The Holy Bible

Part 43 out of 74

temple: Thy foundations shall be laid.

Isaias Chapter 45

A prophecy of Cyrus, as a figure of Christ, the great deliverer of
God's people.

45:1. Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have
taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs
of kings, and to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be
shut.

45:2. I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones of the
earth: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and will burst the
bars of iron.

45:3. And I will give thee hidden treasures, and the concealed riches
of secret places: that thou mayest know that I am the Lord who call
thee by thy name, the God of Israel.

45:4. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my elect, I have
even called thee by thy name: I have made a likeness of thee, and thou
hast not known me.

45:5. I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God besides
me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me:

45:6. That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they
who are from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord,
and there is none else:

45:7. I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create
evil: I the Lord that do all these things.

Create evil, etc. . .The evils of afflictions and punishments, but not
the evil of sin.

45:8. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain
the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let
justice spring up together: I the Lord have created him.

45:9. Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the earthen
pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou
making, and thy work is without hands?

45:10. Woe to him that saith to his father: Why begettest thou? and to
the woman: Why dost thou bring forth?

45:11. Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel, his maker: Ask me of
things to come, concerning my children, and concerning the work of my
hands give ye charge to me.

45:12. I made the earth: and I created man upon it: my hand stretched
forth the heavens, and I have commanded all their host.

45:13. I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct all his ways:
he shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for ransom, nor for
presents, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

45:14. Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of
Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and
shall be thine: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with
manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to
thee: only in thee is God, and there is no God besides thee.

45:15. Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the saviour.

45:16. They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of errors are
gone together into confusion.

45:17. Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal salvation: you shall
not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.

45:18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself
that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not
create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and
there is no other.

45:19. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I
have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain. I am the Lord that
speak justice, that declare right things.

45:20. Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that
are saved of the Gentiles: they have no knowledge that set up the wood
of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save.

45:21. Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this
from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time? Have not I
the Lord, and there is no God else besides me? A just God and a
saviour, there is none besides me.

45:22. Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the
earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

45:23. I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my
mouth, and shall not return:

45:24. For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall
swear.

45:25. Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire:
they shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.

45:26. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and
praised.

Isaias Chapter 46

The idols of Babylon shall be destroyed. Salvation is promised through
Christ.

46:1. Bel is broken, Nebo is destroyed: their idols are put upon beasts
and cattle, your burdens of heavy weight even unto weariness.

46:2. They are consumed, and are broken together: they could not save
him that carried them, and they themselves shall go into captivity.

46:3. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house
of Israel who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb.

46:4. Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey hairs I will
carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I will carry and will
save.

46:5. To whom have you likened me, and made me equal, and compared me,
and made me like?

46:6. You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh out silver in
the scales: and hire a goldsmith to make a god: and they fall down and
worship.

46:7. They bear him on their shoulders and carry him, and set him in
his place, and he shall stand, and shall not stir out of his place.
Yea, when they shall cry also unto him, he shall not hear: he shall not
save them from tribulation.

46:8. Remember this, and be ashamed: return, ye transgressors, to the
heart.

46:9. Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God
beside, neither is there the like to me:

46:10. Who shew from the beginning the things that shall be at last,
and from ancient times the things that as yet are not done, saying: My
counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done:

46:11. Who call a bird from the east, and from a far country the man of
my own will, and I have spoken, and will bring it to pass: I have
created, and I will do it. Hear me, O ye hardhearted, who are far from
justice.

46:12. I have brought my justice near, it shall not be afar off: and my
salvation shall not tarry. I will give salvation in Sion, and my glory
in Israel.

Isaias Chapter 47

God's judgment upon Babylon.

47:1. 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
thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender.

47:2. Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy
shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.

47:3. Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame shall be seen: I
will take vengeance, and no man shall resist me.

47:4. Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of
Israel.

47:5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the
Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.

47:6. I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and
have given them into thy hand: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon
the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy.

47:7. And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou hast not
laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou remembered thy latter
end.

47:8. And now hear these things, thou that art delicate, and dwellest
confidently, that sayest in thy heart: I am, and there is none else
besides me: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know
barrenness.

47:9. These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day,
barrenness and widowhood. All things are come upon thee, because of the
multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great hardness of thy
enchanters.

47:10. And thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and hast said: There is
none that seeth me. Thy wisdom, and, thy knowledge, this hath deceived
thee. And thou hast said in thy heart: I am, and besides me there is no
other.

47:11. Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know the rising
thereof: and calamity shall fall violently upon thee, which thou canst
not keep off: misery shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt
not know.

47:12. Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy
sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may
profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger.

47:13. Thou hast failed in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the
astrologers stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars, and
counted the months, that from them they might tell the things that
shall come to thee.

47:14. Behold they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them, they shall not
deliver themselves from the power of the flames: there are no coals
wherewith they may be warmed, nor fire, that they may sit thereat.

