Isaiah 28–30

Chapter 28

Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower the glory his joy, who were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine.

²Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail: a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet.

⁴And the fading flower the glory of his joy, who is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people:

⁶And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle to the gate.

⁷But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of judgment.

⁸For all the tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place.

⁹Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.

¹⁰For command, command again, command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there.

¹¹For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people.

¹²To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear.

¹³And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten.

¹⁷And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection.

¹⁸And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it.

¹⁹Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away: because in the morning early it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear.

²⁰For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both.

²¹For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions: he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.

²²And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait. For I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech.

²⁴Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow, shall he open and harrow his ground?

²⁵Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, soweth, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds?

²⁶For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him.

²⁷For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a staff.

²⁸But breadcorn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.

²⁹This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.

Chapter 29

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year: the solemnities are at an end.

²And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel.

³And I will make a circle round about thee, and I will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee.

⁴Thou shalt be brought down, thou shall speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground: and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the python, and out of the earth thy speech shall mutter.

⁵And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away, the multitude of them that have prevailed against thee.

⁶And it shall be at an instant suddenly. A visitation shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and tempest; and with the flame of devouring fire.

⁷And the multitude of all nations that have fought against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night, and all that have fought, and besieged and prevailed against it.

⁸And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth, and drinketh and after he is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles, that have fought against mount Sion.

⁹Be astonished, and wonder, waver, and stagger: be drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with drunkenness.

¹⁰For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a deep sleep, he will shut up your eyes, he will cover your prophets and princes, that see visions.

¹¹And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed which when they shall deliver to one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.

¹²And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters.

¹³And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men:

¹⁴Therefore behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

¹⁵Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?

¹⁶This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not.

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a forest?

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

¹⁹And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for iniquity:

²¹That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the just.

²²Therefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed:

²³But when he shall see his children, the work of my hands in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the God of Israel:

²⁴And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding, and they that murmured, shall learn the law.

Chapter 30

Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin:

²Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharao, and trusting in the shadow of Egypt.

³And the strength of Pharao shall be to your confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt to your shame.

⁴For thy princes were in Tanis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes.

⁵They were all confounded at a people that could not profit them: they were no help, nor to any profit, but to confusion and to reproach.

⁶The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness, and the lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not be able to profit them.

⁷For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only, sit still.

⁸Now therefore go in and write for them upon box, and note it diligently in a book, and it shall be in the latter days for a testimony for ever.

⁹For it is a people that provoketh to wrath, and lying children that will not hear the law of God.

¹⁰Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that behold: Behold not for us those things that are right: speak unto us pleasant things, see errors for us.

¹¹Take away from me the way, turn away the path from me, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us.

¹²Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and tumult, and have leaned upon it:

¹³Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and…