They are drunken, and not with wine; they reel, and not with meth.
10. For Jehovah hath poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and
bound up your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, He has
veiled. 11. And the revelation of all this will be to you like the
words of a sealed writing, which they give to him that understands
writing, say, Pray, read this; but he says, I cannot, it is sealed.
12. And they give the writing to one who does not understand writing,
saying, Pray, read this; but he says, I do not understand writing.
13. The Lord hath spoken: Because this people approaches Me with its
mouth, and honours Me with its lips, and keeps its heart far from Me,
and its reverence for Me has become as a commandment learned from
men; 14. therefore, behold, I will proceed wondrously with this
people, wondrously and marvellously strange; and the wisdom of its
wise men is lost, and the understanding of its intelligent men
becomes invisible.
15. Woe unto them that hide plans deep from Jehovah, and their doing
occurs in a dark place, and they say, Who saw us then, and who know
about us? 16. Oh for your perversity! It is to be regarded as
potter's clay; that a work could say to its maker, He has not made
me; and an image to its sculptor, He does not understand it!
17. Is it not yet a very little, and Lebanon is turned into a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field esteemed as a forest? 18. And
in that day the deaf hear scripture words, and the eyes of the blind
will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19. And the joy of the
humble increases in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in
the Holy One of Israel. 20. For tyrants are gone, and it is over with
scoffers; and all who think evil are rooted out, 21. who condemn a
man for a word, and lay snares for him that is free-spoken in the
gate, and overthrow the righteous through shameful lies.
22. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of the house of Jacob, He who
redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not henceforth be ashamed, nor shall
his face turn pale any more. 23. For when he, when his children see
the work of My hands in the midst of him, they will sanctify My name
and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shudder before the God of
Israel. 24. And those who were of an erring spirit discern
understanding, and murmurers accept instruction.
_The Third Woe.--The Momentous Result
of the Alliance with Egypt._--CHAP. XXX.
1. Woe to the stubborn children, saith Jehovah, to drive plans, and
not by My impulse, and to plait alliance, and not according to My
spirit, to heap sin upon sin; 2. that go away to travel down to
Egypt, without having asked My mouth, to fly to Pharaoh's shelter,
and to conceal themselves under the shadow of Egypt. 3. And Pharaoh's
shelter becomes a shame to them, and the concealment under the shadow
of Egypt is a disgrace. 4. For Judah's princes have appeared in Zoan,
and his ambassadors arrive in Haran. 5. They will all have to be
ashamed of a people useless to them, that brings no help and no use,
but shame, and also reproach.
6. Oracle concerning the water-oxen of the south: Through a land of
distress and confinement, whence the lioness and lion, adders and
flying dragons; they carry their possessions on the shoulders of
asses' foals, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation
that profits nothing. 7. And Egypt, worthlessly and hollowly will
they help; therefore I call this Egypt, Great-mouth sits still.
8. Now go, write it on a table with them, and note it in a book, and
let it stand there for future days, for ever, to eternity.
9. For it is a refractory people, lying children, children who do not
like to hear the instruction of Jehovah; 10. who say to the seers,
See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things!
Speak flatteries to us! 11. Get out of the way, turn aside from the
path, remove from our face the Holy One of Israel.
12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye dislike
this word, and put your trust in force and shufflings, and rely upon
this; 13. therefore will this iniquity be to like a falling breach,
bent forwards in a high-towering wall, which falls to ruin suddenly,
very suddenly. 14. And He smites it to pieces, as a potter's vessel
falls to pieces when they smash it without sparing, and of which,
when it lies smashed to pieces there, you cannot find a sherd to
fetch fire with from the hearth, or to take water with out of a
cistern.
15. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, Through
turning and rest ye would be helped; your strength would show itself
in quietness and confidence; but ye would not. 16. And ye said, No,
but we will fly upon horses; therefore ye shall flee: and, We will
ride upon race-horses; therefore your pursuers will race. 17. A
thousand, ye will flee from the threatening of one, from the
threatening of five, until ye are reduced to a remnant, like a pine
upon the top of the mountain, and like a banner upon the hill.
18. And therefore will Jehovah wait till He inclines towards you, and
therefore will He withdraw Himself on high till He has mercy upon
you; for Jehovah is a God of right, salvation to those who wait for
Him.
19. For a people continues dwelling in Zion, in Jerusalem; thou shalt
not weep for ever: He will prove Himself gracious to thee at the
sound of thy cry for help; as soon as He hears, He answers thee.
