Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth,

For the Lord has spoken.

“I have raised sons and brought them up,

But they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows his owner,

And the donkey his master's stall,

But Israel does not know

– My people do not understand.

Alas, a sinful nation,

A people laden with iniquity,

A seed acting wickedly,

Sons acting corruptly.

They have deserted the Lord,

They have despised the holy one of Israel;

They have drawn back.

Why should you be struck any more?

You would add to the apostasy.

Every head is ailing,

And every heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot to the head

There is no health in it,

But bruising and scars and raw wounds.

They have not been bathed,

And they have not been bound up,

And they have not been dressed with oil.

Your land is a desolation,

Your cities have been burned with fire;

As for your land in front of you,

Foreigners are devouring it,

And it is a desolation,

As overthrown by foreigners.

And the daughter of Zion is left like a shed in a vineyard,

Like a shack in a cucumber field,

Like a besieged city.”

Hear the word of the Lord,

You leaders of Sodom;

Listen to the word of our God,

You people of Gomorrah.

“To what end is the abundance of your sacrifices to me?

Says the Lord.

I am replete with burnt offerings of rams

And the fat of fatted calves,

And I do not take pleasure in the blood of bulls

And lambs and he-goats.

When you come {P: to see my face} [M: to appear before me],

I will ask, ‘Who requested this on your part

To trample over my courtyards?’

Do not bring a vain meal-offering any more;

Incense is an abomination to me.

I cannot bear the new moon and the Sabbath

Or the convening of a convocation.

They are iniquity,

As is the solemn assembly.

My being hates your new moons and your festivals;

They are a burden on me,

Which I am weary of bearing.

And when you stretch out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you.

Even if you make much prayer,

I will not hear it.

Your hands are full of blood.

Wash, cleanse yourselves,

Banish evil from your works in my sight;

Cease doing wrong.

Learn to do good,

Seek justice,

Succour the oppressed,

Give the orphan justice;

Defend the case of the widow.

Come now, and let us come to a settlement,

Says the Lord,

Even if your sins are as scarlet,

They will become as white as snow.

Even if they are as red as the cochineal worm,

They will become like wool.

If you are willing, and you are heedful,

You will eat the goodness of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel,

You will be consumed by the sword,

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

How did the faithful city become a prostitute?

She was full of justice,

Righteousness used to dwell in her,

But now – murderers.

Your silver has become dross;

Your liquor has been adulterated

With water.

Your officials are recalcitrant

And are friends of thieves.

Each one loves bribes

And pursues corrupt payments.

They do not give the orphan justice,

And the case of the widow does not reach them.

“That is why,

Says the Lord

– The Lord of hosts,

The mighty one of Israel –

Alas, I will rid myself of my adversaries,

And I will avenge myself on my enemies.

And I will draw my hand over you

And refine your dross,

As is done with potash,

And I will remove all your tin.

And I will restore your judges as in the beginning,

And your counsellors as at the start.

After that you will be called

The City of Righteousness,

The Faithful Town.

Zion will be redeemed justly,

As will those returning to her, righteously.

And it will be the demise of transgressors and sinners together,

Whilst those who abandon the Lord

Will be annihilated.

For they will be ashamed of the terebinths

Which you delighted in,

And you will be ashamed of the parks

Which you were partial to.

For they will be like a terebinth

Whose leaves are withering,

And like a park

Which has no water.

And he who is strong

Will be like hemp fibres,

And his work will be tinder to a spark,

And both will burn together,

And there will be no-one to put them out.”

And it will come to pass in the last days

That the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established

As the foremost of the mountains.

And it will be exalted above the hills,

And all the Gentiles will flock to it.

And many peoples will go,

And they will say,

“Come, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord

– To the house of the God of Jacob –

And he will instruct us concerning his ways,

And let us walk in his paths.”

For the law will go out from Zion,

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he will judge among nations

And convict many peoples.

And they will beat their swords into ploughshares

And their spears into pruning shears.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

And they will no longer learn warfare.

O house of Jacob,

Come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

For you have forsaken your people

– The house of Jacob –

For they are full of eastern practices,

And they divine by clouds like the Philistines,

And they make alliances with foreigners.

And his land has been filled with silver and gold,

And there is no end to his treasure stores.

And his land has been filled with horses,

And there is no end to his chariots.

And his land has been filled with idols.

They worship the work of their hands

– What their fingers have made.

Then when a man is made low,

And a person is humbled,

Do not lift them up.

Go into the rock,

And hide in the dust,

For fear of the Lord

And because of the splendour of his majesty.

A man's arrogant eyes will be humbled,

And the haughtiness of the people will be brought low,

And the Lord alone will be exalted

On that day.

For the day of the Lord of hosts

Is against all the proud and haughty,

And against everyone exalted,

And each one will be humbled,

And against all the cedars of Lebanon,

Which are high and exalted,

And against all the oaks of Bashan,

And against all the high mountains,

And against all the exalted hills,

And against every tall tower,

And against every fortified wall,

And against all the ships of Tarshish,

And against all attractive sights.

And the arrogance of man will be brought low,

And the haughtiness of people will be humbled,

And the Lord alone will be exalted

On that day.

And the idols will vanish in their entirety.

And they will go into the caves in the rocks

And the caverns of the ground,

For fear of the Lord

And because of the splendour of his majesty

When he arises to terrify the earth.

On that day

Man will throw his silver idols

And his golden idols,

Which were made for him to worship,

To the moles and bats,

As he goes into the clefts in the rocks,

And into the cracks in the outcrops,

For fear of the Lord

And because of the splendour of his majesty

When he arises to terrify the earth.

Renounce your ties with man,

Whose breath is in his nose,

For what is he considered worth?

For behold, the Lord – the Lord of hosts –

Is removing supplies and provisions from Jerusalem and from Judah –

All supplies of bread

And all supplies of water,

Affecting the warrior and soldier,

Judge and prophet and diviner,

And old man,

Commander of fifty and dignitary,

And counsellor and skilled craftsman,

And the initiate in incantations.

And I will appoint youngsters as their officials,

And children will rule over them.

And the people will be oppressed,

One man by another,

And one man by his neighbour.

And a young man will be insolent to an old man,

As will a common man to an honourable man.

For a man will take hold of his brother in his father's house,

And he will say, “You have a coat;

You shall be our leader,

And these ruins will be under your direction.”

He will take an oath on that day,

And he will say,

“I will not be the one who remedies this

While there is no food and no coat in my house.

Do not make me a leader of the people.”

For Jerusalem has toppled over,

And Judah has fallen down,

For their tongue and their deeds were directed against the Lord,

In grieving his majestic gaze.

The expression on their faces testifies against them,

And they betray their sin like Sodom;

They do not conceal it.

Woe to their very selves,

For they are recompensed with evil.

Say to the righteous man that this is pleasing:

That men will eat the fruit of their works.

Woe to the evil wicked man!

For the just deserts of his hands

Will be repaid him.

As for my people, their taskmasters are juvenile,

And women rule over them.

My people, those guiding you are leading you astray,

And they have subverted the way of your paths.

