9 the vine, and the smell of thy nose as [ comes up all white, leaning on her apples; and thy throat as good wine, kinsman? I raised thee up under an going well with my kinsman, suiting apple-tree; there thy mother brought my lips and teeth. thee forth; there she that bore thee brought thee forth. 10 Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave, her shafts are shafts of fire, even the flames thereof. 7 Much water will not be able to I am my kinsman's, and his desire + Lit. turning. is toward me. 11 6 Come, my kinsman, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. 12 Let us go early into the vineyards; let us see if the vine has flowered, if the blossoms have appeared, if the pomegranates have blossomed; there will I give thee my breasts. 13 The mandrakes have given a smell, and at our doors are all kinds of choice fruits, new and old. O my kinsman, I have kept them for thee. 8. O my kinsman, that thou wert he that sucked the breasts of my mother; when I found thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, they should not despise me. 2 I would take thee, I would bring thee into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me; I would make thee to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranates. His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I have charged you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the virtues of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please. Who is this that 683 3 quench love, and rivers shall not drown it; if a man would give all his substance for love, men would utterly despise it. Our sister is little, and has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister, in the day wherein she shall be spoken for? 9 If she is a wall, let us build upon her silver bulwarks; and if she is a door, let us carve for her cedar panels. 10 I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers; I was in their eyes as one that found peace. 11 Solomon had a vineyard in Beelamon; he let his vineyard to keepers; every one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. 12 My vineyard, even mine, is before me; Solomon shall have a thousand, and they that keep its fruit two hundred. 13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: make me hear it. 14 Away, my kinsman, and be like a doe or a fawn on the mountains of spices. 45 ESAIAS. CHAPTER I. VERSES 1-20. 14 11 Of what your 1. THE vision which Esaias the son | thou people of Gomorrha. of Amos saw, which he saw against value to me is the abundance of Juda and against Jerusalem, in the sacrifices? says the Lord: I am full of reign of Ozias, and Joatham, and whole-burnt-offerings of rams; and I Achaz, and Ezekias, who reigned over delight not in the fat of lambs, and Judea. 2 Hear, O heaven, and hearken, the blood of bulls and goats: 12 neither O earth: for the Lord has spoken, shall ye come with these to appear saying, I have begotten and reared up before me; for who has required these + Or, ' set me children, but they have re-things at your hands? Ye shall no at nought.' belled against me. 3 The more tread my court. 13 Though ye ox knows his owner, and the ass his bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is master's crib: but Israel does not know an abomination to me; I cannot bear me, and the people has not regarded your new moons, and your sabbaths, me. Ah sinful nation, a people full and the great day; your fasting, of sins, an evil seed, lawless children: and rest from work, your new moons ye have forsaken the Lord, and pro- also, and your feasts my soul hates: voked the Holy One of Israel. 5 Why ye have become loathsome to me; I should ye be smitten any more, trans- will no more pardon your sins. 15 When gressing more and more? the whole ye stretch forth your hands, I will head is pained, and the whole heart turn away mine eyes from you: and sad. From the feet to the head, though ye make many supplications, there is no soundness in them; neither I will not hearken to you; for your wound, nor bruise, nor festering ulcer hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, are healed: it is not possible to apply be clean; remove your iniquities from a plaister, nor oil, nor bandages. Your your souls before mine eyes; cease land is desolate, your cities burned from your iniquities; learn to do well; with fire: your land, strangers devour 17 diligently seek judgment, deliver it in your presence, and it is made him that is suffering wrong, plead for desolate, overthrown by strange na- the orphan, and obtain justice for the 18 8 The daughter of Sion shall widow. And come, let us reason be deserted as a tent in a vineyard, together, says the Lord: and though and as a storehouse of fruits in a garden your sins be as purple, I will make of cucumbers, as a besieged city. them white as snow; and though they + Rom. 9. 29. *And if the Lord of Sa- be as scarlet, I will make them baoth had not left us a seed, weshould white as wool. 19 And if ye be willhave been as Sodoma, and we should ing, and hearken to me, ye shall have been made like to Gomorrha. eat the good of the land: 20 but if 10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers ye be not willing, nor hearken to of Sodoma; attend to the law of God, me, a sword shall devour you: for tions. 6 9 + ness. pure 6 the mouth of the Lord has spoken | be exalted above the hills; and all this. nations shall come to it. 3 And many 21 How has the faithful city Sion, nations shall go and say, Come, and once full of judgment, become a harlot! let us go up to the mountain of the wherein righteousness lodged, but now Lord, and to the house of the God of murderers. 22 Your silver is worthless, Jacob; and he will tell us his way, thy wine merchants mix the wine and we will walk in it: for out of Sion with water. 23 Thy princes are rebel- shall go forth the law, and the word of lious, companions of thieves, loving the Lord out of Jerusalem. And he bribes, seeking after rewards; not shall judge among the nations, and pleading for orphans, and not heeding shall rebuke many people: and they the cause of widows. 24 Therefore thus shall beat their swords into ploughsays the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Woe shares, and their spears into sickles: to the mighty men of Israel; for my and nation shall not take up sword wrath shall not cease against mine against nation, neither shall they learn adversaries, and I will execute judg- to war any more. And now, Ŏ house ment on mine enemies. 25 And I will of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the bring my hand upon thee, and purge light of the Lord. For he has for+ Gr. to thee completely, and I will saken his people the house of Israel, destroy the rebellious, and because their land is filled as at the will take away from thee all trans- beginning with divinations, as the land gressors. 26 And I will establish thy of the judges as before, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: and afterwards thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother-city Sion. 27 For her captives shall be saved with judgment, and with mercy. 28 And the transgressors and the sinners shall be crushed together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be utterly consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of their idols, which they delighted in, and they are made ashamed of the gardens which they coveted. 30 For they shall be as a turpentine tree that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water. 