³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils: Make haste to take away the prey.

⁴For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of the Assyrians.

⁵And the Lord spoke to me again, saying:

⁶Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin, and the son of Romelia:

⁷Therefore behold the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river strong and many, the king of the Assyrians, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and shall overflow all his banks.

⁸And shall pass through Juda, overflowing, and going over shall reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel.

⁹Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be overcome, and give ear, all ye lands afar off: strengthen yourselves, and be overcome, gird yourselves, and be overcome.

¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be defeated: speak a word, and it shall not be done: because God is with us.

¹¹For thus saith the Lord to me: As he hath taught me, with a strong arm, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

¹²Say ye not: A conspiracy: for all that this people speaketh, is a conspiracy: neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

¹³Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

¹⁴And he shall be a sanctification to you. But for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷And I will wait for the Lord, who hath hid his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

¹⁸Behold I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me for a sign, and for a wonder in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Sion.

¹⁹And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?

²⁰To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they speak not according to this word, they shall not have the morning light.

²¹And they shall pass by it, they shall fall, and be hungry: and when they shall be hungry, they will be angry, and curse their king, and their God, and look upwards.

²²And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness and distress, and a mist following them, and they cannot fly away from their distress.

Chapter 9

At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded.

²The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.

³Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.

⁴For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, as in the day of Madian.

⁵For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.

⁶For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.

⁷His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

⁹And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the inhabitants of Samaria that say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart:

¹⁰The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with square stones: they have cut down the sycamores, but we will change them for cedars.

¹¹And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over him, and shall bring on his enemies in a crowd:

¹²The Syrians from the east, and, the Philistines from the west: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³And the people are not returned to him who hath struck them, and have not sought after the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day.

¹⁵The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶And they that call this people blessed, shall cause them to err: and they that are called blessed, shall be thrown down, headlong.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men: neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and wicked, and every mouth hath spoken folly. For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.

¹⁹By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

²⁰And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda.

²¹After all these things his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

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