***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIBLE, DOUAY-RHEIMS VERSION, BOOK 27: ISAIAS***
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Book 27 Isaias
THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS
This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, the great prophet,
(Ecclesiasticus:48.25,) from the greatness of his prophetic spirit, by
which he hath foretold so long before, and in so clear a manner, the
coming of Christ, the mysteries of our redemption, the calling of the
Gentiles, and the glorious establishment, and perpetual flourishing of
the church of Christ: insomuch that he may seem to have been rather an
evangelist than a prophet. His very name is not without mystery; for
Isaias in Hebrew signifies the salvation of the Lord, or Jesus is the
Lord. He was, according to the tradition of the Hebrews, of the blood
royal of the kings of Juda: and after a most holy life, ended his days
by a glorious martyrdom; being sawed in two, at the command of his
wicked son in law, King Manasses, for reproving his evil ways.
Isaias Chapter 1
The prophet complains of the sins of Juda and Jerusalem, and exhorts
them to a sincere conversion.
1:1. The vision of Isaias the Son of Amos, which he saw concerning Juda
and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings
of Juda.
1:2. Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath
spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have
despised me.
1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel
hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.
1:4. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked
seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have
blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.
1:5. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase
transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.
1:6. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no
soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not
bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.
1:7. Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your
country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as
when wasted by enemies.
1:8. And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard,
and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid
waste.
1:9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom,
and we should have been like to Gomorrha.
1:10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law
of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.
1:11. To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims,
saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of
fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats.
1:12. When you came to appear before me, who required these things at
your hands, that you should walk in my courts?
1:13. Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me.
The new moons, and the sabbaths and other festivals I will not abide,
your assemblies are wicked.
1:14. My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are
become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.
1:15. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes
from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands
are full of blood.
1:16. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from
my eyes, cease to do perversely,
1:17. Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for
the fatherless, defend the widow.
1:18. And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as
crimson, they shall be white as wool.
1:19. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good
things of the land.
1:20. But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall
devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
1:21. How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a
harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.
1:22. Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled with water.
1:23. Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love
bribes, they run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and
the widow's cause cometh not in to them.
1:24. Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of
Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be
revenged of my enemies.
1:25. And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy
dross, and I will take away all thy tin.
1:26. And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy
counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be called the city of the
just, a faithful city.
1:27. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back
in justice.
1:28. And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and
they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.
1:29. For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which they have
sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have
chosen.
1:30. When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a
garden without water.
1:31. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a
spark: and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench
it.
Isaias Chapter 2
All nations shall flow to the church of Christ. The Jews shall be
rejected for their sins. Idolatry shall be destroyed.
2:1. The word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning Juda and
Jerusalem.
2:2. And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the
hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
The last days... The whole time of the new law, from the coming of
Christ till the end of the world, is called in the scripture the last
days; because no other age or time shall come after it, but only
eternity.-Ibid. On the top of mountains, etc... This shews the perpetual
visibility of the church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of
mountains cannot be hid.
2:3. And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will
teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come
forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
2:4. And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they
shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they be exercised any more to war.
2:5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the
Lord.
2:6. For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they
are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the
Philistines, and have adhered to strange children.
2:7. Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of
their treasures.
2:8. And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are
innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work
of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.
2:9. And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased:
therefore forgive them not.
2:10. Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face
of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.
2:11. The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men
shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
2:12. Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that
is proud and highminded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he
shall be humbled.
2:13. And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all
the oaks of Basan.
2:14. And upon all the high mountains and upon all the elevated hills.
2:15. And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.
2:16. And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to
behold.
2:17. And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness
of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that
day.
2:18. And idols shall be utterly destroyed.
Idols shall be utterly destroyed... or utterly pass away. This was
verified by the establishment of Christianity. And by this and other
texts of the like nature, the wild system of some modern sectaries is
abundantly confuted, who charge the whole Christian church with
worshipping idols, for many ages.
2:19. And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of
the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of
his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
2:20. In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his
idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats.
2:21. And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of
stones from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his
majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
2:22. Cease ye therefore from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils,
for he is reputed high.
Isaias Chapter 3
The confusion and other evils that shall come upon the Jews for their
sins. The pride of their women shall be punished.
3:1. For behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall take away from
Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong, the whole strength
of bread, and the whole strength of water.
3:2. The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet and
the cunning man, and the ancient.
3:3. The captain over fifty, and the honourable in countenance, and the
counsellor, and the architect, and the skilful in eloquent speech.
3:4. And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate
shall rule over them.
