The Holy BiblePart 42 out of 74Sanctified to the Lord. . .This alludes to the conversion of the Gentiles. Isaias Chapter 24 The judgments of God upon all the sinners of the world. A remnant shall joyfully praise him. 24:1. Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. 24:2. 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 that calleth for his money, so with him that oweth. 24:3. With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. 24:4. The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened. 24:5. And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. 24:6. Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left. 24:7. The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished away, all the merry have sighed. 24:8. The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. 24:9. They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 24:10. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man cometh in. 24:11. There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away. 24:12. Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the gates. 24:13. For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. 24:14. These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea. 24:15. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. 24:16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated. 24:17. Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth. 24:18. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. 24:19. With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved. 24:20. With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. 24:21. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth. The host of heaven on high. . .The stars, which in many places of the Scripture are so called. Some commentators explain that these words here signify the demons of the air. 24:22. And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited. 24:23. And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients. Isaias Chapter 25 A canticle of thanksgiving for God's judgments and benefits. 25:1. O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt O thee, and give glory to thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things, thy designs of old faithful, amen. 25:2. For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers, to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever. 25:3. Therefore shall a strong people praise thee, the city of mighty nations shall fear thee. 25:4. Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall. 25:5. Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away. 25:6. And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. 25:7. And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations. 25:8. He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. 25:9. And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyful in his salvation. 25:10. For the hand of the Lord shall rest in this mountain: and Moab shall be trodden down under him, as straw is broken in pieces with the wain. Moab. . .That is, the reprobate, whose eternal punishment, from which they can no way escape, is described under these figures. 25:11. And he shall stretch forth his hands under him, as he that swimmeth stretcheth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down his glory with the dashing of his hands. 25:12. And the bulwarks of thy high walls shall fall, and be brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to the dust. Isaias Chapter 26 A canticle of thanks for the deliverance of God's people. 26:1. In that day shall this canticle be sung in the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein. 26:2. Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in. 26:3. The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee. 26:4. You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever. 26:5. For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust. 26:6. The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. 26:7. The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in. 26:8. And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul. 26:9. My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice. 26:10. Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord. 26:11. Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies. 26:12. Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us. 26:13. O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name. 26:14. Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory. 26:15. Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off. 26:16. Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them. 26:17. As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord. 26:18. We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen. 26:19. Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin. 26:20. Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away. 26:21. For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more. Shall cover her slain no more. . .This is said with relation to the martyrs, and their happy resurrection. Isaias Chapter 27 The punishment of the oppressors of God's people. The Lord's favour to his church. 27:1. In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea. Leviathan. . .That is, the devil, the great enemy of the people of God. He is called the bar serpent from his strength, and the crooked serpent from his wiles; and the whale of the sea, from the tyranny he exercises in the sea of this world. He was spiritually slain by the death of Christ, when his power was destroyed. 27:2. In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine. The vineyard, etc. . .The church of Christ. 27:3. I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day. I will suddenly give it drink. . .Or, as the Hebrew may also be rendered, I will continually water it. 27:4. There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall I march against it, shall, I set it on fire together? No indignation in me, etc. . .Viz., against the church: nor shall I become as a thorn or brier in its regard; or march against it, or set it on fire: but it shall always take fast hold of me, and keep an everlasting peace with me. 27:5. Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me? 27:6. When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed. When they shall rush in, etc. . .Some understand this of the enemies of the true Israel, that shall invade it in vain. Others of the spiritual invasion made by the apostles of Christ. 27:7. Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him? Hath he struck him, etc. . .Hath God punished the carnal persecuting Jews, in proportion to their doings against Christ and his saints? 27:8. In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat. When it shall be cast off, etc. . .When the synagogue shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it in measure, and in proportion to its crimes.--Ibid. He hath meditated, etc. . .God hath designed severe punishments in the day of his wrath. 27:9. Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand. Of the house of Jacob. . .Viz., of such of them as shall be converted. 27:10. For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches. The strong city. . .Jerusalem. 27:11. Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it. 27:12. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel. 27:13. And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem. A great trumpet. . .The preaching of the gospel for the conversion of the Jews. Isaias Chapter 28 The punishment of the Israelites, for their pride, intemperance, and contempt of religion. Christ the cornerstone. 