# verses

text:
With the queen sitting beside him, the king said to me, “How long will your journey be and when will you return?” So it pleased the king and he sent me, and I set for him an appointed time.


text:
Then I said to the king, “If it is good for the king, let letters be given to me for the governors in the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass until I come to Judah.


text:
Also, a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s land reserve, that he should give me timber for laying the beams for the gates of the citadel of the house and for the walls of the city, and for the house which I will enter.” And the king gave permission to me, according to the good hand of God on me.


text:
I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and I gave them the letters of the king. Then the king sent troop commanders and horses with me.


text:
But when Sanballat the Horonite and the Ammonite servant Tobiah heard this, they were greatly displeased that a person had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites.


text:
I got up during the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anybody what my God put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. No animal was with me except the animal that I was riding on.


text:
I went out during the night at the gate of the valley by the Dragon spring and to the Dung Gate. And I examined the walls in Jerusalem and its gates that had been destroyed by the fire.


text:
I crossed over to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for my mount to cross over.


text:
So I went up by the valley during the night and was examining the wall. Then I returned and came to the Valley Gate and returned.


text:
The prefects did not know where I had gone and what I was doing. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the prefects, and the rest of the workers.


text:
Then I said to them, “You see the misery that we are in, that Jerusalem is ruined and its gates burned by the fire. Come, build the walls of Jerusalem and we shall no longer be a disgrace.”


text:
I told them of the good hand of my God that was upon me and surely the words of the king that were spoken to me. And they said, “Let us arise and build!” And they strengthened their hands for this good work.


text:
But Sanballat the Horonite, the Ammonite servant Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard it, and they mocked and despised us, saying, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”


text:
Then I answered and said to them, “The God of the heavens himself will let us succeed, and we his servants shall arise and build. But for you there is no share, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.”


text:
Then Eliashib the high priest and his brothers the priests arose and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and erected its doors. They consecrated it up to the Tower of the Hundred and up to the Tower of Hananel.


text:
The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars.


text:
Next to them Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired. Next to them Meshullam son of Berekiah, son of Meshezabel, repaired. Next to them Zadok son of Baana repaired.


text:
Next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles did not put their neck to the work of their lord.


text:
Jehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam repaired the old Yeshanah Gate. They laid its beams and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars.


text:
Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and Mizpah who were under the rule of the governor of the province Beyond the River, repaired.


text:
Next to him Uzziel son of Harhaiah (goldsmiths) repaired. Next to him Hananiah son of the perfume-makers repaired. They restored Jerusalem up to the Broad Wall.


text:
Next to them Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. Next to him Hattush son of Hashabneiah repaired.


text:
Malkijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-Moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens.


text:
Next to him Shallum son of Hallohesh, commander of half of the district of Jerusalem, repaired with his daughters.


text:
Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall up to the Dung Gate.


text:
Malkijah son of Recab, commander of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars.


text:
Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, the commander of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and erected its doors, its bolts, its bars, and he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, right up to the steps going down from the city of David.


text:
After him Nehemiah son of Azbuk, commander of half of the district of Beth Zur, repaired up to a point opposite the burial sites of David, and up to the artificial pool and to the house of the mighty warriors.


text:
After him the Levites repaired; Rehum son of Bani, and next to him Hashabiah, commander of half of the district of Keilah, repaired his district.


text:
After him their brothers repaired: Bavvai son of Henadad, commander of half of the district of Keilah,


text:
next to him Ezer son of Jeshua, commander of Mizpah, repaired a second section of a wall opposite of the ascent of the armory at the angle.


text:
After him Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired a second section of a wall from the angle up to the doorway of the house of Eliashib the high priest.


text:
After him Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired a second section of a wall from the doorway of the house of Eliashib up to the end of the house of Eliashib.


text:
After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, repaired beside his house.


text:
After him Binnui son of Henadad repaired a second section of a wall from the house of Azariah up to the angle up to the corner.


text:
Palal son of Uzai repaired opposite the Angle at the tower that juts out from the upper house of the king, at the courtyard of the guard. After him Pedaiah son of Parosh


text:
and the temple servants who were living on Ophel repaired up to opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower.


text:
After him the Tekoites repaired a second section of a wall opposite the projecting tower that goes out as far as the wall of Ophel.


text:
After them Zadok son of Immer repaired opposite his house. After him Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, keeper of the East Gate, repaired.


text:
After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam son of Berekiah repaired the wall opposite his room.


text:
After him Malkijah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired up to the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Enrollment Gate and up to the upper room of the corner.


text:
Now it happened when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he became angry and greatly provoked, and he mocked the Jews.


text:
Then he said before his brothers and the army of Samaria, “What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore these things for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the piles of rubble—even those burned up?”


text:
Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, “Their wall of stone that they are building would break down if a fox went on it!”


text:
Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity.


text:
Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you. They have provoked the builders to anger.


text:
So we rebuilt the wall, and all of the wall was joined up to half its height. For the people had a heart to do it.


text:
Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem were going forward and the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.


text:
But Judah said, “The strength of the carriers is failing, and there is too much dirt, and we are not able to build at the wall.”


text:
Then our enemies said, “They will not know nor see until we come upon them and will kill them and stop the work.”


text:
When the Jews who lived beside them came, they said to us ten times, “From all of the places where they live, they will come up against us.”


text:
I stationed the people behind the deepest part of the wall in the open places according to their families, with their swords, spears, and bows.


text:
And I looked, got up, and said to the nobles, prefects, and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”


text:
It happened when our enemies heard that their plan was known to us, that God had frustrated it, and we all returned to the wall—each to his work.


text:
From that day, half of my servants were working on craftsmanship, half were holding spears, small shields, bows, and breastplates. The commanders were behind the whole house of Judah.


text:
The ones who were building the wall and the ones who carried the materials were carrying in one hand while doing the task, and with the other hand were grasping a weapon.


text:
Each of the builders had his sword tied to his side while building. And the man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.


text:
I said to the nobles, to the prefects, and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widespread, and we are spread out over the wall far from each other.


text:
So we labored at the work, and half of them were holding the spears from dawn until the stars came out.


text:
At the time I also said to the people, “Let each man and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they will be a guard for us in the night and work in the day.”


text:
So neither I nor my brothers nor my young men nor the men of the guard who were behind me took off our clothes. Each one kept his weapon even in the water.


text:
Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.


text:
There were those who were saying, “Our sons and daughters, we are many. We must get grain so that we may eat and live.”


text:
There were also those saying, “We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine.”


text:
And there were those who were saying, “We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king.


text:
Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. We are powerless, and our fields and vineyards belong to others.”


text:
I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, “You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!” So I called the great assembly against them,


text:
and I said to them: “We ourselves have bought back our brothers the Jews who were sold to the nations as we were able. But now you yourselves have sold your brothers so they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.


text:
So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to prevent the disgrace from the nations, our enemies?


text:
Also, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please stop taking this interest.


text:
Please restore to them this day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, and the interest on the money, the grain, the grape juice, and the olive oil that you have been taking from them.”


text:
So they said, “We will restore it and will not request anything more. So we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and made them take an oath to do this promise.


text:
I also shook out my garment and said, “This is how God will shake out everyone from his house who will not keep this promise. So this is how his possessions will be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised Yahweh, and the people kept this promise.


text:
Moreover, from the appointed day I was made their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes—twelve years. My brothers and I did not eat the food allowance of the governor.


text:
The former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and they took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels. Also, their servants controlled the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God.


text:
I also devoted myself to the work of this wall, and we did not buy land. All of my servants were gathered for the work.


text:
One hundred and fifty men, prefects and Jews, and those who came to us from the nations around us, were at my table.


text:
Now what was prepared each day for me was one ox, six choice sheep, and birds. And every ten days all kinds of wine were made. But for this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the slavery was too heavy on this people.


text:
Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that no gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not erected doors in the gates—


text:
Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they planned to do evil to me.


text:
So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I am not able to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you all?”


text:
And Sanballat sent his servant with an open letter, another word like this to me a fifth time, in his hand.


text:
In it was written, “It has been reported among the nations, and Gashmu also is saying it, that you and the Jews are considering rebellion. Therefore, truly you are building the wall and you are becoming their king, according to these words.


text:
You have also set up prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you, saying, ‘ There is a king in Judah.’ And now it will be proclaimed to the king according to these words. Now, come and we will plan together.”


text:
So I sent to him saying, “None of these words you have spoken has happened. You are indeed saying things created in your own mind”—


text:
for all of them sought to frighten us, saying, “their hands will not do the work.” And now, God, strengthen my hands.


text:
Now I went into the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, and he said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple; for they are coming to kill you—during the night they are coming to kill you.”


text:
But I said, “Should a man like me run away? And would a man like me go into the temple so that he can save his life? I will not go in!”


text:
Then I look and realized God had not sent him; rather, he had spoken the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.


text:
For this reason he was hired: to frighten me so that I would act and sin, so that they would have a bad report so they could taunt me.


text:
Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to their works, and also Noadiah the prophetess, and the remainder of the prophets who were frightening me.


text:
When our enemies heard of this, all of the nations surrounding us were afraid and lost their confidence. They knew that this work had been done with the help of our God.


text:
Also, in those days the nobles of Judah increasingly sent their letters to Tobiah, and letters from Tobiah returned to them.


text:
For many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah. His son Jehohanan took as a wife the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah.


text:
They also were speaking of his good deeds in my presence, and they were sending my words out to him. Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.


text:
Now when the wall had been built and I had erected the doors and appointed the gatekeepers, singers, and the Levites,


text:
I gave command over Jerusalem to my brother Hanani and Hananiah the commander of the citadel. For he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.


text:
I said to them, “Do not open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is hot. While they are standing guard let them shut and fasten the doors. And appoint guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his post and another opposite his house.”


text:
Then my God put into my heart to assemble the nobles, the prefects, and the people to be enrolled. I found the book of the genealogy of those who first came back, and I found this written upon it:


text:
These are the people of the province who came up from captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each one to his city.


text:
These came with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:


text:
The descendants of Pahath-Moab, of the descendants of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen.


text:
The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua, namely of Kadmiel of the descendants of Hodaviah, seventy-four.


