altars shall rise no more.
027:010 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted
and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there,
and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
027:011 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off.
The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people
of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not
have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show
them no favor.
027:012 It will happen in that day, that Yahweh will thresh from
the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt;
and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
027:013 It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown;
and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria,
and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come;
and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
028:001 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 fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!
028:002 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail,
a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing,
he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.
028:003 The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be
trodden under foot.
028:004 The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head
of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig
before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon
as he sees it.
028:005 In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;
028:006 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
028:007 They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink.
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink.
They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink.
They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
028:008 For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.
028:009 Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
028:010 For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line,
line on line; here a little, there a little.
028:011 But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and
in another language;
028:012 to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;"
and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.
028:013 Therefore the word of Yahweh will 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, fall backward, be broken,
be snared, and be taken.
028:014 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule
this people in Jerusalem:
028:015 "Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies
our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"
028:016 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone
of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
028:017 I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness
the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
028:018 Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement
with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.
028:019 As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning
by morning it will pass through, by day and by night;
and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message."
028:020 For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket
is too narrow to wrap oneself in.
028:021 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 unusual work, and bring to pass his act,
his extraordinary act.
028:022 Now therefore don't be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh
of Armies, on the whole earth.
028:023 Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!
028:024 Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep
turning the soil and breaking the clods?
028:025 When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill,
and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows,
the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?
028:026 For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.
028:027 For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument,
neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill
is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.
028:028 Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it.
Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it,
his horses don't grind it.
028:029 This also comes forth from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful
in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
029:001 Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Add year to year; let the feasts come around;
029:002 then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning
and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth{or, Ariel}.
029:003 I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay
siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege
works against you.
029:004 You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground.
Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will
be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground,
and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
029:005 But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away.
Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.
029:006 She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder,
with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm,
and with the flame of a devouring fire.
029:007 The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who
distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
029:008 It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold,
he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied;
or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks;
but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty.
The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion
will be like that.
029:009 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not
with strong drink.
029:010 For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered
your heads, the seers.
029:011 All vision has become to you like the words of a book that
is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying,
"Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"
029:012 and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying,
"Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."
029:013 The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth
and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their
heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment
of men which has been taught;
029:014 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 will perish, and the understanding
of their prudent men will be hidden."
029:015 Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh,
and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?"
and "Who knows us?"
029:016 You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought
to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him
who made it, "He didn't make me;" or the thing formed say
of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"
029:017 Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned
into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded
as a forest?
029:018 In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book,
and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and
out of darkness.
029:019 The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor
among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
029:020 For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases,
and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off--
029:021 who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare
for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent
of justice with false testimony.
029:022 Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning
the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed,
neither shall his face grow pale.
029:023 But when he sees his children, the work of my hands,
in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name.
Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand
in awe of the God of Israel.
029:024 They also who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who grumble will receive instruction."
030:001 "Woe to the rebellious children," says Yahweh, "who take counsel,
but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin,
030:002 who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice;
to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
030:003 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame,
and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
030:004 For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have
come to Hanes.
030:005 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."
030:006 The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land
of trouble and anguish, of 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 an unprofitable people.
030:007 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I
called her Rahab who sits still.
030:008 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.
030:009 For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who
will not hear the law of Yahweh;
030:010 who tell the seers, "Don't see!" and to the prophets,
"Don't prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things.
Prophesy deceits.
030:011 Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path.
Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
030:012 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you
despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and rely on it;
030:013 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready
to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes
suddenly in an instant.
030:014 He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it
in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among
the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern."
030:015 For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, "You will
be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in
quietness and in confidence." You refused,
030:016 but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;"
therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;"
therefore those who pursue you will be swift.
030:017 One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat
of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon
on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
030:018 Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you;
and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you,
for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who
wait for him.
030:019 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep
no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice
of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
030:020 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water
of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore,
but your eyes will see your teachers;
030:021 and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way.
Walk in it."
030:022 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, "Go away!"
030:023 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow
the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be
rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed
in large pastures.
030:024 The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will
eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel
and with the fork.
030:025 There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain
and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter,
when the towers fall.
030:026 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter,
like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds
up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they
were struck with.