28:1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower the glory his joy, who were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine. Ephraim. . .That is, the kingdom of the ten tribes.--Ibid. The head of the fat valley. . .Samaria, situate on a hill, having under it a most fertile valley. 28:2. Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail: a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land. 28:3. The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet. 28:4. And the fading tower the glory of his joy, who is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up. 28:5. In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people: 28:6. And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle to the gate. 28:7. But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of judgment. These also. . .The kingdom of Juda. 28:8. For all the tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place. 28:9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts. 28:10. For command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there. Command, command again, etc. . .This is said in the person of the Jews, resisting the repeated commands of God, and still putting him off. 28:11. For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people. 28:12. To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear. 28:13. And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. 28:14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem. 28:15. For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected. 28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten. A stone in the foundations. . .Viz., Christ.--Ibid. Let him not hasten, etc. . .Let him expect his coming with patience. 28:17. And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection. 28:18. And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it. 28:19. Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away: because in the morning early it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear. 28:20. For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both. The bed is straitened, etc. . .It is too narrow to hold two: God will have the bed of our heart all to himself. 28:21. For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions: he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him. As in the mountain, etc. . .As the Lord fought against the Philistines in Baal Pharasim, 2 Kings 5., and against the Chanaanites, in the valley of Gabaon, Jos. 10. 28:22. And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait. For I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth. 28:23. Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech. 28:24. Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow, shall he open and harrow his ground? 28:25. Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, sow gith, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds? 28:26. For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him. 28:27. For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a staff. 28:28. But breadcorn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth. 28:29. This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice. This also, etc. . .Such also is the proceeding of the Lord with his land, and the divers seeds he throws therein. Isaias Chapter 29 God's heavy judgments upon Jerusalem, for their obstinacy: with a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles. 29:1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year. the solemnities are at an end. Ariel. . .This word signifies, the lion of God, and here is taken for the strong city of Jerusalem. 29:2. And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel. 29:3. And I will make a circle round about thee, and I will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee. 29:4. Thou shalt be brought down, thou shall speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground: and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the python, and out of the earth thy speech shall mutter. 29:5. And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away, the multitude of them that have prevailed against thee. 29:6. And it shall be at an instant suddenly. A visitation shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and tempest; and with the flame of devouring fire. 29:7. And the multitude of all nations that have fought against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night, and all that have fought, and besieged and prevailed against it. 29:8. And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth, and drinketh and after he is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles, that have fought against mount Sion. 29:9. Be astonished, and wonder, waver, and stagger: be drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with drunkenness. 29:10. For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a deep sleep, he will shut up your eyes, he will cover your prophets and princes, that see visions. 29:11. And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed which when they shall deliver to one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed. 29:12. And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters. 29:13. And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men: 29:14. Therefore behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 29:15. Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? 29:16. This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not. 29:17. Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a forest? Charmel. . .This word signifies a fruitful field. 29:18. And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind shall see. 29:19. And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 29:20. For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for iniquity: 29:21. That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the just. 29:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed: 29:23. But when he shall see his children, the work of my hands in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the God of Israel: 29:24. And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding, and they that murmured, shall learn the law. Isaias Chapter 30 The people are blamed for their confidence in Egypt. God's mercies towards his church. The punishment of sinners. 30:1. Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin: 30:2. Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharao, and trusting in the shadow of Egypt. 30:3. And the strength of Pharao shall be to your confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt to your shame. 30:4. For thy princes were in Tanis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes. 30:5. They were all confounded at a people that could not profit them: they were no help, nor to any profit, but to confusion and to reproach. 30:6. The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness, and the lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not be able to profit them. 30:7. For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only, sit still. 30:8. Now therefore go in and write for them upon box, and note it diligently in a book, and it shall be in the latter days for a testimony for ever. 30:9. For it is a people that provoketh to wrath, and lying children that will not hear the law of God. 30:10. Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that behold: Behold not for us those things that are right: speak unto us pleasant things, see errors for us. 30:11. Take away from me the way, turn away the path from me, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us. 30:12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and tumult, and have leaned upon it: 30:13. Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and is found wanting in a high wall, for the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden, when it is not looked for. 30:14. And it shall be broken small, as the potter's vessel is broken all to pieces with mighty breaking, and there shall not a sherd be found of the pieces thereof, wherein a little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a little water be drawn out of the pit. 30:15. For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall your strength be. And you would not: 30:16. But have said: No, but we will flee to horses: therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue after you. 30:17. A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill. 30:18. Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 30:19. For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee. 30:20. And the Lord will give you spare bread, and short water: and will not cause thy teacher to flee away from thee any more, and thy eyes shall see thy teacher. 30:21. And thy ears shall hear the word of one admonishing thee behind thy back: This is the way, walk ye in it: and go not aside neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 30:22. And thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven things of silver, and the garment of thy molten things of gold, and shalt cast them away as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. Thou shalt say to it: Get thee hence. 30:23. And rain shall be given to thy seed, wheresoever thou shalt sow in the land: and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful, and fat. The lamb in that day shall feed at large in thy possession: 30:24. And thy oxen, and the ass colts that till the ground, shall eat mingled provender as it was winnowed in the floor. 30:25. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill rivers of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the tower shall fall. 30:26. 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, and shall heal the stroke of their wound. 30:27. Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, his wrath burneth, and is heavy to bear: his lips are filled with indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire. 30:28. His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the midst of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people. 30:29. You shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as where one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. 30:30. And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard, and shall shew the terror of his arm, in the threatening of wrath, and the flame of devouring fire: he shall crush to pieces with whirlwind, and hailstones. 30:31. For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear being struck with the rod. 30:32. And the passage of the rod shall be strongly grounded, which the Lord shall make to rest upon him with timbrels and harps, and in great battles he shall overthrow them. 30:33. For Topheth is prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep, and wide. The nourishment thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord as a torrent of brimstone kindling it. Topheth. . .It is the same as Gehenna, and is taken for hell. Isaias Chapter 31 The folly of trusting to Egypt, and forgetting God. He will fight for his people against the Assyrians. 31:1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they are many: and in horsemen, because they are very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord. 31:2. But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity. 31:3. Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together. 31:4. For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion roareth, and the lions whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof. 31:5. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving. 31:6. Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 31:7. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin. 31:8. And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he shall flee not at the face of the sword, and his young men shall be tributaries. 31:9. And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. Isaias Chapter 32 The blessings of the reign of Christ. The desolation of the Jews, and prosperity of the church of Christ. 32:1. Behold a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment. 32:2. And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land. 32:3. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently. 32:4. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily and plain. 32:5. The fool shall no more be called prince: neither shall the deceitful be called great: 32:6. For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and speak to the Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and take away drink from the thirsty. 32:7. The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he hath framed devices to destroy the meek, with lying words, when the poor man speaketh judgment. 32:8. But the prince will devise such things as are worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers. 32:9. Rise up, ye rich women, and hear my voice: ye confident daughters, give ear to my speech. 32:10. For after days and a year, you that are confident shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the gathering shall come no more. 32:11. Be astonished, ye rich women, be troubled, ye confident ones: strip you, and be confounded, gird your loins. 32:12. Mourn for your breasts, for the delightful country, for the fruitful vineyard. 32:13. Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced? 32:14. For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever. A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks. 32:15. Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall be as a charmel, and charmel shall be counted for a forest. 32:16. An judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and justice shall sit in charmel. 32:17. And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness, and security for ever. 32:18. And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest. 32:19. But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be made very low. 32:20. Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass. Isaias Chapter 33 God's revenge against the enemies of his church. The happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem. 33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thyself also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied thou shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised. That spoilest, etc. . .This is particularly directed to Sennacherib. 33:2. O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble. 33:3. At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations are scattered. 33:4. And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them. 33:5. The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgment and justice. 