Category: Isaiah

1 Woe to those who descend into Egypt for assistance, hoping in horses, and putting their trust in four-horse chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are exceedingly strong. And they have not believed in the Holy One of Israel, and they have not sought the Lord.

2 Therefore, being wise, he has permitted harm, and he has not removed his words, and he will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who assist the workers of iniquity.

3 Egypt is man, and not God. And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And so, the Lord will reach down his hand, and the helper will fall, and the one who was being helped will fall, and they will all be consumed together.

4 For the Lord says this to me: In the same way that a lion roars, and a young lion is over his prey, and though a multitude of shepherds may meet him, he will not dread their voice, nor be afraid of their number, so will the Lord of hosts descend in order to battle upon mount Zion and upon its hill.

5 Like birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and freeing, passing over and saving.

6 Be converted to the same depth that you have drawn away, O sons of Israel.

7 For in that day, a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you unto sin.

8 And Assur will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will devour him. And he will not flee from the face of the sword, and his young men will be subject to a penalty.

9 And his strength will pass away in terror, and his princes will flee in fear. The Lord has said it. His fire is in Zion, and his furnace is at Jerusalem.

1 Behold, the king will reign in justice, and the princes will rule in judgment.

2 And a man will be like someone hidden from the wind, who conceals himself from a storm, or like rivers of waters in a time of thirst, or like the shadow of a rock that juts out in a desert land.

3 The eyes of those who see will not be obscured, and the ears of those who hear will listen closely.

4 And the heart of the foolish will understand knowledge, and the tongue of those with impaired speech will speak quickly and plainly.

5 He who is foolish will no longer be called leader, nor will the deceitful be called greater.

6 For a foolish man speaks foolishness and his heart works iniquity in order to accomplish deception. And he speaks to the Lord deceitfully, so as to empty the soul of the hungry and to take away drink from the thirsty.

7 The tools of the deceitful are very wicked. For they have concocted plans to destroy the meek by lying words, though the poor speak judgment.

8 Yet truly, the prince will plan things that are worthy of a prince, and he will stand above the rulers.

9 You opulent women, rise up and listen to my voice! O confident daughters, play close attention to my eloquence!

10 For after a year and some days, you who are confident will be disturbed. For the vintage has been completed; the gathering will no longer occur.

11 Be stupefied, you opulent women! Be disturbed, O confident ones! Strip yourselves, and be confounded; gird yourselves at the waist.

12 Mourn over your breasts, over the delightful country, over the fruitful vineyard.

13 Thorn and brier will rise up, over the soil of my people. How much more over all the houses of gladness, over the city of exultation?

14 For the house has been forsaken. The multitude of the city has been abandoned. A darkness and a covering have been placed over its dens, even unto eternity. It will be the gladness of wild donkeys and the pasture of flocks,

15 until the Spirit is poured over us from on high. And the desert will be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be considered as a forest.

16 And judgment will live in solitude, and justice will be seated in a fruitful place.

17 And the work of justice will be peace. And the service of justice will be quiet and secure, forever.

18 And my people will be seated in the beauty of peacefulness, and in the tabernacles of faithfulness, and in the opulence of restfulness.

19 But hail will be in the descent of the forest, and the city will be brought exceedingly low.

20 Blessed are you who sow over any waters, sending the feet of the ox and the donkey there.

1 Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt.

2 O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation.

3 From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered.

4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.

5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.

6 And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.

8 The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men.

9 The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together.

10 “Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!”

11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.

12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.

13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame?

15 The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil.

16 Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable.

17 His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away.

18 Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones?

19 You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom.

20 Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken.

21 For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it.

22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.

23 Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils.

24 He who is nearby will not say: “I am too weak.” The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them.

1 O nations and peoples: draw near, and listen, and pay attention! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the entire world and all its offspring.

2 For the indignation of the Lord is over all the nations, and his fury is over all their armies. He has put them to death, and he has given them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be cast out, and from their carcasses a foul odor will rise up. The mountains will languish because of their blood.

4 And the entire army of the heavens will languish, and the heavens will be folded like a book. And their entire army will fall away, as a leaf falls from the vine or from the fig tree.