The Lord is poised to take issue,

And he is taking a stand in judging various peoples.

The Lord will enter into a judicial process

With the elders of his people and their officials,

For you have consumed the vineyard,

And the plunder taken from the poor is in your houses.

“What concern has it been to you

Who tread my people down

And grind down the dignity of the poor?”

Says the Lord,

The Lord of hosts.

And the Lord said,

“Since the daughters of Zion have been haughty

And have walked vaunting their throats

And flirting with their eyes,

Mincing along as they walk,

And wearing anklets on their feet,

The Lord^* will make the hair of the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion fall out,

And the Lord will expose their nakedness.

On that day the Lord^* will remove the adornment of anklets,

And the sun-disks,

And the moon-bangles,

The pendants, and the bracelets,

And the veils,

The headdresses and the ankle-chains and the waistbands,

And the perfume boxes,

And the amulets,

The rings on fingers and the noserings,

The mantles and the fine coats,

And the cloaks,

And the purses,

And the mirrors,

And the linen underwear,

And the turbans

And the scarves.

And it will come to pass

That instead of perfume there will be rottenness,

And instead of a girdle, a cord,

And instead of hairstyling, baldness,

And instead of an overcoat, a wrapping of sackcloth;

Burn marks instead of beauty.

Your men will fall by the sword,

As will your military might in war.

And her gates will sigh and mourn,

And she will be vacated

And remain on the ground.”

And on that day,

Seven women will take hold of one man

And will say,

“We will eat our own bread,

And we will wear our own clothing,

Only let us be called by your name

To remove our reproach.”

On that day the Lord's branch will be

The source of beauty and of honour,

And the fruit of the land

Will demonstrate excellence and splendour

To the escaped remnant of Israel.

Let me now sing to my lover

The song of my loved one about his vineyard.

My lover had a vineyard

On a fertile hilltop.

And he dug it and cleared it of stones,

And he planted it with a choice vine,

And he built a tower in the middle of it,

And he also hewed out a wine vat in it.

And he expected it to produce good grapes,

But it produced blighted ones.

So now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem,

And men of Judah,

Please judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do to my vineyard

That I didn't do in it?

How is it that I expected it to produce good grapes,

But it produced blighted ones?

So now let me make known to you what I am about to do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

And it will be consigned to burning;

And I will tear down its wall,

And it will become a place trodden down.

And I will make it a desolate place,

Where it is not pruned or hoed,

And the briar and thorn will come up.

And I will command the rainclouds

Not to precipitate rain on it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

Is the house of Israel,

And the men of Judah

Are his delightful plantation.

And he expected justice

But what came was bloodshed;

And righteousness,

But what came was crying out.

Woe to those who join house to house,

And who adjoin field to field,

Until there is no room,

And you are housed on your own,

In the middle of the land.

In my ear, the Lord of hosts said,

“Many houses will certainly become a desolation

– Large ones and good ones –

For want of an occupant.

For ten times what a yoke of oxen plough in a day in a vineyard

Will yield one bath,

And seed for a homer

Will yield one ephah.”

Woe to those who get up early in the morning

And go looking for strong drink;

They stay up until late in the night,

While wine inflames them.

And there will be at their banquets

The harp and the lute,

The drum and the pipe, and wine,

But they do not have respect for the Lord's deeds,

And they do not regard the work of his hands,

Which is why my people have gone into captivity,

For want of knowledge.

And what was its glory

Is now hungry men,

And what was its populousness

Is now thirsty dryness.

That is why the grave has opened itself wide

And distended its mouth without limit,

And their glory and their many people, and their bustling,

And he who is joyful

Will descend into it.

A man is made low,

And a person is humbled,

And the eyes of the arrogant will be brought down,

But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,

And holy God is sanctified by righteousness.

And lambs will feed according to what pasture they have,

And foreigners will eat from the desolate places of the well-fed.

Woe to those who pull iniquity along

With cords of vanity,

And sinfulness,

As if with a cart-rope,

Who say, “Let his work come quickly,

Let it hasten so we can see it,

And let the counsel of the holy one of Israel draw near and arrive

So we can acknowledge it.”

Woe to those who call bad good,

And good bad,

Substituting darkness for light,

And light for darkness,

Substituting bitter for sweet,

And sweet for bitter.

Woe to the wise in their own eyes,

And the intelligent in their own opinion.

Woe to the champions in drinking liquor,

And the masters in mixing strong drink,

And those who justify the wicked for a bribe,

But as for the justice of the righteous,

They deny him it.

That is why as a tongue of fire consumes the stubble,

And the hay collapses before the flame.

Their root will be rotten,

And their blossoms will appear like dust,

For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,

And they have despised the words of the holy one of Israel.

This is why the Lord's anger is kindled against his people,

And why he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,

And the mountains stood in awe,

And their corpses were like the filth in the middle of the open places.

Yet for all this,

His anger is not receding,

And his hand is still stretched out.

And he will raise a banner to the Gentiles from afar off,

And he will whistle for them from the end of the earth,

And behold, they will come

With haste and speed.

There is no-one weary, and no-one stumbles among them;

They do not slumber and do not sleep,

And the girdle around their waist does not come loose,

And the fastening of their shoes does not come undone.

And their arrows are sharp,

And all their bows are drawn,

And the hoofs of their horses are considered as flint,

And their chariot wheels are like a hurricane.

They have a roar like a lion,

{Q: And they roar} [K: And their roar is] like lion cubs,

And they growl and seize prey,

And they make off with it,

And there is no-one to rescue it.

But he will roar at them on that day,

Like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks at the earth,

There will be darkness and distress,

And the light will be made dark

By its overclouding.

His glory is the fulness

Of all the earth.”

“Woe is me,

For I am reduced to silence,

For I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips,

For my eyes have seen the king

– The Lord of hosts.”

“Look, this has touched your lips,

And your iniquity has departed,

And your sin has been expiated.”

“Whom shall I send,

And who will go on our behalf?”

“Until the cities have become desolate,

For want of an inhabitant,

And houses, for want of a man,

And the ground is laid waste in desolation.

So the Lord will put man at a distance,

And the abandonment within the land will be great.

But there will still be a tenth in it,

For that tenth will return,

But it will be ravaged.

Yet just as the terebinth and the oak

After felling retain a stump,

So shall the holy seed be, as its stump.”

«It will not arise

And it will not come to pass.

For the head of Aramaea is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Rezin,

And in sixty-five years' time,

Ephraim will be severed from being a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.

If your faith does not hold up,

You will not be upheld.» ’ ”

And it will come to pass on that day

That the Lord will whistle for the fly

Which is at the far end of the River of Egypt,

And for the bee

Which is in the land of Assyria.

And they will all come and settle

In the watercourses of the ravines,

And the fissures in the rocks,

And in all the thorn bushes

And in all the pasture lands.

On that day, the Lord^* will shave with a razor

– With the hired company on the far side of the river –

With the king of Assyria,

Shaving the head and the hair on the feet,

And it will also remove the beard.

