Category: Isaiah

1 The burden of the desert of the sea. Just as the whirlwinds approach from Africa, it approaches from the desert, from a terrible land.

2 A difficult vision has been announced to me: he who is unbelieving, he acts unfaithfully, and he who is a plunderer, he devastates. Ascend, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I have caused all its mourning to cease.

3 Because of this, my lower back has been filled with pain, and anguish has possessed me, like the anguish of a woman in labor. I fell down when I heard it. I was disturbed when I saw it.

4 My heart withered. The darkness stupefied me. Babylon, my beloved, has become a wonder to me.

5 Prepare the table. Contemplate, from a place of observation, those who eat and drink. Rise up, you leaders! Take up the shield!

6 For the Lord has said this to me: “Go and station a watchman. And let him announce whatever he will see.”

7 And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, and a rider on an donkey, and a rider on a camel. And he considered them diligently, with an intense gaze.

8 And a lion cried out: “I am on the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day. And I am at my station, standing throughout the night.

9 Behold, a certain man approaches, a man riding on a two-horse chariot.” And he responded, and he said: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! And all its graven gods have been crushed into the earth!

10 O my threshed grain! O sons of my threshing floor! What I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have announced to you.”

11 The burden of Dumah, cried out to me from Seir: “Watchman, how goes the night? Watchman, how goes the night?”

12 The watchman said: “Morning approaches with the night. If you are seeking: seek, and convert, and approach.”

13 The burden in Arabia. In the forest you shall sleep, in the evening on the paths of Dedanim.

14 You who inhabit the land of the south: upon meeting the thirsty, bring water; meet the fugitive with bread.

15 For they are fleeing before the face of swords, before the face of a sword hanging over them, before the face of a bent bow, before the face of a grievous battle.

16 For the Lord said this to me: “After one more year, just like one year for a hired hand, all the glory of Kedar will be taken away.

17 And the remainder of the multitude of strong archers from the sons of Kedar will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

1 The burden of the valley of vision. What does it mean to you, then, that each of you have even climbed to the rooftops?

2 Filled with clamor, a busy city, an exultant city: your dead have not been slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle.

3 All your leaders have fled together, and they have been bound by hardship. All who were found were chained together. They have fled far away.

4 For this reason, I said: “Depart from me. I will weep bitterly. Make no attempt to console me, over the devastation of the daughter of my people.”

5 For it is a day of death, and of trampling, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts, in the valley of vision: examining the wall and the magnificence above the mountain.

6 And Elam took up the quiver and the chariot of the horseman; and he stripped the wall of the shield.

7 And your elect valleys will be filled with chariots, and the horsemen will position themselves at the gates.

8 And the covering of Judah will be exposed, and in that day, you will see the weaponry of the forest house.

9 And you will see breaches in the city of David, for these have been multiplied. But you have gathered together the waters of the lower fish-pool.

10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have destroyed the houses in order to fortify the wall.

11 And you have made a pit between two walls for the waters of the ancient fish-pool. But you have not gazed upward to him who made it, and you have not considered, even from a distance, its Maker.

12 And in that day, the Lord, the God of hosts, will call to weeping and mourning, to baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.

13 But behold: gladness and rejoicing, the killing of calves and the slaughter of rams, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”

14 And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you, until you die,” says the Lord, the God of hosts.

15 Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Go forth and enter to him who lives in the tabernacle, to Shebna, who is in charge of the temple, and you shall say to him:

16 “What are you here, or who are you claiming to be here? For you have hewn a sepulcher for yourself here. You have diligently hewn a memorial in a rock, as a tabernacle to yourself.

17 Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, like a domesticated rooster, and he will remove you, like an outer garment.

18 He will crown you with a crown of tribulation. He will toss you like a ball into a broad and spacious land. There you will die, and there the chariot of your glory will be, for it is a shame to the house of your Lord.”

19 And I will expel you from your station, and I will depose you from your ministry.

20 And this shall be in that day: I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.

21 And I will clothe him with your vestment, and I will strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your authority to his hand. And he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22 And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder. And when he opens, no one will close. And when he closes, no one will open.

23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a trustworthy place. And he will be upon a throne of glory in the house of his father.

24 And they will suspend over him all the glory of his father’s house: various kinds of vessels and every little article, from the vessels of bowls even to every instrument of music.

