Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Chapter I
I. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have despised Me.
The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger: but Israel has not known Me, and My people have not understood.
Woe to the sinful nation, the people heavy with iniquity, the wicked seed, the depraved children!
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart sorrowful. From the sole of the foot to the top of the head, there is no soundness in it: wound, and bruise, and swelling sore.
Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrha.
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom: give ear to the law of our Lord, you people of Gomorrha.
Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your thoughts from before My eyes: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow.
If you are willing and listen to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you are unwilling and provoke Me to anger, the sword shall devour you.
How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice dwelt in it, but now murderers. Your princes are faithless, companions of thieves: all love bribes, they do not judge for the orphan and the widow.
Therefore says the Lord, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will be consoled over My enemies, and I will be avenged upon My foes; I will purge your dross to purity. And I will restore your judges as they were before. After this you shall be called the city of the just. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment: and He shall crush the wicked and sinners together.
Chapter II
II. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it, and they shall say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. House of Jacob, come; and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
The day of the Lord shall be upon every one that is proud and exalted. And they shall go into the caves of rocks and into the chasms of the earth, from the face of the dread of the Lord and from the glory of His majesty, when He shall rise up to strike the earth.
Cease therefore from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed exalted.
Chapter III
III. For behold, the Sovereign Lord will take away from Judah the valiant and the strong, every support of bread and water, the counselor and the wise man. And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them.
They have provoked the eyes of His majesty: they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom. Woe to their souls, for evils have been rendered to them!
Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings. My people, those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you.
Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and have walked with stretched-out necks and with winking eyes, and went along clapping, the Lord shall make bald the crown of the daughters of Sion: and instead of a sweet odor there shall be a stench, instead of a girdle a rope, instead of a stomacher a haircloth.
Chapter IV
IV. In that day the branch of the Lord shall be in magnificence. Every one that is left in Sion shall be called holy, every one that is written in life, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Sion in the spirit of judgment and of burning.
Chapter V
V. I will sing to my beloved the song of my kinsman. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. And he fenced it in, and planted it with choice vines.
Now therefore, O men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
What more should I have done to my vineyard? Was it that I expected it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes?
Therefore I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plundering.
Woe to you who join house to house, and lay field to field! Shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?
Woe to you who rise up early to follow drunkenness! The harp, and the lyre, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and you regard not the work of the Lord.
Therefore hell has enlarged its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limit.
Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity!
The day of the Lord shall be upon every one that is proud and exalted.
that which torments; here a moment that torments, there an eternity that delights. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; the glory of the blessed shall not die, and their happiness shall not be quenched. Go now, young man, rejoice in your youth, walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, and know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Go, vain one, gape after vanities; sate yourself with things soon to perish, you who will die tomorrow. O vain sons of Adam, deceitful in the balances, that they deceive themselves from vanity into the same! O shadow, O dream, O every man living is altogether vanity! Remember your Creator before the time of affliction comes, before the silver cord is broken, and the golden bowl runs back, and the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, and the dust returns to its earth whence it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. For man shall go to the house of his eternity, either the one above or the one below. Enter through the narrow gate, because wide and spacious is the way that leads to perdition, and many there are who enter through it. How narrow the gate, and how strait the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!
These things I too write with sighs and groans, as I contemplate so many who perish daily and descend into hell, where their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched. And I beseech and implore you, O reader, by the tender mercies of our God, by your own salvation, by the one little soul entrusted to you and committed to your care, that you keep ever before your eyes the living memory of eternity and of eternal torments, as well as of eternal joys, both set before you by God, concerning which you here cast a single throw of the die, and that an irrevocable one; let these two things not depart from your mind: in this world, "vanity of vanities, and all is vanity": O how much emptiness there is in all things! O without Christ how vain is everything we live! In the world to come, truth of truths and all is truth, stability of stabilities and all is stability, ETERNITY OF ETERNITIES AND ALL IS ETERNITY: in heaven most blessed, in hell most wretched, where "their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched."
Therefore, placed in the midst, so live that you may live forever. Your life is single and brief; once you have died, you will not be permitted to return to this life: to grow wise, and to correct mistakes committed, will not be granted: the door of repentance will be shut. Foreseeing these things, be wise while you have time.
Here a moment that delights, there an eternity that torments; here a moment that torments, there an eternity that delights.
he sees him clad in purple and asks not for the consul wearing the palm-embroidered robe but for the black-clad one, seeking a drop from his little finger. O what a change of fortunes! He who a few days before, as if in triumph, ascended the Capitoline heights, now lies desolate and naked, not in the milky palace of heaven, as his unhappy wife falsely claims, but confined in squalid darkness. But she whom the secrets of a single chamber deceived, who seemed poor and lowly, whose life was thought madness, follows Christ and says: 'What things we have heard, so also have we seen in the city of our God.' Whence he pathetically concludes: 'Therefore I admonish, and weeping and groaning I solemnly declare, that while we run the course of this world's life, we should not be clothed with two tunics, that is, a double faith; we should not be weighed down with coverings of dead skins, that is, dead works; the wallet of riches should not press us to the ground; the staff, that is, the help of worldly power, should not be sought; nor should we wish to have both Christ and the world; but let eternal things succeed to things brief and fleeting, and since daily (I speak according to the body) we die beforehand, let us not in other matters consider ourselves everlasting, so that we may be able to be everlasting.'