And it will come to pass on that day

That a man will keep a heifer and two sheep,

And it will come to pass,

From the high yield of the production of milk,

That he will eat curds.

For everyone who remains in the land

Will eat curds and honey.

And it will come to pass on that day

That in every place where there were a thousand vineyards for a thousand pieces of silver,

It will be consigned to briars and thorns.

With arrows and the bow one will go there,

For all the land will be briars and thorns.

And as for all the mountains which had been hoed with a hoe,

You shall not go there,

For fear of briars and thorns.

And it will be a place to drive oxen to,

And for sheep to tread down.”

“Since this people rejects the waters of Shiloah,

Which flow gently,

And rejoices in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

You will see the Lord^* bringing up over them

The mighty and massive waters of the river

– The king of Assyria and all his glory –

And he will come up through all his channels

And overflow all his banks.

And he will pass through Judah,

Inundating and crossing through,

Coming up to the neck.

And he will spread his wings

Over the full width of your land, Immanuel.

Do harm, you various peoples,

And come to harm.

So listen, all you distant parts of the earth,

Gird yourselves,

And come to harm;

Gird yourselves,

And come to harm.

Take counsel,

But it will be frustrated.

Speak a word,

But it will not stand,

For God is with us.”

“You shall not say, ‘A conspiracy’,

To everything where the people say, ‘A conspiracy.’

Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,

For he is to be your fearfulness,

And he is to be your trepidation.

And he will become a sanctuary,

To the two houses of Israel,

And a trap and a snare

To the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many will stumble at them,

And they will fall and be broken,

And be ensnared and be caught.

Bind up the testimony;

Seal the law among those who learn from me.”

And I will wait for the Lord,

Who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob,

And I will confide in him.

As signs and as miracles in Israel

From the Lord of hosts,

Who dwells in Mount Zion.

The people who walked in darkness

Have seen a great light,

And on those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death

A light has shone.”

You have multiplied the nation,

{Q: You have increased its joy} [K: where you had not increased the joy];

They rejoice before you

As they do with joy at harvest time,

Or as when they delight

As they share the spoil.

For you have broken their burdensome yoke

And their shoulder bar

– The rod which was used to drive them on –

As on the day of Midian.

For every boot treading in the tumult

And shirt rolled in blood

Will be fit for burning,

As fuel for fire.

For a child is to be born for us,

A son is to be given to us,

And he will shoulder government,

And he will be called Wonderful, Counsellor,

Mighty God, Father of Perpetuity,

Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the great extent of government,

Or to peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

In setting it up and in perpetuating it in justice and in righteousness,

From that time and age-abidingly.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

The Lord^* sent a word through Jacob,

And it alighted on Israel.

And the entire people will know

– Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria –

Those who in the arrogance

And haughtiness of their heart said,

“The bricks have fallen,

But we will build with hewn stone;

The sycamores have been cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

But the Lord will strengthen the adversarial forces of Rezin against the people,

And he will incite their enemies –

Aramaea from the east

And the Philistines from the west –

And they will consume Israel with a voracious appetite.

Yet for all this, his anger will not recede,

And his hand will still be stretched out.

But the people are not returning

To him who is striking them,

And they have not sought the Lord of hosts.

And the Lord will cut off from Israel

Head and tail,

Palm-branch and bulrush,

In one day.

The elder and dignitary

Is who the head is,

And the prophet who teaches lies

Is who the tail is.

And those guiding this people

Have led it astray,

And those guided by them

Have been swallowed up.

This is why the Lord^* will not rejoice over their young men

And will not have compassion on their orphans and their widows,

For they are all profane and wrongdoing,

And every mouth speaks foolishness.

Despite all this, his anger will not recede,

And his hand will still be stretched out.

For wickedness burns like fire;

It consumes briars and thorns,

And it kindles fire in the thickets of the forest,

And they will swell up

Like the billowing of smoke.

In the wrath of the Lord of hosts,

The land will be burned,

And the people will be like fuel for the fire.

A man will not spare his brother.

And he will divide a portion on the right hand side,

Yet be hungry,

And eat on the left hand side.

But they will not be satisfied.

Each will eat the flesh of his own arm.

Manasseh will eat Ephraim,

And Ephraim Manasseh.

Together they will be against Judah.

Despite all this, his anger will not recede,

And his hand will still be stretched out.

Woe to those who issue vain decrees,

And the state secretaries who draw up iniquitous edicts,

In denying the needy a legal process,

In robbing the poor among my people of justice,

With widows being their spoil,

And who plunder orphans.

What will you do on the day of punishment,

And in the destruction which will come from far away?

To whom will you flee for help,

And where will you leave your honour?

How will one not collapse in imprisonment,

Or what if they fall to join those killed?

Despite all this, his anger will not recede,

And his hand will still be stretched out.

O Assyria, the rod of my anger,

The stick in whose hand is my indignation!

I will send against them a profane nation,

And I will command them to go against the people with whom I am angry,

To take spoil and to seize plunder,

And to make them a trodden down phenomenon

Like the mire of the streets.

However, they will not be conscious of this purpose,

And their heart will not so reason,

For it will just be in their heart

To destroy and cut off

Not a few nations.

For he will say,

“Are not my officials a collection of kings?

Is Calno not like Carchemish?

Or is Hamath not like Arpad?

Or is Samaria not like Damascus?

When my hand finds idolatrous kingdoms,

And their carved images,

Surpassing those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Will I not do to Jerusalem and its images

What I did to Samaria and its idols?”

“I acted in the strength of my hand,

And in my own wisdom,

For I am astute,

And I remove national borders,

And I plunder their lucre,

And I overthrow populations,

Like a mighty man.

And my hand found the riches of various peoples like a nest.

And as one collects eggs that are abandoned,

So I collected the whole earth,

And there was no-one that fluttered a wing

Or opened his mouth and whispered.”

Will the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it?

Or will the saw make itself greater than him who handles it?

Likewise, can a rod lift the very ones who raise it?

Similarly, can a stick raise him who is not wood?

This is why my Lord the Lord of hosts

Will send leanness into his fat places,

And instead of his glory,

There will be burning, as a fire burns.

And the light of Israel will become fire,

And its holy one a flame,

And it will blaze and consume

Its briars and its thorns

In one day.

And he will lay the glory of his forest and his orchard waste,

Both spiritually and physically,

And it will become like the exhausted state

Of one wasting away.

And the remainder of the trees of his forest will be few in number,

And a boy will be able to set them down in writing.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the remainder of Israel

And the escaped remnant of the house of Jacob

Will no longer rely on the one who struck them,

And they will rely on the Lord

– The holy one of Israel –

In truth.

The remainder will return

– The remainder of Jacob –

To the mighty God.

“My people who live in Zion,

Do not be afraid of Assyria.

They will strike you with a rod,

And lift their stick up against you,

In the way Egypt did,

But in a very short time,

The indignation will be concluded,

As will my anger,

At the time of their destruction.”

And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge over them,

Like the attack in Midian at the rock of Oreb.

And as his rod was on the sea,

So he will raise it,

In the same way as in Egypt.

