Ye that have been borne by me from the birth; 4 And even to your old age, I am the same; 5 I will carry, and will deliver you. To whom will ye liken me, and equal me? And to whom will ye compare me, that we may be like? 6 Ye that lavish gold out of the bag; And that weigh silver in the balance? They hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god: They worship him; yea, they prostrate themselves before him. 7 They bear him on the shoulder; they carry him about; They set him down in his place, and he standeth: From his place he shall not remove; 8 To him that crieth unto him, he will not answer; Remember this, and shew yourselves men: 9 Remember the former things, of old time: I am God, nor is there any thing like me: 10 From the beginning making known the end; And from early times, the things that are not yet done : And whatever I have.willed, I will effect. 11 Calling from the east the eagle; 12 And from a land far distant, the man of my counsel : As I have spoken, so will I bring it to pass; I have formed the design, and I will execute it. Hearken unto me, 0 ye stubborn of heart; Ye that are far distant from deliverance : 13 I bring my promised deliverance near, it shall not be far distant; And my salvation shall not be delayed. And I will give in Sion salvation; To Israel I will give my glory. CHAP. 1 DESCEND, and sit on the dust, O virgin daughter of Sit on the bare ground without a throne, O daughter of For thou shalt no longer be called the tender, and the delicate. 2 Take the mill, and grind the corn: Uncover thy locks, disclose thy flowing hair; Make bare thy leg; wade through the rivers. 3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered; even thy shame shall be seen: 4 5 I will take full vengeance; neither will I suffer man to intercede with me. Our avenger, JEHOVAH God of Hosts, The Holy One of Israel, is his name! Sit thou in silence, go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For thou shalt no longer be called the lady of the kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; And I gave them up into thy hand: Thou didst not shew mercy unto them; Even upon the aged didst thou greatly aggravate the weight of thy yoke. 7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: Because thou didst not attentively consider these things; Thou didst not think on what was in the end to befall thee. 8 But hear now this, O thou voluptuous, that sittest in security; Thou that sayest in thy heart, I am, and there is none else; I shall not sit a widow; I shall not know the loss of children. 9 Yet shall these two things come upon thee in a moment; In one day, loss of children and widowhood: On a sudden shall they come upon thee; Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great strength of thine enchantments. 10 But thou didst trust in thy wickedness, and saidst, None seeth me: Thy wisdom and thy knowledge have preverted thy mind; So that thou hast said in thy heart, I am, and there is none besides. 11 Therefore evil shall come upon thee, which thou shalt not know how to deprecate; And mischief shall fall upon thee, which thou shalt not be able to expiate; And destruction shall come upon thee suddenly, of which thou shalt have no apprehension. 12 Persist now in thine enchantments; And in the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth; If peradventure thou mayest be profited, if thou mayest be strengthened by them. 13 Thou art wearied in the multiplicity of thy counsels : The observers of the heavens, the gazers on the stars; What are the events that shall happen unto thee. 14 Behold they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them up: They shall not deliver their own souls from the power of the flame; Not a coal to warm one, not a fire to sit by, shall be left of them. 15 Such shall these be unto thee, with whom thou hast laboured; CHAP. 1 XLVIII. Thy negociators, with whom thou hast dealt from thy youth: Every one shall turn aside to his own business; none shall deliver thee. Hear this, O house of Jacob; Ye that are called by the name of Israel : 2 Who take their name from the Holy City, And make the God of Israel their support; 3 The former things I showed unto you from the first; And from my mouth they proceeded, and I declared them : On a sudden I effected them, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that thou wast obstinate, And that thy neck was a sinew of iron, 5 Therefore I showed them unto thee from the first; Before they should come to pass, I made thee hear them: Lest thou shouldst say, Mine idol hath caused them; And my graven and my molten image hath directed them. 6 Thou didst hear it beforehand; behold, the whole is accomplished: And will ye not openly acknowledge this? From this time I make thee hear new things, Kept secret hitherto, and of which thou hast no knowledge: 7 They are produced now, and not of old; And before this day thou hast not heard them : 8 Yea, thou hast not heard, thou hast not known, For I knew, that thou wouldst certainly deal falsely, And that Apostate was thy name from thy birth. 9 For the sake of my name I will defer mine anger; And for the sake of my praise I will restrain it from thee, That I may not utterly cut thee off. 10 Behold, I have purified thee in the fire, but not as silver; I have tried thee in the furnace of affliction. 11 For mine own sake will I do it; for how would my name be blasphemed? 12 And my glory I will not give to another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob my servant; And Israel, whom I have called. I am He; I am the first, and I am the last: 13 Yea my hand hath founded the earth; And my right hand hath spanned the heavens: I summon them; they present themselves together. K 14 Gather yourselves together all of you, and hear; 16 17 Draw near unto me, and hear ye this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; Thus saith JEHOVAH, Thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am JEHOVAH, thy God; Who teacheth thee what will tend to thy profit; Who directeth thee in the way wherein thou shouldst go. 18 O that thou hadst attended to my commands! Then had thy prosperity been like the river; And thy blessedness, as the floods of the sea: 19 And thy seed had been as the sand; 20 And the issue of thy bowels, like that of the bowels thereof: Thy name should not be cut off, nor destroyed from before me. Come ye forth from Babylon; flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans with the voice of joy : Publish ye this, and make it heard: utter it forth even to the end of the earth : Say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob; 21 They thirsted not in the deserts, through which he made them go; 22 CHAP. 1 Waters from the rock he caused to flow for them; HEARKEN unto me, O ye distant lands; JEHOVAH from the womb hath called me ; |