25 In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg which was fastened in a trustworthy place shall be taken away. And he will be broken, and he will fall, and he will perish, along with all that had depended upon him, because the Lord has spoken it.

1 The burden of Tyre. Wail, you ships of the sea! For the house, from which they were accustomed to go forth, has been laid waste. From the land of Kittim, this has been revealed to them.

2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the island! The merchants of Sidon, crossing over the sea, have filled you.

3 The offspring of the Nile is in the midst of many waters. The harvest of the river is her crop. And she has become the marketplace of the nations.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon! For the sea speaks, the strength of the sea, saying: “I have not been in labor, and I have not given birth, and I have not raised young men, nor have I promoted the development of virgins.”

5 When it has been heard in Egypt, they will be in anguish, when they hear of Tyre.

6 Cross over the seas. Wail, you inhabitants of the island!

7 Is this not your place, which from its earliest days has gloried in its antiquity? Her feet will lead her to a sojourn far away.

8 Who has made this plan against Tyre, which formerly was crowned, whose merchants were leaders, whose traders were illustrious on the earth?

9 The Lord of hosts has planned this, so that he may tear down the arrogance of all glory, and may bring disgrace to all the illustrious of the earth.

10 Cross through your land, as through a river, O daughter of the sea. You no longer have a belt.

11 He has extended his hand over the sea. He has stirred up kingdoms. The Lord has given an order against Canaan, so that he may crush its strong.

12 And he said: “You shall no longer increase so as to glory, while enduring calumny, O virgin daughter of Sidon. Rise up and set sail for Kittim; in that place, too, there will be no rest for you.”

13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: never before was there such a people! Assur founded it. They have led away its strong ones into captivity. They have dug under its houses. They have left it in ruins.

14 Wail, you ships of the sea! For your strength has been devastated.

15 And this shall be in that day: you, O Tyre, will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. Then, after seventy years, there will be, for Tyre, something like the canticle of a harlot.

16 Take up a stringed instrument. Circulate through the city, you harlot who had been forgotten. Sing many canticles well, so that you may be remembered.

17 And this shall be after seventy years: the Lord will visit Tyre, and he will lead her back to her profits. And she will fornicate again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18 And her businesses and her profits will be sanctified to the Lord. They will not be locked away and they will not be stored. For her business will be for those who will live in the presence of the Lord, so that they may eat until satisfied, and may be well-clothed even into old age.

1 Behold, the Lord will lay waste to the earth, and he will strip it, and he will afflict its surface, and he will scatter its inhabitants.

2 And this shall be: as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, 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.

3 The earth will be utterly devastated and utterly plundered. For the Lord has spoken this word.

4 The earth mourned, and slipped away, and languished. The world slipped away; the loftiness of the people of the earth was weakened.

5 And the earth was corrupted by its inhabitants. For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have dissipated the everlasting covenant.

6 Because of this, a curse will devour the earth, and its inhabitants will sin. And for this reason, its caretakers will become crazed, and few men will be left behind.

7 The vintage has mourned. The vine has languished. All those who were rejoicing in their hearts have groaned.

8 The gladness of the drums has ceased. The sound of rejoicing has quieted. The sweetness of stringed instruments has been silenced.

9 They will not drink wine with a song. The drink will be bitter to those who drink it.

10 The city of vanity has been worn away. Every house has been closed up; no one enters.

11 There will be a clamor for wine in the streets. All rejoicing has been abandoned. The gladness of the earth has been carried away.

12 Solitude is what remains in the city, and calamity will overwhelm its gates.

13 For so shall it be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people: it is as if the few remaining olives are being shaken from the olive tree, and it is like a few clusters of grapes, when the grape harvest has already ended.

14 These few shall lift up their voice and give praise. When the Lord will have been glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea.

15 Because of this, glorify the Lord in doctrine: the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

16 From the ends of the earth, we have heard the praises of the glory of the Just One. And I said: “My secret is for myself! My secret is for myself! Woe to me! Those who would betray us have betrayed us, and they have betrayed us with the betrayal of transgression.”

17 Dread, and the pit, and the snare are over you, O inhabitant of the earth!

18 And this shall be: whoever will flee from the voice of dread will fall into the pit. And whoever will extricate himself from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the floodgates from above have been opened, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken.

19 The earth will be utterly broken! The earth will be utterly crushed! The earth will be utterly shaken!

20 The earth will stagger greatly, like a drunken man, and will be carried away, like the tent of a single night. And its iniquity will be heavy upon it, and it will fall and not rise up again.