And it will come to pass on that day

That his burden will be removed from your shoulder,

And his yoke from your neck.

And the yoke will be destroyed in front of the anointing oil.

He has come to Aiath,

He has crossed over to Migron;

He has deposited his equipment in Michmas.

They have crossed the pass;

They have taken up quarters in Geba.

Ramah is trembling;

Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Shout out, O daughter of Gallim,

Listen, O Laish,

O poor Anathoth.

Madmenah has moved away;

The inhabitants of Gebim have secured their effects.

On the very day when he stands in Nob,

He will shake his fist

At the mountain of the {Q: daughter} [K: house] of Zion

– The hill of Jerusalem.

Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

Will cut off a bough with terror,

And those of high stature will be cut down,

And the haughty will be humbled.

And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,

And Lebanon will be felled by a mighty one.

And a shoot will come out of the stem of Jesse,

And a branch from his roots will become fruitful.

And the spirit of the Lord will rest on him

– The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and valour,

The spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

He will delight in him

Through his fear of the Lord,

And he will not judge by appearance to the eyes,

Nor will he arbitrate by what his ears hear,

But he will judge the poor righteously,

And he will arbitrate for the meek of the land equitably,

And he will strike the land with the rod of his mouth,

And he will kill the wicked by the breath of his lips.

And righteousness will be the girdle around his waist,

And faithfulness the girdle around his loins.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard will lie down with the goat,

And the calf and the young lion and the fatted calf will be together,

And a small boy will lead them.

And the cow and the bear will graze,

And their young will lie down together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

And a baby will play at a vipers' den,

And an infant will put his hand on an adder's hole.

They will not do harm

And they will not cause damage

Anywhere in my holy mountain,

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the Gentiles will seek the root of Jesse,

Which will stand as a sign to the nations.

And rest in him will be glorious.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the Lord^* will extend his hand a second time

To acquire the remainder of his people, who remain,

From Assyria and from Egypt,

And from Pathros and from Ethiopia,

And from Elam and from Shinar,

And from Hamath and from the coastlands of the sea.

And he will raise a sign to the Gentiles,

And he will gather those driven out of Israel,

And he will collect up those of Judah who are dispersed,

From the four corners of the earth.

And Ephraim's envy will fade away,

And the adversaries of Judah will be cut off.

Ephraim will not envy Judah,

And Judah will not be hostile to Ephraim.

They will attack the Philistines on the slopes to the west;

Together they will spoil the inhabitants of the east.

Edom and Moab will be for them to lay their hands on,

And the Ammonites will be in subjection to them.

And the Lord will lay the gulf of the Egyptian sea waste,

And he will lift his hand against the river with the ardour of his breath,

And he will strike it into seven streams,

And he will enable them to cross wearing shoes.

And there will be a highway for the rest of his people who remain,

To come from Assyria,

As there was for Israel

When they came up from the land of Egypt.

“I will praise you, O Lord.

Although you were angry with me,

Your anger has receded,

And you have comforted me.

Behold, O God of my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid,

For the Lord, the Lord

Is my strength and my song of praise,

And he has become my salvation.”

And you will draw water with joy,

From the springs of this salvation.

“Praise the Lord,

Call on his name,

Make his deeds known among the nations;

Bring to mind that his name is exalted.

Sing praises to the Lord,

For he has acted illustriously.

Let this be known over all the earth.

Shout out and sing for joy,

O inhabitant of Zion,

For great among you

Is the holy one of Israel.”

Set up a banner on a conspicuous mountain,

Raise a voice to them,

Lift up a hand,

So that they may come to the gates of the willing.

I have commanded my sanctified ones;

I have also summoned my warriors

In service of my anger,

Who exult in my exaltation.

The sound of a crowd in the mountains,

The image of a numerous people,

The tumultuous sound of kingdoms of Gentiles who have gathered

– The Lord of hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

They are coming from a distant land,

From the end of the horizon

– The Lord and instruments of his indignation –

To lay the whole land waste.

Howl, for the day of the Lord is near.

It will come as devastation from the Almighty.

For that reason, all hands will become limp,

And every human heart will melt.

And they will be terrified;

Writhings and pains will seize them;

They will writhe like a woman giving birth.

Every man will be astonished at his neighbour;

Their faces will be ablaze in appearance.

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,

Cruel in wrath and furious anger,

To make the land a desolation,

And he will obliterate its sinners from it.

And I will inflict punishment on the world for its evil,

And on the wicked for their iniquity,

And I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,

And I will humble the haughtiness of the fierce.

I will make a man more precious than pure gold,

And a human being more precious than fine gold from Ophir.

For this reason I will shake the heavens,

And the earth will be wrenched from its place,

In the wrath of the Lord of hosts,

And on the day of his furious anger.

And it will be like a chased gazelle,

And like a sheep with no-one to gather it.

Every man will turn to his own people,

And each one will flee to his own country.

Everyone who is found

Will be thrust through,

And everyone who has withdrawn

Will fall by the sword.

And their children will be dashed before their eyes,

And their houses will be plundered,

And their women will be {K: raped} [Q: lain with].

I am about to stir Media up against them,

Medians who do not care for silver,

And who do not delight in gold.

And bows will strike boys to the ground,

And they will not have mercy on the fruit of the womb

– Their eyes will not spare sons.

And Babylon, the splendour of the kingdoms,

The proud grandeur of the Chaldeans,

Will be as God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited,

And it will not be dwelt in from generation to generation,

Nor will the Arabian pitch a tent there,

Nor will shepherds tend their sheep there.

And jackals will howl in its desolate places,

And wild dogs in the luxurious palaces.

And its time is near to coming,

And its days will not be prolonged.

“How the oppressor has come to a stop!

How the golden city has come to a standstill!

The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked

And the sceptre of rulers.

He strikes nations in wrath

With unremitting beating;

He subdues peoples in anger,

In a relentless pursuit.

All the earth is at rest and is quiet;

They break out into jubilation.

Even the fir trees rejoice for you,

And the cedars of Lebanon,

Saying, ‘Since you have been brought down low,

The lumberjack has not come up against us.’

The grave below stands in awe on account of you;

At the approach of your coming,

It arouses the Rephaim because of you

– All the he-goats of the earth.

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

They will all break silence and say to you,

‘Have you also become weak like us?

Have you come to resemble us?’

Your pride has been brought down to the grave

With the sound of your lutes.

Under you the worms have embedded themselves,

And maggots cover you.

How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer,

Son of the dawn!

You have been struck down to the earth,

You who overthrew nations.

And you have said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

Above the stars of God,

I will set up my throne,

And I will sit at the mount of the assembly

In the remote parts of the north.

I will ascend on the heights of a cloud;

I will be like the Most High.’

But you will be brought down to the grave,

To the remote parts of the pit.

Those who see you will gaze at you,

And contemplate and say,

‘Is this the man who held the earth in thrall

– Who shook kingdoms?

– Who made the world like a desert

And demolished its cities,

Who did not release his captive population,

For them to go home?’

