees
shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and it shall be done, saith
the Lord GOD.
2
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and
say, Thus saith the LORD: Say,
A sword,
A sword,
It is sharpened,
And also furbished:
It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter;
It is furbished that it may be as lightning!
'Shall we then make mirth? The Rod of my son, it contemneth every tree.'
And it is given to be furbished
That it may be handled:
The sword, it is sharpened, yea it is furbished,
To give it into the hand of the slayer.
Cry and howl, son of man: for it is upon my people, it is upon all the
princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people:
smite therefore upon thy thigh. For there is a trial; and what if even
the Rod that contemneth shall be no more? saith the Lord GOD. Thou
therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together.
And let the sword be doubled the third time;
The sword of the deadly wounded:
It is the sword of the great one that is deadly wounded
Which compasseth them about.
I have set the point of the sword against all their gates,
That their heart may melt,
And their stumblings be multiplied:
Ah! it is made as lightning!
It is pointed for slaughter--
Gather thee together, go to the right;
Set thyself in array, go to the left--
Whithersoever thy face is set.
I will also smite mine hands together, and I will satisfy my fury: I the
LORD have spoken it.
3
The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man,
appoint thee two ways that the sword of the king of Babylon may come;
they twain shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark
it out at the head of the way to the city. Thou shall appoint a way, for
the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in
Jerusalem the defenced. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of
the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the
arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver. In
his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams,
to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting,
to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounts, to build
forts. And it shall be unto them as a vain divination in their sight,
which have sworn oaths unto them: but he bringeth iniquity to
remembrance, that they may be taken. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD:
Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your
transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do
appear; because that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with
the hand. And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel,
whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end; thus saith
the Lord GOD: Remove the mitre, and take off the crown: this shall be no
more the same: exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high. I
will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until
he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
4
And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD
concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say
thou:
'A sword, a sword is drawn,
For the slaughter it is furbished:
To cause it to devour,
That it may be as lightning:'
whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine lies unto thee, to
lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are deadly wounded, whose day
is come, in the time of the punishment of the end. (Cause it to return
into its sheath.) In the place where thou wast created, in the land of
thy birth, will I judge thee. And I will pour out mine indignation upon
thee; I will blow upon thee with the fire of my wrath: and I will
deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy. Thou
shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the
land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
VII
EZEKIEL'S DISCOURSE
WRECK OF THE GOODLY SHIP TYRE
The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, And thou, son of man,
take up a lamentation for Tyre; and say unto Tyre, O thou that dwellest
at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant of the peoples unto many
isles: thus saith the Lord GOD: Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in
beauty. Thy borders are in the heart of the seas, thy builders have
perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy planks of fir trees from
Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make a mast for thee. Of
the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy benches
of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim. Of fine linen with
broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, that it might be to thee for an
ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thine awning. The
inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre,
were in thee, they were thy pilots. The ancients of Gebal and the wise
men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with
their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. Persia and Lud
and Put were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and
helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad with
thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were in thy
towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have
perfected thy beauty. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they
traded for thy wares. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy
traffickers: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for thy
merchandise. They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with
horses and war-horses and mules. The men of Dedan were thy traffickers:
many isles were the mart of thine hand: they brought thee in exchange
horns of ivory and ebony. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of thy handyworks: they traded for thy wares with emeralds,
purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies.
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy traffickers: they traded
for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil,
and balm. Damascus was thy merchant for the multitude of thy handyworks,
by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with the wine of
Helbon, and white wool. Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares:
bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among thy merchandise. Dedan was
thy trafficker in precious cloths for riding. Arabia, and all the
princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and
rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants. The traffickers of
Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers: they traded for thy wares
with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran
and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were
thy traffickers. These were thy traffickers in choice wares, in
wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel,
bound with cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The ships of
Tarshish were thy caravans for thy merchandise: and thou wast
replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.
Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath
broken thee in the heart of the seas. Thy riches, and thy wares, thy
merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the
occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee,
with all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the
heart of the seas in the day of thy ruin. At the sound of the cry of thy
pilots the suburbs shall shake. And all that handle the oar, the
mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their
ships, they shall stand upon the land, and shall cause their voice to
be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon
their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: and they shall
make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they
shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning. And in
their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over
thee, saying, 'Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to
silence in the midst of the sea?' When thy wares went forth out of the
seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the
earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise. In the
time that thou wast broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, thy
merchandise and all thy company did fall in the midst of thee. All the
inhabitants of the isles are astonished at thee, and their kings are
horribly afraid, they are troubled in their countenance. The merchants
among the peoples hiss at thee; thou art become a terror, and thou shalt
never be any more.
VIII
PROPHETIC SENTENCES
Thus saith the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his
riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth,
and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness,
judgement, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I
delight, saith the LORD.
* *
*
There is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is
great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations? for to
thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the
nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto thee,
but they are together brutish and foolish.
* *
*