21 And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will visit upon the armies of the sky above, and upon the kings of the earth who are on the ground.

22 And they will be gathered together like the gathering of one bundle into a pit. And they will be enclosed in that place, as in a prison. And after many days, they will be visited.

23 And the moon will be ashamed, and the sun will be confounded, when the Lord of hosts will reign on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and when he will have been glorified in the sight of his elders.

1 O Lord, you are my God! I will exalt you, and I will confess your name. For you have accomplished miracles. Your plan, from antiquity, is faithful. Amen.

2 For you have appointed a city as a tomb, a strong city for ruination, a house of foreigners: so that it may not be a city, and so that it may not be rebuilt forever.

3 Concerning this, a strong people will praise you; a city with a robust people will fear you.

4 For you have been the strength of the poor, the strength of the indigent in his tribulation, a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the spirit of the mighty is like a whirlwind striking against a wall.

5 You will bring low the uprising of foreigners, just as heat brings thirst. And like heat under a torrential cloud, you will cause the offshoot of the strong to wither away.

6 And the Lord of hosts will cause all the peoples on this mountain to feast on fatness, to feast on wine, a fatness full of marrow, a purified wine.

7 And he will cast down violently, on this mountain, the face of the chains, with which all peoples had been bound, and the net, with which all nations had been covered.

8 He will violently cast down death forever. And the Lord God will take away the tears from every face, and he will take away the disgrace of his people from the entire earth. For the Lord has spoken it.

9 And they will say in that day: “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord! We have endured for him. We will exult and rejoice in his salvation.”

10 For the hand of the Lord will rest upon this mountain. And Moab will be trampled under him, just as stubble is worn away by a wagon.

11 And he will extend his hands under him, like a swimmer extending his hands to swim. And he will bring down his glory with a clap of his hands.

12 And the fortifications of your sublime walls will fall, and be brought low, and be torn down to the ground, even to the dust.

1 In that day, this canticle will be sung in the land of Judah. Within it will be set the city of our strength: Zion, a savior, a wall with a bulwark.

2 Open the gates, and let the just people who guard the truth enter.

3 The old error has gone away. You will serve peace: peace, for we have hoped in you.

4 You have trusted in the Lord for all eternity, in the Lord God almighty forever.

5 For he will bend down those living in the heights. He will bring low the lofty city. He will lower it, even to the ground. He will tear it down, even to the dust.

6 The foot will tread it down: the feet of the poor, the steps of the indigent.

7 The path of the just is upright; the difficult path of the just is right to walk in.

8 And in the path of your judgments, O Lord, we have endured for you. Your name and your remembrance are the desire of the soul.

9 My soul has desired you in the night. But I will also watch for you with my spirit, in my inmost heart, from the morning. When you accomplish your judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn justice.

10 Let us take pity on the impious one, but he will not learn justice. In the land of the holy ones, he has done iniquity, and so he will not see the glory of the Lord.

11 Lord, let your hand be exalted, and let them not see it. May the envious people see and be confounded. And may fire devour your enemies.

12 Lord, you will give us peace. For all our works have been wrought for us by you.

13 O Lord our God, other lords have possessed us apart from you, but in you alone let us remember your name.

14 Let not the dead live; let not the giants rise up again. For this reason, you have visited and destroyed them, and you have perished all remembrance of them.

15 You have been lenient to the people, O Lord, lenient to the people. But have you been glorified? You have removed all the limits of the earth.

16 Lord, they have sought you in anguish. Your doctrine was with them, amid the tribulation of murmuring.

17 Like a woman who has conceived and is approaching the time for delivery, who, in anguish, cries out in her pains, so have we become before your face, O Lord.

18 We have conceived, and it is as if we were in labor, but we have given birth to wind. We have not brought forth salvation on the earth. For this reason, the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

19 Your dead shall live. My slain will rise again. Be awakened, and give praise, you who live in the dust! For your dew is the dew of the light, and you shall be dragged down to the land of the giants, to ruination.

20 Go, my people! Enter your chambers. Close your doors behind you. Conceal yourselves for a very brief time, until the indignation has passed over you.

21 For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, so that he may visit the iniquity of each inhabitant of the earth against him. And the earth will reveal its blood, and it will no longer cover its slain.