A HYMN OF JUBILATION DRAWN FROM THE MAGNIFICENT ORACLES OF ISAIAH, AND AN ORDERED SYNOPSIS OF THE SAME, IN WHICH HE PROMISES THE CHURCH REDEMPTION, GRACE, PEACE, EXULTATION, VICTORY, THE DESTRUCTION OF IMPIETY AND THE IMPIOUS, THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AN ABUNDANCE OF HEAVENLY GOODS, AND EVERLASTING HAPPINESS AND TRIUMPH TO BE GIVEN THROUGH CHRIST.
And they shall enter into the caverns of the rocks, and into the chasms of the earth, from the face of the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty, when He shall rise up to strike the earth.
Cease therefore from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is accounted lofty.
Chapter VI
VI. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up: and the things that were under Him filled the temple. Seraphim stood above it: six wings to one, and six wings to the other: with two they covered His face, and with two they covered His feet, and with two they flew.
And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.
And I said: Woe is me, because I held my peace, because I am a man of unclean lips! And one of the Seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity shall be taken away.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us? And I said: Here am I, send me.
And He said: Go, and you shall say to this people: Blind the heart of this people, and make heavy their ears: the holy seed shall be that which shall stand in it.
Chapter VII
VII. You shall say to Ahaz: Do not fear the two tails of these smoking firebrands, Rasin the king of Syria, and the son of Romelia.
Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse evil, and to choose good.
The Lord will whistle for the fly of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria: and He will shave with the hired razor of the Assyrians the head, and the hair of the feet, and the whole beard.
Chapter VIII
VIII. I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name: Make haste to plunder; hasten the prey.
For before the child knows how to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus shall be taken away, and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians.
Sanctify the Lord of hosts: let Him be your fear, and let Him be your terror. And He shall be for your sanctification, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of scandal to the houses of Israel; and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Behold, I and my children, whom the Lord has given me for a sign and a wonder in Israel.
When they shall say to you: Inquire of the soothsayers: Shall not a people seek their God, on behalf of the living from the dead? To the law rather, and to the testimony.
Chapter IX
IX. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: to those who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light has risen for them.
For 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, Counselor, God, the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace.
Chapter X
X. Woe to those who make unjust laws, to oppress the poor, to deceive widows and orphans! What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity that comes from afar?
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My fury! Against a deceitful nation I will send him, and against the people of My wrath I will command him.
And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have completed all His works on Mount Sion, I will visit the fruit of the magnificent king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.
Shall the axe boast against him who cuts with it? Therefore the Lord shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory a burning shall blaze like the burning of fire.
If your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted: the destruction that is decreed shall overflow with justice.
Chapter XI
XI. And there shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety.
And the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him: He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.
But He shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
And justice shall be the girdle of His loins: and faith the belt of His waist.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.
In that day, the root of Jesse, who stands as a sign to the peoples, the nations shall beseech Him, and His sepulchre shall be glorious.
And He shall lift up a sign to the nations, and shall gather together the fugitives of Israel, and shall collect the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.
And they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines through the sea; together they shall plunder the children of the East. Edom and Moab shall be under the command of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall be obedient.
Chapter XII
XII. And you shall say in that day: I will praise You, O Lord, for You were angry with me: Your wrath is turned away, and You have comforted me.
Behold, God is my Savior, I will deal confidently, and I will not fear: for the Lord is my strength and my praise, and He has become my salvation.
You shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of the Savior.
Rejoice and praise, O habitation of Sion: for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Chapter XIII
XIII. The burden of Babylon. Upon the dark mountain lift up a sign, raise your voice, lift up the hand, and let the leaders enter the gates.
I have commanded My sanctified ones, and I have called My mighty ones in My wrath, those who exult in My glory.
The voice of a multitude in the mountains, as of many peoples: the voice of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts has given charge to the troops of war, coming from a distant land from the end of heaven: the Lord and the instruments of His fury, to destroy the whole earth.
Howl, for the day of the Lord is near; it shall come as devastation from the Lord.
For the stars of heaven, and their brightness, shall not spread their light: the sun is darkened at its rising, and the moon shall not shine with its light.
And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked their iniquity, and I will make the pride of the faithless to cease, and will bring low the arrogance of the strong.
And that glorious Babylon, the pride of the Chaldeans, shall be as when the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Chapter XIV
XIV. You shall take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shall say: How has the oppressor ceased, the tribute ended?
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers.
Hell below was in uproar to meet your coming, it stirred up the giants for you. All the princes of the earth have risen from their thrones, all the princes of the nations.
All shall answer and say to you: You also are wounded as we are, you have become like us.