text:
The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, the descendants of Ater, the descendants of Talmon, the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Hatita, the descendants of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-eight.


text:
The descendants of Solomon’s servants: the descendants of Sotai, the descendants of Sophereth, the descendants of Perida,


text:
the descendants of Shephatiah, the descendants of Hattil, the descendants of Pochereth-Hazzebaim, the descendants of Amon.


text:
These were the ones who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, but they were not able to prove their ancestral houses or their descent, whether they were from Israel:


text:
the descendants of Delaiah, the descendants of Tobiah, the descendants of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two.


text:
And from the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai (who had taken as a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name).


text:
These sought their record among those enrolled in the genealogy, but it was not found there, so they were excluded as unclean from the priesthood.


text:
So the governor said to them that they could not eat the most holy food until a priest could come with Urim and Thummim.


text:
besides their servants and female slaves—these were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. And the male and female singers were two hundred and forty-five,


text:
there were four hundred and thirty-five camels and six thousand seven hundred and twenty male donkeys.


text:
Now some from the heads of the families gave to the work. The governor gave to the storehouse one thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred and thirty priestly tunics.


text:
Now some of the heads of the families gave to the storehouse of the work twenty thousand gold darics and two thousand two hundred silver minas.


text:
And what the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand silver minas, and sixty-seven priestly tunics.


text:
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel settled in their cities. When the seventh month came, the Israelites were in their cities.


text:
All of the people gathered as one to the public square before the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that Yahweh had commanded Israel.


text:
So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly for each man and woman to hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.


text:
He read from it facing the public square before the Water Gate from dawn until noon that day, opposite the men, women, and those with understanding. The ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.


text:
Then Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium that had been made for the occasion. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right. On his left was Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.


text:
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, because he was above all of the people. When he opened it all the people stood up.


text:
Then Ezra blessed Yahweh the great God, and all of the people answered, “Amen! Amen!” while lifting their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped Yahweh with their noses to the ground.


text:
And Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites were teaching the people from the law while the people were in their places.


text:
So they read the book from the law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that they could understand the reading.


text:
Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all of the people, “This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn nor weep.” For all of the people wept when they heard the words of the law.


text:
Then he said to them, “Go, eat festive food and drink sweet drinks, and send a share to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our lord. Do not be grieved because the joy of Yahweh is your refuge.”


text:
So the Levites silenced all of the people, saying, “Silence, for this day is holy. Do not be grieved.”


text:
All of the people went to eat, to drink, to send a share, and to have great joy because they understood the words that they had made known to them.


text:
On the second day the heads of the families of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered together to Ezra the scribe to study the words of the law.


text:
They found written in the law, which Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the Israelites should live in booths during the festival of the seventh month,


text:
and that they should proclaim and give voice in all of their cities in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill and bring olive tree branches, olive oil wood branches, myrtle shrub branches, palm tree branches, and other leafy tree branches to make booths, as it is written.”


text:
So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the house of God, in the public square of the Water Gate, and in the public square of the Gate of Ephraim.


text:
And all of the assembly of those who returned from captivity made booths and lived in the booths because the Israelites had not done it from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day. And there was very great joy.


text:
And he read from the scroll of the law of God day by day from the first day up to the last day. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day there was an assembly according to the rule.


text:
On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites gathered in fasting, in sackcloths, and with soil on them.


text:
Those of the seed of Israel separated themselves from all of the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.


text:
They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of Yahweh their God for a fourth part of the day, and for a fourth they were confessing and worshiping Yahweh their God.


text:
Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani stood on the platform of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.


text:
Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “Stand up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting until everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name that is being exalted above all blessing and praise!


text:
“You alone are Yahweh. You alone have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all of their army, the earth and all that is in it, the waters and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the army of the heavens worship you.


text:
You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.


text:
You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite—to give it to his seed. And you have kept your word because you are righteous.


text:
You gave signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all of his servants, and all of the people of his land because you knew that they acted arrogantly against them. You made a name for yourself, as it is this day.


text:
And you divided the sea before them, and they passed through the sea on dry ground, but their pursuers you threw into the depths like a stone into mighty waters.


text:
You led them by day with a column of cloud and with a column of fire by night, to give them light on the way that they were to go.


text:
Then you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right judgments and true teachings, good regulations and commandments.


text:
You made known your holy Sabbath to them and gave them commandments, regulations, and law by the hand of your servant Moses.


text:
You gave them bread from heaven for their starvation, and you caused water to go out from a rock for their thirst. You told them to go in order to take into possession the land that you have sworn by your hand to give to them.


text:
“But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly and stiffened their neck and did not listen to your commandments.


text:
They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you did among them. They stiffened their neck and in their rebellion determined to return to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loyal love, so you did not abandon them.


text:
Even when they made for themselves a molten idol of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you out from Egypt,’ and committed great blasphemies.


text:
But you in your many mercies did not abandon them in the desert. The column of cloud that was over them in the day did not cease to leave them on the way, and the column of fire by night that gave light to them on the way that they went.


text:
And you gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.


text:
Forty years you sustained them in the desert—they were not in need. Their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell.


text:
And you gave them kingdoms and nations and allotted them a portion. They took into possession the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.


text:
You made their children numerous like the stars of the heavens and brought them to the land that you told their ancestors to enter in order to take possession.


text:
So the children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites; you gave them into their hand, and their kings and the nations of the land to do with them according to their pleasure.


text:
And they captured fortified cities and a fertile land and took possession of houses filled with every good thing: hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and many fruit trees. They ate and became full, and they became fat and took delight in your great goodness.


text:
“But they rebelled and were rebellious against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn back to you, and they did great blasphemies.


text:
Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemy, and they brought trouble to them. Then in the time of their trouble they cried out to you, and you heard from the heavens, and according to your great compassions, you gave them saviors, and you saved them from the hand of their enemies.


text:
But when they had rest they returned to doing evil before you, and you abandoned them in the hand of their enemies, and they ruled over them. Then they returned and cried out to you, and from the heavens you heard and many times rescued them according to your compassions.


text:
You warned them so that they would return to your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments but sinned against your judgments that a person must do so that they may live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.


text:
You were patient toward them for many years, and you have warned them by your spirit through the hand of your prophets, but they did not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the nations of the lands.


text:
But in your great compassions you did not put an end to them, and you did not abandon them. For you are a gracious and compassionate God.


text:
“And now our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loyal love, do not belittle in your presence all of the hardship that is found in us, our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all of our people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.


text:
You are righteous in everything that has come on us, for you dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly.


text:
Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors did not keep your law and did not listen to your commandments and statutes that you declared to them.


text:
And in their kingdom and in the greatness you gave to them, and in the wide and fertile land that you gave before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their evil deeds.


text:
Behold, we are slaves to this day, and the land that you have given to our ancestors to eat its fruits and enjoy its goodness—behold, we are slaves in it!


text:
Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have given over us because of our sins, and they are ruling over our dead bodies and our livestock at their pleasure. We are in great trouble.


text:
“Now because of all of this we make a binding written agreement and are writing on the sealed documents the names of our commanders, our Levites, and our priests.”


text:
“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to observe the law of God—their wives, their sons, their daughters, and all who know and understand—


text:
are helping their brothers, their nobles, and entering into a solemn oath to walk in the law of God which was given by the hand of Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all of the commandments of Yahweh our Lord and his judgments and regulations.


text:
And the peoples of the land who bring merchandise and any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not accept it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. We will forego the crops of the seventh year and cancel every debt.


text:
“We put on ourselves the commandment upon us to yearly give a third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God:


text:
for the rows of bread, the offering of the daily sacrifice, the continual burnt sacrifice, the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, the appointed festival times, the holy objects, the sin offerings that make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.


text:
And we have cast lots for the contributions of the wood offering of the priests, the Levites, and the people to bring it to the house of our God, by our fathers’ houses, at designated times, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God—as it is written in the law.


text:
We also bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all the fruit trees, year by year, for the house of Yahweh.


text:
And the firstborn of our sons and beasts—as it is written in the law —and the firstborn of our cattle and sheep, to bring to the house of our God and to the priests serving in the house of our God.


text:
And we bring the best of our dough, our offerings, the fruit of every tree, new wine, and olive oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring the tithe of our soil to the Levites, for the Levites receive the tithes in all of our rural towns.


text:
And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, will be with the Levites during the tithe the Levites receive. The Levites will bring up a tithe of the tithes for the house of our God to the chambers of the storehouse.


text:
For the Israelites and the Levites will bring to the storerooms the offering of grain, new wine, and olive oil. These are the objects of the sanctuary and the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”


text:
Now the commanders of the people lived in Jerusalem, but the remainder of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city of Jerusalem, the other nine’s place was in the other cities.


text:
These are the heads of the province who lived in Jerusalem, but in the cities of Judah each one lived on his property in their cities: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants.


text:
And some from the descendants of Judah and Benjamin lived in Jerusalem. From the descendants of Judah: Athaiah son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mahalalel, from the descendants of Perez;


text:
and Maaseiah son of Baruch, son of Col-Hozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Jehoiarib, son of Zechariah, son of the Shilonite.


text:
All of the descendants of Perez who were living in Jerusalem were four hundred and sixty-eight able-bodied men.


text:
These are the descendants of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah.


text:
And Joel son of Zicri, their chief officer; and Judah son of Hassenuah, second in command over the city.


text:
Seraiah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub—the leader of the house of God—


text:
and their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred and twenty-two. And Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malkijah,


text:
and his brothers, heads of the families, two hundred and forty-two. And Amashai son of Azarel, son of Ahzai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer,


text:
and their brothers; mighty warriors of strength, one hundred and twenty-eight. The chief officer over them was Zabdiel son of Hagedolim.


text:
Mattaniah son of Micah, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was the leader to begin the thanksgiving prayer, and Bakbukiah the second of his brothers; Abda son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun.


text:
The gatekeepers: Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, the keepers of the gates, one hundred and seventy-two.


text:
And the remainder of Israel, the priests and the Levites, in all of the cities of Judah, each in his inheritance.


text:
The chief officer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Mica, from the descendants of Asaph, the singers over the work of the house of God.