3:5. And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against
his neighbour: the child shall make a tumult against the ancient, and
the base against the honourable.
3:6. For a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the house of his
father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou our ruler, and let this
ruin be under thy hand.
3:7. In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer, and in my
house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people.
3:8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because their tongue,
and their devices are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his
majesty.
3:9. The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and they have
proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it: woe to
their souls, for evils are rendered to them.
3:10. Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of
his doings.
3:11. Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his hands shall be
given him.
3:12. As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women
have ruled over them. O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same
deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps.
3:13. The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the
people.
3:14. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people,
and its princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the spoil of
the poor is in your house.
3:15. Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of the poor?
saith the Lord the God of hosts.
3:16. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and
have walked with stretched out necks, and wanton glances of their eyes,
and made a noise as they walked with their feet and moved in a set pace:
3:17. The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of
Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair.
3:18. In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of shoes, and
little moons,
3:19. And chains and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets,
3:20. And bodkins, and ornaments of the legs, and tablets, and sweet
balls, and earrings,
3:21. And rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead,
3:22. And changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine linen, and
crisping pins,
3:23. And lookingglasses, and lawns, and headbands, and fine veils.
3:24. And instead of a sweet smell there shall be stench, and instead of
a girdle, a cord, and instead of curled hair, baldness, and instead of a
stomacher, haircloth.
3:25. Thy fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and thy valiant ones
in battle.
3:26. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate
on the ground.
Isaias Chapter 4
After an extremity of evils that shall fall upon the Jews, a remnant
shall be comforted by Christ.
4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We
will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called
by thy name, take away our reproach.
4:2. In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory,
and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that
shall have escaped of Israel.
The bud of the Lord... That is, Christ.
4:3. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in
Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every
one that is written in life in Jerusalem.
4:4. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and
shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the
spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
4:5. And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where
he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a
flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.
4:6. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the
heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.
Isaias Chapter 5
The reprobation of the Jews is foreshewn under the parable of a
vineyard. A woe is pronounced against sinners: the army of God shall
send against them.
5:1. I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his
vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.
My cousin... So the prophet calls Christ, as being of his family and
kindred, by descending from the house of David. Ibid. On a hill, etc...
Literally, in the horn, the son of oil.
5:2. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted
it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and
set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth
grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
5:3. And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge
between me and my vineyard.
5:4. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have
not done to it? was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it hath brought forth wild grapes?
5:5. And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take
away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the
wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
5:6. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall
not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command
the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
5:7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and
the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do
judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.
5:8. Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to
the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?
5:9. These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: Unless many
great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.
5:10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and
thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.
5:11. Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow
drunkenness, and to drink in the evening, to be inflamed with wine.
5:12. The harp, and the lyre, and, the timbrel and the pipe, and wine
are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you
consider the works of his hands.
5:13. Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not
knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their
multitude were dried up with thirst.
5:14. Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth
without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their
high and glorious ones shall go down into it.
5:15. And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the
eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.
5:16. And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy
God shall be sanctified in justice.
5:17. And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers
shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.
5:18. Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the
rope of a cart.
5:19. That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that
we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that
we may know it.
5:20. Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet
for bitter.
5:21. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own
conceits.
5:22. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at
drunkenness.
5:23. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of
the just from him.
5:24. Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the
heat of the flame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and
their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the
Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.
5:25. Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and
he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the
mountains were troubles, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst
of the streets. For after this his anger is not turned away, but his
hand is stretched out still.
5:26. And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will
whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come
with speed swiftly.
5:27. There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall
not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be
loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.
5:28. Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of
their horses shall be like the flint, and their wheels like the violence
of a tempest.
5:29. Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young
lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall
keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.
5:30. And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the
roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness
of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.
Isaias Chapter 6
A glorious vision, in which the prophet's lips are cleansed: he
foretelleth the obstinacy of the Jews.
6:1. In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.
6:2. Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other
had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered
his feet, and with two they flew.
6:3. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord
God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory,
6:4. And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
6:5. And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath
unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.
6:6. And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live
coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.
6:7. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy
lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be
cleansed.
6:8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and
who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.
6:9. And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear,
and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.
6:10. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.
6:11. And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be
wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land
shall be left desolate.
6:12. And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be
multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.
6:13. And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn,
and shall be made a show as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that
spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy
seed.
Isaias Chapter 7
The prophet assures king Achaz that the two kings his enemies shall not
take Jerusalem. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
7:1. And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of Joathan, the
son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Rasin king of Syria and Phacee the son
of Romelia king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem, to fight against it:
but they could not prevail over it.