31 And their strength shall be as a thread of tow, and their works as sparks, and the transgressors and the sinners shall be burnt up together, and there shall be none to quench them. Philistines, and + Or, aliens, many strange children were see Appendix. born to them. For their land is filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; their land also is filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots. And their land is filled with abominations, even the works of their hands; and they have worshipped the works which their fingers made. And the mean man bows down, and the great man humbles himself: and I will not pardon them. 9 10 Now therefore enter ye into the rocks, and hide yourselves in the earth, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. "For the eyes of the Lord are high, but man is low; and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, and upon every one that is high and towering, and they shall be brought down. 13 And upon every cedar of Libanus, of them that are high and towering, and upon every oak of Basan, 14 and upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, 15 and upon every high tower, and upon every high wall, 16 and upon every ship of the sea, and upon every display of fine ships. 17 And every man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall fall: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 18 And they shall hide all idols made with hands, 19 having carried them into the caves, and into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. 20 For in that day a man shall cast forth his silver and gold abominations, which they made in order to worship vanities and bats; to enter into the caverns of the solid rock, and into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. 21 + See v. 10. 3. Behold now, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will take away from Jerusalem and from Judea the mighty man and mighty woman, the strength of bread, and strength of water, 2 the great and mighty man, and warrior and the judge, and the prophet, and the counsellor, and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty also, and the honourable councillor, and the wise artificer, and the intelligent hearer. And I will make youths their princes, and mockers shall have dominion over them. 5 And the people shall fall, man upon man, and every man upon his neighbour: the child shall insult the elder man, and the base the honourable. For a man shall lay hold of his brother, as one of his father's household, saying, Thou hast raiment, be thou our ruler, and let my meat be + proba- under thee. 7 And he shall answer in that day, and say, I will not be thy ruler; for I have no bread in my house, nor bly read for מכשלה raiment: I will not be the ruler of this people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judea has fallen, and +Or, forsaken, their tongues have spoken or, let go. with iniquity, disobedient as they are towards the Lord. 9 Wherefore now their glory has been brought low, and the shame of their countenance has withstood them, and they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom, and made it manifest. 10 Woe to their soul, for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying against themselves, Let us bind the just, for he is burdensome to us: therefore shall they eat the fruits of their works. "Woe to the transgressor! evils shall happen to him according to the works of his hands. 120 my people, your exactors strip you, extortioners rule over you. + Gr. glean O my people, they that you. pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet. 13 But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and will enter into judg ment with his people. 14The Lord himself shall enter into judgment with the elders of the people, and with their rulers: but why have ye set my vineyard on fire, and why is the spoil of the poor in your houses? 15 Why do ye wrong my people, and shame the face of the poor? + and 16 Thus says the Lord, Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and have walked with an outstretched neck, and with winking of the eyes, and motion of the feet, at the same time drawing their garments in trains, and at the same time sporting with their feet: 17 therefore the Lord will humble the chief daughters of Sion, and the Lord will expose their form in that day; 18 and the Lord will take away the glory of their raiment, the curls and the fringes, and the crescents, 19 and the chains, and the ornaments of their faces, 20 and the array of glorious ornaments, and the armlets, and the bracelets, and the wreathed work, and the finger-rings, and the ornaments for the right hand, 21 and the ear-rings, and the garments with scarlet borders, and the garments with purple grounds, and the shawls to be worn in the house, and the Spartan transparent dresses, and those made of fine linen, and the purple ones, and the scarlet ones, and the fine linen, interwoven with gold and purple, and the light coverings for couches. 24 And there shall be instead of a sweet smell, dust; and instead of a girdle, thou shalt gird thyself with a rope; and instead of a golden ornament for the head, thou shalt have baldness on account of thy works; and instead of a tunic with a scarlet ground, thou shalt gird thyself with sackcloth. + 5 3 + Gr. horn, so 5. Now I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a fertile place. And I made Heb. a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns. And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and every man of Juda, judge between me and 4 25 And thy most my vineyard. What shall I do any beautiful son whom thou lovest shall more to my vineyard, that I have fall by the sword; and your mighty not done to it? Whereas I expected men shall fall by the sword, and shall be it to bring forth grapes, but it has brought low. 26 And the stores of your brought forth thorns. And now I +Gr. cases, or, ornaments shall mourn, and will tell you what I will do to my repositories. thou shalt be left alone, and vineyard: I will take away its hedge, shalt be levelled with the ground. and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it shall be left to be trodden down. And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda his + Gr. a man. beloved plant: I expected it to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry. Woe to them that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbour's: will dwell alone upon ye the land? 9 For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them. 10 For where ten yoke of oxen plough, the land shall yield one jar-full, and he that Gr. artabas. sows six 'homers shall produce three + 2 4. And seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own raiment: only let thy name be called upon us, and take away our reproach. And in that day God shall shine gloriously in counsel on the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel. 3 And it shall be, that the remnant left in Sion, and the remnant left in Jerusalem, even all that are appointed Gr. written to life in Jerusalem, shall for life. be called holy. For the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and shall purge out the blood from the midst of them, with the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning. And he shall come, and it shall be with regard to every place of Mount Sion, yea, all the region round about it shall a cloud overshadow by day, and there shall be as it were the smoke and light of fire burning by night: and upon all + 8 |