1 In that day, the Lord will visit, with his harsh and great and strong sword, against Leviathan, the barred serpent, and against Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and he will slay the whale that is in the sea.

2 In that day, the vineyard of pure wine will sing to them.

3 I am the Lord, who watches over it. I will suddenly give drink to it. I will watch over it, night and day, lest perhaps someone visit against it.

4 Indignation is not mine. Who will be a thorn and a brier to me in battle? I will advance against them. I set them on fire together.

5 Or will he, instead, take hold of my strength? Will he make peace with me? Will she make peace with me?

6 As they advance with violence against Jacob, Israel will flourish and spring forth, and they will fill the face of the world with offspring.

7 Has he struck him with the scourge that he himself used to strike others? Or has he killed in the manner that he himself used to kill his victims?

8 You will judge this by comparing one measure to another, when he has been cast out. He has decided this, by his stern spirit, for the day of heat.

9 Therefore, concerning this, the iniquity of the house of Jacob will be forgiven. And this is the reward of all: that their sin be taken away, when he will have made all the stones of the altar to be like crushed cinders. For the sacred groves and the shrines shall not stand.

10 For the fortified city will be desolate. The shining city will be abandoned and will be left behind like a desert. In that place, the calf will pasture, and in that place, he will lie down, and he will feed from its summits.

11 Its harvest will be crushed by dryness. Women will arrive and teach it, for it is not a wise people. Because of this, he who made it will not take pity on it, and he who formed it will not spare it.

12 And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will strike, from the channel of the river, even to the torrent of Egypt. And you shall be gathered together, one by one, O sons of Israel.

13 And this shall be: in that day, a noise will be made with a great trumpet. And those who had been lost will approach from the land of the Assyrians, with those who had been outcasts in the land of Egypt. And they will adore the Lord, on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

1 Woe to the crown of arrogance, to the inebriated of Ephraim, and to the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, to those who were at the top of the very fat valley, staggering from wine.

2 Behold, the Lord is powerful and steadfast, like a storm of hail, like a crushing whirlwind, like the force of many waters, inundating, sent forth over a spacious land.

3 The arrogant crown of the inebriated of Ephraim will be trampled under foot.

4 And the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, who is at the summit of the fat valley, will be like a premature fruit before the ripeness of autumn, which, when the onlooker beholds it, as soon he takes it in his hand, he will devour it.

5 In that day, the Lord of hosts will be the crown of glory and the wreath of exultation for the remnant of his people.

6 And he will be the spirit of judgment for those who sit in judgment, and the strength of those who return from war to the gates.

7 Yet truly, these also have been ignorant due to wine, and they have gone astray due to inebriation. The priest and the prophet have been ignorant because of inebriation. They have been absorbed by wine. They have staggered in drunkenness. They have not known the One who sees. They have been ignorant of judgment.

8 For all the tables have been filled with vomit and filth, so much so that there was no place left.

9 To whom will he teach knowledge? And to whom will he grant an understanding of what is heard? To those who have been weaned from the milk, who have been pulled away from the breasts.

10 So then: command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there.

11 For with the speech of lips and with a different language, he will speak to this people.

12 He said to them: “This is my rest. Refresh the weary,” and, “This is my refreshment.” And yet they were unwilling to listen.

13 And so, the word of the Lord to them will be: “Command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there,” so that they may go forward and fall backward, and so that they may be broken and ensnared and captured.

14 Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, you mocking men, who lord it over my people who are at Jerusalem.

15 For you have said: “We struck a deal with death, and we formed a pact with Hell. When the inundating scourge passes through, it will not overwhelm us. For we have placed our hope in lies, and we are protected by what is false.”

16 For this reason, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will set a stone within the foundations of Zion, a tested stone, a cornerstone, a precious stone, which has been established in the foundation: whoever trusts in him need not hurry.

17 And I will establish judgment in weights, and justice in measures. And a hailstorm will overturn hope in what is false; and waters will inundate its protection.

18 And your deal with death will be abolished, and your pact with Hell will not stand. When the inundating scourge passes through, you will be trampled down by it.

19 Whenever it passes through, it will take you away. For, at first light of morning, it will pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone will make you understand what you hear.

20 For the bed has been narrowed, so much so that one alone would fall out, and the short blanket is not able to cover two.

21 For the Lord will stand, just as at the mountain of divisions. He will be angry, just as in the valley which is in Gibeon, so that he may accomplish his work, his strange work, so that he may complete his work, his work which is foreign even to him.