text:
For there was a command of the king concerning them and a regulation concerning the singers, required day by day.


text:
And Pethahiah son of Meshezabel, from the descendants of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the hand of the king in all matters concerning the people.


text:
As for the villages in their territories, some from the descendants of Judah lived in Kiriath-Arba and its settlements, Dibon and its settlements, Jekabzeel and its settlements,


text:
Zanoah, Adullam and their settlements, Lachish and its fields, and Azekah and its settlements. So they camped from Beersheba up to the Valley of Hinnom.


text:
These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,


text:
Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These are the heads of the priests and their brothers in the days of Jeshua.


text:
And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah and his brothers who were in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.


text:
Now in the days of Jehoiakim the priests and the heads of the families were: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;


text:
In the days of Eliashib, Jehoiada, Jehohanan, and Jaddua the Levites were recorded as heads of the families. So these were the priests during the reign of Darius the Persian.


text:
The descendants of Levi and the heads of the families were recorded in the scroll of the Annals until the days of Jehohanan son of Eliashib.


text:
And the heads of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their brothers opposite them, to praise and to give thanks by the command of David the man of God, section alongside section.


text:
Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storerooms of the gates.


text:
These were in the days of Jehoiakim son of Jeshua, son of Jehozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe.


text:
At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites from all of their places in order to bring them to Jerusalem to do the dedication with joy, thanksgivings, song and cymbals, stringed instruments and lyres.


text:
The singers were gathered from the circuit all around Jerusalem and from the villages of Netophathite,


text:
from Beth Gilgal, from the field of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers built for themselves villages all around Jerusalem.


text:
And the priests and the Levites purified themselves and purified the people, the gates, and the wall.


text:
Then I brought the commanders of Judah up on to the wall. I appointed two great choirs; one went in a procession to the right on the wall to the Dung Gate.


text:
and the priests with trumpets; Zechariah son of Jehonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph;


text:
and his brothers Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani with the instruments of the songs of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe went before them.


text:
At the Fountain Gate opposite them they went up the steps of the city of David, at the assent to the wall, over the house of David, and up to the Water Gate to the east.


text:
Then the second choir went the opposite way. I followed after them with half of the people on the wall, from over the Tower of the Ovens up to the Wide Wall


text:
and over the Gate of Ephraim, at the Old Gate, at the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, and to the Sheep Gate. And they stopped and stood at the Gate of the Guard.


text:
and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah with the trumpets;


text:
Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malkijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jizrahiah the chief officer.


text:
They offered on that day great sacrifices and rejoiced because God brought great joy to them. And the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.


text:
On that day men were appointed for the storehouse rooms, the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, in order to gather in them from the fields of the cities the requirements of the law for the priests and Levites; for the joy of Judah was upon the priests and Levites standing there.


text:
They kept the responsibility of their God and the responsibility of cleansing, and the singers and gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon.


text:
For in the days of David and Asaph from ancient times there was the head of the singers and a song of praise and thanksgiving to God.


text:
So all of Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily food portions of the singers and gatekeepers. And they set apart that which was for the Levites, and the Levites set apart that which was for the descendants of Aaron.


text:
On that day the book of Moses was read in the hearing of the people and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God


text:
because they did not come to meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them in order to curse them—but our God changed the curse into a blessing.


text:
Before this, Eliashib the priest who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God—the one related to Tobiah—


text:
prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had formerly put the grain offering, the frankincense, the temple objects, tithes of grain, wine, and oil commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests.


text:
During all of this, I was not in Jerusalem because in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. At the end of some days I asked permission from the king to leave.


text:
So I came to Jerusalem. And I came to learn of the wrong that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by making him a room in the courtyard of the house of God.


text:
It was very displeasing for me, and I threw all of the objects from the house of Tobiah outside of the chamber.


text:
And I spoke in order, and they cleansed the chambers. Then I returned the objects of the house of God—the grain offering and the frankincense.


text:
And then I came to learn that the food of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, the doers of the work, had gone back each to his field.


text:
So I quarreled with the prefects, and I said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them and set them at their station.


text:
I appointed as treasurer over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, Pedaiah from the Levites, and as their hand Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered faithful. The responsibility given to them was to distribute to their brothers.


text:
Remember me, my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my loyal acts which I have done in the house of my God and in his service.


text:
In those days I saw in Judah people treading the wine press on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys along with wine, grapes and figs, and every kind of burden and bringing it all to Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath. And I warned them at that time against selling food.


text:
Tyrian men who lived in Jerusalem brought fish and every kind of merchandise and sold it on the Sabbath to the descendants of Judah and in Jerusalem.


text:
So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath?


text:
Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city too? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”


text:
So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates to prevent any goods being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.


text:
But I warned them and said to them, “Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands against you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.


text:
And then I told two Levites that they must purify themselves and come to guard the gates in order to consecrate the day of the Sabbath. Remember this also, my God, and take pity on me according to the greatness of your loyal love.


text:
Half of their children spoke Ashdodite and could not speak Judean, but only the tongues of other nations.


text:
So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: “Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.


text:
Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin.


text:
Should we listen to you all and do this great evil, acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”


text:
One from the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, who was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonote was there. I chased him away from me.


text:
Remember them, my God, because of their defilements of the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.


text:
So I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established responsibilities for the priests and Levites, each in his own work,


text:
a contribution of the wood offering at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, my God, for good.


text:
And it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Cush — over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.


text:
In those days as King Ahasuerus was sitting on the throne of his kingdom, which was in the citadel of Susa,


text:
he gave a banquet in the third year of his reign for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and officials of the provinces were in his presence


text:
as he displayed the wealth of the glory of his kingdom and the glorious splendor of his greatness for many days, one hundred and eighty days.


text:
And when those days were completed, the king gave for all the people that were present at the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet in the courtyard of the king’s palace garden that lasted seven days.


text:
There were curtains of finely woven linen and blue cloth tied with cords of fine white linen and purple cloth to silver curtain rings and pillars of alabaster, and couches of gold and silver on a paved floor of alabaster, precious stone, mother-of-pearl, and costly stones.


text:
Drinks were served in goblets of gold and goblets of different kinds, and there was plentiful royal wine according to the bounty of the king.


text:
There were no restrictions on the drinking, for the king had instructed every official of his palace to do as each one pleased.


text:
Furthermore, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus.


text:
On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he said to Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, seven of the eunuchs attending King Ahasuerus,


text:
to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown to show the people and the officials her beauty, for she was very attractive.


text:
But Queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king that was conveyed by the eunuchs. And the king became very angry, and his anger burned in him.


text:
And the king said to the wise men, the ones who know the times —for it was the procedure of the king before all those who knew law and rights;


text:
and those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media who had access to the king and sat first in the kingdom—


text:
“According to the law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti, because she has not done the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?


text:
And Memucan said before the king and the officials, “Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but to all the officials and all of the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.


text:
For this deed of the queen will be known to all the women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, as they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come!’


text:
This day the women of nobility from Persia and Media will respond to all the officials of the king and there will be no end to contempt and anger.


text:
If it pleases the king, let a royal edict go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it will not be altered, that Vashti cannot come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to her neighbor who is better than she.


text:
And let the king’s decree that he will make be proclaimed in all his kingdom, because it is vast and all the women will honor their husbands, great and small.”


text:
This advice pleased the king and the officials, and the king acted according to the word of Memucan.


text:
And he sent letters to all the provinces of the king, to each province according to its own script, and to every people in their own language, that every man should be the master of his house and who speaks in the language of his people.


text:
After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.


text:
Let the king appoint chief officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them gather every attractive young virgin to the harem in the citadel of Susa under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let him give them their beauty treatment.


text:
And let the young woman who is pleasing in the king’s eyes become queen in place of Vashti. The thing was good in the king’s eyes, and he acted accordingly.


text:
There was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite,


text:
who was deported from Jerusalem with the exiles who were deported with Jeconiah the king of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported.


text:
He was raising Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she did not have a father or a mother; the young woman had a beautiful figure and was very attractive. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had taken her as his daughter.


text:
And it happened, at the proclaiming of the edict of the king and his law, when many young women were being gathered to the citadel of Susa under Hegai’s care, Esther was taken to the king’s palace under the care of Hegai who was in charge of the women.


text:
The young woman pleased him and she won favor in his presence, and he quickly provided for her beauty treatment and her portion of food, with seven chosen maids to give to her from the king’s palace, and he advanced her and her maids to the best part of the harem.


text:
Esther did not disclose her people and her family because Modecai had charged her that she must not tell.


text:
And every day Modecai would walk up and down in front of the courtyard of the harem to learn how Esther was doing.


text:
When the turn came for each girl to go to King Ahasuerus, after the end of twelve months of being under the regulations of the women—for the days of their beauty treatments had to be filled, six months with the oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s cosmetics—


text:
in this way, the girl goes to the king and all that she asks is given to her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.


text:
In the evening she would go and in the morning she would return to the second harem under the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.


text:
When the turn came near for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask anything except what Hegai the eunuch of the king who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther carried favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her.


text:
Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his palace, in the tenth month that is Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign.


text:
And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won his favor and loyalty more than all the virgins, so he put a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.


text:
And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. And he granted a tax amnesty to the provinces and he gave gifts with royal liberality.


text:
Esther had not made known her family and her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was brought up by him.


text:
In those days Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king. Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs from the keepers of the threshold, became angry and they conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.


text:
And the matter became known to Mordecai and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told it to the king in the name of Mordecai.


text:
And the matter was investigated and found to be so; and the two of them were hanged on the gallows, and it was written in the scroll of the events of the days before the presence of the king.


text:
After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and he exalted him and set his position above all the officials who were with him.


text:
And all of the king’s servants who were at the gate of the king were kneeling and bowing down to Haman; for so the king had commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not kneel and bow down.


text:
And the king’s servants who were at the gate of the king said to Mordecai, “Why are you transgressing the command of the king?”


text:
They spoke to him day after day, but he did not listen to them, and they informed Haman to see if Mordecai’s resolve would prevail; for he had told them that he was a Jew.


text:
But he considered it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai only, for they told him of Mordecai’s people, and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were in the kingdom of Ahasuerus.