7:2. And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon
Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the
trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
7:3. And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub
thy son that is left, to the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the
fuller's field.
7:4. And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not
thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these firebrands, smoking with
the wrath of the fury of Rasin king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.
7:5. Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of
Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:
7:6. Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and
make the son of Tabeel king in the midst thereof.
7:7. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be.
7:8. But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rasin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a
people:
7:9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the
son of Romelia. If you will not believe, you shall not continue.
7:10. And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:
7:11. Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of
hell, or unto the height above.
7:12. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.
7:13. And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small
thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God
also?
7:14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
7:15. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the
evil, and to choose the good.
7:16. For before the child know to refuse the evil and to choose the
good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her
two kings.
7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the
house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the
separation of Ephraim from Juda with the king of the Assyrians.
7:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and
for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
7:19. And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in the torrents of
the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all places set with
shrubs, and in all hollow places.
7:20. In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by
them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head
and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.
7:21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a
young cow, and two sheep.
7:22. And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter: for butter and
honey shall every one eat that shall be left in the midst of the land.
7:23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where
there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall
become thorns and briers.
7:24. With arrows and with bows they shall go in thither: for briers and
thorns shall be in all the land.
7:25. And as for the hills that shall be raked with a rake, the fear of
thorns and briers shall not come thither, but they shall be for the ox
to feed on, and the lesser cattle to tread upon.
Isaias Chapter 8
The name of a child that is to be born: many evils shall come upon the
Jews for their sins.
8:1. And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great book, and write in it
with a man's pen. Take away the spoils with speed, quickly take the
prey.
8:2. And I took unto me faithful witnesses, Urias the priest, and
Zacharias the son of Barachias.
8:3. And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son.
And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils:
Make hast to take away the prey.
8:4. For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the
strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away
before the king of the Assyrians.
8:5. And the Lord spoke to me again, saying:
8:6. Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that
go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin, and the son of Romelia:
8:7. Therefore behold the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the
river strong and many, the king of the Assyrians, and all his glory: and
he shall come up over all his channels, and shall overflow all his
banks.
8:8. And shall pass through Juda, overflowing, and going over shall
reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill
the breadth of thy, land, O Emmanuel.
8:9. Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be overcome, and give
ear, all ye lands afar off: strengthen yourselves, and be overcome, gird
yourselves, and be overcome.
8:10. Take counsel together, and it shall be defeated: speak a word, and
it shall not be done: because God is with us.
8:11. For thus saith the Lord to me: As he hath taught me, with a strong
arm, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
8:12. Say ye not: A conspiracy: for all that this people speaketh, is a
conspiracy: neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
8:13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread.
8:14. And he shall be a sanctification to you. But for a stone of
stumbling, and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, for a
snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
8:15. And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken
in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken.
8:16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
8:17. And I will wait for the Lord, who hath hid his face from the house
of Jacob, and I will look for him.
8:18. Behold I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me for a sign,
and for a wonder in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in mount
Sion.
8:19. And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners,
who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their
God, for the living of the dead?
Seek of pythons... That is, people pretending to tell future things by a
prophesying spirit.-Ibid. Should not the people seek of their God, for
the living of the dead?... Here is signified, that it is to God we
should pray to be directed, and not to seek of the dead, (that is, of
fortune-tellers dead in sin,) for the health of the living.
8:20. To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they speak not
according to this word, they shall not have the morning light.
8:21. And they shall pass by it, they shall fall, and be hungry: and
when they shall be hungry, they will be angry, and curse their king, and
their God, and look upwards.
8:22. And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness,
weakness and distress, and a mist following them, and they cannot fly
away from their distress.
Isaias Chapter 9
What joy shall come after afflictions by the birth and kingdom of
Christ; which shall flourish for ever. Judgments upon Israel for their
sins.
9:1. At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali was
lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of
the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded.
9:2. The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to
them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.
9:3. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy.
They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as
conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.
9:4. For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and
the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, as in the day of
Madian.
9:5. For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment
mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.
9:6. For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the
government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince
of Peace.
9:7. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace:
he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to
establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from
henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform
this.
9:8. The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9:9. And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the inhabitants of
Samaria that say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart:
9:10. The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with square stones:
they have cut down the sycamores, but we will change them for cedars.
9:11. And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over him, and shall
bring on his enemies in a crowd:
9:12. The Syrians from the east, and, the Philistines from the west: and
they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his indignation
is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
9:13. And the people are not returned to him who hath struck them, and
have not sought after the Lord of hosts.
9:14. And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail,
him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day.
9:15. The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the prophet that
teacheth lies, he is the tail.