Your pride has been dragged down to hell, your corpse has fallen: beneath you the moth shall be strewn, and worms shall be your covering.
How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning?
You who said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mountain of the testament, on the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.
But indeed you shall be dragged down to hell, into the depth of the pit.
Those who see you shall look upon you, and shall gaze at you: Is this the man who troubled the earth, who shook kingdoms?
Do not rejoice, all you Philistia, because the rod of your striker is broken: for from the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and its seed shall be a flying serpent.
And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Sion, and in it the poor of His people shall hope.
Chapter XV
XV. The burden of Moab. Because Ar Moab is laid waste by night, it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed by night, it is silent.
My heart shall cry out for Moab, its bars even to Segor, a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith he shall go up weeping, and in the way of Oronaim they shall raise a cry of destruction.
According to the greatness of their work, so shall be their visitation: they shall lead them to the torrent of willows.
Chapter XVI
XVI. Send forth the lamb, O Lord, the ruler of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion.
We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is very proud: his pride, and his arrogance, and his indignation are more than his strength.
Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall howl: to those who rejoice upon the walls of baked brick, speak of their wounds.
For this my heart shall sound for Moab like a harp, and my inward parts for the wall of baked brick.
Chapter XVII
XVII. The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus shall cease to be a city, and shall be as a heap of stones in ruin.
And there shall be left in it as a cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives on the top of a branch.
Chapter XVIII
XVIII. Woe to the land, the cymbal of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!
That sends ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters.
Go, swift angels, to a nation torn and rent apart: to a terrible people, after whom there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have plundered.
For before the harvest it was all in bloom, and an unripe fruition budded forth, and its little branches shall be cut off with pruning hooks: and what is left shall be cut away and shaken off.
At that time, a gift shall be brought to the Lord from a people torn and rent apart.
Chapter XIX
XIX. The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord shall ascend upon a light cloud, and shall enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.
The foolish princes of Tanis, the wise counselors of Pharaoh, have given senseless counsel. How will you say to Pharaoh: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Where now are your wise men? Let them tell you, and let them indicate what the Lord of hosts has purposed concerning Egypt.
The Lord has mingled in its midst a spirit of giddiness: and they have made Egypt to err in all its work, as a drunkard staggers and vomits.
In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of the sun.
In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord near its border.
In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and Assyria: a blessing in the midst of the earth.
Which the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed be My people of Egypt, and the work of My hands in Assyria; but My inheritance is Israel.
Chapter XX
XX. The Lord said to Isaiah: Go and loose the sackcloth from your loins, and take the sandals off your feet. And he did so, going naked and barefoot.
And the Lord said: As Isaiah has walked naked, so shall the king of the Assyrians lead the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, young and old, naked and barefoot.
Chapter XXI
XXI. The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the south, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. Babylon my beloved has become a wonder to me.
Set the table, watch in the watchtower while they eat and drink: arise, princes, seize the shield.
And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider on a donkey, and a rider on a camel: and he watched attentively with much diligence.
And a lion cried out: I stand upon the watchtower of the Lord continually by day: and I stand at my post through all the nights.
Behold, this one comes, a man riding in a chariot with horsemen, and he answered and said: Babylon has fallen, and all the graven images of its gods are shattered to the ground.
The burden of Dumah cries to me from Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said: The morning comes and also the night: if you seek, seek; be converted, come.
The burden upon Arabia. In the forest you shall sleep at evening, in the paths of Dedanim.
Chapter XXII
XXII. The burden of the valley of vision. What is the matter with you, that you also have all gone up to the housetops?
Full of clamor, a crowded city, an exulting city: your slain are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
And the Lord God of hosts shall call in that day to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to the girding of sackcloth.
And behold, joy and gladness, killing calves and slaying rams, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.
And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: This iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts.
Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Go, enter to him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna the overseer of the temple, and you shall say to him: What are you doing here, or as if you were somebody here? For you have hewn yourself a sepulchre here, you have carefully hewn out a memorial on high, a dwelling for yourself in the rock.
Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, as a rooster is carried away, and He will lift you up like a cloak.
And it shall be in that day: I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.
And I will clothe him with your tunic, and I will strengthen him with your girdle, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Chapter XXIII
XXIII. The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of the sea: for the house from which they were accustomed to come is destroyed.
Blush, O Sidon; for the sea speaks, the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labor, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished young men, nor raised up virgins.
Who has purposed this against Tyre, once crowned, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the nobles of the earth?
Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of the sea, there is no girdle left for you.
And it shall be in that day: you shall be forgotten, O Tyre, for seventy years, like the days of one king: but after seventy years, it shall be for Tyre as the song of a harlot.
Chapter XXIV
XXIV. Behold, the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it bare, and shall afflict its face, and scatter its inhabitants.
And it 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 him who demands, so with him who owes.
The joy of the drums has ceased, the noise of those who rejoice has stopped, the sweetness of the harp is silent.
The city of vanity is laid waste, every house is shut with none entering.
There shall be a cry over wine in the streets: all joy is forsaken: the gladness of the earth is carried away.