All the kings of the nations

– All of them –

Lie in state,

Each one in his royal house,

But you have been cast down

Instead of having your tomb,

Like a repugnant branch of a tree,

Being clothed like those killed,

Like those struck through with the sword,

Who descend to the stones of the pit,

Like a carcase trodden under foot.

You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you devastated your land,

And you killed your people.

The seed of those who do evil

Will never be spoken well of.

Prepare slaughter for his sons,

For the iniquity of their fathers.

They shall not rise or inherit the land,

Or fill the surface of the world with cities.”

“And I will rise against them,

Says the Lord of hosts,

And I will cut off Babylon's fame

And remnant and posterity and progeny,

Says the Lord.

And I will make it a habitat of the porcupine,

And pools of water,

And I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,

Says the Lord of hosts.”

The Lord of hosts has sworn and said,

“It will certainly come to pass just as I intended.

And as I have purposed it,

So it will be established,

Namely that I will break the Assyrian in my land,

And I will trample on him on my mountains,

And his yoke will be removed from them,

And his burden will be removed from his shoulder.

This is the course of action decided on

In relation to the whole world,

And this is the hand which is stretched out

Over all the nations.

For the Lord of hosts has decided,

And who can frustrate it?

And his hand is stretched out,

And who can push it back?”

Do not rejoice, Philistia – the whole of you –

On the basis that the rod which struck you has broken,

Because from a serpent's stock comes an adder,

And its fruit is a flying fiery serpent.

And the very poorest will be nourished,

And the needy will lie down in safety,

But I will bring death to your root with a famine,

And it will kill your remnant.

Howl, O gate!

Cry out, O city!

Philistia – the whole of you – has melted down,

For smoke has come from the north,

And there is not a solitary person at his festivals.

And what will the messengers of the Gentiles report back?

That the Lord has established Zion.

And the poor of his people will put their trust in it.

For in a night

Ar-Moab will be laid waste

And reduced to silence,

For in a night

Kir-Moab will be laid waste

And reduced to silence.

The royal house and Dibon have gone up

To the idolatrous raised sites to weep.

Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba.

On all their heads will be baldness,

And every beard will be removed.

In its outlying areas,

They will gird themselves with sackcloth,

And on its roofs and in its streets

All will wail.

Tears will run down with weeping.

And Heshbon will cry out,

As will Elealeh.

Their voice will be heard as far as Jahaz,

Which is why the armed men of Moab will shout out.

His inner being will alarm him.

My heart will cry out for Moab,

Its fugitives will flee to Zoar

– A heifer three years old.

For he will climb the ascent of Luhith with weeping,

For they will raise a cry of destruction

On the road to Horonaim.

For the waters of Nimrim will become desolations,

For the pastures will dry up.

Grass will shrivel;

There will be no greenery.

This is why they will carry the wealth which they gained,

And their store,

To the brook of the willows.

For the cry has gone around the border of Moab;

Its wailing has reached Eglaim,

And its lamentation has come to Beer-Elim.

For the waters of Dimon will be full of blood,

For I will appoint additional things concerning Dimon:

The lion for the escapees of Moab

And the remainder of the territory.

Send a tribute-lamb to the ruler of the land,

From Sela to the desert,

To the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

And it will come to pass

That the daughters of Moab will be like a wandering bird,

From a rejected nest

At the Arnon fords.

Obtain advice,

Execute justice,

Cast your shadow like the night at noon,

Hide those driven out;

Do not betray the wanderer.

Let those of mine who have been driven out

Dwell with you.

Moab, be a shelter from the plunderer for them.

For the oppressor will come to nothing;

Plundering will come to an end,

And they who tread down

Will be obliterated from the land.

And a throne will be established in kindness,

And he will sit on it

In truth in David's tent,

Judging and seeking justice,

And being quick with righteousness.

And we have heard of the pride of Moab

– He is very proud –

With his haughtiness and his pride and his presumptuousness.

His lies are groundless.

This is why Moab will wail.

Each one will wail for all Moab;

You will lament the foundations of Kir-Hareseth,

Seeing how much they have been battered.

For the cornfields of Heshbon languish,

As does the vine of Sibmah.

The Gentile rulers have struck its tendrils;

They have reached Jazer;

Those struck wander in the desert.

Its shoots have been forsaken;

Those forsaken have crossed the sea.

That is why I will tearfully weep

For Jazer and the vine of Sibmah.

I will saturate you with my tears,

Heshbon and Elealeh,

For a war cry has fallen against your summer fruit

And against your harvest.

And joy and rejoicing will be taken away from the orchard,

And in the vineyards there will be neither shouting for joy nor jubilation.

The treader will not tread wine in the wine vats;

I have put a stop to shouting.

That is why my inward parts are humming for Moab,

Like a harp,

And my inside

For Kir-Heres.

And it will come to pass

That it will be seen

That Moab is weary on the idolatrous raised site,

And it will go to its sanctuary to pray,

But it will not gain strength.

“Behold, Damascus will be deprived of its existence as a city,

And it will become a heap of ruins.

The cities of Aroer will be abandoned;

They will be for flocks,

Which will lie down,

And there will be no-one to cause fear.

Fortifications will cease to exist in Ephraim,

As will the kingdom in Damascus and the rest of Aramaea.

They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,

Says the Lord of hosts.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the glory of Jacob will be brought low,

And his complexion will become leaner,

And it will come to pass,

When the reaper gathers the corn,

And his arm reaps the ears of corn,

That he will be like a gleaner of ears of corn

In the Valley of the Rephaim.

But there will remain gleanings in it,

And at the beating of the olive tree

There will fall two or three fruits on the topmost bough,

And four or five on its fruit-bearing branches,

Says the Lord God of Israel.

On that day a man will behold his maker,

And his eyes will see the holy one of Israel.

And he will not behold the altars which are the work of his hands,

And he will not look at what his fingers have made –

Neither the phallic parks

Nor the sun-images.

On that day his fortified cities

Will be like the wilderness of a copse or a thicket,

Which they have abandoned because of the sons of Israel,

And they will become a desolation.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,

And you have not remembered the rock of your stronghold,

Which is why you will plant pleasant plants,

But you will graft foreign branches on it.

On the day you plant it,

You cause it to grow,

And on the morning you sow it,

You make it thrive,

But the harvest will be a worthless heap

On a day of sickness and grievous pain.

Woe to the multitude of many nations,

Who are in a tumult like the turbulence of the seas,

And the uproar of peoples

– Like the roaring sound

When mighty waters roar.

The peoples roar

Like the roaring sound when mighty waters roar,

But he will rebuke them and they will flee far away,

And they will be chased like chaff of the mountains before the wind,

And like swirling debris in a whirlwind.

At evening time there will be terror,

And before the morning they will not be there.

This is the part of those who spoil us,

And the fate of those who plunder us.”

“Woe to the land of rustling wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

Which sends ambassadors by sea

In papyrus vessels over the water,

To say, ‘Go, you swift messengers,

To a people under strain

And plucked bald,

To a people fearsome ever since when they first existed

– A nation of strong rule but trodden down,

Whose land the rivers have devastated.’