9:16. And they that call this people blessed, shall cause them to err:
and they that are called blessed, shall be thrown down, headlong.
9:17. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men: neither
shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for every one is a
hypocrite and wicked, and every mouth hath spoken folly. For all this
his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
9:18. For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and
the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall
be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.
9:19. By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the
people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
9:20. And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and
shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat
the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and
they together shall be against Juda.
9:21. After all these things his indignation is not turned away, but his
hand is stretched out still.
Isaias Chapter 10
Woe to the makers of wicked laws. The Assyrian shall be a rod for
punishing Israel: but for their pride they shall be destroyed: and a
remnant of Israel saved.
10:1. Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write
injustice:
10:2. To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of
the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they
might rob the fatherless.
10:3. What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity
which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye
leave your glory?
10:4. That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the
slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still.
10:5. Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and
my indignation is in their hands.
10:6. I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a
charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to
lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the
streets.
10:7. But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but
his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
10:8. For he shall say:
10:9. Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis:
and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10:10. As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their
idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.
10:11. Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to
Jerusalem and her idols?
10:12. And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have
performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit
the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of
the haughtiness of his eyes.
10:13. For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it,
and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of
the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty
man hath pulled down them that sat on high.
10:14. And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and
as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth:
and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the
least noise.
10:15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or
shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod
should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt
itself, which is but wood.
10:16. Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send
leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a
burning, as it were the burning of a fire.
10:17. And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One
thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire,
and shall be devoured in one day.
10:18. And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be
consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through
fear.
10:19. And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few,
that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.
10:20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of
Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no
more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the
Holy One of Israel, in truth.
10:21. The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to
the mighty God.
10:22. For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a
remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall
overflow with justice.
A remnant of them shall be converted... This was partly verified in the
children of Israel who remained after the devastations of the Assyrians,
in the time of king Ezechias: and partly in the conversion of a remnant
of the Jews to the faithful of Christ.-Ibid. The consumption abridged,
etc... That is, the number of them cut short, and reduced to few, shall
flourish in abundance of justice.
10:23. For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an
abridgment in the midst of all the land.
10:24. Therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: O my people that
dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee
with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of
Egypt.
10:25. For yet a little and a very little while, and my indignation
shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.
10:26. And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him,
according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod
over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.
10:27. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be
taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and
the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.
At the presence of the oil... That is, by the sweet unction of divine
mercy.
10:28. He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas
he shall lay up his carriages.
Into Aiath, etc... Here the prophet describes the march of the Assyrians
under Sennacherib; and the terror they should carry with them; and how
they should suddenly be destroyed.
10:29. They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was
astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.
10:30. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim, attend, O Laisa, poor
Anathoth.
10:31. Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.
10:32. It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand
against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.
10:33. Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel
with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty
shall be humbled.
10:34. And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and
Libanus with its high ones shall fall.
Isaias Chapter 11
Of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, to which all nations shall repair.
11:1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a
flower shall rise up out of his root.
11:2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of
wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude,
the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness.
11:3. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord, He
shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove
according to the hearing of the ears.
11:4. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with
equity the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod
of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
11:5. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle
of his reins.
11:6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together,
and a little child shall lead them.
11:7. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest
together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
11:8. And the sucking child shall play on other hole of the asp: and the
weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk.
11:9. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain,
for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering
waters of the sea.
11:10. In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the
people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be
glorious.
11:11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set
his hand the second time to possess the remnant of his people, which
shall be left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Phetros, and
from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Sennaar, and from Emath, and from
the islands of the sea.
11:12. And he shall set up a standard unto the nations, and shall
assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather together the
dispersed of Juda from the four quarters of the earth.
11:13. And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of
Juda shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Juda, and Juda shall not fight
against Ephraim.
11:14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines by the
sea, they together shall spoil the children of the east: Edom, till Moab
shall be under the rule of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall
be obedient.
11:15. And the Lord shall lay waste the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and
shall lift up his hand over the river in the strength of his spirit: and
he shall strike it in the seven streams, so that men may pass through it
in their shoes.
11:16. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of my people, which
shall be left from the Assyrians: as there was for Israel in the day
that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Isaias Chapter 12
A canticle of thanksgiving for the benefits of Christ.
12:1. And thou shalt say in that day: I will give thanks to thee, O
Lord, for thou wast angry with me: thy wrath is turned away, and thou
hast comforted me.
12:2. Behold, God is my saviour, I will deal confidently, and will not
fear: because the Lord is my strength, and my praise, and he is become
my salvation.
