Jeremiah 51

1 Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will raise up, over Babylon and over its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against me, something like a pestilent wind.

2 And I will send winnowers into Babylon, and they will winnow her, and they will demolish her land. For they will overwhelm her from every side in the day of her affliction.

3 Let him who draws the bow, not draw his bow. And let him who wears armor, not rise up. Do not spare her young men. Destroy her entire military.

4 And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in its regions.

5 Yet Israel and Judah have not been widowed by their God, the Lord of hosts, though their land has been filled with transgression against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon! And let each one save his own life. Do not be silent about her iniquity. For it is the time of revenge from the Lord. He himself will repay her, in her turn.

7 Babylon is a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, inebriating the entire earth. The nations have drunk from her wine, and therefore they have staggered.

8 Suddenly, Babylon has fallen and been crushed. Wail over her! Take a balm to her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.”

9 “We would have cured Babylon, but there is no cure. Let us abandon her, and let each one of us go to his own land. For her judgment has reached even to the heavens, and has been lifted up even to the clouds.

10 The Lord has brought forth our justices. Come and let us describe in Zion the work of the Lord our God.”

11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. And his mind is against Babylon, so that he may destroy her. For this is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Upon the walls of Babylon, lift up a sign. Increase the watch! Rouse the watchmen! Prepare ambushes! For the Lord has planned and has accomplished all that he has spoken, against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 You who live above many waters, rich in treasures: your end has arrived, your measure has been cut short.

14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, saying: “For I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they will sing a rhythmic chant against you.”

15 The One who made the earth by his strength, who prepared the world by his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens by his prudence:

16 when he utters his voice, the waters will be multiplied in the heavens. The One who lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he has turned lightning into rain, and he has brought forth wind from his storehouses.

17 Each man has become foolish before his own knowledge. Each sculptor has been confounded by his own sculpture. For what he has formed of them is a lie, and there is no spirit in them.

18 They are empty works, deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like their portion. For the One who made all things is his portion, and Israel is the scepter of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name:

20 “For me, you strike together the instruments of war; and with you, I will strike together nations; and with you, I will scatter the kingdoms.

21 And with you, I will strike together the horse and his rider; and with you, I will strike together the chariot and its rider.

22 And with you, I will strike together man and woman; and with you, I will strike together the old man and the boy; and with you, I will strike together the young man and the virgin.

23 And with you, I will strike together the pastor and his flock; and with you, I will strike together the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you, I will strike together military leaders and civil leaders.

24 And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, says the Lord.

25 Behold, I am against you, you pestilent mountain, says the Lord, for you are corrupting the entire earth. And I will extend my hand over you, and I will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you into a burning mountain.

26 And they will not take from you a stone for the corner, nor a stone for the foundations. Instead, you will be destroyed unto eternity,” says the Lord.

27 Lift up a sign in the land! Sound the trumpet among the nations! Sanctify the nations against her. Announce against her the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Number against her Taphsar. Lead in the horse, like the stinging locust.

28 Sanctify the nations against her: the kings of Media, their military leaders, and all their civil leaders, and the entire land under their authority.

29 And the earth will be shaken and will be disturbed. For the plan of the Lord against Babylon will awaken, so that he may make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable.

30 The strong ones of Babylon have ceased to do battle. They have lived in fortresses. Their health has been devoured, and they have become like women. Her tabernacles have been set ablaze; her bars have been broken.

31 Runner will go forth to meet runner, and messenger will meet messenger, so as to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, from one end to the other,

32 and that the fords were seized in advance, and that the marshes have been burned with fire, and that the men of war have been set in disarray.

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. This is the time of her threshing. A little while longer, and the time of her harvest will arrive.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has consumed me, has devoured me. He has made me like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my tender ones, and he has cast me out.

35 This iniquity is against me, and so my flesh is upon Babylon,” says the habitation of Zion. “And my blood is upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

36 Because of this, thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will judge your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will make her sea into a desert, and I will dry up her spring.