33:6. And there shall be faith in thy times: riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure. 33:7. Behold they that see shall cry without, the angels of peace shall weep bitterly. The angels of peace. . .The messengers or deputies sent to negotiate a peace. 33:8. The ways are made desolate, no one passeth by the road, the covenant is made void, he hath rejected the cities, he hath not regarded the men. 33:9. The land hath mourned, and languished: Libanus is confounded, and become foul, and Saron is become as a desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken. 33:10. Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. 33:11. You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath as fire shall devour you. 33:12. And the people shall be as ashes after a fire, as a bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire. 33:13. Hear, you that are far off, what I have done, and you that are near know my strength. 33:14. The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 33:15. He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil. 33:16. He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure. 33:17. His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall see the land far off. 33:18. Thy heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned? where is he that pondered the words of the law? where is the teacher of little ones? 33:19. The shameless people thou shalt not see, the people of profound speech: so that thou canst not understand the eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom. 33:20. Look upon Sion the city of our solemnity: thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 33:21. Because only there our Lord is magnificent: a place of rivers, very broad and spacious streams: no ship with oars shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass through it. Of rivers. . .He speaks of the rivers of endless joys that flow from the throne of God to water the heavenly Jerusalem, where no enemy's ship can come, etc. 33:22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us. 33:23. Thy tacklings are loosed, and they shall be of no strength: thy mast shall be in such condition, that thou shalt not be able to spread the flag. Then shall the spoils of much prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil. Thy tacklings. . .He speaks of the enemies of the church, under the allegory of a ship that is disabled. 33:24. Neither shall he that is near, say: I am feeble. The people that dwell therein, shall have their iniquity taken away from them. Isaias Chapter 34 The general judgment of the wicked. 34:1. Come near, ye Gentiles, and hear, and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and every thing that cometh forth of it. 34:2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath killed them, and delivered them to slaughter. 34:3. Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their carcasses shall rise a stink: the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 34:4. And all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, and from the fig tree. And all the host of the heavens. . .That is, the sun, moon, and stars. 34:5. For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment. Idumea. . .Under the name of Idumea, or Edom a people that were enemies of the Jews, are here understood the wicked in general, the enemies of God and his church. 34:6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with the blood of lambs and buck goats, with the blood of rams full of marrow: for there is a victim of the Lord in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 34:7. And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones. The unicorns. . .That is, the great and mighty. 34:8. For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion. The year of recompenses, etc. . .When the persecutors of Sion, that is, of the church, shall receive their reward. 34:9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 34:10. Night and day it shall not be quenched, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 34:11. The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a plummet, unto desolation. 34:12. The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall be nothing. 34:13. And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches. 34:14. And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself. 34:15. There hath the ericius had its hole, and brought up its young ones, and hath dug round about, and cherished them in the shadow thereof: thither are the kites gathered together one to another. 34:16. Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought for the other: for that which proceedeth out of my mouth, he hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 34:17. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation they shall dwell therein. Isaias Chapter 35 The joyful flourishing of Christ's kingdom: in his church shall be a holy and secure way. 35:1. The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. 35:2. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God. 35:3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees. 35:4. Say to the fainthearted: Take courage, and fear not: behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God himself will come and will save you. 35:5. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 35:6. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness. 35:7. And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush. 35:8. And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein. 35:9. No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered. 35:10. And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Isaias Chapter 36 Sennacherib invades Juda: his blasphemies. 36:1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them. 36:2. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller's field. 36:3. And there went out to him Eliacim the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder. 36:4. And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence wherein thou trustest? 36:5. Or with what counsel or strength dost thou prepare for war? on whom dost thou trust, that thou art revolted from me? 36:6. Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king of Egypt to all that trust in him. 36:7. But if thou wilt answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar? 36:8. And now deliver thyself up to my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able on thy part to find riders for them. 36:9. And how wilt thou stand against the face of the judge of one place, of the least of my master's servants? But if thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen: 36:10. And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it. 36:11. And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe said to Rabsaces: Speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue: for we understand it: speak not to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people, that are upon the wall. 36:12. And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you? 36:13. Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. 36:14. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you. 36:15. And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. 36:16. Do not hearken to Ezechias: for thus said the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the water of his cistern, 36:17. Till I come and take you away to a land, like to your own, a land of corn and of wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 36:18. Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians? 36:19. Where is the god of Emath and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 36:20. Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? 36:21. And they held their peace, and answered him not a word. For the king had commanded, saying: Answer him not. 36:22. And Eliacim the son of Helcias, that was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder, went in to Ezechias with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces. Isaias Chapter 37 Ezechias, his mourning and prayer. God's promise of protection. The Assyrian army is destroyed. Sennacherib is slain. 37:1. And it came to pass, when king Ezechias had heard it, that he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 37:2. And he sent Eliacim who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaias the son of Amos the prophet. 37:3. And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 37:4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up by prayer for the remnant that is left. 37:5. And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaias. 37:6. And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me. 37:7. Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own country, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country. 37:8. And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna. For he had heard that he was departed from Lachis. 37:9. And he heard say about Tharaca the king of Ethiopia: He is come forth to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying: 37:10. Thus shall you speak to Ezechias the king of Juda, saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. 37:11. Behold thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries which they have destroyed, and canst thou be delivered? 37:12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar? 37:13. Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava? 37:14. And Ezechias took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord, and Ezechias spread it before the Lord. 37:15. And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying: 37:16. Lord of hosts, God of Israel who sitteth upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. 37:17. Incline, O Lord, thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God. 37:18. For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries. 37:19. And they have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood and stone: and they broke them in pieces. 37:20. And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord. 37:21. And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: For the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians: 37:22. This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee. 37:23. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 37:24. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord: and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus: and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees, and will enter to the top of its height, to the forest of its Carmel. Carmel. . .See these figurative expressions explained in the annotations on the nineteenth chapter of the fourth book of Kings. 37:25. I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot, all the rivers shut up in banks. 37:26. Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? from the days of old I have formed it: and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together, and fenced cities should be destroyed. 37:27. The inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was ripe. 37:28. I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 37:29. When thou wast mad against me, thy pride came up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. 37:30. But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the things that spring of themselves, and in the second year eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 37:31. And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda, and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear fruit upward: 37:32. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and salvation from mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. 37:33. Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it. 37:34. By the way that he came, he shall return, and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord. 37:35. And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant. 37:36. And the angel of the Lord went out and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all dead corpses. 37:37. And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive. 37:38. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. Isaias Chapter 38 Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by prayer a prolongation of his life: in confirmation of which the sun goes back. The canticle of Ezechias. 38:1. In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet cane unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live. 38:2. And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, 38:3. And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Ezechias wept with great weeping. 38:4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying: 38:5. Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years: 38:6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it. 38:7. And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken: 38:8. Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down. 38:9. The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness. 38:10. I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years. Hell. . .Sheol, or Hades, the region of the dead. 38:11. I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest. 38:12. My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. 38:13. I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. 38:14. I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me. 38:15. What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 38:16. O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live. 38:17. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 38:18. For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth. 38:19. The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make the truth known to the children. 38:20. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. 38:21. Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed. 38:22. And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? Isaias Chapter 39 Ezechias shews all his treasures to the ambassadors of Babylon: upon which Isaias foretells the Babylonish captivity. 39:1. At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered. 39:2. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not. 39:3. Then Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon. 39:4. And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures. 39:5. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 39:6. Behold the days shall come that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall not any thing be left, saith the Lord. 39:7. And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 39:8. And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which he hath spoken, is good. And he said: Only let peace and truth be in my days. Isaias Chapter 40 The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins. God's almighty power and majesty. 40:1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God. 40:2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. 