12:3. Thou shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour's fountains:
12:4. And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord, and call upon
his name: make his works known among the people: remember that his name
is high.
12:5. Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done great things: shew this
forth in all the earth.
12:6. Rejoice, and praise, O thou habitation of Sion: for great is he
that is in the midst of thee, the Holy One of Israel.
Isaias Chapter 13
The desolation of Babylon.
13:1. The burden of Babylon which Isaias the son of Amos saw.
The burden of Babylon... That is, a prophecy against Babylon.
13:2. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift
up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.
13:3. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong
ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
13:4. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many
people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together:
the Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war.
13:5. To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven:
the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
13:6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a
destruction from the Lord.
13:7. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall
melt,
13:8. And shall be broken. Gripings and pains, shall take hold of them,
they shall be in pain as a woman in labour. Every one shall be amazed at
his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt.
13:9. Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of
indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to
destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
13:10. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display
their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall
not shine with her light.
13:11. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked
for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and
will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty.
13:12. A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man than the finest
of gold.
13:13. For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved
out of her place, for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the
day of his fierce wrath.
13:14. And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a sheep: and
there shall be none to gather them together: every man shall turn to his
own people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
13:15. Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that
shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.
13:16. Their inhabitants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes:
their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.
13:17. Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek
silver, nor desire gold:
13:18. But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall
have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not
spare their sons.
13:19. And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of
the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
13:20. It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be
founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch
his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.
13:21. But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be
filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy
ones shall dance there:
13:22. And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof,
and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
Isaias Chapter 14
The restoration of Israel after their captivity. The parable or song
insulting over the king of Babylon. A prophecy against the Philistines.
14:1. Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For
the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel,
and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be
joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.
14:2. And the people shall take them, and bring them into their place:
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for
servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken
them, and shall subdue their oppressors.
14:3. And it shall come to pass in that day, that when God shall give
thee rest from thy labour, and from thy vexation, and from the hard
bondage, wherewith thou didst serve before,
14:4. Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and
shalt say: How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute hath
ceased?
14:5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the
rulers,
14:6. That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that
brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner.
14:7. The whole earth is quiet and still, it is glad and hath rejoiced.
14:8. The fir trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of
Libanus, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath none come up to cut
us down.
14:9. Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred
up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are risen up from
their thrones, all the princes of nations.
14:10. All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded as well
as we, thou art become like unto us.
14:11. Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen down:
under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering.
14:12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the
morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?
O Lucifer... O day star. All this, according to the letter, is spoken of
the king of Babylon. It may also be applied, in a spiritual sense, to
Lucifer the prince of devils, who was created a bright angel, but fell
by pride and rebellion against God.
14:13. And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of
the covenant, in the sides of the north.
14:14. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the
most High.
14:15. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the
pit.
14:16. They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold
thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,
14:17. That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities
thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?
14:18. All the kings of the nations have all of them slept in glory,
every one in his own house.
14:19. But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch
defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art
gone down to the bottom of the pit, as a rotten carcass.
14:20. Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in burial: for thou
hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of the
wicked shall not be named for ever.
14:21. Prepare his children for slaughter for the iniquity of their
fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the land, nor fill the face
of the world with cities.
14:22. And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts: and I
will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the
offspring, saith the Lord.
14:23. And I will make it a possession for the ericius and pools of
waters, and I will sweep it and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord
of hosts.
14:24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought,
so shall it be: and as I have purposed,
14:25. So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the Assyrian in my
land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be
taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder.
14:26. This is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, and
this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.
14:27. For the Lord of hosts hath decreed, and who can disannul it? and
his hand is stretched out: and who shall turn it away?
14:28. In the year that king Achaz died, was this burden:
14:29. Rejoice not thou, whole Philistia, that the rod of him that
struck thee is broken in pieces: for out of the root of the serpent
shall come forth a basilisk, and his seed shall swallow the bird.
14:30. And the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the poor shall
rest with confidence: and I will make thy root perish with famine, and I
will kill thy remnant.
14:31. Howl, O gate; cry, O city: all Philistia is thrown down: for a
smoke shall come from the north, and there is none that shall escape his
troop.
14:32. And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nations? That
the Lord hath founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall hope in
him.
Isaias Chapter 15
A prophecy of the desolation of the Moabites.
15:1. The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste,
it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed in the night, it is
silent.
15:2. The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places to mourn over
Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: on all their heads shall be
baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.
15:3. In their streets they are girded with sackcloth: on the tops of
their houses, and in their streets all shall howl and come down weeping.