030:027 Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with
his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full
of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.
030:028 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 leads to ruin will be in the jaws
of the peoples.
030:029 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept;
and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come
to Yahweh's mountain, to Israel's Rock.
030:030 Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show
the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger,
and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast,
storm, and hailstones.
030:031 For through the voice of Yahweh the Assyrian will be dismayed.
He will strike him with his rod.
030:032 Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which Yahweh will lay
on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps.
He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.
030:033 For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king
it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large
with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream
of sulfur, kindles it.
031:001 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses,
and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen
because they are very strong, but they don't look to the Holy One
of Israel, and they don't seek Yahweh!
031:002 Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back
his words, but will arise against the house of the evil-doers,
and against the help of those who work iniquity.
031:003 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh,
and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand,
both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall,
and they all shall be consumed together.
031:004 For thus says Yahweh to me, "As the lion and the young lion
growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called
together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice,
nor abase himself for the noise of them, so Yahweh of Armies
will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
031:005 As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over
and preserve it."
031:006 Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted,
children of Israel.
031:007 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and
his idols of gold--sin which your own hands have made for you.
031:008 "The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword,
not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword,
and his young men will become subject to forced labor.
031:009 His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will
be afraid of the banner," says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion,
and his furnace in Jerusalem.
032:001 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in justice.
032:002 A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place,
as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
032:003 The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears
of those who hear will listen.
032:004 The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue
of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
032:005 The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel
be highly respected.
032:006 For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity,
to practice profanity, and to utter error against Yahweh, To make
empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of
the thirsty to fail.
032:007 The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked
devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when
the needy speaks right.
032:008 But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue
in noble things.
032:009 Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice!
You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!
032:010 For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women;
for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won't come.
032:011 Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones!
Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth
on your waist.
032:012 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
032:013 Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land; yes, on all
the houses of joy in the joyous city.
032:014 For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted.
The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever,
a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
032:015 Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the
wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
is considered a forest.
032:016 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness
will remain in the fruitful field.
032:017 The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect
of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
032:018 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings,
and in quiet resting places.
032:019 Though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.
032:020 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet
of the ox and the donkey.
033:001 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed; and who betray,
but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying,
you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal,
you will be betrayed.
033:002 Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.
Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the
time of trouble.
033:003 At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled.
When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.
033:004 Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers.
Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
033:005 Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion
with justice and righteousness.
033:006 There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation,
wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.
033:007 Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors
of peace weep bitterly.
033:008 The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases.
The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities.
He doesn't regard man.
033:009 The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and
withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel
are stripped bare.
033:010 "Now I will arise," says Yahweh; "Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
033:011 You will conceive chaff. You will bring forth stubble.
Your breath is a fire that will devour you.
033:012 The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns
that are cut down and burned in the fire.
033:013 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near,
acknowledge my might."
033:014 The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the
godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting burning?
033:015 He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who
despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands,
refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing
of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil--
033:016 he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be
the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied.
His waters will be sure.
033:017 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see
a distant land.
033:018 Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted?
Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?
033:019 You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep
speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language
that you can't understand.
033:020 Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent
that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
033:021 But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad
rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go,
neither will any gallant ship pass by there.
033:022 For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver.
Yahweh is our king. He will save us.
033:023 Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot
of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey
of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey.
033:024 The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick." The people who dwell
therein will be forgiven their iniquity.
034:001 Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world,
and everything that comes from it.
034:002 For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry
with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them.
He has given them over for slaughter.
034:003 Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead
bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood.
034:004 All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be
rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away,
as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
034:005 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come
down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
034:006 Yahweh's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat,
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.
034:007 The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls
with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood,
and their dust made greasy with fat.
034:008 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense
for the cause of Zion.
034:009 Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur,
And its land will become burning pitch.
034:010 It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation, it will lie waste.
No one will pass through it forever and ever.
034:011 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it.
The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch
the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
034:012 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there;
and all its princes shall be nothing.
034:013 Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles
in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals,
a court for ostriches.
034:014 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,
and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night
creature{literally, lilith, which could also be a night demon
or night monster} shall settle there, and shall find herself
a place of rest.
034:015 The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather
under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there,
every one with her mate.