All you inhabitants of the world

And dwellers of the earth:

At the raising of an ensign on the mountains,

Observe it,

And at the sounding of the ramshorn,

Listen.

For this is what the Lord has said to me:

‘I will be quiet,

And I will look at my abode,

Like a serene heat in daylight,

And like a cloud of dew

In the heat of the harvest.’

For before the harvest when the blossom has come to an end,

And unripe grapes become mature from the flower,

He will cut the branches with pruning shears

And cut and remove the shoots.

They will be left together

To the birds of prey of the mountains

And the wild animals.

And the birds of prey will prey on them in the summer,

While all the wild animals will be the predators in the winter.

At that time a gift will be brought to the Lord of hosts

– By a people under strain

And plucked bald,

And from a people fearsome ever since when they first existed,

A nation of strong rule but trodden down,

Whose land the rivers have devastated –

Brought to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts:

Mount Zion.”

“Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud,

And is coming to Egypt.

Then the idols of Egypt will reel at his presence,

And Egypt's heart will melt inside it.

And I will incite Egypt against Egypt,

And a man will fight his brother,

And a man his neighbour,

And a city a city,

And a kingdom a kingdom.

And the spirit of Egypt will drain away inside them,

And I will overthrow their counsel,

And they will seek the idols and the necromancers,

And the soothsayers and the wizards.

And I will deliver Egypt up into the hand of a harsh master,

And a fierce king will rule over them,

Says the Lord,

The Lord of hosts.

And the waters of the sea will dry up,

And the river will become parched and arid.

And the rivers will stink,

And the canals for fortifications will run low and will dry up;

The reed and the sedge will wither.

The pastures by the river

And in the river estuary,

And every crop dependent on the river

Will dry up and be driven about,

And it will be gone.

And the fishermen will sigh and mourn;

All who cast a hook into the river,

And those who stretch a net over the water

Will languish.

And the workers in combed flax will be at a loss,

As will the weavers of white linen.

And its foundations will be broken in pieces

– All who earn wages from lakes

Harbouring aquatic life.

What fools the officials of Zoan are

– The wise men who give Pharaoh dim-witted advice!

How can you say to Pharaoh,

‘I am a son of the wise;

I am a son of the eastern kings’?

Where are they?

Where are your wise men?

And may they tell you, and may they discern

What the Lord of hosts has decreed

Concerning Egypt.

The officials of Zoan have become foolish;

The officials of Noph have been deceived.

They – the elite of its tribes –

Have led Egypt astray.

The Lord has infused a spirit of misdirection in its precincts,

And they have led Egypt astray in all its dealings,

As a drunk strays off in his vomit.

And Egypt will not have any work,

Which the head or tail,

Palm-branch or bulrush

Might do.

Like the passing of whirlwinds in the south,

It is coming from the desert

– From a fearsome country.

A harsh vision has been shown to me:

The traitor betraying, and the plunderer plundering.

Go up, Elam! Besiege, Media!

I have put a stop to all sighing.

This is why my waist is in pain:

Writhings have seized me,

Like the writhings of a woman giving birth.

I am bent with pain at hearing it;

I am terrified at seeing it.

My heart is distraught.

Something horrible has terrified me;

It has made my pleasant night

My time of trepidation.

Prepare the table,

Let the watch keep watch,

Eat and drink,

Arise, you commanders;

Anoint the shield.

“Go and appoint a watchman

Who will report what he sees.”

And he saw a chariot fleet

– Horsemen in pairs,

A chariot fleet with donkeys,

A chariot fleet with camels –

And he listened attentively,

Very attentively.

And he called out, “A lion.

O Lord^*,

I stand continually on the watchtower by day,

And I am stationed at my guard post every night.

And here is what is coming:

A manned chariot fleet and horsemen in pairs.”

And he answered and said,

“Babylon has fallen; it has fallen.

And he has torn all the carved images of its gods

Down to the ground.”

O threshed people of mine,

And my product of the threshing floor,

I have reported to you

What I have heard from the Lord of hosts

– The God of Israel.

He is calling out to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what is there to report from the night?

Watchman, what is there to report from the night?”

The watchman said,

“The morning is coming,

And also the night.

If you will inquire,

Do inquire.

Return and come.”

You will lodge in the forest in Arabia,

You Dedanite travelling companies.

The inhabitants of the land of Tema

Brought water to him who was thirsty;

They met the fugitive

With food for him.

For they flee from swords,

From the drawn sword

And from the drawn bow,

And from the violence of war.

“In another year

According to the contractual years of a hired worker,

All the glory of Kedar

Will come to an end.

And the number of archers remaining

– The warriors from among the sons of Kedar –

Will become few,

For the Lord God of Israel has spoken.”

What is the matter with you, then?

For you have all gone up to the roofs.

You bustling city,

Full of noise,

Joyful town,

Your casualties are not casualties of the sword,

And are not dead from war.

All your officers have fled together;

They have been brought into bondage by the bow.

All those present have been brought into bondage together;

They have fled far away.

This is why I said,

“Look away from me;

I will weep bitterly.

Do not hasten to comfort me

About the devastation of the daughter of my people.”

For it is a day of tumult and treading down and confusion of the Lord

– The Lord of hosts –

In the Valley of Vision,

Of undermining walls,

And crying out to the mountain.

And Elam has borne the quiver,

With a manned chariot fleet and horsemen,

And Kir has bared the shield.

And it came to pass that your choice valleys were full of chariots,

And the horsemen drew themselves up with vigour at the gate,

And they removed Judah's covering,

And you saw on that day

The weaponry of the house of the Forest.

And you have seen how numerous the breaches in the City of David are,

And you have collected the water of the lower pool.

And you have counted the houses in Jerusalem,

And you have pulled down houses

To fortify the wall.

And you made a reservoir between the two walls

For the water of the old pool,

But you have not had respect to its maker

Or had regard for him who formed it long ago.

And on that day,

My Lord the Lord of hosts proclaimed

Weeping and mourning and baldness

And girding up with sackcloth.

But what he saw was

Rejoicing and merrymaking,

Killing the ox and slaughtering the sheep,

Eating meat and drinking wine, saying,

“Eat and drink,

For tomorrow we die.”

And this was revealed in my ears

By the Lord of hosts:

“This iniquity of yours will certainly not be expiated

Until you die,

Says the Lord,

The Lord of hosts.”

This is what my Lord the Lord of hosts says:

“Depart and go to this steward,

To Shebna, who is in charge of the house,

And say, ‘What business do you have here?

And just who are you here,

That you should have hewn yourself a tomb here,

Like someone hewing his tomb high up,

Carving out an abode for himself in the rock?

Look, the Lord is about to hurl you away with a mighty fling,

And to completely envelop you.

He will wrap a wrapping right around you

And throw you like a ball into a very wide country,

And there you will die,

And there the chariots representing your glory

Will be to the shame of the house of your master.

And I will thrust you from your station,

And he will pull you down from your high standing.

And it will come to pass on that day

That I will call for my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.