15:4. Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard even to Jasa.
For this shall the well appointed men of Moab howl, his soul shall howl
to itself.
15:5. My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall flee unto Segor
a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith they shall go up
weeping: and in the way of Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of
destruction.
15:6. For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is
withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.
15:7. According to the greatness of their work, is their visitation
also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the willows.
Torrent of the willows... That is, as some say, the waters of Babylon:
others render it, a valley of the Arabians.
15:8. For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab: the howling
thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim the cry thereof.
15:9. For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I will bring
more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall flee of Moab, and upon
the remnant of the land.
Isaias Chapter 16
The prophet prayeth for Christ's coming. The affliction of the Moabites
for their pride.
16:1. Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra
of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.
16:2. And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as
young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in
the passage of Arnon.
16:3. Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in
the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.
16:4. My fugitives shall dwell with thee: O Moab, be thou a covert to
them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust is at an end, the
wretch is consumed: he hath failed, that trod the earth under foot.
16:5. And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it
in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and
quickly rendering that which is just.
16:6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his
pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation is more than his strength.
16:7. Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall howl: to them
that rejoice upon the brick walls, tell ye their stripes.
16:8. For the suburbs of Hesebon are desolate, and the lords of the
nations have destroyed the vineyard of Sabama: the branches thereof have
reached even to Jazer: they have wandered in the wilderness, the
branches thereof are left, they are gone over the sea.
16:9. Therefore I will lament with the weeping of Jazer the vineyard of
Sabama: I will water thee with my tears, O Hesebon, and Eleale: for the
voice of the treaders hath rushed in upon thy vintage, and upon thy
harvest.
16:10. And gladness and joy shall be taken away from Carmel, and there
shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the vineyards. He shall not tread
out wine in the press that was wont to tread it out: the voice of the
treaders I have taken away.
Carmel... This name is often taken to signify a fair and fruitful hill
or field, such as mount Carmel is.
16:11. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my
inward parts for the brick wall.
16:12. And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is wearied
on his high places, that he shall go in to his sanctuaries to pray, and
shall not prevail.
16:13. This is the word, that the Lord spoke to Moab from that time:
16:14. And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the
years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away for all the
multitude of the people, and it shall be left small and feeble, not
many.
Isaias Chapter 17
Judgments upon Damascus and Samaria. The overthrow of the Assyrians.
17:1. The burden of Damascus. Behold Damascus shall cease to be a city,
and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones.
17:2. The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and they shall rest
there, and there shall be none to make them afraid.
17:3. And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus:
and the remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of
Israel: saith the Lord of hosts.
17:4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob
shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
17:5. And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest that which
remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of corn: and it shall be as
he that seeketh ears in the vale of Raphaim.
17:6. And the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as one
cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the olive tree, two or three
berries in the top of a bough, or four or five upon the top of the tree,
saith the Lord the God of Israel.
17:7. In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes
shall look to the Holy One of Israel.
17:8. And he shall not look to the altars which his hands made; and he
shall not have respect to the things that his fingers wrought, such as
groves and temples.
17:9. In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as the ploughs,
and the corn that were left before the face of the children of Israel,
and thou shalt be desolate.
That were left... Viz., by the Chanaanites, when the children of Israel
came into their land.
17:10. Because thou hast forgotten God thy saviour, and hast not
remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou plant good plants,
and shalt sow strange seed.
17:11. In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the
morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of
inheritance, and shall grieve thee much.
17:12. Woe to the multitude of many people, like the multitude of the
roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters.
The multitude, etc... This and all that follows to the end of the
chapter, relates to the Assyrian army under Sennacherib.
17:13. Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing,
but he shall rebuke him, and he shall flee far off: and he shall be
carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a
whirlwind before a tempest.
17:14. In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the
morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them
that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us.
Isaias Chapter 18
A woe to the Ethiopians, who fed Israel with vain hopes, their future
conversion.
18:1. Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of
Ethiopia,
18:2. That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes
upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in
pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation
expecting and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
Angels... Or messengers.
18:3. All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the
sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall
hear the sound of the trumpet.
18:4. For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest, and consider
in my place, as the noon light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the
day of harvest.
18:5. For before the harvest it was all flourishing, and it shall bud
without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof shall be cut off with
pruning hooks: and what is left shall be cut away and shaken out.
18:6. And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains, and
the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall be upon them all the
summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
18:7. At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts, from
a people rent and torn in pieces: from a terrible people, after which
there hath been no other: from a nation expecting, expecting and trodden
under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name
of the Lord of hosts, to mount Sion.