40:3. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. 40:4. 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. 40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. 40:6. The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. 40:7. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass: 40:8. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever. 40:9. Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God: 40:10. Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him. 40:11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young. 40:12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 40:13. Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him? 40:14. With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding? 40:15. Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust. 40:16. And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. 40:17. All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity. 40:18. To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him? 40:19. Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver? 40:20. He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved. 40:21. Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth? 40:22. It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. 40:23. He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity. 40:24. And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 40:25. And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith the Holy One? 40:26. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing. 40:27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 40:28. Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom. 40:29. It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not. 40:30. You shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity. 40:31. 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. Isaias Chapter 41 The reign of the just one: the vanity of idols. 41:1. Let the islands keep silence before me, and the nations take new strength: let them come near, and then speak, let us come near to judgment together. 41:2. Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath called him to follow him? he shall give the nations in his sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind, to his bow. 41:3. He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, no path shall appear after his feet. 41:4. Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last. 41:5. The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were astonished, they drew near, and came. 41:6. Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall say to his brother: Be of good courage. 41:7. The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged him that forged at that time, saying: It is ready for soldering: and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved. 41:8. But thou Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend: 41:9. In whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth, and from the remote parts thereof have called thee, and said to thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away. 41:10. Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my just one hath upheld thee. 41:11. Behold all that fight against thee shall be confounded and ashamed, they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that strive against thee. 41:12. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men that resist thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed the men that war against thee. 41:13. For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand, and say to thee: Fear not, I have helped thee. 41:14. Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel: I have helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. 41:15. I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shalt thrash the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt make the hills as chaff. 41:16. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful. 41:17. The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 41:18. I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters. 41:19. 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: The thorn. . .In Hebrew, the shitta, or setim, a tree resembling the white thorn. 41:20. That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. 41:21. Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob. 41:22. Let them come, and tell us all things that are to come: tell us the former things what they were: and we will set our heart upon them and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are to come. 41:23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that ye are gods. Do ye also good or evil, if you can: and let us speak, and see together. 41:24. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that which hath no being: he that hath chosen you is an abomination. 41:25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun: he shall call upon my name, and he shall make princes to be as dirt, and as the potter treading clay. 41:26. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know: and from time of old, that we may say: Thou art just. There is none that sheweth, nor that foretelleth, nor that heareth your words. 41:27. The first shall say to Sion: Behold they are here, and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist. 41:28. And I saw, and there was no one even among them to consult, or who, when I asked, could answer a word. 41:29. Behold they are all in the wrong, and their works are vain: their idols are wind and vanity. Isaias Chapter 42 The office of Christ. The preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. The blindness and reprobation of the Jews. 42:1. Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. My servant. . .Christ, who according to his humanity, is the servant of God. 42:2. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. 42:3. The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 42:4. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth, and the islands shall wait for his law. 42:5. Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon. 42:6. I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: 42:7. That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 42:8. I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things. 42:9. The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I will make you hear them. 42:10. Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are therein: ye islands, and ye inhabitants of them. 42:11. Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains. Petra. . .A city that gives name to Arabia Petraea. 42:12. They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise in the islands. 42:13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his enemies. 42:14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and swallow up at once. 42:15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools. 42:16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them. 42:17. They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our god. 42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may see. 42:19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind, but the servant of the Lord? 42:20. Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear? 42:21. And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and exalt it. 42:22. But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore. 42:23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend and hearken for times to come? 42:24. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law. 42:25. And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and a strong battle, and hath burnt him round about, and he knew not: and set him on fire, and he understood not. Isaias Chapter 43 God comforts his church, promising to protect her for ever: he expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude. 43:1. And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine. 43:2. When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee: 43:3. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. 43:4. Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee, and people for thy life. 43:5. Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west. 43:6. I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south: Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. 43:7. And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, and made him. 43:8. Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes: that are deaf, and have ears. 43:9. All the nations are assembled together, and the tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say: It is truth. 43:10. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me, and understand that I myself am. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none. 43:11. I am, I am the Lord: and there is no saviour besides me. 43:12. I have declared, and have saved. I have made it heard, and there was no strange one among you. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God. 43:13. And from the beginning I am the same, and there is none that can deliver out of my hind: I will work, and who shall turn it away? 43:14. Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships. 43:15. I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 43:16. Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. 43:17. Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are extinct. 43:18. Remember not former things, and look not on things of old. 43:19. Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring forth, verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 43:20. The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen. 43:21. This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise. 43:22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither hast thou laboured about me, O Israel. 43:23. Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with incense. 43:24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities. 43:25. I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins. 43:26. Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself. 43:27. Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. 43:28. And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach. Isaias Chapter 44 God's favour to his church. The folly of idolatry. The people shall be delivered from captivity. 44:1. And now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. 44:2. Thus saith the Lord that made and formed thee, thy helper from the womb: Fear not, O my servant Jacob, and thou most righteous whom I have chosen. 44:3. For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land: I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy stock. 44:4. And they shall spring up among the herbs, as willows beside the running waters. 44:5. One shall say: I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand, To the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. 44:6. Thus saith the Lord the king of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. 44:7. Who is like to me? let him call and declare: and let him set before me the order, since I appointed the ancient people: and the things to come, and that shall be hereafter, let them shew unto them. 44:8. Fear ye not, neither be ye troubled from that time I have made thee to hear, and have declared: you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me, a maker, whom I have not known? 44:9. The makers of idols are all of them nothing, and their best beloved things shall not profit them. They are their witnesses, that they do not see, nor understand, that they may be ashamed. 44:10. Who hath formed a god, and made a graven thing that is profitable for nothing? 44:11. Behold, all the partakers thereof shall be confounded: for the makers are men: they shall all assemble together, they shall stand and fear, and shall be confounded together. 44:12. The smith hath wrought with his file, with coals, and with hammers he hath formed it, and hath wrought with the strength of his arm: he shall hunger and faint, he shall drink no water, and shall be weary. 44:13. The carpenter hath stretched out his rule, he hath formed it with a plane: he hath made it with corners, and hath fashioned it round with the compass: and he hath made the image of a man as it were a beautiful man dwelling in a house. 44:14. He hath cut down cedars, taken the holm, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest: he hath planted the pine tree, which the rain hath nourished. 44:15. And it hath served men for fuel: he took thereof, and warmed himself: and he kindled it, and baked bread: but of the rest he made a god, and adored it: he made a graven thing, and bowed down before it. 44:16. Part of it he burnt with fire, and with part of it he dressed his meat: he boiled pottage, and was filled, and was warmed, and said: Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. 44:17. But the residue thereof he made a god, and a graven thing for himself: he boweth down before it, and adoreth it, and prayeth unto it, saying: Deliver me, for thou art my God. 44:18. They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart. 44:19. They do not consider in their mind, nor know, nor have the thought to say: I have burnt part of it in the fire, and I have baked bread upon the coals thereof: I have broiled flesh and have eaten, and of the residue thereof shall I make an idol? shall I fall down before the stock of a tree? 44:20. Part thereof is ashes: his foolish heart adoreth it, and he will not save his soul, nor say: Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand. 44:21. Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel, forget me not. 44:22. I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return to me, for I have redeemed thee. 44:23. Give praise, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath shewn mercy: shout with joy, ye ends of the earth: ye mountains, resound with praise, thou, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified. 44:24. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, and thy maker, from the womb: I am the Lord, that make all things, that alone stretch out the heavens, that established the earth, and there is none with me. 44:25. That make void the tokens of diviners, and make the soothsayers mad. That turn the wise backward, and that make their knowledge foolish. 44:26. That raise up the word of my servant and perform the counsel of my messengers, who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be inhabited: and to the cities of Juda: You shall be built, and I will raise up the wastes thereof. 44:27. Who say to the deep: Be thou desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers. 44:28. Who say to Cyrus: Thou art my shepherd, and thou shalt perform all my pleasure. Who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be built: and to the
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