47:15. Such are all the things become to thee, in which thou hast
laboured: thy merchants from thy youth, every one hath erred in his own
way, there is none that can save thee.

Isaias Chapter 48

He reproaches the Jews for their obstinacy: he will deliver them out of
their captivity, for his own name's sake.

48:1. Hear ye these things, O house of Jacob, you that are called by
the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Juda, you
who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of
Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice.

48:2. For they are called of the holy city, and are established upon
the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is his name.

48:3. The former things of old, I have declared, and they went forth
out of my mouth, and I have made them to be heard: I did them suddenly
and they came to pass.

48:4. For I knew that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is as an iron
sinew, and thy forehead as brass.

48:5. I foretold thee of old, before they came to pass I told thee,
lest thou shouldst say: My idols have done these things, and my graven
and molten things have commanded them.

48:6. See now all the things which thou hast heard: but have you
declared them? I have shewn thee new things from that time, and things
are kept which thou knowest not:

48:7. They are created now, and not of old: and before the day, when
thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say: Behold I knew them.

48:8. Thou hast neither heard, nor known, neither was thy ear opened of
old. For I know that transgressing thou wilt transgress, and I have
called thee a transgressor from the womb.

48:9. For my name's sake I will remove my wrath far off: and for my
praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish.

48:10. Behold I have refined thee, but not as silver, I have chosen
thee in the furnace of poverty.

48:11. For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it, that I may not be
blasphemed: and I will not give my glory to another.

48:12. Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel whom I call: I am he, I
am the first, and I am the last.

48:13. My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath
measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together.

48:14. Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who among them
hath declared these things? the Lord hath loved him, he will do his
pleasure in Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

48:15. I, even I have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and
his way is made prosperous.

48:16. Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret
from the beginning: from the time before it was done, I was there, and
now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit.

48:17. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am
the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in
the way that thou walkest.

48:18. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments: thy peace had
been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea,

48:19. And thy seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy
bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have perished, nor
have been destroyed from before my face.

48:20. Come forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, declare
it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, and speak it out even
to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord hath redeemed his servant
Jacob.

48:21. They thirsted not in the desert, when he led them out: he
brought forth water out of the rock for them, and he clove the rock,
and the waters gushed out.

48:22. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.

Isaias Chapter 49

Christ shall bring the Gentiles to salvation. God's love to his church
is perpetual.

49:1. Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people from afar. The Lord
hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he hath been
mindful of my name.

49:2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of
his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in
his quiver he hath hidden me.

49:3. And he said to me: Thou art my servant Israel, for in thee will I
glory.

49:4. And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength
without cause and in vain: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and
my work with my God.

49:5. And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his
servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, and Israel will not be
gathered together: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my
God is made my strength.

49:6. And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel.
Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou
mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.

49:7. Thus saith the Lord the redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to the
soul that is despised, to the nation that is abhorred, to the servant
of rulers: Kings shall see, and princes shall rise up, and adore for
the Lord's sake, because he is faithful, and for the Holy One of
Israel, who hath chosen thee.

49:8. Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and
in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee,
and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise
up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed:

49:9. That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth: and to
them that are in darkness: Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the
ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain.

49:10. They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor
the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them, shall be their
shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink.

49:11. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be
exalted.

49:12. Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these from the
north and from the sea, and these from the south country.

49:13. Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains,
give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his
people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.

49:14. And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath
forgotten me.

49:15. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son
of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.

49:16. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always
before my eyes.

49:17. Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and make thee
waste shall go out of thee.

49:18. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are gathered
together, they are come to thee: I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be
clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt
put them about thee.

49:19. For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy
destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and
they that swallowed thee up shall be chased far away.

49:20. The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: The
place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in.

49:21. And thou shalt say in thy heart: Who hath begotten these? I was
barren and brought not forth, led away, and captive: and who hath
brought up these? I was destitute and alone: and these, where were
they?

49:22. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lift up my hand to the
Gentiles, and will set up my standard to the people. And they shall
bring thy sons in their arms, and carry thy daughters upon their
shoulders.

49:23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses:
they shall worship thee with their face toward the earth, and they
shall lick up the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am the
Lord, for they shall not be confounded that wait for him.

49:24. Shall the prey be taken from the strong? or can that which was
taken by the mighty, be delivered?

49:25. For thus saith the Lord: Yea verily, even the captivity shall be
taken away from the strong: and that which was taken by the mighty,
shall be delivered. But I will judge those that have judged thee, and
thy children I will save.

49:26. And I will feed thy enemies with their own flesh: and they shall
be made drunk with their own blood, as with new wine: and all flesh
shall know, that I am the Lord that save thee, and thy Redeemer the
Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaias Chapter 50

The synagogue shall be divorced for her iniquities. Christ for her sake
will endure ignominious afflictions.

50:1. Thus saith the Lord: What is this bill of the divorce of your
mother, with which I have put her away? or who is my creditor, to whom
I sold you: behold you are sold for your iniquities, and for your
wicked deeds have I put your mother away.