Isaias Chapter 19
The punishment of Egypt: their call to the church.
19:1. The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a swift
cloud, and will enter into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved
at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof.
19:2. And I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians: and
they shall fight brother against brother, and friend against friend,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
19:3. And the spirit of Egypt shall be broken in the bowels thereof, and
I will cast down their counsel: and they shall consult their idols, and
their diviners, and their wizards, and soothsayers.
19:4. And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a
strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord the God of hosts.
19:5. And the water of the sea shall be dried up, and the river shall be
wasted and dry.
19:6. And the rivers shall fail: the streams of the banks shall be
diminished, and be dried up. The reed and the bulrush shall wither away.
19:7. The channel of the river shall be laid bare from its fountain, and
every thing sown by the water shall be dried up, it shall wither away,
and shall be no more.
19:8. The fishers also shall mourn, and all that cast a hook into the
river shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall
languish away.
19:9. They shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving
fine linen.
19:10. And its watery places shall be dry, all they shall mourn that
made pools to take fishes.
19:11. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the wise counsellors of
Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will you say to Pharao: I am the
son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
19:12. Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and shew what the
Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
19:13. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the princes of Memphis are
gone astray, they have deceived Egypt, the stay of the people thereof.
19:14. The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the spirit of
giddiness: and they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, as a
drunken man staggereth and vomiteth.
19:15. And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head or tail, him
that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.
19:16. In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and they shall be
amazed, and afraid, because of the moving of the hand of the Lord of
hosts, which he shall move over it.
19:17. And the land of Juda shall be a terror to Egypt: everyone that
shall remember it shall tremble because of the counsel of the Lord of
hosts, which he hath determined concerning it.
19:18. In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt,
speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one
shall be called the city of the sun.
19:19. In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of
the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof:
19:20. It shall be for a sign, and for a testimony to the Lord of hosts
in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the
oppressor, and he shall send them a Saviour and a defender to deliver
them.
19:21. And the Lord shall be known by Egypt, and the Egyptians shall
know the Lord in that day, and shall worship him with sacrifices and
offerings: and they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.
19:22. And the Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge, and shall heal
it, and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be pacified towards
them, and heal them.
19:23. In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and
the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the Assyrians,
and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian.
19:24. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the
Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land,
19:25. Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: Blessed be my
people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to the Assyrian: but Israel is
my inheritance.
Isaias Chapter 20
The ignominious captivity of the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians.
20:1. In the year that Tharthan entered into Azotus, when Sargon the
king of the Assyrians had sent him, and he had fought against Azotus,
and had taken it:
20:2. At that same time the Lord spoke by the hand of Isaias the son of
Amos, saying Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and take
off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, and went naked, and
barefoot.
20:3. And the Lord said: As my servant Isaias hath walked, naked and
barefoot, it shall be a sign and a wonder of three years upon Egypt, and
upon Ethiopia,
20:4. So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the prisoners of
Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot,
with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt.
20:5. And they shall be afraid, and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope, and
of Egypt their glory.
20:6. And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day: Lo this
was our hope, to whom we fled for help, to deliver us from the face of
the king of the Assyrians: and how shall we be able to escape?
Isaias Chapter 21
The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians: a prophecy against
the Edomites and the Arabians.
21:1. The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the
south, it cometh from the desert from a terrible land.
The desert of the sea... So Babylon is here called, because from a city
as full of people as the sea is with water, it was become a desert.
21:2. A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth
unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth. Go up, O Elam,
besiege, O Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease.
O Elam... That is, O Persia.
21:3. Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath taken hold
of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing
of it, I was troubled at the seeing of it.
21:4. My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become
a wonder to me.
21:5. Prepare the table, behold in the watchtower them that eat and
drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield.
21:6. For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman: and
whatsoever he shall see, let him tell.
21:7. And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a
rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed.
A rider upon an ass, etc... These two riders are the kings of the
Persians and Medes.
21:8. And a lion cried out: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord,
standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward, standing whole
nights.
And a lion cried out... That is, I Isaias seeing the approaching ruin of
Babylon, have cried out as a lion roaring.
21:9. Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot with two
horsemen, and he answered, and said: Babylon is fallen, she is fallen,
and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground.
21:10. O my thrashing, and the children of my floor, that which I have
heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.
21:11. The burden of Duma calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of
the night? watchman, what of the night?
Duma... That is, Idumea, or Edom.
21:12. The watchman said: The morning cometh, also the night: if you
seek, seek: return, come.
21:13. The burden in Arabia. In the forest at evening you shall sleep,
in the paths of Dedanim.