From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret is my own, woe is me! The transgressors have transgressed, and with the transgression of transgressors they have transgressed.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of His elders.
Chapter XXV
XXV. O Lord, You are my God, I will exalt You, and I will praise Your name: for You have done wonderful things, the counsels of old, faithful, amen.
For You have made the city a heap, the strong city a ruin, the house of strangers: that it may be no city, and may never be built.
Therefore shall a strong people praise You, the city of mighty nations shall fear You.
For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his tribulation: a hope from the whirlwind, a shade from the heat. For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind driving against a wall.
And the Lord of hosts shall make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of vintage, of fat things full of marrow, of vintage refined.
He shall cast down death forever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face.
And they shall 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 shall exult and rejoice in His salvation.
Chapter XXVI
XXVI. In that day this canticle shall be sung in the land of Judah.
Sion, the city of our strength, the Savior shall be set in it as a wall and a bulwark.
Open the gates, and let the just nation enter, that keeps the truth.
The old error has passed away: You will keep peace; peace, because we have hoped in You.
You have hoped in the Lord for everlasting ages, in the Lord God, the mighty One, forever.
O Lord, Your name and Your memorial are in the desire of the soul.
Let us have pity on the wicked, and he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he has done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
O Lord, You will give us peace: for all our works You have wrought for us.
Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore You have visited and destroyed them, and You have destroyed all their memory.
We have conceived, and we have been as if in labor, and we have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation in the earth; therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.
Your dead shall live, My slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is the dew of light, and the land of the giants You shall pull down to ruin.
Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your doors upon you, hide yourself a little for a moment; until the indignation passes away.
Chapter XXVII
XXVII. In that day the Lord shall visit with His hard, and great, and strong sword upon Leviathan the barred serpent, and upon Leviathan the crooked serpent, and He shall slay the whale that is in the sea.
In that day the vineyard of pure wine shall sing to Him.
I the Lord, who guard it, will suddenly give it drink, lest it be visited against; by night and by day I guard it.
Those who rush upon Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.
And all this fruit is that its sin may be taken away.
Chapter XXVIII
XXVIII. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of the glory of its exultation, who were on the summit of the fattest valley, staggering from wine!
The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot.
In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the remnant of His people.
For all the tables are full of vomit and filth, so that there is no more room.
Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand what is heard? Those who are weaned from the milk, those drawn away from the breasts.
For command upon command, command upon command, expect and expect again, expect and expect again, a little here, a little there.
And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command upon command, command upon command, expect and expect again, expect and expect again, a little here, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
For you have said: We have struck a covenant with death, and with hell we have made a pact.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lay in the foundations of Sion a tested stone, a corner stone, precious, founded in the foundation: whoever believes shall not make haste.
And your covenant with death shall be abolished, and your pact with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, you shall be trodden down by it; affliction alone shall make you understand what you hear.
For the bed is too narrow, so that one must fall out: and a short covering cannot cover both.
For the Lord shall stand as on the mountain of divisions: as in the valley that is in Gabaon, He shall be angry: that He may do His work, His strange work: that He may perform His work, His work is foreign to Him.
Shall the plowman plow all day to sow, shall he break and harrow his ground?
And He will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him.
Chapter XXIX
XXIX. Woe to Ariel, Ariel the city that David conquered!
And I will lay siege to Ariel, and it shall be sorrowful and mourning, and it shall be to Me as Ariel.
And I will surround you as a sphere round about, and I will raise up a mound against you, and I will set up fortifications to besiege you.
You shall be brought low, you shall speak from the earth, and your speech shall be heard from the ground: and your voice shall be as that of a python from the earth, and from the ground your speech shall whisper.
For the Lord has mixed upon you a spirit of deep sleep, He will close your eyes, your prophets and your rulers, who see visions, He will cover.
Woe to you who are deep in heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: whose works are in darkness, and who say: Who sees us, and who knows us?
Chapter XXX
XXX. The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of tribulation and distress, from which come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.
Who say to the seers: Do not see; and to the beholders: Do not behold for us the things that are right; speak to us pleasing things, see errors for us.
Thus says the Lord God of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved; in silence and in hope shall be your strength, and you would not.
And you have said: By no means, but we will flee upon horses: therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter who pursue you.
And the Lord will give you the bread of distress, and the water of scarcity: and He will not cause your Teacher to fly away any more: and your eyes shall see your Instructor.
And your ears shall hear the word behind you admonishing: This is the way, walk in it: and do not turn aside either to the right or to the left.
And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of His people.
For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep and wide. Its nourishment is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.
Chapter XXXI
XXXI. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and having confidence in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are exceedingly strong: and they have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and they have not sought the Lord.
Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses are flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall stretch out His hand, and the helper shall fall, and he who is helped shall fall, and they shall all be consumed together.
The Lord has said, whose fire is in Sion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Chapter XXXII
XXXII. Behold, a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.
The prince indeed shall think thoughts worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.
Until a spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall become Carmel, and Carmel shall be counted as a forest.