50:2. Because I came, and there was not a man: I called, and there was
none that would hear. Is my hand shortened and become little, that I
cannot redeem? or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold at my
rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry
land: the fishes shall rot for want of water, and shall die for thirst.

50:3. I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will make sackcloth
their covering.

50:4. The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I should know how
to uphold by word him that is weary: he wakeneth in the morning, in the
morning he wakeneth my ear, that I may hear him as a master.

50:5. The Lord God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist: I have not
gone back.

50:6. I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that
plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me,
and spit upon me.

50:7. The Lord God is my helper, therefore am I not confounded:
therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I
shall not be confounded.

50:8. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us
stand together, who is my adversary? let him come near to me.

50:9. Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, the moth shall eat
them up.

50:10. Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the
voice of his servant, that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light?
let him hope in the name of the Lord, and lean upon his God.

50:11. Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk
in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled:
this is done to you by my hand, you shall sleep in sorrows.

Isaias Chapter 51

An exhortation to trust in Christ. He shall protect the children of his
church.

51:1. Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just, and you that
seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole
of the pit from which you are dug out.

51:2. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sara that bore you: for I
called him alone, and blessed him, and multiplied him.

51:3. The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the
ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and
her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be
found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise.

51:4. Hearken unto me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my tribes:
for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment shall rest to be a
light of the nations.

51:5. My just one is near at hand, my saviour is gone forth, and my
arms shall judge the people: the islands shall look for me, and shall
patiently wait for my arm.

51:6. Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the earth beneath:
for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth shall be worn
away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like
manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice shall not
fail.

51:7. Hearken to me, you that know what is just, my people who have my
law in your heart: fear ye not the reproach of men, and be not afraid
of their blasphemies.

51:8. For the worm shall eat them up as a garment: and the moth shall
consume them as wool: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my
justice from generation to generation.

51:9. Arise, arise, put on strength, O thou arm of the Lord, arise as
in the days of old, in the ancient generations. Hast not thou struck
the proud one, and wounded the dragon?

51:10. Hast not thou dried up the sea, the water of the mighty deep,
who madest the depth of the sea a way, that the delivered might pass
over?

51:11. And now they that are redeemed by the Lord, shall return, and
shall come into Sion singing praises, and joy everlasting shall be upon
their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning
shall flee away.

51:12. I myself will comfort you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be
afraid of a mortal man, and of the son of man, who shall wither away
like grass?

51:13. And thou hast forgotten the Lord thy maker, who stretched out
the heavens, and founded the earth: and thou hast been afraid
continually all the day at the presence of his fury who afflicted thee,
and had prepared himself to destroy thee: where is now the fury of the
oppressor?

51:14. He shall quickly come that is going to open unto you, and he
shall not kill unto utter destruction, neither shall his bread fail.

51:15. But I am the Lord thy God, who trouble the sea, and the waves
thereof swell: the Lord of hosts is my name.

51:16. I have put my words in thy mouth, and have protected thee in the
shadow of my hand, that thou mightest plant the heavens, and found the
earth: and mightest say to Sion: Thou art my people.

51:17. Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the
hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunk even to the
bottom of the cup of dead sleep, and thou hast drunk even to the dregs.

51:18. There is none that can uphold her among all the children that
she hath brought forth: and there is none that taketh her by the hand
among all the children that she hath brought up.

51:19. There are two things that have happened to thee: who shall be
sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the
sword, who shall comfort thee?

51:20. Thy children are cast forth, they have slept at the head of all
the ways, and the wild ox that is snared: full of the indignation of
the Lord, of the rebuke of thy God.

51:21. Therefore hear this, thou poor little one, and thou that art
drunk but not with wine.

51:22. Thus saith thy Sovereign the Lord, and thy God, who will fight
for his people: Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of dead
sleep, the dregs of the cup of my indignation, thou shalt not drink it
again any more.

51:23. And I will put it in the hand of them that have oppressed thee,
and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast
laid thy body as the ground, and as a way to them that went over.

Isaias Chapter 52

Under the figure of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, the
church is invited to rejoice for her redemption from sin. Christ's
kingdom shall be exalted.

52:1. Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the garments of
thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One: for henceforth the
uncircumcised, and unclean shall no more pass through thee.

52:2. Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O Jerusalem: loose
the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion.

52:3. For thus saith the Lord: You were sold gratis, and you shall be
redeemed, without money.

52:4. For thus saith the Lord God: My people went down into Egypt at
the beginning to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them
without any cause at all.

52:5. And now what have I here, saith the Lord: for my people is taken
away gratis. They that rule over them treat them unjustly, saith the
Lord, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long.

52:6. Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: for I myself
that spoke, behold I am here.

52:7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth
forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall
reign!

52:8. The voice of thy watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they
shall praise together: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord
shall convert Sion.

52:9. Rejoice, and give praise together, O ye deserts of Jerusalem: for
the Lord hath comforted his people: he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

52:10. The Lord hath prepared his holy arm in the sight of all the
Gentiles: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God.