21:14. Meeting the thirsty bring him water, you that inhabit the land of
the south, meet with bread him that fleeth.
21:15. For they are fled from before the swords, from the sword that
hung over them, from the bent bow, from the face of a grievous battle.
21:16. For thus saith the Lord to me: Within a year, according to the
years of a hireling, all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away.
Cedar... Arabia.
21:17. And the residue of the number of strong archers of the children
of Cedar shall be diminished: for the Lord the God of Israel hath spoken
it.
Isaias Chapter 22
The prophet laments the devastation of Juda. He foretells the
deprivation of Sobna, and the substitution of Eliacim, a figure of
Christ.
22:1. The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee also, that
thou too art wholly gone up to the housetops?
The valley of vision... Jerusalem. The temple of Jerusalem was built
upon mount Moria, or the mountain of vision. But the city is here called
the valley of vision; either because it was lower than the temple, or
because of the low condition to which it was to be reduced.
22:2. Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy slain are not
slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.
22:3. All the princes are fled together, and are bound hard: all that
were found, are bound together, they are fled far off.
22:4. Therefore have I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly:
labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of the daughter of my
people.
22:5. For it is a day of slaughter and of treading down, and of weeping
to the Lord the God of hosts in the valley of vision, searching the
wall, and magnificent upon the mountain.
22:6. And Elam took the quiver, the chariot of the horseman, and the
shield was taken down from the wall.
22:7. And thy choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen
shall place themselves in the gate.
22:8. And the covering of Juda shall be discovered, and thou shalt see
in that day the armoury of the house of the forest.
22:9. And you shall see the breaches of the city of David, that they are
many: and you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool,
22:10. And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and broken down houses
to fortify the wall.
22:11. And you made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the
old pool: and you have not looked up to the maker thereof, nor regarded
him even at a distance, that wrought it long ago.
22:12. And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to
weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
22:13. And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying rams,
eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we
shall die.
22:14. And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears:
Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die, saith the
Lord God of hosts.
22:15. Thus saith the Lord God of hosts: Go, get thee in to him that
dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobna who is over the temple: and thou
shalt say to him:
22:16. What dost thou here, or as if thou wert somebody here? for thou
hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, thou hast hewed out a monument
carefully in a high place, a dwelling for thyself in a rock.
22:17. Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is
carried away, and he will lift thee up as a garment.
22:18. He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation, he will toss thee
like a ball into a large and spacious country: there shalt thou die, and
there shall the chariot of thy glory be, the shame of the house of thy
Lord.
22:19. And I will drive thee out from thy station, and depose thee from
thy ministry.
22:20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my
servant Eliacim the son of Helcias,
22:21. And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with
thy girdle, and will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a
father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.
22:22. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder:
and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none
shall open.
22:23. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be
for a throne of glory to the house of his father.
22:24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house,
divers kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups
even to every instrument of music.
22:25. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg be removed,
that was fastened in the sure place: and it shall be broken and shall
fall: and that which hung thereon, shall perish, because the Lord hath
spoken it.
Isaias Chapter 23
The destruction of Tyre. It shall be repaired again after seventy years.
23:1. The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of the sea, for the house is
destroyed, from whence they were wont to come: from the land of Cethim
it is revealed to them.
23:2. Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the merchants of Sidon
passing over the sea, have filled thee.
23:3. The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of the river is
her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.
23:4. Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even the strength
of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour, nor have I brought forth,
nor have I nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins.
23:5. When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry when they
shall hear of Tyre:
23:6. Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.
23:7. Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in her antiquity?
her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
23:8. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was formerly
crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders the nobles of the
earth?
23:9. The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the pride of all
glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth.
23:10. Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a
girdle no more.
23:11. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he troubled kingdoms: the
Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to destroy the strong ones
thereof.
23:12. And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin daughter of
Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over to Cethim, there also thou
shalt have no rest.
23:13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such a people,
the Assyrians founded it: they have led away the strong ones thereof
into captivity, they have destroyed the houses thereof, they have,
brought it to ruin.
23:14. Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is laid waste.
23:15. And it shall come to pass in that day that thou, O Tyre, shalt be
forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king: but after
seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.
23:16. Take a harp, go about the city, harlot that hast been forgotten:
sing well, sing many a song, that thou mayst be remembered.
23:17. And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that the Lord will
visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to her traffic: and she shall
commit fornication again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the
face of the earth.
23:18. And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord:
they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up: for her merchandise shall
be for them that shall dwell before the Lord, that they may eat unto
fulness, and be clothed for a continuance.
Sanctified 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