37 And Babylon will become a tumult, the habitation of dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.

38 They will roar together, like lions, they will shake their manes, like young lions.

39 In their heat, I will give them a drink, and I will inebriate them, so that they become drowsy, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and do not rise up, says the Lord.

40 I will lead them away, like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with young goats.

41 How was Sesac captured, and how was the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?

42 The sea has ascended over Babylon; she has been covered by the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities have become an astonishment, an uninhabited and desolate land, a land in which no one may live, nor may a son of man pass through it.

44 And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will cast from his mouth what he has swallowed. And the nations will no longer flow together before him. For even the wall of Babylon will also fall.

45 Go forth from her midst, my people, so that each one may save his life from the wrath of the fury of the Lord.

46 For otherwise, your heart may faint, and you may be afraid at the news that is heard in the land. And the news will arrive within a year, and after that year more news will arrive. And iniquity will be in the land, and one ruler will be over another ruler.

47 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, when I will visit against the graven images of Babylon. And her entire land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

48 And the heavens and the earth, and all the things that are in them, will give praise over Babylon. For despoilers will approach her from the north, says the Lord.

49 And in the manner that Babylon has caused the slain to fall in Israel, so the slain of Babylon will fall over the entire earth.

50 You who have fled from the sword, approach, do not stand still. Remember from afar the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up in your heart.

51 We have been confounded, for we heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have overwhelmed the holiness of the house of the Lord.

52 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will visit against her graven images, and within all her land the wounded will groan.

53 If Babylon were to ascend to heaven, and establish her strength on high, her despoilers would go forth from me, says the Lord.”

54 A voice of outcry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For the Lord has despoiled Babylon, and he has perished the great voice from her. And their wave will make a sound like many waters. Their voice has uttered a noise.

56 For the despoiler has overwhelmed her, that is, Babylon, and her strong ones have been apprehended, and their bow has been weakened. For the Lord, the powerful revenger, will certainly repay.

57 “And I will inebriate her leaders, and her wise ones, and her military rulers, and her civil rulers, and her strong ones. And they will sleep an everlasting sleep, and they will not awaken,” says the King: the Lord of hosts is his name.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “That very wide wall of Babylon will be utterly overturned, and her exalted gates will be burned with fire, and the labors of the people will be as nothing, and the labors of the nations will be sent into the fire and will perish.”

59 The word that Jeremiah, the prophet, instructed to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he traveled with king Zedekiah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was the leader of the prophets.

60 And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to overwhelm Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you will enter into Babylon, and you will see and read all these words,

62 you will say: ‘O Lord, you have spoken against this place so that you may destroy it, so that there would not be anyone, from man even to beast, who may live in it, and so that it may be desolate forever.’

63 And when you will have completed reading this book, you will tie a stone to it, and you will cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.

64 And you will say: ‘So shall Babylon be submerged! And she will not rise up before the face of the affliction that I will lead over her. And she will be broken.’ ” The words of Jeremiah thus far.

Jeremiah 52

1 Zedekiah was a son of twenty-one years when he first began to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

2 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, in accord with all that Jehoiakim had done.

3 And so the fury of the Lord was toward Jerusalem, and toward Judah, even until he cast them away from his face. And Zedekiah drew away from the king of Babylon.

4 And it happened that, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, he and his entire army, came against Jerusalem. And they besieged it, and they built fortifications against it, on every side.

5 And the city was besieged, until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

6 Then, in the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, a famine gripped the city. And there was no nourishment for the people of the land.

7 And the city was broken, and all the men of war fled, and they departed from the city at night by way of the gate which is between the two walls, and which leads to the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were besieging the city all around, and they went away by the road that leads to the wilderness.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king. And they overtook Zedekiah in the desert which is near Jericho. And all of his companions fled away from him.

9 And when they had captured the king, they led him away to the king of Babylon at Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath. And he spoke a judgment against him.