52:11. Depart, depart, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing:
go out of the midst of her, be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of
the Lord.

52:12. For you shall not go out in a tumult, neither shall you make
haste by flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel
will gather you together.

52:13. Behold my servant shall understand, he shall be exalted, and
extolled, and shall be exceeding high.

52:14. As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his visage be
inglorious among men, and his form among the sons of men.

52:15. He shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouth at
him: for they to whom it was not told of him, have seen: and they that
heard not, have beheld.

Isaias Chapter 53

A prophecy of the passion of Christ.

53:1. Who a hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed?

53:2. And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root
out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and
we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be
desirous of him:

53:3. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and
despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.

53:4. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and
we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and
afflicted.

53:5. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our
sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we
are healed.

53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside
into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:7. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his
mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb
as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.

53:8. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall
declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the
living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

53:9. And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for
his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit
in his mouth.

53:10. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall
lay down his life for sin, he shall see a longlived seed, and the will
of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

53:11. Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by
his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall
bear their iniquities.

53:12. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall
divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul
unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins
of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.

Isaias Chapter 54

The Gentiles, who were barren before, shall multiply in the church of
Christ: from which God's mercy shall never depart.

54:1. Give praise, O thou barren, that bearest not: sing forth praise,
and make a joyful noise, thou that didst not travail with child: for
many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a
husband, saith the Lord.

54:2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and stretch out the skins of thy
tabernacles, spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.

54:3. For thou shalt pass on to the right hand, and to the left: and
thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall inhabit the desolate
cities.

54:4. Fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded, nor blush: for thou
shalt not be put to shame, because thou shalt forget the shame of thy
youth, and shalt remember no more the reproach of thy widowhood.

54:5. For he that made thee shall rule over thee, the Lord of hosts is
his name: and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the
God of all the earth.

54:6. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and mourning in
spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth, said thy God.

54:7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee.

54:8. In a moment of indignation have I hid my face a little while from
thee, but with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on thee, said the
Lord thy Redeemer.

54:9. This thing is to me as in the days of Noe, to whom I swore, that
I would no more bring in the waters of Noe upon the earth: so have I
sworn not to be angry with thee, and not to rebuke thee.

54:10. For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills shall tremble;
but my mercy shall not depart from thee, and the covenant of my peace
shall not be moved: said the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

54:11. O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without all comfort,
behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy foundations
with sapphires,

54:12. And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy gates of graven
stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones.

54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be
the peace of thy children.

54:14. And thou shalt be founded in justice: depart far from
oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee.

54:15. Behold, an inhabitant shall come, who was not with me, he that
was a stranger to thee before, shall be joined to thee.

54:16. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the
fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created
the killer to destroy.

54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper: and every
tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the
inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their justice with me,
saith the Lord.

Isaias Chapter 55

God promises abundance of spiritual graces to the faithful, that shall
believe in Christ out of all nations, and sincerely serve him.

55:1. All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no
money make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk without
money, and without any price.

55:2. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your
labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me,
and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in
fatness.

55:3. Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies
of David.

55:4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, for a leader
and a master to the Gentiles.

55:5. Behold thou shalt call a nation, which thou knewest not: and the
nations that knew not thee shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy
God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.

55:6. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he
is near.

55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to
our God: for he is bountiful to forgive.

55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways,
saith the Lord.

55:9. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways
exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

55:10. And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return
no more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to
spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

55:11. So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth: it
shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and
shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.

55:12. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall sing praise before you, and all the trees
of the country shall clap their hands.

55:13. Instead of the shrub, shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the nettle, shall come up the myrtle tree: and the Lord shall be named
for an everlasting sign, that shall not be taken away.

Isaias Chapter 56

God invites all to keep his commandments: the Gentiles that keep them
shall be the people of God: the Jewish pastors are reproved.

56:1. Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.

56:2. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that shall
lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that
keepeth his hands from doing any evil.

56:3. And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord,
speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.
And let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree.

56:4. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my
sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold
fast my covenant:

56:5. I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place,
and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name which shall never perish.

56:6. And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to
worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that
keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my
covenant:

56:7. I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful
in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please
me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for
all nations.

56:8. The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I
will still gather unto him his congregation.

56:9. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the
forest.

56:10. His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not
able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.

56:11. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds
themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own
way, every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last.

56:12. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it
shall be as to day, so also to morrow, and much more.

Isaias Chapter 57

The infidelity of the Jews: their idolatry. Promises to humble
penitents.

57:1. The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of
mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the
just man is taken away from before the face of evil.

57:2. Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his
uprightness.

57:3. But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
adulterer, and of the harlot.

57:4. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth
wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false
seed,

57:5. Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree,
sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high rocks?

57:6. In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and
thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice.
Shall I not be angry at these things?

57:7. Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy bed, and hast
gone up thither to offer victims.