5 “For my sword in heaven has been inebriated. Behold, it will descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, unto judgment.”

6 The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood. It has been thickened by the blood of lambs and he-goats, by the innermost blood of rams. For the victim of the Lord is in Bozrah, and a great slaughter is in the land of Edom.

7 And the single-horned beasts will descend with them, and the bulls along with the mighty. Their land will be inebriated by blood, and their ground by the fat of their lazy ones.

8 For this is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of retribution for the judgment of Zion.

9 And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar.

10 Night and day, it will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise up without ceasing. From generation to generation it will remain desolate. No one will pass through it, forever and ever.

11 The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it. And the ibis and the raven will live in it. And a measuring line will be extended over it, so that it may be reduced to nothing, and a plumb line, unto desolation.

12 Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing.

13 And thorns and nettles will rise up in its houses, and the thistle in its fortified places. And it will be the lair of serpents and the pasture of ostriches.

14 And demons and monsters will meet, and the hairy ones will cry out to one another. There, the ogress has lain down and found rest for herself.

15 In that place, the hedgehog has kept its den, and has raised its young, and has dug around them, and has kept them warm in its shadow. In that place, the birds of prey have joined together, one to another.

16 Search and read diligently in the book of the Lord. Not one of them was lacking; not one has sought for the other. For what has proceeded from my mouth, he has commanded, and his very Spirit has gathered them.

17 And he has cast lots over them. And his hand has distributed this to them by measure. They will possess it, even unto eternity. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it.

1 The desolate and impassable land will rejoice, and the place of solitude will exult, and it will flourish like the lily.

2 It will spring up and blossom, and it will exult with rejoicing and praising. The glory of Lebanon has been given to it, with the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. These will see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God.

3 Strengthen the lax hands, and confirm the weak knees!

4 Say to the fainthearted: “Take courage and fear not! Behold, your God will bring the vindication of retribution. God himself will arrive to save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared.

6 Then the disabled will leap like a buck, and the tongue of the mute will be untied. For the waters have burst forth in the desert, and torrents in solitary places.

7 And the land that was dry will have a pond, and the thirsty land will have fountains of water. In the hollows where the serpents lived before, there will rise up the greenery of reed and bulrush.

8 And there shall be a path and a road in that place. And it will be called the Holy Way. The defiled will not pass through it. For this will be an upright path for you, so much so that the foolish will not wander along it.

9 There will be no lions in that place, and harmful wild animals will neither climb up to it, nor be found there. Only those who have been freed will walk in that place.

10 And the redeemed of the Lord will be converted, and they will return to Zion with praising. And everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and rejoicing. For pain and sorrow will flee away.

1 And it happened that, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he seized them.

2 And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish into Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a great force, and he stood near the aqueduct of the upper pool, at the road to the fuller’s field.

3 And those who went to him were Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian.

4 And Rabshakeh said to them: “Tell Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this faith in which you believe?

5 And by what counsel or strength would you prepare to rebel? In whom do you have faith, so much so that you would withdraw from me?

6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, in that broken staff of a reed. But if a man were to lean against it, it would enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.

7 But if you answer me by saying: ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Is it not his high places and altars that Hezekiah has taken away? And he has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar.’

8 And now, hand yourselves over to my lord, the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and you will not be able to find riders for them on your own.

9 So how will you withstand the face of the ruler of even one place, of even the least of my lord’s subordinates? But if you trust in Egypt, in four-horse chariots and in horsemen:

10 do I intend to go up against this land to destroy it without the Lord? But the Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

11 And Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh: “Speak to your servants in the Syrian language. For we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jewish language, in the hearing of the people, who are upon the wall.”

12 And Rabshakeh said to them: “Has my lord sent me to your lord and to you in order to speak all these words, and not even more so to the men who are sitting on the wall, so that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

13 Then Rabshakeh stood up, and he cried out with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and he said: “Listen to the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians.

14 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. For he will not be able to rescue you.