22 And now, do not be willing to mock, lest your chains be tightened. For I have heard, from the Lord, the God of hosts, about the consummation and the abridgement concerning the entire earth.

23 Pay close attention, and listen to my voice! Attend and hear my eloquence!

24 Would the plowman, after plowing all day so that he may sow, instead cut open and hoe his soil?

25 Will he not, when he has made the surface level, sow coriander, and scatter cumin, and plant wheat in rows, and barley, and millet, and vetch in their places?

26 For he will be instructed in judgment; his God will teach him.

27 For coriander cannot be threshed with a saw, and a cartwheel cannot revolve over cumin. Instead, coriander is shaken out with a stick, and cumin with a staff.

28 But grain for bread must be crushed. Truly, the thresher cannot thresh it unceasingly, and the cartwheel can neither disrupt it, nor break it with its surface.

29 And this has gone forth from the Lord, the God of hosts, so that he may accomplish his miraculous plan and magnify justice.

1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city against which David fought: year has been added to year, the solemnities have unfolded.

2 And I will surround Ariel with siege works, and it will be in sorrow and mourning, and it will be like Ariel to me.

3 And I will surround you like a sphere all around you, and I will raise up a rampart against you, and I will set up fortifications to blockade you.

4 You will be brought low. You will speak from the ground, and your eloquence will be heard from the dirt. And, from the ground, your voice will be like that of the python, and your eloquence will mumble from the dirt.

5 And the multitude of those who fan you will be like fine dust. And the multitude of those who have prevailed against you will be like embers fading away.

6 And this will happen suddenly and swiftly. It will be visited from the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquakes, and with the great noise of a whirlwind and a storm, and with a flame of devouring fire.

7 And the multitude of all the nations that have struggled against Ariel will be like the dream of a vision by night, along with all who have battled, and besieged, and prevailed against it.

8 And it will be like one who is hungry and dreams of eating, but, when he has been awakened, his soul is empty. And it will be like one who is thirsty and dreams of drinking, but, after he has been awakened, he still languishes in thirst, and his soul is empty. So shall the multitude of all the nations be, who have struggled against Mount Zion.

9 Be stupefied and in wonder! Shake and quiver! Be inebriated, but not from wine! Stagger, but not from drunkenness!

10 For the Lord has mixed for you a spirit of deep sleep. He will close your eyes. He will cover your prophets and leaders, who see visions.

11 And the vision of all will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which, when they have given it to someone who knows how to read, they will say, “Read this,” but he will respond, “I cannot; for it has been sealed.”

12 But if the book is given to someone who does not know how to read, and it is said to him, “Read,” then he will respond, “I do not know how to read.”

13 And the Lord said: Since this people have drawn near to me only with their mouth, and their lips glorify me while their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is based on the commandments and doctrines of men,

14 for this reason, behold, I will proceed to accomplish a wonder for this people, a great and mystifying miracle. For wisdom will perish from their wise, and the understanding of their prudent will be concealed.

15 Woe to you who use the depths of the heart, so that you may hide your intentions from the Lord. Their works are done in darkness, and so they say: “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”

16 This intention of yours is perverse. It is as if the clay were to plan against the potter, or as if the work were to say to its maker: “You did not make me.” Or it is as if what has been formed were to say to the one who formed it, “You do not understand.”

17 In not more than a little while and a brief time, Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and a fruitful field will be considered to be a forest.

18 And in that day, the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind will see.

19 And the meek will increase their rejoicing in the Lord, and the poor among men will exult in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the one who was prevailing has failed, the one who was mocking has been consumed, and all those who were standing guard over iniquity have been cut down.

21 For they caused men to sin by a word, and they supplanted him who argued against them at the gates, and they turned away from justice in vain.

22 Because of this, thus says the Lord, he who has redeemed Abraham, to the house of Jacob: From now on, Jacob will not be confounded; from now on his countenance will not blush with shame.

23 Instead, when he sees his children, they will be the work of my hands in his midst, sanctifying my name, and they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will preach the God of Israel.

24 And those who had gone astray in spirit will know understanding, and those who had murmured will learn the law.

1 “Woe to the sons of apostasy!” says the Lord. For you would take advice, but not from me. And you would begin to weave, but not by my spirit. Thus do you add sin upon sin!