57:8. And behind the door, and behind the post thou hast set up thy
remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself near me, and hast
received an adulterer: thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant
with them: thou hast loved their bed with open hand.

57:9. And thou hast adorned thyself for the king with ointment, and
hast multiplied thy perfumes. Thou hast sent thy messengers far off,
and wast debased even to hell.

57:10. Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways: yet thou
saidst not: I will rest: thou has found life of thy hand, therefore
thou hast not asked.

57:11. For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that thou hast
lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor thought on me in thy heart?
for I am silent, and as one that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.

57:12. I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.

57:13. When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the
wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away, but he
that putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess
my holy mount.

57:14. And I will say: Make a way: give free passage, turn out of the
path, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

57:15. For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth
eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy
place, and with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

57:16. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be angry unto
the end: because the spirit shall go forth from my face, and breathings
I will make.

57:17. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck
him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry: and he went away wandering
in his own heart.

57:18. I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him back, and
restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn for him.

57:19. I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.

57:20. But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and
the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.

57:21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.

Isaias Chapter 58

God rejects the hypocritical fasts of the Jews: recommends works of
mercy, and sincere godliness.

58:1. Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my
people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

58:2. For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as
a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of
their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to
approach to God.

58:3. Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled
our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your
fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

58:4. Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist
wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry
to be heard on high.

58:5. Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his
soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and
to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day
acceptable to the Lord?

58:6. Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands
of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken
go free, and break asunder every burden.

58:7. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the
harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him,
and despise not thy own flesh.

58:8. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health
shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the
glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

58:9. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry,
and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of
the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak
that which profiteth not.

58:10. When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt
satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness,
and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.

58:11. And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy
soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not
fail.

58:12. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built
in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation of generation and
generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences,
turning the paths into rest.

58:13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own
will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of
the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways,
and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:

58:14. Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee
up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the
inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it.

Isaias Chapter 59

The dreadful evil of sin is displayed, as the great obstacle to all
good from God: yet he will send a Redeemer, and make an everlasting
covenant with his church.

59:1. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save,
neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.

59:2. But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.

59:3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth
iniquity.

59:4. There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one
that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak
vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity.

59:5. They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of
spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is
brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.

59:6. Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and
the work of iniquity is in their hands.

59:7. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood:
their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are
in their ways.

59:8. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in
their steps: their paths are become crooked to them, every one that
treadeth in them knoweth no peace.

59:9. Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake
us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have
walked in the dark.

59:10. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped
as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, we
are in dark places, as dead men.

59:11. We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful
doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation,
and it is far from us.

59:12. For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have
testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and have known
our iniquities:

59:13. In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away
so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression:
we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood.

59:14. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far
off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not
come in.

59:15. And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil,
lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his
eyes, because there is no judgment.

59:16. And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished,
because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought
salvation to him, and his own justice supported him.

59:17. He 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.

59:18. As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries,
and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands.

59:19. And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and
they from the rising of the sun, his glory when he shall come as a
violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on:

59:20. And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them that return
from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.

59:21. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is
in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the
mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

This is my covenant, etc. . .Note here a clear promise of perpetual
orthodoxy to the church of Christ.

Isaias Chapter 60

The light of true faith shall shine forth in the church of Christ, and
shall be spread through all nations, and continue for all ages.

60:1. Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

60:2. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
thee.

60:3. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising.

60:4. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered
together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy
daughters shall rise up at thy side.

60:5. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and
be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee,
the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee.

60:6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of
Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and
frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.

60:7. All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the
rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they shall be offered upon my
acceptable altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.

60:8. Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?

60:9. For, the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in the
beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their silver, and their
gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of
Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

60:10. And the children of strangers shall build up thy walls, and
their kings shall minister to thee: for in my wrath have I struck thee,
and in my reconciliation have I had mercy upon thee.

60:11. And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut
day nor night, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to
thee, and their kings may be brought.

60:12. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall
perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.

60:13. The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the
box tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet.

60:14. And the children of them that afflict thee, shall come bowing
down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall worship the steps of
thy feet, and shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Sion of the
Holy One of Israel.

60:15. Because thou wast forsaken, and hated, and there was none that
passed through thee, I will make thee to be an everlasting glory, a joy
unto generation and generation:

60:16. And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and thou shalt be
nursed with the breasts of kings: and thou shalt know that I am the
Lord thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

60:17. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver:
and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make thy visitation
peace, and thy overseers justice.

60:18. Iniquity shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor
destruction in thy borders, and salvation shall possess thy walls, and
praise thy gates.

60:19. Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day, neither
shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee: but the Lord shall be
unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory.

Thou shalt no more, etc. . .In this latter part of the chapter, the
prophet passes from the illustrious promises made to the church
militant on earth, to the glory of the church triumphant in heaven.

60:20. Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not decrease:
for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and the days
of thy mourning shall be ended.