10 And the king of Babylon cut the throats of the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the leaders of Judah at Riblah.

11 And he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah, and he bound him with shackles, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon, and he placed him in the prison house, even until the day of his death.

12 Then, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, arrived. And he was standing before the king of Babylon at Jerusalem.

13 And he set fire to the house of the Lord, and to the house of the king, and to all the houses of Jerusalem. And every great house he burned with fire.

14 And the entire army of the Chaldeans, who were with the chief of the military, destroyed the entire wall all around Jerusalem.

15 Then Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, took away some of the poor people, and some of the rest of the common people, who had remained in the city, and some of the fugitives, who had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16 Yet truly, some of the poor of the land, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, left behind as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The Chaldeans also broke apart the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord. And they took all the brass of these things to Babylon.

18 And they took the cooking pots, and the hooks, and the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the bronze vessels that had been used in the ministry.

19 And the chief of the military took the water pots, and the censers, and the pitchers, and the basins, and the lampstands, and the mortars, and the little cups, whatever was gold, for the gold, and whatever was silver, for the silver,

20 as well as the two pillars, and the one brass sea, and the twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord. There was no weight of brass left behind out of all these vessels.

21 Now concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a cord of twelve cubits encircled it. Moreover, its thickness was four fingers, and the interior was hollow.

22 And heads of brass were upon both. And the height of one head was five cubits. And little nets with pomegranates were upon the heads all around, all of brass. The second pillar was similar, and the pomegranates.

23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down; and there were one hundred pomegranates in all, surrounded by the little nets.

24 And the chief of the military took Seraiah, the first priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the vestibule.

25 He also took from the city one eunuch who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men among those who served before the face of the king, who were found in the city, and a scribe, a leader of the military, who tested the new recruits, and sixty men from the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

26 Then Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, took them, and he led them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27 And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. And Judah was carried away from his land.

28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;

29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two souls from Jerusalem;

30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, carried away of the Jews seven hundred forty-five souls. Therefore, all the souls were four thousand six hundred.

31 And it happened that, in the thirty-seventh year of the transmigration of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evilmerodach, the king of Babylon, in the very first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and he brought him out of the prison house.

32 And he spoke with him for good, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were after him in Babylon.

33 And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread in his sight always, all the days of his life.

34 And for his meals, a continual provision was allotted to him by the king of Babylon, a measure for every single day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Isaiah 1

1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Listen, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nurtured and raised children, but they have spurned me.

3 An ox knows his owner, and a donkey knows the manger of his lord, but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood.

4 Woe to a sinful nation, a people burdened by iniquity, a wicked offspring, accursed children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. They been taken away backwards.

5 For what reason shall I continue to strike you, as you increase transgressions? The entire head is feeble, and the entire heart is grieving.

6 From the sole of the foot, even to the top of the head, there is no soundness within. Wounds and bruises and swelling sores: these are not bandaged, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil.

7 Your land is desolate. Your cities have been set ablaze. Foreigners devour your countryside in your sight, and it will become desolate, as if devastated by enemies.

8 And the daughter of Zion will be left behind, like an arbor in a vineyard, and like a shelter in a cucumber field, and like a city being laid to waste.

9 If the Lord of hosts had not bequeathed us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been comparable to Gomorrah.

10 Listen to the Word of the Lord, you leaders of the people of Sodom. Listen closely to the law of our God, O people of Gomorrah.

11 The multitude of your sacrifices, what is that to me, says the Lord? I am full. I do not desire holocausts of rams, nor the fat of fatlings, nor the blood of calves and of lambs and of he-goats.

12 When you approach before my sight, who is it that requires these things from your hands, so that you would walk in my courts?

13 You should no longer offer sacrifice vain. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons and the Sabbaths and the other feast days, I will not receive. Your gatherings are iniquitous.

14 My soul hates your days of proclamation and your solemnities. They have become bothersome to me. I labor to endure them.