And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice silence and security forever.
And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest.
Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, sending in the foot of the ox and the donkey.
Chapter XXXIII
XXXIII. Woe to you who plunder, shall not you also be plundered? And you who despise, shall not you also be despised? When you have finished plundering, you shall be plundered; when, grown weary, you have ceased to despise, you shall be despised.
O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for You; be our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of tribulation.
And faith shall be in your times, the riches of salvation are wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is His treasure.
Behold, they that see shall cry without, the angels of peace shall weep bitterly.
The sinners in Sion are terrified, trembling has seized the hypocrites: which of you can dwell with devouring fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
His eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they shall behold the land from afar.
Your heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned man? Where is he who ponders the words of the law? Where is the teacher of little ones?
Look upon Sion, the city of our solemnity: your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a wealthy habitation, a tabernacle that can never be moved.
Chapter XXXIV
XXXIV. And all the host of the heavens shall waste away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down, as a leaf falls from the vine and from the fig tree.
The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the blood of the marrow of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bosra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
And its torrents shall be turned to pitch, and its ground to brimstone, and its land shall become burning pitch.
And the pelican and the hedgehog shall possess it: the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a measuring line shall be stretched over it to reduce it to nothing, and a plumb-line unto desolation.
And demons shall meet with centaurs, and the hairy one shall cry to his companion: there the lamia has lain down, and found rest for herself.
Chapter XXXV
XXXV. The desert and the pathless land shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall blossom as the lily.
It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Lebanon is given to it: the beauty of Carmel and Sharon: they themselves shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God.
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
And that which was dry shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the dens where dragons formerly dwelt, the green of the reed and the rush shall spring up.
And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come to Sion with praise, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
Chapter XXXVI
XXXVI. And Rabshakeh said: Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence in which you trust?
By what counsel or by what strength do you intend to rebel? In whom do you trust, that you have revolted from me?
Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
Chapter XXXVII
XXXVII. And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And Isaiah said to them: You shall say to your master: Thus says the Lord: Do not fear on account of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed Me.
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sits upon the Cherubim: You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth.
And now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You are the Lord alone.
And Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Concerning that which you have asked Me about Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.
Your dwelling place, and your going out, and your coming in I have known, and your rage against Me.
When you raged against Me, your pride ascended to My ears: therefore I will put a ring in your nose, and a bit in your lips, and I will lead you back by the way by which you came.
And the angel of the Lord went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold, all were corpses of the dead.
Chapter XXXVIII
XXXVIII. In those days Hezekiah was sick even unto death: and Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet came to him, and said to him: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and shall not live.
And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord.
And he said: I beseech You, O Lord, remember, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in Your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.
And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go, and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord 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: and I will deliver you from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and this city, and I will protect it.
And this shall be a sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which He has spoken.
Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, by which it has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, to return backward ten lines in the sun. And the sun went back ten lines by the steps by which it had gone down.
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his illness.
I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell; I sought the rest of my years.
I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living, I shall look upon man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.
I will recount to You all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter: but You have delivered my soul that it might not perish, You have cast behind Your back all my sins.
The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I also do this day: the father shall make known Your truth to his children.
O Lord, save me, and we shall sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
Chapter XXXIX
XXXIX. At that time Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
And Hezekiah showed them all the things that were in his treasuries.
And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
Behold, the days shall come, and all that is in your house, and that your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be taken away to Babylon.
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah: The word of the Lord which He has spoken is good. And he said: Only let there be peace and truth in my days.
Chapter XL
XL. Be comforted, be comforted, O My people, says your God: speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness His paths.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.
The voice of one saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of the field.
The grass is withered, and the flower has fallen: but the word of our Lord endures forever.
Get up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion: lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem: lift up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God.
As a shepherd He shall feed His flock: in His arm He shall gather the lambs, and in His bosom He shall lift them up; those with young He Himself shall carry.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and weighed the heavens with His palm? Who has poised the mass of the earth with three fingers, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Who has helped the spirit of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor, and showed Him?
All nations are as if they were not, so are they before Him, and they are counted to Him as nothing and emptiness.
To whom then have you likened God? Or what image will you set up to Him?
Has the craftsman cast a graven image? Or has the goldsmith fashioned it with gold, and the silversmith with plates of silver?
He who sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as locusts: He who stretches out the heavens as nothing, and spreads them out as a tabernacle to dwell in.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment has passed away from my God?
He who gives strength to the weary: and to those who are not, He multiplies fortitude and vigor.
Youths shall faint, and shall labor, and young men shall fall through weakness.
But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Chapter XLI
XLI. Who has raised up the just one from the East, and called him to follow? I the Lord, I am the first and the last.
And you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend.
Fear not, for I am with you: turn not aside, for I am your God: I have strengthened you, and have helped you, and the right hand of My just one has upheld you.
Fear not, you worm of Jacob, you who are dead of Israel: I have helped you, says the Lord: and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I will open rivers on the bare hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the impassable land into streams of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together.
Declare the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that you are gods.