60:21. And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit the land
for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand to glorify me.

60:22. The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most
strong nation: I the Lord will suddenly do this thing in its time.

Isaias Chapter 61

The office of Christ: the mission of the Apostles; the happiness of
their converts.

61:1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed
me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of
heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them
that are shut up.

61:2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn:

61:3. To appoint to the mourners of Sion, and to give them a crown for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit
of grief: and they shall be called in it the mighty ones of justice,
the planting of the Lord to glorify him.

61:4. And they shall build the places that have been waste from of old,
and shall raise up ancient ruins, and shall repair the desolate cities,
that were destroyed for generation and generation.

61:5. And strangers shall stand and shall feed your flocks: and the
sons of strangers shall be your husbandman, and the dressers of your
vines.

61:6. But you shall be called the priests of the Lord: to you it shall
be said: Ye ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and you shall pride yourselves in their glory.

61:7. For your double confusion and shame, they shall praise their
part: therefore shall they receive double in their land, everlasting
joy shall be unto them.

61:8. For I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate robbery in a
holocaust: and I will make their work in truth, and I will make a
perpetual covenant with them.

61:9. And they shall know their seed among the Gentiles, and their
offspring in the midst of peoples: all that shall see them, shall know
them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

61:10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful
in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and
with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked
with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.

61:11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden
causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord God make justice to
spring forth, and praise before all the nations.

Isaias Chapter 62

The prophet will not cease from preaching Christ: to whom all nations
shall be converted: and whose church shall continue for ever.

62:1. For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for the sake of
Jerusalem, I will not rest till her just one come forth as brightness,
and her saviour be lighted as a lamp.

62:2. And the Gentiles shall see thy just one, and all kings thy
glorious one: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth
of the Lord shall name.

62:3. And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

62:4. Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken: and thy land shall no more
be called Desolate: but thou shalt be called My pleasure in her, and
thy land inhabited. Because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee:
and thy land shall be inhabited.

62:5. For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and thy children
shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride,
and thy God shall rejoice over thee.

62:6. Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the
day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace. You that are
mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace,

62:7. And give him no silence till he establish, and till he make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

62:8. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his
strength: Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thy
enemies: and the sons of the strangers shall not drink thy wine, for
which thou hast laboured.

62:9. For they that gather it, shall eat it, and shall praise the Lord:
and they that bring it together, shall drink it in my holy courts.

62:10. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the
people, make the road plain, pick out the stones, and lift up the
standard to the people.

62:11. Behold the Lord hath made it to be heard in the ends of the
earth, tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Saviour cometh: behold his
reward is with him, and his work before him.

62:12. And they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the
Lord. But thou shalt be called: A city sought after, and not forsaken.

Isaias Chapter 63

Christ's victory over his enemies: his mercies to his people: their
complaint.

63:1. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra,
this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his
strength. I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.

Edom. . .Edom and Bosra (a strong city of Edom) are here taken in a
mystical sense for the enemies of Christ and his church.

63:2. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that
tread in the winepress?

63:3. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is
not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have
trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my
garments, and I have stained all my apparel.

63:4. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my
redemption is come.

63:5. I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there
was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my
indignation itself hath helped me.

63:6. And I have trodden down the people in my wrath, and have made
them drunk in my indignation, and have brought down their strength to
the earth.

63:7. I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord, the praise of the
Lord for all the things that the Lord hath bestowed upon us, and for
the multitude of his good things to the house of Israel, which he hath
given them according to his kindness, and according to the multitude of
his mercies.

63:8. And he said: Surely they are my people, children that will not
deny: so he became their saviour.

63:9. In all their affliction he was not troubled, and the angel of his
presence saved them: in his love, and in his mercy he redeemed them,
and he carried them and lifted them up all the days of old.

63:10. But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit of his Holy
One: and he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

63:11. And he remembered the days of old of Moses, and of his people:
Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherds of
his flock? where is he that put in the midst of them the spirit of his
Holy One?

63:12. He that brought out Moses by the right hand, by the arm of his
majesty: that divided the waters before them, to make himself an
everlasting name.

63:13. He that led them out through the deep, as a horse in the
wilderness that stumbleth not.

63:14. As a beast that goeth down in the field, the spirit of the Lord
was their leader: so didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a
glorious name.

63:15. Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy habitation and
the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the
multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies? they have held back
themselves from me.

They have held back, etc. . .This is spoken by the prophet in the person
of the Jews at the time when, for their sins, they were given up to
their enemies.

63:16. For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and
Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, our
redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.

Abraham hath not know us, etc. . .That is, Abraham will not now
acknowledge us for his children, by reason of our degeneracy; but thou,
O Lord, art our true father and our redeemer, and no other can be
called our parent in comparison with thee.

63:17. Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast
thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return for the
sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.

Made us to err, etc. Hardened our heart, etc. . .The meaning is, that
God in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long
abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and
so given them up to error and hardness of heart.