15 And so, when you extend your hands, I will avert my eyes from you. And when you multiply your prayers, I will not heed you. For your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash, become clean, take away the evil of your intentions from my eyes. Cease to act perversely.

17 Learn to do good. Seek judgment, support the oppressed, judge for the orphan, defend the widow.

18 And then approach and accuse me, says the Lord. Then, if your sins are like scarlet, they shall be made white like snow; and if they are red like vermillion, they shall become white like wool.

19 If you are willing, and you listen to me, then you will eat the good things of the land.

20 But if you are not willing, and you provoke me to anger, then the sword will devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

21 How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice lived in her, but now murderers.

22 Your silver has turned into dross. Your wine has been mixed with water.

23 Your leaders are unfaithful, the associates of thieves. They all love gifts; they pursue rewards. They do not judge for orphans, and the widow’s case is not brought before them.

24 Because of this, the Lord God of hosts, the Strength of Israel, says: Ah! I will be consoled over my enemies, and I will be vindicated from my adversaries.

25 And I will turn my hand to you. And I will temper your dross unto purity, and I will take away all your tin.

26 And I will restore your judges, so that they will be as before, and your counselors as in times long past. After this, you shall be called the City of the Just, the Faithful City.

27 Zion will be redeemed in judgment, and they will lead her back to justice.

28 And he shall crush the accursed and sinners together. And those who have abandoned the Lord will be consumed.

29 For they shall be confounded because of the idols, to which they have sacrificed. And you shall be ashamed over the gardens that you chose,

30 when you were like an oak with falling leaves, and like a garden without water.

31 And your strength will be like the embers from stubble, and your work will be like a spark, and both will burn together, and there will be no one to extinguish it.

Isaiah 2

1 The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared at the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.

3 And many peoples will go, and they will say: “Let us approach and ascend 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 will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 And he will judge the nations, and he will rebuke many peoples. And they shall forge their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they continue to train for battle.

5 O house of Jacob, let us approach and walk in the light of the Lord.

6 For you have cast aside your people, the house of Jacob, because they have been filled up, as in past times, and because they have had soothsayers as the Philistines have, and because they have joined themselves to foreign servants.

7 Their land has been filled with silver and gold. And there is no end to their storehouses.

8 And their land has been filled with horses. And their four-horse chariots are innumerable. And their land has been filled with idols. They have adored the work of their hands, which their own fingers have made.

9 And man has bowed himself down, and so man has become debased. Therefore, you should not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock, and hide in a ditch in the soil, from the presence of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

11 The lofty eyes of man have been humbled, and the haughtiness of men will be bowed down. Then the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

12 For the day of the Lord of hosts will prevail over all the proud and self-exalted, and over all the arrogant, and each one shall be humbled,

13 and over all the straight and tall cedars of Lebanon, and over all the oaks of Bashan;

14 and over all the lofty mountains, and over all the elevated hills;

15 and over every lofty tower, and over every fortified wall;

16 and over all the ships of Tarshish, and over all the beauty that may be seen.

17 And the loftiness of men will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men will be brought low. And the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

18 And idols will be thoroughly crushed.

19 And they will go into the caves of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

20 In that day, man shall cast aside his idols of silver and his images of gold, which he had made for himself, as if to reverence the moles and the bats.

21 And so he will go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of stone, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

22 Therefore, rest away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he considers himself to be exalted.

Isaiah 3

1 For behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will take away, from Jerusalem and from Judah, the powerful and the strong: all the strength from bread, and all the strength from water;

2 the strong man, and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the seer and the elder;

3 the leader over fifty and the honorable in appearance; and the counselor, and the wise among builders, and the skillful in mystical speech.

4 And I will provide children as their leaders, and the effeminate will rule over them.

5 And the people will rush, man against man, and each one against his neighbor. The child shall rebel against the elder, and the ignoble against the noble.