2 You are walking so as to descend into Egypt, and you have not sought answers from my mouth, instead hoping for assistance from the strength of Pharaoh and placing trust in the shadow of Egypt.

3 And so, the strength of Pharaoh will be your confusion, and trust in the shadow of Egypt will be your disgrace.

4 For your leaders were at Tanis, and your messengers have traveled even as far as Hanes.

5 They have all been confounded because of a people who were not able to offer profit to them, who were not of assistance, nor of other usefulness, except to offer confusion and reproach.

6 The burden of the beasts in the south. In a land of tribulation and anguish, from which go forth the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying king snake, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts of burden, and their valuables upon the humps of camels, to a people who are not able to offer profit to them.

7 For Egypt will offer assistance, but without purpose or success. Therefore, concerning this, I cried out: “It is only arrogance! Remain calm.”

8 Now, therefore, enter and write for them upon a tablet, and note it diligently in a book, and this shall be a testimony in the last days, and even unto eternity.

9 For they are a people who provoke to wrath, and they are lying sons, sons unwilling to listen to the law of God.

10 They say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to those who behold: “Do not behold for us the things that are right. Speak to us of pleasing things. See errors for us.

11 Take me from the way. Avert me from the path. Let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face.”

12 Because of this, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Since you have rejected this word, and you have hoped in calumny and rebellion, and since you have depended upon these things,

13 for this reason, this iniquity will be to you like a breach that has fallen, and like a gap in a high wall. For its destruction will happen suddenly, when it is not expected.

14 And it will be crushed, just as the earthen vessel of a potter is destroyed by a sharp blow. And not even a fragment of its earthenware will be found, which might carry a little fire from the hearth, or which might draw a little water from a hollow.

15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If you return and are quiet, you shall be saved. Your strength will be found in silence and in hope. But you are not willing!

16 And you have said: “Never! Instead, we will flee by horseback.” For this reason, you will be put to flight. And you have said, “We will climb upon swift ones.” For this reason, those who pursue you will be even swifter.

17 A thousand men will flee in terror from the face of one, and you will flee in terror from the face of five, until you who have been left behind are like the mast of a ship at the top of a mountain, or like a sign on a hill.

18 Therefore, the Lord waits, so that he may take pity on you. And therefore, he will be exalted for sparing you. For the Lord is the God of judgment. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 For the people of Zion will live in Jerusalem. Bitterly, you will not weep. Mercifully, he will take pity on you. At the voice of your outcry, as soon as he hears, he will respond to you.

20 And the Lord will give you thick bread and accessible water. And he will not cause your teacher to fly away from you anymore. And your eyes will behold your instructor.

21 And your ears will listen to the word of one admonishing you behind your back: “This is the way! Walk in it! And do not turn aside, neither to the right, nor to the left.”

22 And you will defile the plates of your silver graven images and the vestment of your gold molten idols. And you will throw these things away like the uncleanness of a menstruating woman. You will say to it, “Go away!”

23 And wherever you sow seed upon the earth, rain will be given to the seed. And bread from the grain of the earth will be very plentiful and full. In that day, the lamb will pasture in the spacious land of your possession.

24 And your bulls, and the colts of the donkeys that work the ground, will eat a mix of grains like that winnowed on the threshing floor.

25 And there will be, on every lofty mountain, and on every elevated hill, rivers of running water, in the day of the slaughter of many, when the tower will fall.

26 And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord will bind the wound of his people, and when he will heal the stroke of their scourge.

27 Behold, the name of the Lord arrives from far away. His fury is burning and heavy to bear. His lips have been filled with indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.

28 His Spirit is like a torrent, inundating, even as high as the middle of the neck, in order to reduce the nations to nothing, along with the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.

29 There will be a song for you, as in the night of a sanctified solemnity, and a joy of heart, as when one travels with music to arrive at the mountain of the Lord, to the Strong One of Israel.

30 And the Lord will cause the glory of his voice to be heard, and, with a threatening fury and a devouring flame of fire, he will reveal the terror of his arm. He will crush with the whirlwind and with hailstones.

31 For at the voice of the Lord, Assur will dread being struck with the staff.

32 And when the passage of the staff has been begun, the Lord will cause it to rest upon him, with timbrels and harps. And with special battles, he will fight against them.

33 For a burning place, deep and wide, has been prepared from yesterday, prepared by the King. Its nourishment is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.