63:18. They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have
trodden down thy sanctuary.

63:19. We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over
us, and when we were not called by thy name.

Isaias Chapter 64

The prophet prays for the release of his people; and for the remission
of their sins.

64:1. O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the
mountains would melt away at thy presence.

64:2. They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn
with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the
nations might tremble at thy presence.

64:3. When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou
didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away.

64:4. From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor
perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee,
what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.

64:5. Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and doth justice: in thy ways
they shall remember thee: behold thou art angry, and we have sinned: in
them we have been always, and we shall be saved.

64:6. And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the
rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Our justices, etc. . .That is, the works by which we pretended to make
ourselves just. This is spoken particularly of the sacrifices,
sacraments, and ceremonies of the Jews, after the death of Christ, and
the promulgation of the new law.

64:7. There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth up, and
taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed
us in the hand of our iniquity.

64:8. And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou
art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands.

64:9. Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity:
behold, see we are all thy people.

64:10. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a
desert, Jerusalem is desolate.

64:11. The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers
praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned
into ruins.

64:12. Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these things, wilt thou
hold thy peace, and afflict us vehemently?

Isaias Chapter 65

The Gentiles shall seek and find Christ, but the Jews will persecute
him, and be rejected, only a remnant shall be reserved. The church
shall multiply, and abound with graces.

65:1. They have sought me that before asked not for me, they have found
me that sought me not. I said: Behold me, behold me, to a nation that
did not call upon my name.

65:2. I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving
people, who walk in a way that is not good after their own thoughts.

65:3. A people that continually provoke me to anger before my face,
that immolate in gardens, and sacrifice upon bricks.

65:4. That dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in the temple of idols: that
eat swine's flesh, and profane broth is in their vessels.

65:5. That say: Depart from me, come not near me, because thou art
unclean: these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning all the day.

65:6. Behold it is written before me: I will not be silent, but I will
render and repay into their bosom.

65:7. Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,
saith the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the mountains, and have
reproached me upon the hills; and I will measure back their first work
in their bosom.

65:8. Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it
be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the
sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole.

65:9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Juda a
possessor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my
servants shall dwell there.

65:10. And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks, and the
valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie down in, for my
people that have sought me.

65:11. And you, that have forsaken the Lord, that have forgotten my
holy mount, that set a table for fortune, and offer libations upon it,

65:12. I will number you in the sword, and you shall all fall by
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 have chosen the
things that displease me.

65:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my servants shall eat,
and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall
be thirsty.

65:14. Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded:
behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall
cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit.

65:15. And you shall leave your name for an execration to my elect: and
the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name.

65:16. In which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in
God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, amen:
because the former distresses are forgotten, and because they are hid
from my eyes.

65:17. For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former
things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the
heart.

65:18. But you shall be glad and rejoice for ever in these things,
which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the
people thereof joy.

65:19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the
voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of
crying.

65:20. There shall no more be an infant of days there, nor an old man
that shall not fill up his days: for the child shall die a hundred
years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.

65:21. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall
plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of them.

65:22. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant,
and another eat: for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my
people, and the works of their hands shall be of long continuance.

65:23. My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth in trouble;
for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity
with them.

65:24. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will hear;
as they are yet speaking, I will hear.

65:25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion and the ox
shall eat straw; and dust shall be the serpent's food: they shall not
hurt nor kill in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

Isaias Chapter 66

More of the reprobation of the Jews, and of the call of the Gentiles.

66:1. Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my
footstool: what is this house that you will build to me? and what is
this place of my rest?

What is this house, etc. . .This is a prophecy that the temple should be
cast off.

66:2. My hand made all these things, and all these things were made,
saith the Lord. But to whom shall I have respect, but to him that is
poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my
words?

66:3. He that sacrificeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that
killeth a sheep in sacrifice, as if he should brain a dog: he that
offereth an oblation, as if he should offer swine's blood; he that
remembereth incense, as if he should bless an idol. All these things
have they chosen in their ways, and their soul is delighted in their
abominations.

He that sacrificeth an ox, etc. . .This is a prophecy that the
sacrifices which were offered in the old law should be abolished in the
new; and that the offering of them should be a crime.--Ibid.
Remembereth incense. . .Viz., to offer it in the way of a sacrifice.

66:4. Wherefore I also will choose their mockeries, and will bring upon
them the things they feared: because I called, and there was none that
would answer; I have spoken, and they heard not; and they have done
evil in my eyes, and have chosen the things that displease me.

I will choose their mockeries. . .I will turn their mockeries upon
themselves; and will cause them to be mocked by their enemies.

66:5. Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word: Your
brethren that hate you, and cast you out for my name's sake, have said:
Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy: but they shall
be confounded.

66:6. A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the temple, the
voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

66:7. Before she was in labour, she brought forth; before her time came
to be delivered, she brought forth a man child.

Before she was in labour, etc. . .This relates to the conversion of the
Gentiles, who were born, as it were, all on a sudden to the church of
God.