6 For a man will apprehend his brother, from the household of his own father, saying: “The vestment is yours. Be our leader, but let this ruin be under your hand.”

7 In that day, he will respond by saying: “I am not a healer, and there is no bread or vestment in my house. Do not choose to appoint me as a leader of the people.”

8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their words and their plans are against the Lord, in order to provoke the eyes of his majesty.

9 The acknowledgement of their countenance is their response. For they have proclaimed their own sin, like Sodom; and they have not concealed it. Woe to their souls! For evils are being repaid to them.

10 Tell the just man that it is well, for he shall eat from the fruit from his own plans.

11 Woe to the impious man immersed in evil! For retribution will be given to him from his own hands.

12 As for my people, their oppressors have despoiled them, and women have ruled over them. My people, who call you blessed, the same are deceiving you and disrupting the path of your steps.

13 The Lord stands for judgment, and he stands to judge the people.

14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their leaders. For you have been devouring the vineyard, and the plunder from the poor is in your house.

15 Why do you wear down my people, and grind up the faces of the poor, says the Lord, the God of hosts?

16 And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up, and have walked with extended necks and winking eyes, because they have continued on, walking noisily and advancing with a pretentious stride,

17 the Lord will make the heads of the daughters of Zion bald, and the Lord will strip them of the locks of their hair.

18 In that day, the Lord will take away their decorative shoes,

19 and the little moons and chains, and the necklaces and bracelets, and the hats,

20 and the ornaments for their hair, and the anklets, and the touches of myrrh and little bottles of perfumes, and the earrings,

21 and the rings, and the jewels hanging on their foreheads,

22 and the continual changes in appearance, and the short skirts, and the fine linens and embroidered cloths,

23 and the mirrors, and scarves, and ribbons, and their sparse clothing.

24 And in place of a sweet fragrance, there will be stench. And in place of a belt, there will be a rope. And in place of stylish hair, there will be baldness. And in place of a blouse, there will be haircloth.

25 Likewise, your most handsome men will fall by the sword, and your strong men will fall in battle.

26 And her gates will grieve and mourn. And she will sit on the ground, desolate.

Isaiah 4

1 And seven women will take hold of one man, in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name, so as to take away our reproach.”

2 In that day, the seedling of the Lord will have magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be greatly-esteemed and a source of joy to those who will have been saved out of Israel.

3 And this shall be: all who are left behind in Zion, and who remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, all who have been written in life in Jerusalem.

4 Then the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and will have washed away the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by means of a spirit of judgment and a spirit of intense devotion.

5 And the Lord will create, over every place of Mount Zion and wherever he is called upon, a cloud by day and a smoke with the splendor of burning fire by night. For protection will be over every glory.

6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade from the heat in daytime, and for security, and for protection from the whirlwind and from rain.

Isaiah 5

1 I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my paternal cousin, about his vineyard. A vineyard was made for my beloved, at the horn in the son of oil.

2 And he fenced it in, and he picked the stones out of it, and he planted it with the best vines, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he set up a winepress within it. And he expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild vines.

3 Now then, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah: judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more should I have done for my vineyard that I did not do for it? Should I not have expected it to produce grapes, though it produced wild vines?

5 And now, I will reveal to you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it will be plundered. I will pull down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6 And I will make it desolate. It will not be pruned, and it will not be dug. And briers and thorns will rise up. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the man of Judah is his delightful seedling. And I expected that he would do judgment, and behold iniquity, and that he would do justice, and behold an outcry.

8 Woe to you who join house to house, and who combine field to field, even to the limits of the place! Do you intend to live alone in the midst of the earth?

9 These things are in my ears, says the Lord of hosts. Otherwise, many houses, great and beautiful, will become desolate, without an inhabitant.

10 Then ten acres of vineyard will produce one small bottle of wine, and thirty measures of seed will produce three measures of grain.

11 Woe to you who rise up in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink even until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine.

