The Bible Part 141

5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 5:9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

5:10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

5:11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 5:12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

5:13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their mult.i.tude dried up with thirst.

5:14 Therefore h.e.l.l hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their mult.i.tude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

5:15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 5:16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and G.o.d that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

5:17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 5:19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 5:22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 5:23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets.

For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

5:26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 5:27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 5:28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 5:29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

6:4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

6:6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

6:11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 6:12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

7:1 And it came to pa.s.s in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

7:2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

7:3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field; 7:4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

7:5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, 7:6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: 7:7 Thus saith the Lord G.o.d, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pa.s.s.

7:8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

7:10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 7:11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy G.o.d; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

7:13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my G.o.d also? 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

7:15 b.u.t.ter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

7:17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of a.s.syria.

7:18 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of a.s.syria.

7:19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.

7:20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of a.s.syria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.

7:21 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 7:22 And it shall come to pa.s.s, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat b.u.t.ter: for b.u.t.ter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

7:23 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

7:24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

7:25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

8:1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.

8:2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

8:3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son.

Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.

8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of a.s.syria.

8:5 The LORD spake also unto me again, saying, 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of s.h.i.+loah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son; 8:7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of a.s.syria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: 8:8 And he shall pa.s.s through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

8:9 a.s.sociate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

8:10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for G.o.d is with us.

8:11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 8:12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

8:13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

8:14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

8:15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

8:17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

8:19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their G.o.d? for the living to the dead? 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

8:21 And they shall pa.s.s through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pa.s.s, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their G.o.d, and look upward.

8:22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

9:1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light s.h.i.+ned.

9:3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

9:4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

9:5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

9:8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

9:9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, 9:10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.

9:11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; 9:12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

9:13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

9:14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

9:15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

9:16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

9:17 Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

9:18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

9:20 And he shall s.n.a.t.c.h on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: 9:21 Mana.s.seh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Mana.s.seh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10:1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 10:2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 10:4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10:5 O a.s.syrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

10:7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

10:8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? 10:9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? 10:10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 10:11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 10:12 Wherefore it shall come to pa.s.s, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of a.s.syria, and the glory of his high looks.

10:13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: 10:14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

10:15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

10:16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

10:17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; 10:18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.

10:19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

10:20 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

10:21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty G.o.d.

10:22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

10:23 For the Lord G.o.d of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

10:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord G.o.d of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the a.s.syrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

10:25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.

10:26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

10:27 And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

10:28 He is come to Aiath, he is pa.s.sed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages: 10:29 They are gone over the pa.s.sage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

10:30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.

10:31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

10:32 As yet shall he remain at n.o.b that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.