1. Alas for Ariel, Ariel, the city David encamped! Add year to year;
let the feasts revolve; 2. And I will distress Ariel, and there shall
be sadness and sorrow, and it shall be to Me as Ariel. 3. And I will
camp against thee round about, and push against thee a post, and
raise against thee ramparts. 4. And thou shalt be brought down, out
of the ground shalt thou speak, and thy speech shall be low out of
the dust, and thy voice shall be like (the voice of) a spirit, out of
the ground, and out of the dust shall thy speech mutter.
5. And shall be like fine dust the multitude of thy strangers, and
like passing chaff be in a moment suddenly. 6. From the presence of
Jehovah shall it be raised with thunder, and earthquake, and great
noise, tempest and storm, and flame of devouring fire. 7. Then shall
be as a dream, a vision of the night, the multitude of all the
nations fighting against Ariel, even all that fight against her and
her munition, and distress her. 8. And it shall be as when the hungry
dreams, and lo he eats, and he awakes, and his soul is empty; and as
when the thirsty dreams, and lo he drinks, and he awakes, and lo he
is faint and his soul craving: so shall be the multitude of all the
nations that fight against mount Zion.
9. Waver and wonder! be merry and blind! They are drunk, but not with
wine; they reel, but not with strong drink. 10. For Jehovah hath
poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath shut your eyes,
the prophets, even your heads the seers, hath He covered. 11. And the
vision of the whole is to you like the words of the sealed writing,
which they give to one knowing writing, saying, Pray read this, and
he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. 12. And the writing is given to
one who knows not writing, saying, Pray read this, and he says, I
know not writing. 13. And the Lord said, Because this people draws
near with its mouth, and with its lips they honour Me, and its heart
it puts far from Me, and their fearing Me is a precept of men, (a
thing) taught, 14. therefore, behold, I will continue to treat this
people strangely, very strangely, and with strangeness, and the
wisdom of its wise ones shall be lost, and the prudence of its
prudent ones shall hide itself. 15. Alas for those going deep from
Jehovah to hide counsel, and their works are in the dark, and they
say, Who sees us, and who knows us? 16. Your perversion! Is the
potter to be reckoned as the clay, that the thing made should say of
its maker, He made me not, and the thing formed say of its former, He
does not understand!
17. Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned to
a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be reckoned to the forest?
18. And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and
out of obscurity and darkness shall the eyes of the blind see.
19. And the humble shall rejoice more and more in Jehovah, and the
poor among men in the Holy One of Israel shall rejoice. 20. For the
violent is at an end, and the scoffer ceaseth, and all the watchers
for injustice are cut off: 21. making a man a sinner for a word, and
for him disputing in the gate they laid a snare, and turned aside the
righteous through deceit. 22. Therefore thus saith Jehovah to the
house of Jacob, He who redeemed Abraham, Not now shall Jacob be
ashamed, and not now shall his face turn pale. 23. For 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
the God of Israel they shall fear. 24. Then shall the erring in
spirit know wisdom, and the rebels shall receive instruction.
THE SIN AND THE FOLLY OF ANCIENT ISRAEL IN SEEKING
FOREIGN AID AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES.--CHAPS. XXX., XXXI.
XXX.--1. Woe to the disobedient children, saith Jehovah, (so
disobedient as) to form (or execute) a plan and not from Me, and to
weave a web, but not (of) My Spirit, for the sake of adding sin to
sin; 2. those walking to go down to Egypt, and My mouth they have not
consulted, to take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in
the shadow of Egypt. 3. And the strength of Egypt shall be to you for
shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt for confusion. 4. For his
chiefs are in Zoan, and his ambassadors arrive at Hanes. 5. All are
ashamed of a people who cannot profit them, a people not for help and
not for profit, but for shame, and also for disgrace. 6. The burden
of the beasts of the south, in a land of suffering and distress,
whence (are) the adder and the fiery flying serpent; they are
carrying on the shoulders of young asses their wealth, and on the
hump of camels their treasures, to a people who cannot profit; 7. and
the Egyptians are in vain and to no purpose shall they help.
Therefore I cry concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8. And now go, write it with them on a table, and inscribe it in a
book, and let it be for a future day, for ever, to eternity. 9. For a
rebellious people is it, lying children, children who are not willing
to learn the law of Jehovah; 10. who say to the seers, Ye shall not
see, and to the viewers, Ye shall not view for us right things: speak
unto us smooth things, view deceits, 11. depart from the way, sever
from the path, cause to cease from before us the Holy One of Israel.
12. Therefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because of your
rejecting this word, and (because) ye have trusted in oppression and
perverseness and have relied thereon, 13. therefore shall their
iniquity be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a
high wall, whose breaking may come suddenly, at (any) instant.
14. And it is broken like the breaking of a potter's vessel, broken
unsparingly, so that there is not found among its fragments a sherd
to take up fire from a hearth, and to dip up water from a pool.
15. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In
returning and rest shall ye be saved, in remaining quiet and in
confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not. 16. And ye said,
No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee; and upon
swift will we ride; therefore shall your pursuers be swift. 17. One
thousand shall flee from before the menace of one, from before the
rebuke of five shall ye flee, until ye are left like a pole on the
top of the mountain, and like the signal on the hill. 18. And
therefore will Jehovah wait to have mercy upon you, and therefore
will He rise up to pity you, for a God of judgment is Jehovah;
blessed are all that wait for Him. 19. For the people in Zion shall
dwell in Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more; He will be very gracious
unto thee at the voice of thy cry; as He hears it He will answer
thee. 20. And the Lord will give you bread of affliction and water of
oppression, and no more shall thy teachers hide themselves, and thine
eyes shall see thy teachers. 21. And thine ears shall hear a voice
from behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye
turn to the right and when ye turn to the left. 22. And ye shall
defile the covering of thy idols of silver and the case of thy image
of gold; thou shalt scatter them as an abominable thing. Away! shalt
thou say to it. 23. And He shall give the rain of thy seed, with
which thou shalt sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the
ground, and it shall be fat and rich; thy cattle shall feed that day
in an enlarged pasture. 24. And the oxen and the asses working the
ground shall eat salted provender which has been winnowed with the
sieve and fan. 25. And there shall be, on every high mountain, and on
every elevated hill, channels, streams of waters, in the day of great
slaughter, when towers fall. 26. And the light of the moon shall be
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,
as the light of seven days, in the day of Jehovah's binding up the
breach of His people, and the stroke of His wound He will heal.
27. Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from afar, burning His anger,
and heavy the ascent (of smoke); His lips are full of wrath, and His
tongue as a devouring fire. 28. And His breath, like an overflowing
stream, shall divide as far as the neck, to sift the nations in the
sieve of falsehood, and a misleading bridle on the jaws of the
people. 29. Your song shall be like the night of the consecration of
a feast, and your joy shall be like (that of) one marching with the
pipe to go into the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.
30. And Jehovah shall cause to be heard the majesty of His voice, and
the descent of His arm shall He cause to be seen, with indignation of
anger and a flame of devouring fire, scattering, and rain, and
hailstones. 31. For at the voice of Jehovah shall Assyria be broken,
with the rod shall He smite. 32. And every passage of the rod of
doom, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, shall be with tabrets and
harps, and with fights of shaking it is fought therein. 33. Not
arranged since yesterday is Tophet: even for the king it is prepared;
He has deepened, He has widened (it); its pile fire and wood in
plenty; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.
XXXI.--1. Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, and on horses
they rely and trust in cavalry, because it is numerous, and on
horsemen, because they are very strong, and they look not to the Holy
One of Israel, and Jehovah they seek not. 2. And (yet) He too is
wise, and brings evil, and His words He removes not, and He rises up
against the house of evil-doers, and against the help of the workers
of iniquity. 3. And Egypt (is) man, and their horses flesh and not
spirit: and Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, and the helper shall
stumble, and the helped fall, and together all of them shall cease.
4. For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As a lion growls, and a young lion
over his prey, against whom a multitude of shepherds is called forth,
at their voice he is not frightened, and at their noise he is not
humbled, so will Jehovah of hosts come down, to fight upon mount Zion
and upon her hill. 5. As birds flying (over or around their nests),
so will Jehovah cover over Jerusalem, cover and rescue, pass over and
save.
6. Return unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply
revolted. 7. For in that day they shall reject, a man his idols of
silver and his idols of gold, which your sinful hands have made for
you [or, which your own hands have made for you as sin]. 8. And
Assyria shall fall by no man's sword, and no mortal's work shall
devour him, and he shall flee from before the sword, and his young
men shall become tributary. 9. And his rock from fear shall pass
away, and his chiefs shall be afraid of a standard, saith Jehovah, to
whom there is a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.