66:8. Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen the like to
this? shall the earth bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be
brought forth at once, because Sion hath been in labour, and hath
brought forth her children?

66:9. Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself
bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others,
be barren, saith the Lord thy God?

66:10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love
her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.

66:11. That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her
consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the
abundance of her glory.

66:12. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon her as it were
a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the
Gentiles, which you shall suck; you shall be carried at the breasts,
and upon the knees they shall caress you.

66:13. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you
shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

66:14. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall
flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his
servants, and he shall be angry with his enemies.

66:15. For behold the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots are
like a whirlwind, to render his wrath in indignation, and his rebuke
with flames of fire.

66:16. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by his sword unto all
flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.

66:17. They that were sanctified, thought themselves clean in the
gardens behind the gate within, they that did eat swine's flesh, and
the abomination, and the mouse: they shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord.

66:18. But I know their works, and their thoughts: I come that I may
gather them together with all nations and tongues: and they shall come
and shall see my glory.

66:19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them that
shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia
them that draw the bow: into Italy, and Greece, to the islands afar
off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And
they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles:

66:20. And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations for a
gift to the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on
mules, and in coaches, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord,
as if the children of Israel should bring an offering in a clean vessel
into the house of the Lord.

66:21. And I will take of them to be priests, and Levites, saith the
Lord.

66:22. For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to
stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your seed stand, and your
name.

66:23. And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath:
and all flesh shall come to adore before my face, saith the Lord.

66:24. And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the men that
have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire
shall not be quenched: and they shall be a loathsome sight to all
flesh.

THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS

Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the
tribe of Benjamin: and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a
prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a
child in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification
of his name, Great before the Lord; and a special figure of Jesus
Christ, in the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in
his charity for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered
at their hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he
was stoned to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into
Egypt.

Jeremias Chapter 1

The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. God
encourages him.

1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were
in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.

1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the
son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king
of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of
Josias king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive,
in the fifth month.

1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made
thee a prophet unto the nations.

1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am
a child.

1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go
to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee,
thou shalt speak.

1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord.

1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the
Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:

1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms,
to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to
build, and to plant.

1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou,
Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.

1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch
over my word to perform it.

1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What
seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof
from the face of the north.

1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.

1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms
of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every
one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all
the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.

1:16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all
their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange
gods, and have adored the work of their own hands.

1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them
all that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will
make thee not to fear their countenance.

1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a
pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of
Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of
the land.

1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I
am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.

Jeremias Chapter 2

God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and infidelity.

2:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2:2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord:
I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy
espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not
sown.

2:3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all
they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the
Lord.

2:4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye
families of the house of Israel:

2:5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me,
that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are
become vain?

2:6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up
out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a
land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the
image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man
dwelt?

2:7. And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit
thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you
defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.

Carmel. . .That is, a fruitful, plentiful land.

2:8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the
law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the
prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.

2:9. Therefore will I yet contend in judgment with you, saith the Lord,
and I will plead with your children.

2:10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar,
and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like
this.

2:11. If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not
gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.

2:12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be
very desolate, saith the Lord.

2:13. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the
fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

2:14. Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become a
prey?

2:15. The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have
made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is
none to dwell in them.

2:16. The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have defloured thee,
even to the crown of the head.

2:17. Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the
Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?

2:18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the
troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians,
to drink the water of the river?

2:19. Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall
rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing
for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with
thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

2:20. Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands,
and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under
every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.

2:21. Yet, I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then
art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange
vineyard?

2:22. Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the
herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord
God.

Borith. . .An herb used to clean clothes, and take out spots and dirt.

2:23. How canst thou say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after
Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a
swift runner pursuing his course.

2:24. A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his
heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all
that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.

2:25. Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. But
thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved
strangers, and I will walk after them.

2:26. As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of
Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and their
priests, and their prophets.

2:27. Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast
begotten me: they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and
in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.

2:28. Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and
deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: for according to the number
of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.

2:29. Why will you contend with me in judgment? you have all forsaken
me, saith the Lord.

2:30. In vain have I struck your children, they have not received
correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is
like a ravaging lion.

2:31. See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel,
or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are
revolted, we will come to thee no more?

2:32. Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but
my people hath forgotten me days without number.

2:33. Why dost thou endeavour to shew thy way good to seek my love,
thou who hast also taught thy malices to be thy ways,

2:34. And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and
innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I
mentioned before.

2:35. And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and
therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend
with thee in judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.

2:36. How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over
again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of
Assyria.

2:37. For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy
head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have
nothing prosperous therein.

Jeremias Chapter 3

God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive
them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.

3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from
him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not
that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself
to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will
receive thee.

3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted
thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in
the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications,
and with thy wickedness.

3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward
rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my
father, the guide of my virginity:

3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end?
Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been
able.

3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen
what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every
high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot
there.

3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and
she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had
put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous

Back to Full Books