text:
In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasurus, he cast pur—that is, the lot—before the presence of Haman for the day and for the month, until the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar.


text:
And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all of the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from every other people, and they do not observe the laws of the king; it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them.


text:
If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to those who do the job, to bring to the treasury of the king.”


text:
So the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.


text:
And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you and to the people to do with it as you see fit.


text:
And the king’s secretaries were called in the first month on the thirteenth day, and a decree was issued, according to all that Haman commanded, to the satraps of the king and to the governors who were over all the provinces, and to the officials of all the people, to each province according to its own script and to all people according to their own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and was sealed with the king’s ring.


text:
Letters were sent by couriers to all the provinces of the king to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, on one day, the thirteenth day of the month, that is Adar, and to plunder their goods.


text:
A copy of the edict was presented as law in every province making it known to all the people to be ready for that day.


text:
The couriers went out quickly by order of the king, and the law was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; and the city of Susa was bewildered.


text:
Mordecai learned all that had been done and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. And he went through the middle of the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry;


text:
he went up to the entrance of the gate of the king, for he could not go to the gate of the king in sackcloth.


text:
In every province each place where the king’s edict and his law came, there was great mourning for the Jews with fasting, crying, wailing, and sackcloth; and ashes were spread out as a bed for them.


text:
And Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth—but he did not accept them.


text:
Then Esther called Hathach from the king’s eunuchs who regularly attended to her, and she ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why.


text:
So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the public square of the city, which was in front of the gate of the king,


text:
and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman has promised to pay to the treasury of the king for the destruction of the Jews.


text:
And he gave him a copy of the edict of the law that had been issued in Susa for their destruction to show Esther, and to inform her, and to charge her to go to the king and make supplication to him and entreat before him for her people.


text:
“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman who goes to the king to the inner courtyard, who is not called, he has one law, to be killed, except if the king extends to him the gold scepter so that he may live. I have not been called to come to the king for thirty days.”


text:
Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther: “Do not think that your life will be saved in the palace of the king more than all the Jews.


text:
For if indeed you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and the family of your father will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to a royal position for a time such as this.”


text:
“Go, gather all the Jews that are found in Susa and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, both night and day. I and my young girls will fast likewise, and then I will go to the king, which is not according to the law; if I perish, I perish.


text:
And it happened, on the third day, and Esther put on royal clothes, and she stood in the inner courtyard of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s palace; the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room opposite the doorway of the palace.


text:
When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard she found favor in his eyes, and the king held out the gold scepter that was in his hand to Esther, and Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.


text:
And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It will be given to you—even half the kingdom.”


text:
And Esther said, “If it is good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”


text:
And the king said, “Bring Haman quickly to fulfill the request of Esther.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.


text:
And the king said to Esther while they were drinking wine, “What is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even half the kingdom, it will done.


text:
If I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it is good to the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them tomorrow, and I will do according to the word of the king.


text:
And Haman went out on that day rejoicing and feeling good. But when Haman saw Mordecai at the gate of the king, and he did not rise or tremble before him, Haman was filled with rage toward Mordecai.


text:
But Haman controlled himself and went to his house, and he sent for and brought his friends and Zeresh his wife.


text:
And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his wealth and the number of his sons and all the ways that the king had honored him and promoted him above the officials and king’s servants.


text:
And Haman added, “Esther the Queen did not let just anyone come to the banquet that she prepared with the king except me, and I am also invited tomorrow to her banquet with the king.


text:
And Zeresh his wife and all of his friends said to him, “Let them make a gallows fifty cubits high, and in the morning tell the king, “Let them hang Mordecai on it; then go with the king to the banquet happily.” The advice pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.


text:
During that night the king’s sleep escaped him, and he gave orders to bring the scroll of records and chronicles, and they were read before the king.


text:
And it was found written how Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs from the keepers of the threshold who had conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.


text:
And the king asked, “What has been done to bestow honor to Mordecai for this?” And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”


text:
And the king asked, “Who is in the courtyard?” Haman had just come to the courtyard of the king’s outer palace to tell the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.


text:
And the king’s servants said to him, “Look! Haman is standing in the courtyard.” And the king said, “Let him come.”


text:
And Haman came, and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” And Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?”


text:
let them bring royal clothing with which the king has clothed himself, and a horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal head-dress has been given.


text:
And let the clothing and the horse be given to the man by the officials of the king’s nobles; let them cloth the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him ride on his horse through the public square of the city, and let them proclaim before him, ‘Thus, it will be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.’ ”


text:
Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly, take the clothing and the horse, just as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the gate of the king; you must not leave out anything from what you have said.”


text:
So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and let him ride through the public square of the city; and he proclaimed before him, “Thus, it is done to the man whom the king wishes to honor.”


text:
Then Mordecai returned to the gate of the king, and Haman rushed to his house mournful and with his head covered.


text:
And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends all that had happened to him. And his advisers and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is from the descendants of the Jews, you will not prevail against him, but will certainly fall before him.”


text:
As they were still speaking with him the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.


text:
And the king again said to Esther, on the second day while they were drinking, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What is your request? It will be given to you —even half the kingdom.”


text:
Then Queen Esther answered, and she said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it is good to the king, let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request;


text:
I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as male and female slaves I would have kept quiet, because this is not a need sufficient to trouble the king.”


text:
And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who gave himself the right to do this?”


text:
And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman!” And Haman was terrified before the king and queen.


text:
The king rose in his anger from the banquet and went to the palace garden, and Haman stood to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he realized that the king was determined to make an end to his life.


text:
And the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, where Haman was lying prostrate on the couch that Esther was on, and the king said, “Will he also molest the queen with me in the house?” As the words went from the king’s mouth they covered Haman’s face.


text:
And Habrona, one of the eunuchs in the presence of the king, said, “Look, the same gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai who spoke good for the sake of the king stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”


text:
And they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the anger of the king was abated.


text:
On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.


text:
And the king removed his signet ring that he had taken away from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.


text:
And Esther again spoke before the king, and she fell before his feet and wept, pleading for his grace to avert Haman the Agagite’s evil plan and the plot that he devised against the Jews.


text:
and she said, “If it is good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the king is pleased with this matter, and I have his approval, let an edict be written to revoke the letters of the plans of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that are in all the provinces of the king.


text:
For how can I bear to look on the disaster that will find my people, and how can I bear to look on the destruction of my family?”


text:
And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s house to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he plotted against the Jews.


text:
Write as you see fit concerning the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be revoked.”


text:
And the secretaries of the king were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is in the month of Sivan on the twenty-third day, and an edict was written according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the governors and satraps and officials of the provinces from India to Cush —one hundred and twenty-seven provinces —each province according to its own script and to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.


text:
And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and he sealed the letters with the king’s signet ring and sent them by couriers on horses, riding on royal horses bred by racing mares.


text:
In them the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy and kill and annihilate any army of any people or province attacking them, including women and children, and to plunder their spoil,


text:
in one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.


text:
A copy of the edict was to be given as law in each province to inform all the people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves from their enemies.


text:
The mounted couriers on the royal horses went out without delay, urged by the king’s word. The law was given in the citadel of Susa.


text:
Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue cloth and white linen, and a great crown of gold and a robe of fine white linen and purple, and the city of Susa was shouting and rejoicing.


text:
In every province and city, wherever the king’s edict and his law came, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a banquet and a holiday, and many of the people from the country were posing as Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.


text:
In the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, on which the edict of the king arrived and his law was enacted, on the day in which the enemies of the Jews had hoped to gain power over them but was overturned, and the Jews gained power against their enemies,


text:
the Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike against those who sought their destruction, and no one could withstand them, as the fear of them fell on all the people.


text:
All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, governors, and those who did the work of the king were supporting the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.


text:
For Mordecai was high-ranking in the king’s palace and his fame spread throughout all the provinces as Mordecai grew more and more powerful.


text:
The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them; and they did as they pleased with those that hated them.


text:
the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews; but they did not touch the plunder.


text:
And the king said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your petition? It will be granted to you. And what further is your request? It will be done.”


text:
Esther replied, “If it is good to the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let them hang Haman’s ten sons on the gallows.”


text:
And the Jews were gathered who were in Susa, and on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not touch the plunder.


text:
The rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered and defended their lives and found repose from their enemies. And they killed seventy-five thousand of those that hated them, but they did not touch the plunder.


text:
This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and joy.


text:
But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth day, and rested on the fifteenth day. And they made it a day of feasting and joy.


text:
Therefore the Jews in the rural areas, living in the rural towns, made the fourteenth month of Adar a day of joy and feasting, a festive day of giving gifts to each other.


text:
Mordecai wrote down these things and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all of the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,


text:
to impose on them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day, every year,


text:
as the day that the Jews found relief from their enemies, and the month which changed for them from sorrow to joy, and from a mourning ceremony to a festive day; to make them days of feasting and joy, and giving gifts to each other and to the poor.


text:
For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast pur, that is the lot, to rout them out and destroy them.


text:
But when it came to the attention of the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plot that he had devised against the Jews should return on his head, and they hung him and his sons on the gallows.


text:
Therefore they called these days Purim, because of the name Pur. Thus because of all the words of this letter, and of what they faced concerning this, and of what had happened to them,


text:
the Jews established and adopted it for themselves and for their offspring, and for all who joined them. They did not neglect to observe these two days every year as it was written and appointed to them.


text:
These days are to be remembered and are to be kept in every generation, and in family, province, and city; and these days of Purim are not to be neglected among the Jews, and their memory shall not come to an end among their offspring.


text:
So Queen Esther the daughter of Abihail and Mordecai the Jew wrote in full authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.


text:
He sent letters of words of peace and truth to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus’ kingdom,


text:
to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had imposed, and just as they had imposed on themselves and their offspring regulations of the fast and their lament.


text:
All the work of his authority and his powerful deeds, and the full accounting of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written on the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?


text:
For Mordecai the Jew was second-in-command to King Ahasuerus. He was great for the Jews and popular with many of his brothers, for he sought good for his people, interceding for the welfare of all his descendants.


text:
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil.


text:
Then his livestock came to be seven thousand sheep and goats and three thousand camels and five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred female donkeys, and he had very many slaves, and that man was greater than all the people of the east.