And I will clothe him with your gown,

And I will strengthen him with your girdle,

And I will put your dominion in his hand,

And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem

And to the house of Judah.

And I will put the key to the house of David on his shoulder,

And I will secure him like a peg in a secure place,

And he will become the occupier of the glorious throne

Of the house of his father.

And they will bestow on him

All the honour of his father's house,

The offspring and the offshoots

– All vessels of small capacity,

From vessels of the bowl kind

To all vessels of the jar kind.’

On that day, says the Lord of hosts,

The peg which was secured in a faithful place

Will be removed, and it will be cut down,

And it will fall,

And the burden on it will be withdrawn,

For the Lord has spoken.”

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For it has been plundered,

Not leaving a house or a way in.

This was revealed to them

From the land of Chittim.

Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You whom the merchants of Sidon,

Who cross the sea,

Have stocked up,

Bringing over the high seas

Seed from Shihor.

The harvest from the river

Is Tyre's source of income,

So that it became the emporium of the nations.

Sidon, be ashamed,

For the sea

– The stronghold that the sea is –

Has said, “I have not been in the pains of childbirth,

Nor have I given birth,

Nor have I raised young lads,

Nor have I brought chaste maidens up.”

As at the report of Egypt,

So shall they writhe

At the report of Tyre.

Cross over to Tarshish and wail,

You inhabitants of the coastland.

Was this your joy,

Whose origin dates from ancient times?

Its feet will bring it

Somewhere far away to dwell.

Who decided this against Tyre

– Tyre who confers crowns,

Whose merchants are princes,

Whose traders are the dignitaries of the land?

The Lord of hosts decided it,

To defame the pride in all the splendour;

To bring all the dignitaries of the land into contempt.

Cross your country like a river,

O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no longer any girding yourself up.

He stretched out his hand over the sea;

He shocked kingdoms.

The Lord has given commandment against Canaan

To destroy its strongholds.

And he said,

“You will no longer exult,

You oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise and cross over to Chittim,

But you will not be at rest there either.”

Look at the land of the Chaldeans:

This people did not exist previously.

Assyria founded it for the inhabitants of the desert.

The attackers erected their watchtowers,

They demolished its palaces,

And he made it ruins.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish,

For your stronghold has been laid waste.

Take the harp,

Go around the city,

You forgotten prostitute.

Play music well,

Do much singing,

In order that you may be remembered.

Behold, the Lord is about to depopulate the land

And empty it,

And he will overturn the face of it

And scatter its inhabitants.

And it will come to pass that

As the people at large are,

So the priest will be;

As the manservant is,

So his master will be;

As the maidservant is,

So her mistress will be;

As the buyer is,

So the seller will be;

As the lender is,

So the borrower will be;

As the creditor is,

So his debtor will be.

The land will certainly be depopulated,

And it will certainly be plundered,

For the Lord has spoken these words.

The land will mourn and fade,

The world will languish and fade;

The haughty among the people of the land will languish.

And the land has been defiled by its inhabitants,

For they have transgressed the laws.

They have disregarded the statute;

They have violated the age-abiding covenant,

Which is why a curse has devoured the land,

And those who inhabit it bear the guilt.

It is why the inhabitants of the land are fuming,

And very few men remain.

The new wine is mourning,

The vine is languishing;

All those of joyful heart

Are now sighing.

The rejoicing of drums has ceased,

The tumult of those exulting has stopped;

The rejoicing of the harp has ceased.

They shall not drink wine with singing;

The liquor will become bitter

To those who drink it.

The town of desolation has been broken up;

Every house is shut up,

Preventing entering.

There is a cry for wine in the streets;

All joy has drawn to a close,

And the rejoicing in the land has passed away.

What remains in the city is desolation,

And the gate has been pounded to ruins.

For so it will be on the earth among the nations,

As when the olive tree has been beaten,

Like the gleanings when the grape harvest has finished.

They will raise their voices;

They will be jubilant.

They will shout for joy from across the sea

Because of the majesty of the Lord.

For this reason, glorify the Lord with lights

– The name of the Lord God of Israel –

In the coastlands of the sea.

From the extremities of the earth we have heard singing

To the illustriousness of the righteous one,

But I said,

“Woe is me, woe is me, alas for me,

Traitors have betrayed me,

And the traitors have committed a betrayal.”

Fear, and a pitfall, and a snare

Are looming over you,

You inhabitants of the earth.

And it will come to pass

That he who flees at a fearful sound

Will fall into the pit,

And he who comes up out of the pit

Will be caught in the snare,

For the floodgates on high will open,

And the foundations of the earth will shake.

The earth will be utterly broken into pieces,

The earth will be thoroughly torn apart;

The earth will totter perilously.

The earth will stagger precariously like a drunkard,

And it will sway like a shack,

And its transgression will weigh heavily on it,

And it will fall

And not rise again.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the Lord will visit the higher powers

In a high place,

And the kings of the earth

On the earth.

And they will be gathered up,

Like the herding of prisoners into the pit,

And they will be shut up in confinement,

Then after many days they will be visited.

And the moon will blush,

And the sun will be at a loss,

When the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

With glory in the presence of his appointed elders.

O Lord, you are my God.

I will exalt you;

I will praise your name,

For you have acted wonderfully,

With counsel from the distant past,

In sure faithfulness.

For you turn a city into a heap of rubble,

And a fortified town into ruins,

And a foreign citadel into what is not a city,

Which will never be rebuilt.

This is why a fierce people will glorify you,

And a violent Gentile town will fear you.

For you are a refuge for the weak,

A refuge for the poor when he is in distress,

A shelter from a downpour,

Shade from heat,

For the onslaught of the violent

Is like a downpour against a wall.

You will bring down the bustle of foreigners,

Which is like heat on parched land.

As heat is shielded by a cloud,

So the singing of the violent

Will be dispirited.

And the Lord of hosts will hold for all nations,

At this mountain,

A rich feast, a feast of settled wine,

Of rich marrowy meat

And of racked wine.

And on this mountain,

He will remove the veil

Which shrouds all the nations,

And the covering

Which is spread over all the Gentiles.

And he will remove the reproach on his people

From the whole world,

For the Lord has spoken.

And on that day, people will say,

“Behold this God of ours;

We waited for him, and he has saved us.

This is the Lord for whom we waited.

Let us rejoice and delight in his salvation.”

For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,

And Moab will be trodden down under him,

As straw is trodden down

{Q: In} [K: In the waters of] Madmenah.

And he will spread out his arms in their midst,

As a swimmer spreads his arms to swim,

And he will bring their haughtiness down

Together with the proceeds of the fraudulence of their hands.

And as for the fortification

– The high fort of your walls –

He will bring it down;

He will demolish it

And raze it to the ground as dust.

We have a strong city;

He will provide salvation

Like walls and fortifications.

Open the gates,

And let a righteous nation enter,

One which keeps to what is faithful.

You will keep him in deep peace

Whose thoughts are to rely on you,

For it is in you that he trusts.

Trust in the Lord in all perpetuity,

For the rock of the ages

Is found in the Lord, the Lord.

