The Holy Bible

[23:1] The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.

[23:2] Be still, O inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.

[23:3] And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.

[23:4] Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.”

[23:5] When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.

[23:6] Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

[23:7] Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?

[23:8] Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

[23:9] The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

[23:10] Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint anymore.

[23:11] He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.

[23:12] And he said: “You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest.”

[23:13] Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

[23:14] Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

[23:15] In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

[23:16] “Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered.”

[23:17] At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

[23:18] Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.

[24:1] Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

[24:2] And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

[24:3] The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word.

[24:4] The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish.

[24:5] The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

[24:6] Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.

[24:7] The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.

[24:8] The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.

[24:9] No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

[24:10] The wasted city is broken down; every house is shut up so that none can enter.

[24:11] There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.

[24:12] Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins.

[24:13] For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.

[24:14] They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.

[24:15] Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

[24:16] From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”

[24:17] Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

[24:18] He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

[24:19] The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.

[24:20] The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.

[24:21] On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.

[24:22] They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.

[24:23] Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

[25:1] O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

[25:2] For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.

[25:3] Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

[25:4] For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

[25:5] like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down.

[25:6] On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

[25:7] And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

[25:8] He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

[25:9] It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

[25:10] For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.

[25:11] And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, but the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands.

[25:12] And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

[26:1] In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.

[26:2] Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

[26:3] You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

[26:4] Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

[26:5] For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.

[26:6] The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

[26:7] The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous.

[26:8] In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

[26:9] My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

[26:10] If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord.

[26:11] O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

[26:12] O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.

[26:13] O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance.

[26:14] They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.

[26:15] But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

[26:16] O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

[26:17] Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord;

[26:18] we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

[26:19] Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

[26:20] Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

[26:21] For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

[27:1] In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

[27:2] In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!

[27:3] I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;

[27:4] I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together.

[27:5] Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”

[27:6] In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

[27:7] Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?

[27:8] Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.

[27:9] Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.

[27:10] For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches.

[27:11] When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.

[27:12] In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel.

[27:13] And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

[28:1] Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

[28:2] Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand.

[28:3] The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot;

[28:4] and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.

[28:5] In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,

[28:6] and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

[28:7] These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.

[28:8] For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left.

[28:9] “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?

[28:10] For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

[28:11] For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people,

[28:12] to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.

[28:13] And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

[28:14] Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!

[28:15] Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

[28:16] therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

[28:17] And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

[28:18] Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.

[28:19] As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

[28:20] For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

[28:21] For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work!

[28:22] Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.

[28:23] Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.

[28:24] Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground?

[28:25] When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?

[28:26] For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.

[28:27] Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.

[28:28] Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.

[28:29] This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

[29:1] Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.

[29:2] Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

[29:3] And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.

[29:4] And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

[29:5] But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,

[29:6] you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

[29:7] And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

[29:8] As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

[29:9] Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!

[29:10] For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

[29:11] And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

[29:12] And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

[29:13] And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

[29:14] therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

[29:15] Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

[29:16] You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

[29:17] Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

[29:18] In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

[29:19] The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

[29:20] For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

[29:21] who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

[29:22] Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.

[29:23] For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

[29:24] And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

[30:1] “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

[30:2] who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

[30:3] Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

[30:4] For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,

[30:5] everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”

[30:6] An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.

[30:7] Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

[30:8] And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

[30:9] For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord;

[30:10] who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

[30:11] leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

[30:12] Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,

[30:13] therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

[30:14] and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

[30:15] For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

[30:16] and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

[30:17] A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.