text:
And his sons used to go and hold a feast at each other’s house on his day, and they would send, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.


text:
Then when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send, and he would sanctify them. Thus he would arise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of all of them, because Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their heart.” This is what Job used to do all the time.


text:
And it happened one day that the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan also came into their midst.


text:
So Yahweh said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From roaming on the earth and from walking about in it.”


text:
So Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth—a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil.”


text:
Have you not put a fence around him and his household and around all that belongs to him on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock has increased in the land.


text:
But, on the other hand, stretch out your hand and touch all that belongs to him and see whether he will curse you to your face.”


text:
So Yahweh said to Satan, “Look, all that belongs to him is in your power. Only do not stretch out your hand against him.” So Satan went out from Yahweh’s presence.


text:
And then there was one day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their firstborn brother’s house.


text:
And a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the female donkeys were feeding beside them.


text:
Then the Sabeans attacked, and they took them, and they slew the servants by the edge of the sword. But I escaped, even I alone, to tell you.”


text:
While this one was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens, and it blazed up against the sheep and goats and against the servants, and it consumed them. But I escaped, even I alone, to tell you.”


text:
While this one was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three divisions, and they made a raid on the camels, and they carried them away, and they struck your servants by the edge of the sword, but I escaped, even I alone, to tell you.”


text:
At the time this one was speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their firstborn brother’s house.


text:
And behold, a great wind came from across the desert, and it struck the four corners of the house so that it fell upon the young people, and they died. But I escaped, even I alone, to tell you.”


text:
Then Job arose and tore his outer garment and shaved his head; then he fell upon the ground and he worshiped.


text:
Then he said, “Naked I came out from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. Yahweh gives, and Yahweh takes. Let Yahweh’s name be blessed.”


text:
And then one day the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan also came into their midst to present himself before Yahweh.


text:
So Yahweh asked Satan, “From where have you come?” And Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From roaming on the earth and from walking about in it.”


text:
So Yahweh asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth—a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil. And still he persists in his blamelessness even though you incited me against him to destroy him for nothing.”


text:
But stretch out your hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and see whether he will curse you to your face.”


text:
So Satan went out from Yahweh’s presence, and he inflicted Job with loathsome skin sores from the sole of his foot up to the crown of his head.


text:
So he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and he sat in the midst of the ashes.


text:
So he said to her, “You speak like one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we receive the good from God, but not receive the evil?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.


text:
Thus Job’s three friends heard of this calamity that had come upon him. So each set out from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. And they met together to come to console him and to comfort him.


text:
Thus they lifted up their eyes from afar, but they did not recognize him, so they raised their voice, and they wept, and each man tore his outer garment and threw dust on their heads toward the sky.


text:
Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very great.


text:
Let darkness and deep shadow claim it; let clouds settle on it; let them terrify it with the blackness of day.


text:
Let darkness seize that night; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months.


text:
Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light but there be none, and let it not see the eyelids of dawn


text:
The roar of the lion and the voice of a lion in its prime, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.


text:
It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was a hush, and I heard a voice:


text:
How much more dwellers in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust? They are crushed like a moth.


text:
whose harvest the hungry eats, and he takes it from behind the thorns; and the thirsty pants after their wealth.


text:
the one who is giving rain on the surface of the earth and is sending water on the surface of the fields,


text:
“Look, happy is the human being whom God reproves; and you must not despise the discipline of Shaddai,


text:
From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.


text:
For your covenant will be with the stones of the field, and the wild animals of the field will be at peace with you.


text:
And you shall know that your tent is safe, and you will inspect your fold, and you shall not be missing anything.


text:
And you shall know that your offspring are many, and your descendants like the vegetation of the earth.


text:
“If only my vexation could be well weighed, and my calamity could be lifted up together with it in the balances,


text:
for the arrows of Shaddai are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.


text:
But it will still be my consolation, and I would recoil in unrelenting pain, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.


text:
“Does not a human being have hard service on earth? And are not his days like the days of a laborer?


text:
When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night is long, and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.


text:
“Even I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in my spirit’s anguish; I will complain in my inner self’s bitterness.


text:
If I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity? Why have you made me as a target for yourself, so that I have become a burden to myself?


text:
And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my guilt? For now I shall lie in the dust, and you will seek me, but I will be no more.”


text:
If you are pure and upright, indeed, now he will rouse himself for you, and he will restore your righteous abode.


text:
He will lean himself against his house, but it will not stand; he will take hold of it, but it will not endure.


text:
If it is a matter of strength, look, he is mighty. But if it is a matter of justice, who can summon me?


text:
Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; even though I am blameless, yet it would pronounce me guilty.


text:
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the face of its judge— if it is not he, then who is it?


text:
“My inner self loathes my life; I want to give vent to my complaint; I want to speak out of the bitterness of my inner self.


text:
Is it good for you that you oppress, that you despise the labor of your hands, and you smile over the schemes of the wicked?


text:
If I am guilty, woe to me! But if I am righteous, I dare not lift my head; I am filled with shame, and just look at my misery!


text:
And if my head grows bold, you would hunt me as the lion in its prime; and you repeat your exploits against me.


text:
You renew your witnesses against me, and you increase your vexation against me; relief forces are against me.


text:
So why did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have passed away, and no eye should have seen me.


text:
to the land of darkness, like the darkness of a deep shadow and chaos, so that it shines forth like darkness.’ ”


text:
and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for insight has many sides. And know that God on your behalf has forgotten some of your guilt.


text:
But an empty-headed person will get understanding when a wild donkey’s colt is born as a human being.


text:
surely then you will lift up your face without blemish, and you will be firmly established and will not fear.


text:
And you will have confidence because there is hope; and you will be well protected— you will sleep in safety.


text:
But the eyes of the wicked will fail; and refuge will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last breath.”


text:
I also have insight like you; I am not more inferior than you. And who does not know things like these?


text:
I am a laughingstock to my friends: ‘ He calls on God, and he answers him.’ A righteous, blameless man is a laughingstock.


text:
Those at ease have contempt for the thought of disaster, but it is ready for those unstable of foot.


text:
The tents of the destroyers are at peace, and there is security for those who provoke God, for those whom God brings into his hand.


text:
Look, if he withholds the water, then they dry up; and if he sends them out, then they overwhelm the land.


text:
He strips away the insight of the heads of the earth’s people, and he makes them wander in a pathless wasteland.


text:
And you put my feet in the block, and you watch all my paths; you carve a mark on the soles of my feet.


text:
If his days are determined, the number of his months is with you; you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross them.


text:
“Indeed, there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, then it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not cease;


text:
so a man lies down, and he does not arise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awaken, and they will not be roused out of their sleep.


text:
“ O that you would conceal me in Sheol, that you would hide me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint a set time for me and remember me.


text:
If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my compulsory service I will wait, until the coming of my relief.


text:
Water wears away stones; its torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of human beings.


text:
His children may come to honor, but he does not know it; or they may become lowly, but he does not realize it.


text:
“ What is worse, you yourself are doing away with fear, and you are lessening meditation before God.


text:
“All of the wicked one’s days he is writhing, even through the number of years that are laid up for the tyrant.


text:
“He is wandering for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at hand.


text:
he will dwell in desolate cities, in houses that they should not inhabit, which are destined for rubble.


text:
He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure, and their possessions will not stretch across the earth.


text:
“He will not escape from darkness; a flame will dry up his new shoot, and by the wind of his mouth he shall be removed.


text:
Let him not trust in emptiness—he will be deceiving himself— for worthlessness will be his recompense.


text:
“He will shake off his unripe fruit like the vine, and he will cast off his blossom like the olive tree;


text:
I myself also could talk as you, if you were in my place; I could join against you with words, and I could shake at you with my head.


text:
Thus you shriveled me up; it became a witness. And my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.


text:
His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me; he gnashed at me with his teeth. My foe sharpens his eyes against me.


text:
They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me.


text:
“I was at ease, then he broke me in two, and he seized me by my neck; then he shattered me and set me up as a target for him.


text:
His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.


text:
“ You who are tearing yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken because of you? Or will the rock be removed from its place?


text:
There is no offspring for him nor a descendant among his people, and there is not a survivor in his abode.


text:
Surely these are the dwellings of the godless, and this is the dwelling place of him who knows not God.”


text:
His troops have come together and have thrown up their rampart against me and have encamped around my tent.


text:
The sojourners in my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.


text:
whom I will see for myself, and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger. My heart faints within me.


text:
be afraid for yourselves because of the sword, for wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.”


text:
He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him, and he will be chased away like a vision of the night.


text:
Returning the products of his toil, he will not swallow; according to the profit of his trade, he will not enjoy,


text:
When his stomach fills up, God will send his burning anger upon him, and he will let it rain down upon him as his food.


text:
He draws it forth, and it comes out from his body, and the glittering point comes from his gall-bladder; terrors come upon him.


text:
Total darkness is hidden for his treasures; an unfanned fire will devour him; the remnant will be consumed in his tent.


text:
“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and their disaster comes upon them? He distributes pains in his anger.


text:
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone will follow after him, and before him they are innumerable.


text:
“Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing, and you have stripped off the clothes of the naked.


text:
Thick clouds are a covering for him, so that he does not see; and he walks about on the dome of heaven.’


text:
Yet he himself filled up their houses with good things, but the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.


text:
Indeed, then you will delight yourself in Shaddai, and you will expect that God will be good to you.


text:
And you will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.


text:
I want to know the words with which he would answer me, and I want to understand what he would say to me.


text:
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his strength? No, but he himself would give heed to me.


text:
From the commandment of his lips, indeed I have not departed; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily food.


text:
“Look, like wild donkeys in the desert they go out to their labor as searchers for the prey; the wilderness is their food for the young.


text:
From the city people groan, and the throat of the wounded cries for help; yet God does not regard it as unseemly.


text:
“Those are among the ones rebelling against the light; they do not recognize his ways, and they do not stay in his paths.


text:
And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk, saying, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he places a covering on his face.


text:
because morning likewise is to them deep darkness; indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.


text:
“He himself is swift on the water’s surface; their portion is cursed in the land. No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.