12 Harp and lyre and timbrel and pipe, as well as wine, are at your feasts. But you do not respect the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

13 Because of this, my people have been led away as captives, for they did not have knowledge, and their nobles have passed away from famine, and their multitudes have dried up from thirst.

14 For this reason, Hell has expanded its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limits. And their strong ones, and their people, and their exalted and glorious ones will descend into it.

15 And man will be bowed down, and man will be humbled, and the eyes of the exalted will be brought low.

16 And the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in justice.

17 And the lambs will pasture in proper order, and new arrivals will eat from the deserts turned into fertile lands.

18 Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and who draw sin as if with the rope of a cart,

19 and who say: “Let him hurry, and let his work arrive soon, so that we may see it. And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach and arrive, so that we may know it.”

20 Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light, and light for darkness; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight!

22 Woe to you who are powerful at drinking wine, who are strong men in contriving inebriation!

23 For you justify an impious man in exchange for bribes, and you carry away the justice of a just man from him.

24 Because of this, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and as the heat of a flame burns it completely, so will their root become like glowing embers, and so will their offshoot ascend like dust. For they have cast aside the law of the Lord of hosts, and they have blasphemed the eloquence of the Holy One of Israel.

25 For this reason, the fury of the Lord has been enraged against his people, and he has extended his hand over them, and he has struck them. And the mountains were disturbed. And their carcasses became like dung in the midst of the streets. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

26 And he will lift up a sign to nations far away, and he will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they will rush forward speedily.

27 There is no one weak or struggling among them. They will not become drowsy, and they will not sleep. Neither will the belt around their waist be loosened, nor the laces of their boots be broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are taut. The hoofs of their horses are like flint, and their wheels are like the force of a tempest.

29 Their roaring is like the lion; they will roar like young lions. They will both roar and seize their prey. And they will wrap themselves around it, and there will be no one who can rescue it.

30 And in that day, they will make a noise over it, like the sound of the sea. We will gaze out toward the land, and behold, the darkness of the tribulation, and even the light has been darkened by its gloom.

Isaiah 6

1 In the year in which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, sublime and exalted, and the things that were under him filled the temple.

2 The Seraphims were standing above the throne. One had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they were covering his face, and with two they were covering his feet, and with two they were flying.

3 And they were crying out to one another, and saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”

4 And the lintels above the hinges were shaken at the voice of the one crying out. And the house was filled with smoke.

5 And I said: “Woe to me! For I have remained silent. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 And one of the Seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7 And he touched my mouth, and he said, “Behold, this has touched your lips, and so your iniquities will be taken away, and your sin will be cleansed.”

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send?” and, “Who will go for us?” And I said: “Here I am. Send me.”

9 And he said: “Go forth! And you shall say to this people: ‘When you listen, you will hear and not understand. And when you see a vision, you will not comprehend.’

10 Blind the heart of this people. Make their ears heavy and close their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and then I would heal them.”

11 And I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he said, “Until the cities are desolate, without an inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land will be left behind, deserted.”

12 For the Lord will take the men far away, and she who will have been left behind will be multiplied in the midst of the earth.

13 But still, there will be a tithing within her, and she will be converted, and she will be put on display, like a terebinth tree and like an oak which extends its branches. And what will remain standing within her will be a holy offspring.

Isaiah 7

1 And it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem to battle against it. But they were not able to defeat it.

2 And they reported to the house of David, saying: “Syria has withdrawn to Ephraim.” And his heart was shaken, with the heart of his people, just as the trees of the forest are moved by the face of the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Jashub, who was left behind, to the end of the aqueduct, at the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field.

4 And you shall say to him: “See to it that you are silent. Do not be afraid. And have no dread in your heart over the two tails of these firebrands, nearly extinguished, which are the wrath of the fury of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.”

5 For Syria has undertaken a plan against you, with the evil of Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying:

6 “Let us ascend to Judah, and stir it up, and tear it away for ourselves, and appoint the son of Tabeel as a king in its midst.”