The first to Sion shall say: Behold, I am here, and to Jerusalem I will give a bearer of good tidings.
Chapter XLII
XLII. Behold My servant, I will uphold Him: My chosen one, in whom My soul is well pleased: I have placed My spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth judgment to the nations.
He shall not cry out, nor show partiality, nor shall His voice be heard abroad.
The bruised reed He shall not break, and the smoking flax He shall not quench: in truth He shall bring forth judgment.
He shall not be sad, nor troubled, until He establishes judgment in the earth, and the islands shall wait for His law.
I have given You for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations.
That You might open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner from confinement, from the prison house those who sit in darkness.
I was always silent, I held My peace, I was patient: as a woman in labor I will speak, I will destroy and consume together.
And I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, I will make darkness before them into light. Hear, you deaf: and look, you blind, that you may see.
Who is blind, but My servant? And who is deaf, but he to whom I have sent My messengers?
Chapter XLIII
XLIII. And now thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you, and I have called you by your name: you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers shall not overwhelm you: when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for you.
Fear not, for I am with you: from the East I will bring your offspring, and from the West I will gather you.
I will say to the North: Give up; and to the South: Do not hold back: bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth.
I am, I am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me.
This people I have formed for Myself, they shall declare My praise.
I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Chapter XLIV
XLIV. This one shall say: I belong to the Lord: and that one shall call upon the name of Jacob: and another shall write with his hand, To the Lord, and shall take the name of Israel.
The makers of idols are all nothing, and their most beloved things shall not profit them; they themselves are witnesses against them, for they do not see nor understand, so that they may be confounded.
I have blotted out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as a mist: return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Praise, O heavens, for the Lord has shown mercy: shout for joy, O ends of the earth; resound, O mountains, with praise, the forest and every tree therein: for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified.
Who says to Cyrus: You are My shepherd, and you shall fulfill all My will. Who says to Jerusalem: You shall be built; and to the temple: You shall be founded.
Chapter XLV
XLV. Thus says the Lord to My anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs of kings: and I will open doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.
I will go before you, and I will humble the mighty of the earth: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and will shatter the bars of iron. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Forming light, and creating darkness: making peace, and creating evil: I the Lord who does all these things.
Drop down dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth the Savior, and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created Him.
Woe to him who contradicts his Maker, a potsherd of the clay of the earth. Shall the clay say to the potter: What are you making, and your work is without hands?
Woe to him who says to his father: Why do you beget? And to the woman: Why do you bring forth?
Thus says the Lord: The labor of Egypt, and the commerce of Ethiopia and the Sabaeans, tall men, shall come over to you, and shall be yours. They shall walk after you, they shall go bound in chains, and they shall worship you, and shall pray to you: only in you is God, and there is no God besides you.
By Myself I have sworn, the word of justice shall go forth from My mouth, and shall not return: for every knee shall be bowed to Me, and every tongue shall swear.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.
Chapter XLVI
XLVI. Bel is broken, Nebo is overthrown: their idols are become burdens for beasts and cattle, your loads, a heavy weight unto weariness.
Hear Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried from My womb, who are borne from My bowels.
Even to your old age I am the same, and to your gray hairs I will carry you: I have made, and I will bear: I will carry, and will save.
Calling a bird from the East, and from a far country the man of My will. And I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it.
Chapter XLVII
XLVII. Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no longer be called soft and tender.
And you have said: I shall be a mistress forever: you have not laid these things to your heart, nor have you remembered your latter end.
These two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood.
Chapter XLVIII
XLVIII. For I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze: I called you a transgressor from the womb.
For My name's sake I will remove My fury far away: and with My praise I will bridle you, lest you perish.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver: I have chosen you in the furnace of poverty.
O that you had heeded My commandments! Your peace would have been as a river, and your justice as the surges of the sea.
There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.
Chapter XLIX
XLIX. Hear, O islands, and attend, you peoples, from afar: the Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother He has been mindful of my name.
And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of His hand He has protected me, and has made me as a chosen arrow; in His quiver He has hidden me.
And He said to me: You are My servant, Israel, for in you I will be glorified.
And I said: I have labored in vain, without cause and in vain I have consumed my strength; therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.
Behold, I have given you for a light to the nations, that you may be My salvation even to the ends of the earth.
Thus says the Lord: In the acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you: and I have preserved you, and given you for a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the desolate inheritances.
That you might say to those who are bound: Come forth; and to those who are in darkness: Be revealed. They shall feed along the ways, and in all the plains their pastures shall be.
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them: for He who has mercy on them shall lead them, and shall give them drink at the fountains of waters.
Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, those from the north and the sea, and these from the land of the south.
Give praise, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth: break forth into song, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His poor.
And Sion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you upon My hands: your walls are before My eyes always.
And you shall say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me? I was barren, and bore not, exiled and captive: and who has nourished these? I was destitute and alone: and where were these?
And kings shall be your foster fathers, and queens your nurses: with face bowed down to the earth they shall worship you, and they shall lick the dust of your feet.