text:
The womb forgets him. The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered, and wickedness is broken like a tree.


text:
They are exalted a little while, then they are gone. And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others, and like the heads of grain they wither away.


text:
“Indeed, how can a human being be righteous before God? And how will he who is born of a woman be pure?


text:
How you have advised one who has no wisdom ! And what sound wisdom you have made known in abundance !


text:
Look, these are the outer fringes of his ways, and how faint is the word that we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”


text:
Far be it from me that I would say that you are right; until I pass away, I will not put away from me my blamelessness.


text:
“This is the portion of the wicked human being with God, and they receive from Shaddai the inheritance of the ruthless.


text:
He puts an end to darkness, and he searches out the farthest limits for the ore in gloom and deep shadow.


text:
He breaks open a mine shaft away from where people dwell; those who are forgotten by travelers, they dangle, they sway far away from human beings.


text:
Gold and glass cannot be compared with it, and its substitution cannot be an ornament of refined gold.


text:
And to the human beings he said, ‘Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”


text:
I smiled for them when they had no confidence in anything, and they did not extinguish the light of my face.


text:
I chose their way, and I sat as head, and I dwelled like a king among the troops, like one who comforts mourners.


text:
“But now those younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me, whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.


text:
Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.


text:
because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint in my presence.


text:
On the right hand the brood rises up; they put me to flight, and they build up their siege ramps against me.


text:
Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.


text:
“Surely someone must not send a hand against the needy when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.


text:
If my steps have turned aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and my hand has clung to a spot,


text:
if I have seen the one who perishes because of no clothing or that there is no covering for the poor,


text:
because I dreaded the great multitude, and the contempt of clans terrified me, so that I kept quiet, I did not go out of the doorway?


text:
O that I had someone hearing me! Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me! As for the written communication that my adversary has written,


text:
let thorns grow in place of wheat and noxious weeds in place of barley.” The words of Job are ended.


text:
So Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite, from the clan of Ram, became angry. He became angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God,


text:
and he became angry at his three friends because they had not found an answer, and they had declared Job guilty.


text:
Then Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up and said, “ I am young, but you are old; therefore I feared and became afraid of explaining my knowledge to you.


text:
And I directed my attention to you; and, look, there is no one for Job who refuted, answering his words among you.


text:
“If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand, to declare to a human being his uprightness


text:
so that he is gracious to him, and he says, ‘Deliver him from descending into the pit; I have found a ransom.’


text:
He prays to God, then he accepts him, and he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he repays to the human being his righteousness.


text:
“He will sing to men, and he will say, ‘I have sinned and have perverted what is right, and it was not paid back to me.


text:
Should I lie concerning my justice? Though I am without transgression, my wound caused by an arrow is incurable.’


text:
“Therefore, listen to me, people who have sense: far be it from God that he should commit wickedness and that Shaddai should do wrong.


text:
Indeed, he will repay according to a human being’s deeds, and according to a man’s way he will let it happen to him.


text:
Shall he who hates justice really govern? Or will you declare the Righteous One, the Mighty, guilty?—


text:
who shows no partiality to officials and who does not take note of the noble more than of the insignificant, for all of them are the work of his hands?


text:
In a moment they die, and in the middle of the night the people are shaken, and they pass away, and they take away the mighty effortlessly.


text:
There is no darkness, and there is no deep shadow where instigators of mischief might hide themselves.


text:
so that they cause the cry of distress from the helpless to come to him, and he hears the cry of distress from the needy,


text:
but he remains quiet, and who can condemn? And he hides his face, and who can behold him? Yet he is over a nation and over a person alike,


text:
According to your judgment, must he repay it because you rejected this? Indeed, you must choose, and not I, so declare what you know.


text:
for he adds transgression to his sin; he claps hands among us, and he multiplies his words against God.’ ”


text:
If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?


text:
“Because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out; they cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.


text:
who teaches us more than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’


text:
How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!


text:
“Bear with me a little longer, and I will explain, for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.


text:
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but he sets them forever with kings on the throne, and they are exalted.


text:
If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness.


text:
And what’s more, he allured you out of distress into a broad place, where in place of it was no constraint; and what was set on your table is full of fatness.


text:
Yes, it is wrath, so that it will not incite you into mockery; and do not let the ransom’s greatness turn you aside.


text:
After it, his voice roars; it thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard.


text:
And they turn around by his guidance to accomplish all that he has commanded them on the face of the habitable world.


text:
Do you know about the hovering of the clouds, the marvelous works of the one with perfect knowledge?


text:
“Teach us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of the presence of darkness.


text:
So then, they do not look at the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and has cleansed them.


text:
As for Shaddai, we cannot attain him; he is exalted in power, and he does not oppress justice and abundant righteousness.


text:
Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man, and I will question you, and you shall declare to me.


text:
and I said, ‘You shall come up to here, but you shall not go further, and here it will set a boundary for your proud surging waves ’?


text:
Where then is the way where the light is distributed, where he scatters the east wind upon the earth?


text:
Can you lead forth the southern constellations at their appointed time, or can you lead the Bear with its children?


text:
Who prepares for the crow its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and they wander around for lack of food?


text:
“Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth? Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?


text:
Can you rely on it that it will return your grain and that it will gather it to your threshing floor?


text:
It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own, as if without fear that its labor were in vain,


text:
Whenever a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’ And it smells the battle from a distance— the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.


text:
“ Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man, and I will question you, and you shall declare to me.


text:
Look, if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened; it is confident even though the Jordan rushes against its mouth.


text:
“I will not keep quiet concerning its limbs or concerning the extent of its might and the gracefulness of its frame.


text:
‘Who is this darkening counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I uttered, but I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, but I did not know.


text:
And then after Yahweh spoke these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “ My wrath has been kindled against you and against the two of your friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has.


text:
So then, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will pray for you, for I will certainly accept his prayer, so that it will not be done with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has.”


text:
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did just as Yahweh had told them, and Yahweh accepted Job’s prayer.


text:
Then Yahweh returned Job’s fortune when he prayed to him on behalf of his friends. Thus Yahweh increased all that Job had twice as much as before.


text:
So all his brothers and all his sisters and all those who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house and showed sympathy to him and comforted him for all the disaster that Yahweh had brought upon him. Then each one gave to him one piece of money, and each one gave to him one ornamental ring of gold.


text:
So Yahweh blessed Job’s latter days more than his beginning. Thus he had fourteen thousand sheep and goats and six thousand camels and a thousand pair of oxen and a thousand female donkeys.


text:
And he called the name of the first Jemimah and the name of the second Keziah and the name of the third Qeren-Happuk.


text:
And beautiful women were not found in all the land like Job’s daughters, and their father gave to them an inheritance in the midst of their brothers.


text:
And Job lived after this one hundred and forty years, and he saw his sons and his grandsons for four generations.


text:
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked; nor does he stand in the way of sinners; nor does he sit in the assembly of mockers.


text:
And so, he is like a tree planted by streams of water that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf also does not wither. Therefore all that he does prospers.


text:
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;


text:
The kings of the earth establish themselves, and the rulers conspire together against Yahweh and his anointed:


text:
Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish on the way, for his anger burns quickly. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.


text:
A psalm of David at his fleeing from the presence of Absalom, his son. Yahweh, how many are my enemies; many are rising against me.


text:
Rise up, O Yahweh; deliver me, O my God; for you strike all my enemies on the cheek. The teeth of the wicked you break.


text:
For the music director; with stringed instruments. A psalm of David. When I call, answer me, O God of my righteousness. In trouble deliver me. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.


text:
O sons of man, how long will my honor be a disgrace? How long will you love vanity? How long will you seek lies? Selah


text:
Many are saying, “Who will show us something good?” Lift up over us the light of your face, O Yahweh.


text:
For the music director; with the flutes. A psalm of David. Hear my words, O Yahweh. Give heed to my sighing.


text:
O Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will set forth my case to you and I will watch.


text:
But as for me, through the abundance of your steadfast love I will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.


text:
For there is not anything reliable in his mouth; their inner part is destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.


text:
Treat them as guilty, O God; let them fall because of their plans. Because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.


text:
But let all who take shelter in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy, because you spread protection over them; And let those who love your name exult in you.


text:
For the music director; with stringed instruments, on the Sheminith. A psalm of David. O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not discipline me in your wrath.


text:
All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified. They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed.


text:
A Shiggaion of David which he sang to Yahweh on account of Cush, a Benjaminite. O Yahweh, my God, in you I have taken refuge. Save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me.


text:
let the enemy of my soul pursue, and overtake and trample my life into the ground, and lay my honor in the dust. Selah


text:
Rise up, O Yahweh, in your anger, and lift yourself up against the wrath of my oppressors, and awake for me, since you have commanded judgment.


text:
Yahweh judges the nations. O Yahweh, vindicate me according to my innocence and according to my integrity within me.


text:
Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, and test the hearts and innermost being, O righteous God.


text:
I will thank Yahweh according to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of Yahweh, the Most High.


text:
For the music director, on the Gittith. A psalm of David. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who put your splendor above the heavens.


text:
From the mouth of children and infants you have founded strength on account of your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger.


text:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place—


text:
And you made him a little lower than heavenly beings, and with glory and with majesty you crowned him.


text:
For the music director, according to Muth-labben. A psalm of David. I will thank Yahweh with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.


text:
You have rebuked the nations; you have destroyed the wicked. Their name you have blotted out forever and ever.


text:
The enemies are destroyed in ruins forever, and you have uprooted their cities; their very memory has perished.


text:
And those who know your name will trust in you, for you do not forsake those who seek you, O Yahweh.


text:
for he who avenges bloodshed remembers them. He does not forget the distressed cry of the afflicted.


text:
Be gracious to me, O Yahweh. See my suffering from those who hate me, you who lift me up from the gates of death,


text:
so that I may tell of all your praises. In the gates of the daughter of Zion let me rejoice in your salvation.


text:
Yahweh has made himself known; he has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his hands. Higgaion Selah


text:
for the wicked boasts about the desire of his heart, and the one greedy for gain curses and treats Yahweh with contempt.


text:
His ways endure at all times. Your judgments are aloof from him. As for all his enemies, he scoffs at them.


