The Holy Bible

[8:11] For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

[8:12] “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

[8:13] But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

[8:14] And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[8:15] And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

[8:16] Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.

[8:17] I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

[8:18] Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

[8:19] And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

[8:20] To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

[8:21] They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.

[8:22] And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

[9:1] But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

[9:2] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

[9:3] You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

[9:4] For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

[9:5] For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

[9:6] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

[9:7] Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

[10:5] Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!

[10:6] Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

[10:7] But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;

[10:8] for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings?

[10:9] Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

[10:10] As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

[10:11] shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”

[10:12] When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

[10:13] For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.

[10:14] My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”

[10:15] Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!

[10:16] Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.

[10:17] The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

[10:18] The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

[10:19] The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

[10:20] In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

[10:21] A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

[10:22] For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

[10:23] For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

[10:24] Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

[10:25] For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.

[10:26] And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

[10:27] And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

[10:28] He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;

[10:29] they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

[10:30] Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!

[10:31] Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

[10:32] This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

[10:33] Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.

[10:34] He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

[11:1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

[11:2] And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

[11:3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

[11:4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

[11:5] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

[11:6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

[11:7] The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

[11:8] The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

[11:9] They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

[11:10] In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

[11:11] In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

[11:12] He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

[11:13] The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

[11:14] But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.

[11:15] And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.

[11:16] And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

[12:1] You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

[12:2] “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

[12:3] With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

[12:4] And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

[12:5] “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

[12:6] Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

[13:1] The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

[13:2] On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.

[13:3] I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.

[13:4] The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle.

[13:5] They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

[13:6] Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!

[13:7] Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt.

[13:8] They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.

[13:9] Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

[13:10] For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

[13:11] I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

[13:12] I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

[13:13] Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

[13:14] And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.

[13:15] Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

[13:16] Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.

[13:17] Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.

[13:18] Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.

[13:19] And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

[13:20] It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

[13:21] But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance.

[13:22] Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.

[14:1] For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

[14:2] And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

[14:3] When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,

[14:4] you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!

[14:5] The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,

[14:6] that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.

[14:7] The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing.

[14:8] The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’

[14:9] Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.

[14:10] All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’

[14:11] Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.

[14:12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

[14:13] You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;

[14:14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

[14:15] But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

[14:16] Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,

[14:17] who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’

[14:18] All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb;

[14:19] but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.

[14:20] You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. “May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!

[14:21] Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

[14:22] “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the Lord.

[14:23] “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.