20. And the Lord giveth you bread in penury, and water for your need;
and thy teachers will not hide themselves any more, and thine eyes
come to see thy teachers. 21. And thine ears will hear words behind
thee, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it!" whether ye turn to
the right hand or the left. 22. And ye defile the covering of thy
graven images of silver, and the clothing of thy molten images of
gold; thou wilt scatter them like a filthy thing: "Get out!" thou
sayest to it.
23. And He gives rain to thy seed, with which thou sowest the land;
and bread of the produce of the land, and it is full of sap and fat;
in that day your flocks will feed in roomy pastures. 24. And the oxen
and the young asses, which work the land, salted mash will they eat,
which is winnowed with the winnowing shovel and winnowing fork!
25. And upon every high mountain, and every hill that rises high,
there are springs, brooks in the day of the great massacre, when the
towers fall.
26. And the light of the moon will be as light of the sun, and the
light of the sun will be multiplied sevenfold, like the light of
seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth the hurt of His people,
and healeth the crushing of His stroke.
27. Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning His wrath,
and quantity of smoke: His lips are full of wrathful foam, and His
tongue like devouring fire. 28. And His breath is like an overflowing
brook, which reaches half-way to the neck, to sift nations in the
sieve of nothingness; and a misleading bridle comes to the cheeks of
the nations.
29. Your song will then sound as in the night, when the feast is
celebrated; and ye will have joy of heart like those who march with
the playing of flutes, to go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the
Rock of Israel.
30. And Jehovah causes His majestic voice to be heard, and causes the
lowering of His arm to be seen, with the snorting of wrath and the
blazing of devouring fire, the bursting of a cloud, and pouring of
rain and hailstones. 31. For Asshur will be terrified at the voice of
Jehovah, when He smites with the staff. 32. And it will come to pass
every stroke of the rod of destiny, which Jehovah causes to fall upon
Asshur, is dealt amid the noise of drums and the playing of guitars;
and in battles of swinging arm He fights it. 33. For a place for the
sacrifice of abominations has long been made ready, even for the king
it is prepared: deep, broad has He made it: its funeral-pile has fire
and wood in abundance; the breath of Jehovah like a stream of
brimstone sets it on fire.
_The Fourth Woe.--The False Help; the Despised
One Pitied; and the New Era._--CHAPS. XXXI.-XXXII. 8.
1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely upon horses,
and put their trust in chariots, that there are many of them, and in
horsemen, that there is a powerful multitude of them: and to not look
up to the Holy One of Israel, and do not inquire for Jehovah! 2. And
yet He also is wise; thus then He brings evil, and sets not His words
aside; and rises up against the house of miscreants, and against the
help of evil-doers. 3. And Egypt is man, and not God; and its horses
flesh, and not spirit. And when Jehovah stretches out His hand, the
helper stumbles, and he that is helped falls, and they all perish
together.
4. For thus hath Jehovah spoken unto me, As the lion growls and the
young lion over its prey, against which a whole crowd of shepherds is
called together; he is not alarmed at their cry, and does not
surrender at their noise; so will Jehovah of hosts descend to the
campaign against the mountain of Zion, and against their hill.
5. Like fluttering birds, so will Jehovah of hosts screen Jerusalem;
screening and delivering, sparing and setting free.
6. Then turn, O sons of Israel, to Him from whom men have so deeply
departed. 7. For in that day they will abhor every one their silver
idols and their gold idols, which your hands have made to you for a
sin. 8. And Asshur falls by a sword not of a man, and a sword not of
a man will devour him; and he flees before a sword, and his young men
become tributary. 9. And his rock, for fear it will pass away, and
his princes be frightened away by the flags: the saying of Jehovah,
who has His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.
XXXII.--1. Behold the king will reign according to righteousness; and
the princes, according to right will they command. 2. And every one
will be like a shelter from the wind, and a covert from the storm;
like water-brooks in a dry place, like the shadow of a gigantic rock
in a languishing land.
3. And the eyes of the seeing no more are closed, and the ears of the
hearing attend. 4. And the heart of the hurried understands to know,
and the tongue of stammerers speaks clear things with readiness.
5. The fool will no more be called a nobleman, nor the crafty a
gentleman. 6. For a fool speaks follies, and his heart does godless
things, to practise tricks and to speak error against Jehovah, to
leave the soul of hungry men empty, and to withhold the drink of
thirsty ones. 7. And the craft of the crafty man is evil, who devises
stratagems to destroy suffering ones by lying words, even when the
needy exhibits his right. 8. But a noble man deviseth noble things,
and to noble things he adheres.