15 And do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust in the Lord, saying: ‘The Lord will rescue and free us. This city will not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’

16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For the king of the Assyrians says this: Act with me to your own benefit, and come out to me. And let each one eat from his own vine, and each one from his own fig tree. And let each one drink water from his own well,

17 until I arrive and take you away to a land which is like your own: a land of grain and of wine, a land of bread and of vineyards.

18 But you should not let Hezekiah disturb you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of each of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

19 Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they freed Samaria from my hand?

20 Who is there, among all the gods of these lands, who has rescued his land from my hand, so that the Lord would rescue Jerusalem from my hand?”

21 And they remained silent and did not answer a word to him. For the king had commanded them, saying, “You shall not respond to him.”

22 And Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian, entered to Hezekiah with their garments rent, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

1 And it happened that, when king Hezekiah had heard this, he rent his garments, and he wrapped himself in sackcloth, and he entered the house of the Lord.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet.

3 And they said to him: “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. For the sons have arrived at the time for birth, but there is not enough strength to bring them forth.

4 Perhaps, somehow, the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians, his lord, has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayers on behalf of the remnant which has been left behind.”

5 And so the servants of king Hezekiah went to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them: “You shall say this to your lord: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid to face the words that you have heard, by which the servants of the king of the Assyrians blasphemed me.

7 Behold, I will send a spirit to him, and he will hear a message, and he will return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword, in his own land.”

8 Then Rabshakeh returned, and he found the king of the Assyrians fighting against Libnah. For he had heard that he had set out from Lachish.

9 And he heard from Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia: “He has gone forth so that he may fight against you.” And when he had heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:

10 “You shall say this to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, saying: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying: ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’

11 Behold, you have heard about all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all the lands that they have conquered, and so, how can you be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the nations rescued those whom my fathers have conquered: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were at Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad, or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena and Ivvah?”

14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it out in the sight of the Lord.

15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying:

16 “O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel who sits upon the Cherubim: you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

17 O Lord, incline your ear and listen. O Lord, open your eyes and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to blaspheme the living God.

18 For truly, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste to countries and territories.

19 And they have cast their gods into the fire. For these were not gods, but the works of men’s hands, of wood and of stone. And they broke them into pieces.

20 And now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand. And let all the kingdoms of the earth acknowledge that you alone are Lord.”

21 And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because of what you have prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians,

22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken over him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

23 Whom have you insulted? And whom have you blasphemed? And against whom have you lifted up your voice and raised up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!

24 By the hand of your servants, you have reproached the Lord. And you have said: ‘With a multitude of my four-horse chariots, I have ascended the heights of the mountains adjoining Lebanon. And I will cut down its lofty cedars and its choice pine trees. And I will reach the top of its summit, to the forest of its Carmel.

25 I dug deep, and I drank water, and I dried up all the river banks with the sole of my foot.’

26 Have you not heard what I have done to it in past times? In ancient times, I formed it. And now I have brought it forth. And it has been made so that the hills and the fortified cities would fight together, unto its destruction.

27 Their inhabitants had unsteady hands. They trembled and were confused. They became like the plants of the field, and the grass of the pastures, and like the weeds on the rooftops, which wither before they are mature.

28 I know your habitation, and your arrival, and your departure, and your madness against me.

29 When you became angry against me, your arrogance rose up to my ears. Therefore, I will place a ring in your nose, and a bit between your lips. And I will turn you back on the road by which you arrived.

30 But this shall be a sign for you: Eat, in this year, whatever springs up on its own. And in the second year, eat fruits. But in the third year, sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

31 And what will be saved from the house of Judah, and what is left behind, will form deep roots, and will bear high fruits.

32 For from Jerusalem, a remnant shall go forth, and salvation from mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

33 For this reason, thus says the Lord about the king of the Assyrians: He will not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor overtake it with a shield, nor dig a rampart all around it.

34 He will return on the road by which he arrived. And into this city, he will not enter, says the Lord.

35 And I will protect this city, so that I may save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David, my servant.”

36 Then the Angel of the Lord went forth and struck down, in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold, all these were dead bodies.

37 And Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, departed and went away. And he returned and lived at Nineveh.

