be missing. none will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
034:017 He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it
to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever.
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
035:001 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert
will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
035:002 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing.
Lebanon's glory Lebanon will be given to it, the excellence
of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh's glory,
the excellence of our God.
035:003 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
035:004 Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong. Don't be afraid.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution.
He will come and save you.
035:005 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears
of the deaf will be unstopped.
035:006 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of
the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
035:007 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground
springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in
the habitation of jackals, where they lay.
035:008 A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those
who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.
035:009 No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it.
They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.
035:010 The Yahweh's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing
to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing
will flee away."
036:001 Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah,
that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified
cities of Judah, and captured them.
036:002 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem
to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct
from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway.
036:003 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder
came out to him.
036:004 Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says
the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this
in which you trust?
036:005 I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words.
Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
036:006 Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt,
which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it.
So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
036:007 But if you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God,' isn't 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?'"
036:008 Now therefore, please make a pledge 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 on them.
036:009 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?
036:010 Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it?
Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'"
036:011 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak
to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it;
and don't speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing
of the people who are on the wall."
036:012 But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your master
and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit
on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own
urine with you?"
036:013 Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in
the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king,
the king of Assyria!
036:014 Thus says the king, 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you;
for he will not be able to deliver you.
036:015 Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will
surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand
of the king of Assyria."'
036:016 Don't listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king
of Assyria, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me;
and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree,
and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
036:017 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.
036:018 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "Yahweh will deliver us."
Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands
from the hand of the king of Assyria?
036:019 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods
of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
036:020 Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have
delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"
036:021 But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply,
for the king's commandment was, "Don't answer him."
036:022 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder,
came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him
the words of Rabshakeh.
037:001 It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes,
covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's house.
037:002 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe,
and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
037:003 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble,
and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come
to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.
037:004 It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God,
and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard.
Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
037:005 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
037:006 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Don't be
afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants
of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
037:007 Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news,
and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall
by the sword in his own land."'"
037:008 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
037:009 He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has
come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
037:010 "Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, 'Don't let
your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem won't
be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
037:011 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly.
Shall you be delivered?
037:012 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden
who were in Telassar?
037:013 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king
of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'"
037:014 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers
and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh's house,
and spread it before Yahweh.
037:015 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
037:016 "Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among
the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms
of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
037:017 Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold.
Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy
the living God.
037:018 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all
the countries and their land,
037:019 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they
have destroyed them.
037:020 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh,
even you only."
037:021 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed
to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,
037:022 this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him.
The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you.
The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
037:023 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have
you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
037:024 By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said,
"With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height
of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon.
I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees.
I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of
its fruitful field.
037:025 I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I
will dry up all the rivers of Egypt."
037:026 Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it
in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it
should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them
into ruinous heaps.
037:027 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed
and confounded. They were like the grass of the field,
and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops,
and like a field before its crop has grown.
037:028 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in,
and your raging against me.
037:029 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance
has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook
in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you
back by the way by which you came.
037:030 This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that
which grows of itself, and in the second year that which
springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap
and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
037:031 The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
037:032 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors
will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies
will perform this.'
037:033 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will
not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will
he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
037:034 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return,
and he shall not come to this city,' says Yahweh.
037:035 'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake,
and for my servant David's sake.'"
037:036 The angel of Yahweh went out and struck one hundred and
eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians.
When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were
all dead bodies.
037:037 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away,
returned to Nineveh, and stayed there.
037:038 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch
his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him
with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat.
Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
038:001 In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death.
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him,
"Thus says Yahweh, 'Set your house in order, for you will die,
and not live.'"
038:002 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh,
038:003 and said, "Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked
before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done
that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.
038:004 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,
038:005 "Go, and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of David
your father, "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.
Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
038:006 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king
of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
038:007 This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will
do this thing that he has spoken.
038:008 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down
on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.
So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it
had gone down."'"
038:009 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick,
and had recovered of his sickness.
038:010 I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the residue of my years."
038:011 I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living.
I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
038:012 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a
shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life.
He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night
you will make an end of me.
038:013 I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like
a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
038:014 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove.
My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security."
038:015 What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it.
I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish
of my soul.
038:016 Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life
in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.
038:017 Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love
for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption;
for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
038:018 For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you.
Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
038:019 The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day.
The father shall make known your truth to the children.
038:020 Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed
instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.
038:021 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay
it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."
038:022 Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up
to the house of Yahweh?"
039:001 At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan,
king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah;
for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.
039:002 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house
of his precious things, the silver, and the gold,
the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house
of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures.
There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion,
that Hezekiah didn't show them.
039:003 Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him,
"What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?"
Hezekiah said, "They have come from a country far from me,
even from Babylon."
039:004 Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?"
Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house.
There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
039:005 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies:
039:006 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house,
and that which your fathers have stored up until this day,
will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says Yahweh.
039:007 'They will take away your sons who will issue from you,
whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king
of Babylon's palace.'"
039:008 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Yahweh's word which you have
spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace
and truth in my days."
040:001 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.
040:002 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."
040:003 The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh
in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert
for our God.
040:004 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall
be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough
places a plain.
040:005 The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it."
040:006 The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower
of the field.
040:007 The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh's breath
blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
040:008 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our
God stands forever."
040:009 You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your
voice with strength. Lift it up. Don't be afraid.
Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"
040:010 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his
arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
040:011 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather
the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom.
He will gently lead those who have their young.
040:012 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance?
040:013 Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him
as his counselor?
040:014 Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him,
and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
040:015 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are
regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts
up the islands like a very little thing.
040:016 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient
for a burnt offering.
040:017 All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded
by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
040:018 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you
compare to him?
040:019 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it
with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
040:020 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree
that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up
an engraved image for him that will not be moved.
040:021 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you
been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from
the foundations of the earth?
040:022 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
040:023 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the
earth like meaningless.
040:024 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely.
Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind
takes them away as stubble.
040:025 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?"
says the Holy One.
040:026 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these,
who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name.
by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power,
Not one is lacking.
040:027 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden
from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"
040:028 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting
God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint.
He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
040:029 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him
who has no might.
040:030 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
040:031 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run,
and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
041:001 "Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew
their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak.
Let's meet together for judgment.
041:002 Who has raised up one from the east? Whom called him to his foot
in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him
rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword,
like the driven stubble to his bow.
041:003 He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had
not gone with his feet.
041:004 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from
the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last,
I am he."
041:005 The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble.
They approach, and come.
041:006 Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers,
"Be strong!"
041:007 So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes
with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it
with nails, that it might not totter.
041:008 "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend,
041:009 You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you away;'
041:010 Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed,
for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
041:011 Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed
and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing,
and shall perish.
041:012 You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend
with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing,
as a non-existent thing.
041:013 For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you,
'Don't be afraid. I will help you.'
041:014 Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel.
I will help you," says Yahweh, "and your Redeemer is
the Holy One of Israel.
041:015 Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument
with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small,
and will make the hills like chaff.
041:016 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh.
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
041:017 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.
Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
041:018 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst
of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
041:019 I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.
I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
041:020 that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,
that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One
of Israel has created it.
041:021 Produce your cause," says Yahweh. "Bring forth your strong reasons,"
says the King of Jacob.
041:022 "Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen.
Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them,
and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
041:023 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we
may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed, and see it together.
041:024 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing.
He who chooses you is an abomination.
041:025 "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come;
from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall
come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
041:026 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is
no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows.
Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
041:027 I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;'
and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
041:028 When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no
counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.
041:029 Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing.
Their molten images are wind and confusion.