text:
He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved throughout all generations, during which I will have no trouble.”


text:
His mouth is filled with cursing, with deceits and oppression; under his tongue are trouble and evil.


text:
He sits in ambush in villages; in the hiding places he kills the innocent. His eyes lurk for the helpless.


text:
He lies in ambush secretly, like a lion in a thicket. He lies in ambush to seize the poor; he seizes the poor by catching him in his net.


text:
Why does the wicked treat God with contempt? He says in his heart, “You will not call me to account.”


text:
But you have seen; indeed you have noted trouble and grief to take it into your hand. The helpless abandons himself upon you; you have been the helper for the orphan.


text:
The longing of the afflicted you have heard, O Yahweh. You will make their heart secure. You will listen attentively


text:
to render judgment for the fatherless and the oppressed so that a mere mortal from the earth will no longer cause terror.


text:
For the music director. Of David. In Yahweh I have taken refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee to your mountain like a bird”?


text:
For look: The wicked string the bow. They have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot from the darkness at the upright of heart.


text:
Yahweh is in his holy temple; Yahweh is in the heavens on his throne. His eyelids see; they test the children of humankind.


text:
He will rain coals on the wicked. Burning sulfur and scorching wind will be the portion of their cup.


text:
For the music director; on the Sheminith. A psalm of David. Save, O Yahweh, for the pious have ceased to be; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of humankind.


text:
“Because of the oppression of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the poor, now I will rise up,” Yahweh says. “I shall put them in the safety for which they long.”


text:
The words of Yahweh are pure words like silver refined in the crucible on the ground, refined seven times.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. How long, O Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?


text:
How long must I take counsel in my soul, and sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?


text:
For the music director. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good.


text:
Yahweh looks down from heaven upon the children of humankind to see whether there is one who has insight, one who cares about God.


text:
All have gone astray; they are altogether corrupt. There is not one who does good; there is not even one.


text:
All who do evil—do they not know, they who eat my people as though they were eating bread? They do not call on Yahweh.


text:
Oh that from Zion would come salvation for Israel! When Yahweh returns the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be happy.


text:
He does not slander with his tongue. He does not harm his friend, nor bring up a disgrace against his neighbor.


text:
In his eyes a rejected one is contemptible, but he honors those who respect Yahweh. He takes an oath to his own injury and does not retract it.


text:
He does not lend his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.


text:
Those who hurry after another god increase their sorrows. I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor take up their names on my lips.


text:
The measuring lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Yes, my inheritance is delightful for me.


text:
You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever.


text:
A prayer of David. O Yahweh, hear a just cause. Hear my cry; heed my prayer I make without deceitful lips.


text:
You have tried my heart; you have examined me by night; you have tested me; you found nothing. I have decided that my mouth will not transgress.


text:
As for me, I have called on you because you will answer me, O God. Incline your ear to me. Hear my words.


text:
Show wondrously your acts of loyal love, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them.


text:
from the presence of the wicked who destroy me, those enemies against my life, they that surround me.


text:
from men by your hand, O Yahweh, from men of this world. Their share is in this life, and you fill their stomach with your treasure. They are satisfied with children. They bequeath their excess to their children.


text:
By contrast, I in righteousness shall see your face. Upon awakening I will be satisfied seeing your form.


text:
For the music director. Of David, the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song when Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. And he said: “I love you, O Yahweh, my strength.”


text:
Yahweh is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I have taken refuge, my shield and the horn of my deliverance, my stronghold.


text:
In my trouble I called on Yahweh, and to my God I cried for help. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry for help came up before his presence into his ears.


text:
Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled, and they staggered because he was angry.


text:
He made darkness his hiding place; all about him his covering was a darkness of waters, thick clouds.


text:
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice with hail and coals of fire.


text:
Then the channels of the sea became visible, and the foundations of the world were uncovered by your rebuke, O Yahweh, by the blast of the wind of your nose.


text:
He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me because they were stronger than I.


text:
Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands he has repaid me.


text:
Therefore Yahweh has repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.


text:
This God—his way is blameless. The word of Yahweh is flawless. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.


text:
You also gave me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your humility made me great.


text:
You rescued me from strife with people; you set me as head (over) nations. People I did not know served me;


text:
who delivered me from my enemies. Indeed, you exalted me higher than those who rose against me. You delivered me from the man of violence.


text:
Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, O Yahweh, and I will sing the praise of your name:


text:
the one who makes great victories for his king, and who shows loyal love for his anointed, to David and to his descendants forever.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.


text:
Yet in all the world their line goes out, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has pitched a tent for the sun,


text:
and it is like a bridegroom who comes out of his bridal chamber. It is glad like a strong man to run its course.


text:
Its rising is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them; and nothing is hidden from its heat.


text:
The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life. The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple.


text:
The precepts of Yahweh are right, making the heart rejoice. The command of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes.


text:
The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether,


text:
Also, keep back your servant from arrogant sins; let them not rule over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.


text:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your presence, O Yahweh, my rock and my redeemer.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of Jacob’s God protect you.


text:
May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God may we set up banners. May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.


text:
Now I know that Yahweh will help his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the victorious power of his right hand.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. O Yahweh, the king will rejoice in your strength, and how greatly he will delight in your help.


text:
Because the king trusts Yahweh, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.


text:
You will make them like your fiery furnace at the time of your appearance. Yahweh will swallow them in his wrath and fire will consume them.


text:
You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their descendants from among the children of humankind.


text:
Though they have plotted evil against you, though they have planned a scheme, they will not prevail.


text:
For the music director; according to The Doe of the Dawn. A psalm of David. My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you far from helping me, far from the words of my groaning?


text:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.


text:
My strength is dry like a potsherd, and my tongue is sticking to my jaws; and you have placed me in the dust of death.


text:
Because dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has encircled me. Like the lion they are at my hands and my feet.


text:
You who revere Yahweh, praise him! Glorify him, all you seed of Jacob, and be in awe of him, all you seed of Israel,


text:
because he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and has not hid his face from him; but he listened to him when he cried for help.


text:
The afflicted will eat and will be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise Yahweh. May your heart live forever.


text:
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh. All the families of the nations will worship before you.


text:
All the healthy ones of the earth will eat and worship. Before him all of those descending into the dust will kneel, even he who cannot keep his soul alive.


text:
Even when I walk in a dark valley, I fear no evil because you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.


text:
You prepare before me a table in the presence of my oppressors. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.


text:
Surely goodness and loyal love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will stay in the house of Yahweh for a very long time.


text:
He who is innocent of hands and pure of heart, who does not lift up his soul to falseness, and does not swear deceitfully.


text:
Indeed, none who wait for you should be put to shame. Those who betray without cause should be put to shame.


text:
Cause me to walk in your truth and teach me, because you are the God of my salvation. I await you all day long.


text:
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your loyal love remember me if you will, for the sake of your goodness, O Yahweh.


text:
All the paths of Yahweh are loyal love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and statutes.


text:
Of David. Judge me, O Yahweh, because I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted Yahweh and not wavered.


text:
Of David. Yahweh is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the refuge of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?


text:
When evildoers drew near against me to eat my flesh— my adversaries and my enemies who drew near to me— they themselves stumbled and fell.


text:
Though an army encamp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war arise against me, even in this I will remain confident.


text:
One thing I have asked from Yahweh; it I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yahweh, and to consider his temple.


text:
Because he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me in the hiding place of his tent. He will set me high upon a rock.


text:
And now my head will be high over my enemies round about me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.


text:
Do not hide your face from me; do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help; do not abandon nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.


text:
Do not give me over to the desire of my enemies, because false witnesses have arisen against me, and each breathing out violence.


text:
A psalm of David. To you, O Yahweh, I call. O my rock, do not be deaf to me. Or else, if you are silent to me, then I will become like those descending to the pit.


text:
Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your holy inner sanctuary.


text:
Do not drag me away with the wicked or with the workers of evil, who speak of peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their heart.


text:
Give to them according to their work, even according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands; repay them their rightful due.


text:
Because they do not regard the works of Yahweh, nor the work of his hands, he will destroy them and not rebuild them.


text:
Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts him and I am helped. So my heart rejoices, and with my song I will give thanks to him.


text:
The voice of Yahweh causes deer to give birth and strips the forests bare. And at his temple all in it say, “Glory!”


text:
A psalm; a song for the dedication of the house. Of David. I will exalt you, O Yahweh, because you have drawn me up, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me.


text:
O Yahweh, you have brought my life up from Sheol. You preserved me alive from among those going down to the pit.


text:
For there is a moment in his anger; there is a lifetime in his favor. Weeping lodges for the evening, but in the morning comes rejoicing.


text:
O Yahweh, by your favor you caused my strong mountain to stand. You hid your face. I was bewildered.


text:
“What gain is there in my death, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?


text:
so that I may sing praises to you and not be quiet. O Yahweh, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge. Let me not be put to shame ever. Deliver me by your righteousness.


text:
I will exult and rejoice in your loyal love. Because you have seen my misery, you know the distresses of my life.


text:
Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I have distress. My eye wastes away because of vexation, along with my soul and my body.


text:
For my life is at an end with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength stumbles because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.


text:
Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace, especially to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me.


text:
For I hear the rumor of many, “Terror on every side!” When conspiring together against me, they have plotted to take my life.


text:
O Yahweh, let me not be put to shame, for I call on you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them go silently to Sheol.


text:
How abundant is your goodness that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you perform for those who take refuge in you before the children of humankind.


text:
You will hide them in the protection of your presence from the plots of man. You will hide them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.


text:
As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” However you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you for help.


text:
Love Yahweh, all you his faithful ones. Yahweh preserves the faithful but repays abundantly the one who acts arrogantly.


text:
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vigor was changed into the dry heat of summer. Selah


text:
I made known my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not cover. I said, “I will confess concerning my transgressions to Yahweh,” and you took away the guilt of my sin. Selah


text:
Therefore let all the faithful pray to you at the time for finding you. Surely at the flood of many waters they will not reach him.


text:
You are my hiding place; from trouble you preserve me. With cries of deliverance you surround me. Selah


text:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will advise you with my eye upon you.