38 And it happened that, as he was adoring his god in the temple of Nisroch, his sons, Adramelech and Sharezer, struck him with the sword. And they fled into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.

1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was near death. And so, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet, entered to him, and he said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Put your house in order, for you shall die, and you shall not live.”

2 And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and he prayed to the Lord.

3 And he said: “I beg you, Lord, I beseech you, to remember how I walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and that I have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.

4 And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying:

5 “Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.

6 And I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.

7 And this will be a sign for you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word, which he has spoken:

8 Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, which has now descended on the sundial of Ahaz, to move in reverse for ten lines.” And so, the sun moved backward by ten lines, through the degrees by which it had descended.

9 The writing of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, after he had fallen ill and had recovered from his sickness:

10 “I said: In the middle of my days, I will go to the gates of Hell. So I sought the remainder of my years.

11 I said: I will not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I will no longer behold man, nor the habitation of rest.

12 My longevity has been taken away; it has been folded up and taken from me, like the tent of a shepherd. My life has been cut off, as if by a weaver. While I was still beginning, he cut me off. From morning until evening, you have marked out my limits.

13 I hoped, even until morning. Like a lion, so has he crushed all my bones. From morning until evening, you have marked my limits.

14 I will cry out, like a young swallow. I will meditate, like a dove. My eyes have been weakened by gazing upward. O Lord, I suffer violence! Answer in my favor.

15 What can I say, or what would he answer me, since he himself has done this? I will acknowledge to you all my years, in the bitterness of my soul.

16 O Lord, if such is life, and if the life of my spirit is of such a kind, may you correct me and may you cause me to live.

17 Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter. But you have rescued my soul, so that it would not perish. You have cast all my sins behind your back.

18 For Hell will not confess to you, and death will not praise you. Those who descend into the pit will not hope for your truth.

19 The living, the living, these will give praise to you, as I also do this day! The father will make the truth known to the sons.

20 O Lord, save me! And we will sing our psalms, all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”

21 Now Isaiah had ordered them to take a paste of figs, and to spread it like plaster over the wound, so that he would be healed.

22 And Hezekiah said, “What will be the sign that I may go up to the house of the Lord?”

1 At that time, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah. For he had heard that he had fallen ill and had recovered.

2 And Hezekiah rejoiced over them, and he showed them the storehouses of his aromatic spices, and of the silver and gold, and of the perfumes and precious ointments, and all the repositories for his belongings, and all the things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet entered before king Hezekiah, and he said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far away land, from Babylon.”

4 And he said, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah said: “They have seen all the things that are in my house. There was nothing that I did not show them among my treasures.”

5 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:

6 Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up, even to this day, will be taken away to Babylon. There will be nothing left behind, says the Lord.

7 And your children, who will issue from you, whom you will produce, they will be taken away. And they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which he has spoken is good.” And he said, “But let there be peace and truth in my days.”

1 “Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!” says your God.

2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.

3 The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.

4 Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.

5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.

8 The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. But the Word of our Lord remains for eternity.”

9 You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”

10 Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.

11 He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?

13 Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?

14 With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.

16 And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.

18 Therefore, to whom would you liken God? Or with what image would you replace him?

19 Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

20 He has chosen strong wood that will not decay. The skillful artisan seeks a way to set up an idol that cannot be moved.

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?

22 He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.

23 He has brought those who examine what is secret to nothingness. He has brought the judges of the earth to emptiness.

24 And certainly, their stalk was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the ground. He has suddenly blown them across them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind will carry them away like chaff.

25 “And to whom would you compare me or equate me?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. He leads forth their army by number, and he calls them all by name. Because of the fullness of his strength and robustness and virtue, not one of them was left behind.

27 Why do you say this, O Jacob, and why do you speak this way, O Israel? “My way has been hidden from the Lord, and my judgment escaped notice by my God.”

28 Do you not know, or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, who has created the limits of the earth. He does not diminish, and he does not struggle. Neither is his wisdom searchable.

29 It is he who gives strength to the weary, and it is he who increases fortitude and strength in those who are failing.

30 Servants will struggle and fail, and young men will fall into infirmity.

31 But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.