7 Thus says the Lord God: This shall not stand, and this shall not be.

8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.

9 For the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.

10 And the Lord spoke further to Ahaz, saying:

11 Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, from the depths below, even to the heights above.

12 And Ahaz said, “I will not ask, for I will not tempt the Lord.”

13 And he said: “Then listen, O house of David. Is it such a small thing for you to trouble men, that you must also trouble my God?

14 For this reason, the Lord himself will grant to you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and she will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.

15 He will eat butter and honey, so that he may know to reject evil and to choose good.

16 But even before the boy knows to refuse evil and to choose good, the land that you detest will be abandoned by the face of her two kings.

17 The Lord will lead over you, and over your people, and over the house of your father, such days as have not occurred since the days of the separation of Ephraim from Judah by the king of the Assyrians.

18 And this shall be in that day: the Lord will call for the fly, which is in the most distant parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the swarm, which is in the land of Assur.

19 And they will arrive, and they all will rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the caverns of the rocks, and in every thicket, and in every opening.

20 In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor the ones hired by those who are across the river, by the king of the Assyrians, from the head to the hairs of the feet, with the entire beard.

21 And this shall be in that day: a man will raise a cow among oxen, and two sheep,

22 and, instead of an abundance of milk, he will eat butter. For all who are left behind in the midst of the land will eat butter and honey.

23 And this shall be in that day: every place, where there were a thousand grapevines worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.

24 They will enter such places with arrows and bows. For briers and thorns will be throughout the entire land.

25 But as for all the mountains, which will be dug with a hoe, the terror of thorns and briers will not approach those places. And there will be pasture land for oxen, and a range for cattle.”

Isaiah 8

1 And the Lord said to me: “Take up for yourself a large book, and with a man’s pen write in it: ‘Take away the spoils quickly; plunder swiftly.’ “

2 And I summoned to myself faithful witnesses: Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.

3 And I joined with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Call his name: ‘Rush to take away the spoils; Hurry to be plundered.’

4 For before the boy knows how to call to his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be taken away, in the sight of the king of the Assyrians.”

5 And the Lord spoke to me further, saying:

6 “Because this people has cast aside the waters of Shiloah, which go forth silently, and has instead chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7 for this reason, behold, the Lord will lead over them the waters of a river, strong and plentiful: the king of the Assyrians with all his glory. And he will rise up throughout all his streams, and he will overflow all his banks.

8 And he will pass through Judah, inundating it, and he will cross over and arrive, even at its neck. And he will extend his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

9 O people, gather together, and be conquered! All distant lands, listen! Be strengthened, and be conquered! Gird yourselves, and be conquered!

10 Undertake a plan, and it will be dissipated! Speak a word, and it will not be done! For God is with us.

11 For the Lord said this to me, and he has instructed this to me with a strong hand, lest I go forth in the way of this people, saying:

12 “You should not say ‘It is conspiracy!’ For all that this people speaks is a conspiracy. And you should be frightened or alarmed with their fear.

13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your dread, and let him be your fear.

14 And so shall he be a sanctification to you. But he will be a stone of offense and a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, and a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 And very many of them will stumble and fall, and they will be broken and entangled and seized.

16 Bind the testimony, seal the law, among my disciples.”

17 And I will wait for the Lord, who has concealed his face from the house of Jacob, and I will stand before him.

18 Behold: I and my children, whom the Lord has given to me as a sign and a portent, in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.

19 And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?

20 And this is, moreover, for the sake of the law and the testimony. But if they do not speak according to this Word, then he will not have the morning light.

21 And he will pass by it; he will fall and become hungry. And when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will speak evil against his king and his God, and he will lift himself upward.

22 And he will gaze downward to the earth, and behold: tribulation and darkness, dissolution and distress, and a pursuing gloom. For he will not be able to fly away from its distress.