And I will feed your enemies with their own flesh: and with their own blood, as with new wine, they shall be inebriated: and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Chapter L
L. Thus says the Lord: Where is the bill of divorce of your mother, by which I put her away? Or who is My creditor, to whom I sold you? Behold, you are sold for your iniquities, and for your sins I have put away your mother.
The Lord has given me a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold by a word him who is weary: He wakens in the morning, in the morning He wakens my ear, that I may hear as a master.
The Lord God has opened my ear, and I do not resist, I have not turned back.
I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked them: I have not turned my face away from those who rebuked me, and those who spat upon me.
The Lord God is my helper, therefore I am not confounded: therefore I have set my face as the hardest rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded.
Chapter LI
LI. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you: for I called him alone and blessed him, and multiplied him.
The Lord therefore shall comfort Sion, and shall comfort all her ruins; and He shall make her desert as a place of delight, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.
Do not fear the reproach of men, and do not dread their blasphemies.
For as a garment, so shall the worm eat them: and as wool, so shall the moth devour them: but My salvation shall be forever, and My justice from generation to generation.
Arise, arise, put on strength, O arm of the Lord: arise as in the days of old, in the generations of ages. Was it not You who struck the proud one, who wounded the dragon?
And now those who are redeemed by the Lord shall return, and shall come to Sion with praise, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall possess joy and gladness; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
I, I Myself will comfort you: who are you that you should fear mortal man, and the son of man, who shall wither as grass?
Chapter LII
LII. Arise, arise, put on your strength, O Sion, put on the garments of your glory, O Jerusalem, city of the Holy One: for henceforth the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no more pass through you.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who announces and preaches peace; who announces good, who preaches salvation, who says to Sion: Your God shall reign!
The Lord has prepared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing: go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
Chapter LIII
LIII. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of thirsty ground.
There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness: and we saw Him, and there was no appearance, and we desired Him.
Truly He has borne our infirmities, and He has carried our sorrows: and we accounted Him as a leper, and as one struck by God and humbled.
All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned aside into his own way: and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
He was offered because He Himself willed it, and He opened not His mouth: He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be mute as a lamb before its shearer, and He shall not open His mouth.
He was taken away from distress and from judgment: who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living: for the wickedness of My people I have struck Him.
And He shall give the wicked for His burial, and the rich for His death: because He has done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in His mouth.
Therefore I will distribute to Him very many, and He shall divide the spoils of the strong; because He delivered His soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and He bore the sins of many, and prayed for the transgressors.
Chapter LIV
LIV. Give praise, O barren one, who bore not: sing forth praise and rejoice, you who were not in labor: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband, says the Lord.
For a brief moment I forsook you, and in great mercies I will gather you.
O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without any consolation. Behold, I will set your stones in order, and will lay your foundations with sapphires.
And I will make your bulwarks of jasper, and your gates of carved stones, and all your borders of desirable stones.
And you shall be founded in justice: depart far from oppression, for you shall not fear: and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Chapter LV
LV. All you who thirst, come to the waters: and you who have no silver, make haste, buy, and eat: come, buy without silver, and without any exchange, wine and milk.
Why do you spend silver for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul shall delight in richness.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David.
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and a teacher to the nations.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
For you shall go out with joy, and shall be led forth in peace: the mountains and the hills shall sing before you with praise, and all the trees of the country shall clap their hands.
Chapter LVI
LVI. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Those who keep My sabbaths, and choose the things that I wish, and hold fast My covenant.
I will give them in My house, and within My walls, a place and a name better than sons and daughters, an everlasting name I will give them, which shall not perish.
All their watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping, and loving dreams.
Chapter LVII
LVII. The just man perishes, and no one considers in his heart, and men of mercy are gathered, because there is none who understands; for the just man is taken away from the face of evil.
For thus says the Most High, the Lofty One who inhabits eternity.
Because of the iniquity of his avarice I was angry, and I struck him; I hid My face from you, and was indignant, and he went wandering in the way of his own heart.
But the wicked are like a raging sea, which cannot rest.
There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord God.
Chapter LVIII
LVIII. Cry, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their transgressions.
Why have we fasted, and You have not regarded us? We have humbled our souls, and You have not known it?
Behold, in the day of your fasting your own will is found.
Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? Loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress.
Break your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house: when you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall speedily arise; and your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather you up.
And the desolations of ages shall be built up in you: you shall raise up the foundations of generation and generation: and you shall be called the repairer of the fences, he who turns the paths to rest.
If you call the sabbath delightful, and the holy day of the Lord glorious, and glorify it while you do not follow your own ways, and your own will is not found.
Then shall you delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
Chapter LIX
LIX. Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue utters wickedness.
Their webs shall not serve for clothing, neither shall they be covered with their works: their works are useless works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: devastation and destruction are in their ways.
They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps. Their paths are crooked for them: everyone who treads in them knows no peace.
For our iniquities are multiplied before You, and our sins have testified against us: for our transgressions are with us, and our iniquities we have known.