For he brings down those who dwell in a high place

– In a town at high elevation.

He will raze it,

He will raze it to the ground;

He will bring it to the dust.

A foot – the feet of the poor –

Will trample on it,

As will the steps of the needy.

The way of the righteous is straight;

You make the path of the righteous

Straight and level.

Indeed, O Lord, we have waited for you

In the way of your judgments.

The longing of our inner being

Is for your name

And for remembrance of you.

My inner being longs for you at night,

My spirit also inside me seeks you at dawn.

For when your judgments are given on the earth,

The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Although the wicked man may be shown favour,

He does not learn righteousness.

In an upright land, he acts iniquitously,

And he will not see the majesty of the Lord.

O Lord, your hand is high;

They do not see it,

But they will see the zeal of the people

And be ashamed.

Indeed, fire will consume your adversaries.

O Lord, you arrange peace for us,

For you are even the one at work in all our deeds for us.

O Lord our God,

Various masters other than you have had dominion over us,

But yours is the only name that we make mention of.

They are dead,

They shall not live,

The Rephaim shall not rise,

Seeing how you have visited them and destroyed them

And have obliterated all memory of them.

You have enlarged the nation, O Lord;

You have increased the nation.

You are glorified;

You have extended all the boundaries of the land.

In distress they appealed to you, O Lord;

They poured out whispering

When they were receiving your discipline.

As a pregnant woman who is about to give birth,

Who writhes and shouts in her birth pangs,

So were we before you, O Lord.

We have conceived,

We have been through birth pangs,

But it is as if we have given birth to wind,

Not to salvation which we were to bring to the earth,

Nor did any inhabitants of the earth come out of the womb.

Your dead, and my dead body,

Will live and rise.

Awake, and sing for joy,

You who lie in the dust,

For your dew is resplendent dew,

But the earth will bring down the Rephaim.

Go, my people,

Enter your rooms,

Close {K: your doors} [Q: your door] after you;

Hide for a very little while

Until the indignation has passed.

For behold, the Lord is about to come out of his place

To requite the iniquity of the inhabitants of the land.

And the earth will reveal its blood,

And it will no longer cover up

Those killed which it holds.

On that day the Lord will requite

With his firm and large and strong sword

Leviathan the fugitive serpent,

And Leviathan the crooked serpent,

And he will kill the monster in the sea.

On that day,

Sing to her of a delightful vineyard.

I am the Lord who guards it;

I water it from time to time.

So that no-one encroaches on it,

I guard it night and day.

I am not furious;

Who would assign me to briars and thorns in war?

I would march against them;

I would set them on fire

In one go.

Or who would seize my stronghold?

Let him make peace with me;

Let it be peace that he makes with me.

When they come,

Jacob will strike root,

Israel will flower and flourish,

And the face of the world will be full of fruit.

Has he attacked him

Like the attack of the one attacking him?

Or has he been killed

In a way like the killing of those killed by him?

In moderation, when you sent them away,

You disputed with them.

He expelled them by means of his harsh wind,

On the day of the east wind.

So by this means,

Jacob's iniquity will be atoned for,

When he makes all the stones of the altar

Like chalk stones which are dashed to pieces.

The phallic parks and the sun-images

Shall not stand.

For a fortified city will be forlorn;

A dwelling place will be forsaken

And abandoned like the desert.

There the calf will graze,

And there it will lie down,

And eat from its branches.

When its harvest is dried up,

They will be broken.

Women will come to set it on fire,

For it is not a people of understanding,

Which is why their maker

Will not show them compassion,

And he who formed them

Will not show them mercy.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the Lord will thresh you out,

From the rising of the river

To the Brook of Egypt,

And you will be gleaned up one by one,

You sons of Israel.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the great ramshorn will be sounded,

And those who were about to perish in the land of Assyria will come,

As will those driven out in the land of Egypt,

And they will worship the Lord

In the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Woe to the crown of pride,

To the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose magnificent splendour

Is a fading flower

Which is in the best fertile valley

– You who are impaired by wine.

Behold, the Lord^* has what is strong and powerful,

Such as a deluge of hail

– A destructive storm –

Such as a deluge of torrential water,

Causing flooding,

Which he sends down to earth with his hand.

The crown of pride,

The drunkards of Ephraim,

Will be trodden under foot.

And the magnificent splendour,

Which is in the best fertile valley,

Will be a fading flower,

Like its early fruit before the summer,

Which, when the observer sees it,

He swallows down

While it is still in his hand.

On that day the Lord of hosts

Will be a crown of splendour

And a diadem of magnificence

To the remainder of his people,

And a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,

And a spirit of valour to them

Who repulse the assault on the gate.

So these too have erred because of wine

And have gone astray because of liquor.

Priest and prophet have erred because of liquor;

They have been swallowed up by the wine.

They have gone astray because of the liquor,

They have erred in the vision;

They have floundered in the administration of justice.

For all the tables are full of vomit and excrement

Without a clean space.

To whom will he impart knowledge?

And to whom will he disclose information?

– To those who have been weaned from milk,

And who have grown out of breastfeeding.

For it is commandment upon commandment,

Commandment upon commandment,

Rule upon rule,

Rule upon rule;

A little here, a little there.

– To this people to whom he said,

“This is the rest;

Give the weary rest”,

And, “This is the tranquillity.”

But they were unwilling to hear.

And the word of the Lord to them was

Commandment upon commandment,

Commandment upon commandment,

Rule upon rule,

Rule upon rule,

A little here, a little there,

So that they might proceed.

But they staggered backwards

And were crippled

And ensnared and caught.

So then, hear the word of the Lord,

You scornful men,

You rulers of this people

Who are in Jerusalem.

For you have said,

“We have made a covenant with death,

And we have made a contract with the grave,

That when the overwhelming scourge passes through,

It will not come on us,

For we have made the lie our refuge,

And we have hidden in falsehood.”

This is why my Lord the Lord says,

And I will establish justice according to a straight line,

And righteousness according to a plummet.

And hail will sweep away the covering of the lie,

And water will flush secrecy out.

And your covenant with death will be abolished,

And your contract with the grave will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge passes through,

You will be an object for it to tread down.

Every time when it passes through

It will take you,

For morning by morning it will pass through,

By day and by night.

And it will be a shocking thing

Just to contemplate hearing about.

For the bed will be too short

To stretch oneself in,

And the blanket too narrow,

To wrap oneself up in.

For the Lord will arise as at Mount Perazim;

He will be stirred up as in the Valley of Gibeon,

To carry out his business

– His peculiar business –

And to accomplish his work

– His strange work.”

So now, don't behave like mockers,

So that your fetters are not tightened,

For I have heard of a conclusion

From the Lord

– The Lord of hosts –

Which has been determined over all the earth.

Listen and hear my voice;

Attend and hear what I have to say.

Does the ploughman plough all day

In order to sow?

Does he open up and harrow his ground?

Does he not,

When he has levelled its surface,

Scatter black caraway

And strew cumin?

And put wheat in a row,

And is barley not marked off,

And is spelt not sown

In its allocated area?