And judgment is turned backward, and justice has stood far off: for truth has fallen in the street, and equity could not enter.
But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
They have conceived toil, and brought forth iniquity.
They have hatched the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of spiders: whoever eats of their eggs shall die: and that which is hatched shall break forth into a basilisk.
We have groped for the wall like the blind, and we have groped as if without eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in the darkness, in dark places as the dead.
We shall all roar like bears, and shall mourn as doves meditating: we have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us.
And He saw that there is no man; and He was amazed, because there is none to oppose: and His own arm wrought salvation for Him, and His own justice upheld Him.
The Lord put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head: He put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak.
Chapter LX
LX. Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the peoples: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you.
And the nations shall walk in your light, and kings in the splendor of your rising.
A flood of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming praise to the Lord.
Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?
Because you were forsaken, and held in hatred, and there was none who passed through you, I will make you the pride of ages, a joy from generation to generation.
And you shall suck the milk of the nations, and you shall be nursed at the breasts of kings: and you shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
For bronze I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood bronze, and for stones iron: and I will make your visitation peace, and your overseers justice.
Salvation shall possess your walls, and praise your gates: and your people shall all be just, they shall inherit the land forever, the shoot of My planting. The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most mighty nation.
Chapter LXI
LXI. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me: He has sent Me to bring good tidings to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach release to the captives, and opening to those who are shut up.
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all who mourn.
To give to those who mourn in Sion, and to give them a crown instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of grief: and they shall be called in her the mighty ones of justice, the planting of the Lord unto glory.
But you shall be called the priests of the Lord, the ministers of our God it shall be said to you: You shall eat the strength of the nations, and you shall pride yourselves in their glory.
All who see them shall know them; for these are the seed whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall exult in my God: for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; and with the robe of justice He has covered me, as a bridegroom adorned with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.
Chapter LXII
LXII. For the sake of Sion I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until her just one comes forth as brightness, and her Savior is kindled as a lamp.
And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be called Forsaken: and your land shall no more be called Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Inhabited: for the Lord has taken pleasure in you, and your land shall be inhabited.
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen, all the day and all the night forever they shall not be silent: you who are mindful of the Lord, do not be silent.
And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.
Chapter LXIII
LXIII. Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? This beautiful one in His robe, striding in the greatness of His strength. I who speak justice, and am a defender to save.
Why then is Your garment red, and Your apparel like theirs that tread in the winepress?
I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is not a man with Me: I have trampled on them in My fury, and have trodden them down in My wrath: and their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in My heart, the year of My recompense has come.
Look down from heaven, and behold from Your holy habitation: where is Your zeal, and Your strength, the multitude of Your tender mercies and of Your compassions? Over me they have restrained themselves.
For You are our father, and Abraham does not know us, and Israel is ignorant of us: You, O Lord, are our father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is Your name.
Chapter LXIV
LXIV. O that You would rend the heavens, and come down! The mountains would melt at Your face.
From of old they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye has not seen, O God, besides You, what You have prepared for those who wait for You.
And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the cloth of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have carried us away.
And now, O Lord, You are our father; and we are clay: and You are our Maker, and we are all the work of Your hands.
The house of our sanctification and our glory, where our fathers praised You, has been consumed by fire, and all our desirable things are turned to ruins.
Will You hold Yourself back upon these things, O Lord, will You be silent, and will You afflict us exceedingly?
Chapter LXV
LXV. They have sought Me who before did not ask, they have found Me who did not seek Me. I said: Behold Me, behold Me, to a nation that did not call upon My name.
Thus says the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it be said: Do not destroy it, for it is a blessing: so will I do for the sake of My servants: and My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there.
And you who have forsaken the Lord, who have forgotten My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune, and offer libations upon it.
I will number you for the sword, and you shall all fall by the slaughter: because I called, and you did not answer: I spoke, and you did not hear: and you did evil in My eyes; and you chose the things I did not will.
For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former things shall not be in remembrance, nor shall they come upon the heart.
There shall no more be an infant of days, nor an old man who does not fill his days: for a child of a hundred years shall die, and a sinner of a hundred years shall be accursed.
Chapter LXVI
LXVI. Thus says the Lord: Heaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet: what is this house that you will build for Me, and what is this place of My rest?
A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord rendering recompense to His enemies.
Before she was in labor, she brought forth: before the time of her delivery came, she brought forth a male child.
Shall I who make others bring forth, not bring forth Myself? says the Lord: shall I who give generation to others, be barren? says the Lord your God.
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all you who love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her.
For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will incline toward her as a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the nations, which you shall drink: you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you.
As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you, and in Jerusalem you shall be comforted.
For behold, the Lord shall come in fire, and His chariots as a whirlwind; to render His wrath in indignation, and His rebuke in flames of fire.
And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of those who shall be saved to the nations, and I will bring all your brethren as an offering to the Lord on horses and in chariots.
And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath: all flesh shall come to worship before My face, says the Lord.
And they shall go out, and shall see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be even to the satiety of vision for all flesh.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.