text:
Do not be like a horse or like a mule, without understanding; that needs his tackle—bridle and rein—for restraint or he would not come near you.


text:
The king is not saved by the greatness of an army. The warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength.


text:
Of David, when he pretended to be crazy in front of Abimelech so that he drove him out, and so he departed. I will bless Yahweh at all times; his praise shall be in my mouth continually.


text:
The young lions are in want and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh will not lack for any good thing.


text:
Let those who seek my life be shamed and humiliated. Let those who plot calamity against me be repulsed and ashamed.


text:
For without cause they secretly hide the pit with their net for me; without cause they dug it for my life.


text:
Let unforeseen ruin come on him, and his net that he hid, let it catch him. Let him fall into it in ruin.


text:
All of my bones shall say, “O Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from one stronger than he and the poor and needy from the one who robs him?”


text:
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I weakened my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned to me unanswered.


text:
I behaved as though he were a friend or as a brother to me. As one lamenting a mother, I was bowed down in mourning.


text:
But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together; smiters whom I did not know gathered against me. They tore and did not cease.


text:
My Lord, how long will you watch? Restore my life from their ravages, my only life from the young lions.


text:
Let not those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me. Nor let those who hate me without cause wink the eye.


text:
Do not let them say in their hearts, “Aha, our desire.” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”


text:
Let them be shamed and abashed altogether, who rejoice at my misfortune. Let them put on shame and insult, who magnify themselves against me.


text:
Let them shout for joy and be glad, who delight in my vindication; and let them say continually, “Yahweh is great, who delights in the welfare of his servant.”


text:
For the music director. Of David, the servant of Yahweh. An oracle: the wicked has rebellion in the midst of his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes.


text:
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments like the great deep. You save man and beast, O Yahweh.


text:
How precious is your loyal love, O God, and the children of humankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.


text:
They are refreshed with the fullness of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.


text:
Be quiet before Yahweh and wait for him. Do not fret about one who succeeds in his way, about a man making plots.


text:
And yet a little while and the wicked will not be, and you will look carefully upon his place, but he will not be.


text:
The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow to throw down the poor and the needy, to kill those upright in their way.


text:
They will not be put to shame in distressing times, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.


text:
But the wicked will perish, and the enemies of Yahweh will be like the splendor of the pastures. They vanish; in smoke they vanish.


text:
I was a youth, but I am now old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.


text:
For Yahweh loves justice and will not forsake his faithful ones. They are protected forever. But the children of the wicked will be cut off.


text:
Wait for Yahweh and keep his way, and he will exalt you to possess the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.


text:
And Yahweh helps them and he rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.


text:
A psalm of David. To bring to remembrance. O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger or chastise me in your wrath.


text:
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin.


text:
My heart throbs violently, my strength leaves me; and the light of my eyes, that also is not with me.


text:
Those who seek my life lay snares as well, and those intent on my harm speak threats. They also plot deceit all day.


text:
For the music director. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David. I said, “I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue. I will keep a muzzle over my mouth as long as the wicked are before me.”


text:
“Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I am.”


text:
Look, you have made my days mere handbreadths, and my lifespan as nothing next to you. Surely every person standing firm is complete vanity. Selah


text:
Surely a man walks about as a mere shadow; surely in vain they bustle about. He heaps up possessions but does not know who will gather them in.


text:
When with rebukes you chastise a man for sin, you consume like a moth his delightful things. Surely everyone is a mere vapor. Selah


text:
Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my tears. For I am an alien with you, a sojourner like all my ancestors.


text:
For the music director. Of David. A psalm. I waited patiently for Yahweh, And he inclined to me and heard my cry for help.


text:
And so he brought me up from the roaring pit, from the miry clay. And he put my feet upon a rock; he made my steps steady.


text:
Then he put a new song in my mouth, a praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and will trust Yahweh.


text:
Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust and does not turn to the proud and to those who fall away to a lie.


text:
Many things, O Yahweh my God, you have done— your wonderful deeds and your thoughts toward us. There is none to compare with you. If I tried to proclaim and tell of them, they would be too numerous to count.


text:
A sacrifice and offering you do not desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not demanded.


text:
I have brought good tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. Look, I have not shut my lips. O Yahweh, you surely know that.


text:
Your righteousness I have not hidden in the midst of my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loyal love or your faithfulness from the great congregation.


text:
As for you, O Yahweh, do not withhold your mercies from me. Let your loyal love and your faithfulness continually preserve me.


text:
For evils without number have encompassed me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.


text:
Let them be shamed and abashed altogether who seek to take away my life. Let them be repulsed and humiliated who desire my harm.


text:
Let them rejoice and be glad in you, all those who seek you. Let them say continually, “Yahweh is great!” —those who love your salvation.


text:
But I am poor and needy. Let my Lord consider me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. Blessed is the one who has regard for the poor; in the day of disaster, Yahweh delivers him.


text:
Yahweh protects him and keeps him alive; he is blessed in the land, and you do not give him into the will of his enemies.


text:
And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsely; his heart gathers disaster for itself. He goes out to the street; he speaks.


text:
For the music director. A maskil of the sons of Korah. As a deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.


text:
These I remember and I pour out my soul within me: that I would go with the multitude; I led them in procession to the house of God, with a voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving, a crowd celebrating a festival.


text:
Why are you in despair, O my soul, and disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I will again praise him, for the salvation of his presence.


text:
O my God, within me my soul is in despair; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and the heights of Hermon, from the mountain of Mizar.


text:
Deep is calling to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have passed over me.


text:
By day Yahweh commands his loyal love, and in the night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.


text:
I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”


text:
As with a shattering in my bones my oppressors taunt me, while they say to me all day, “Where is your God?”


text:
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.


text:
Judge me, O God, and plead my case against an unfaithful nation. From a man of deceit and wickedness rescue me,


text:
because you are the God of my refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?


text:
Send your light and your truth; they shall lead me. They shall bring me to your holy mountain and to your dwelling places.


text:
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my surpassing joy, and I will praise you with lyre, O God, my God.


text:
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I will again praise him, my salvation and my God.


text:
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A maskil. O God, we have heard with our ears; our ancestors have told us of work you worked in their days, in days of old.


text:
You with your hand drove out the nations, but them you planted. You harmed the peoples, but them you let spread out.


text:
For not with their sword did they possess the land, and their arm did not give them victory. Rather it was your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, because you delighted in them.


text:
You have caused us to pull back from the enemy, and so those who hate us have plundered for themselves.


text:
All this has befallen us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.


text:
For the music director; according to The Lilies. Of the sons of Korah. A maskil. A song of love. My heart is moved with a good word; I recite my compositions to the king. My tongue is the pen of a skilled scribe.


text:
You are the most handsome of the sons of humankind; grace is poured out on your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.


text:
And in your majesty ride victoriously, because of truth and humility and righteousness. And let your right hand teach you awesome deeds.


text:
You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you from among your companions with festive oil.


text:
All your robes are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From palaces of ivory stringed instruments gladden you.


text:
She is brought to the king in colorful garments. The young women behind her, her attendants, are being brought to you.


text:
I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.


text:
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, a very sufficient help in troubles.


text:
Therefore we will not fear though the earth change, and though the mountains totter into the midst of the sea,


text:
There is a river whose streams gladden the city of God, the holiest of the dwellings of the Most High.


text:
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and cuts off the spear. The wagons of war he burns with fire.


text:
Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.


text:
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A psalm. All you peoples, clap your hands. Shout to God with a voice of rejoicing.


text:
The princes of the peoples are gathered together with the people of Abraham’s God. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is very exalted.


text:
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. Yahweh is great and very worthy of praise in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.


text:
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great king.


text:
As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of Yahweh of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish her forever. Selah


text:
As is your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.


text:
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A psalm. Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,


text:
For he sees that the wise die, together with the fool and brute they perish, and leave their wealth to the next generation.


text:
Within them they think their houses are forever, their dwelling places from generation to generation. They name their lands by their own names.


text:
This is the journey of those who have foolish confidence, and those after them who accept their sayings. Selah


text:
Like sheep they are destined to Sheol; death will shepherd them. But the upright will rule over them in the morning, and their forms will be for Sheol to consume, far from his lofty abode.


text:
Though he congratulated his soul while he was living —and people will praise you when you do well for yourself—


text:
A psalm of Asaph. The Supreme God, God, Yahweh, has spoken and summoned the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting.


text:
It is not concerning a lack of your sacrifices that I rebuke you, and your burnt offerings are before me continually.


text:
But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to recite my statutes and mention my covenant with your mouth,


text:
These things you have done, and I have been silent; You imagined that I was just like you. I will rebuke you and present an argument before your eyes.


text:
He who sacrifices a thank offering honors me, and he who orders his way; I will show him the salvation of God.”


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love. According to your abundant mercies, blot out my transgressions.


text:
Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge.


text:
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom.


text:
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.


text:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.


text:
Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then bulls will be offered on your altar.


text:
For the music director. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul. And he said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast about evil, O mighty man? The loyal love of God endures continually.


text:
but God will pull you down forever. He will snatch you and tear you away from your tent, and he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah


text:
“Look, the man who would not make God his refuge, but he trusted in the greatness of his wealth; he took refuge in his destructiveness.”


text:
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. I trust the loyal love of God forever and ever.


text:
I will give thanks to you forever, because of what you have done, and I will wait on your name, because it is good, in the presence of your faithful ones.


text:
For the music director, according to Mahalath. A maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt and they have done abominable iniquity. There is none who does good.


text:
God looks down from heaven upon the children of humankind to see whether there is one who has insight, one who seeks God.


text:
All of them have turned back. They are altogether corrupt. There is none who does good; there is not even one.


text:
Do not evildoers know, they who eat my people as though they were eating bread? They do not call on God.


text:
There they are very fearful where no fear had been, because God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.


text:
Oh, that from Zion would come salvation for Israel! When God returns the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.


text:
For the music director, with stringed instruments. A maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?” O God, by your name save me, and by your power vindicate me.


text:
For foreigners have risen against me, and ruthless men seek my life. They have not set God before them. Selah


text:
Because he has delivered me from all trouble, and my eye has looked with satisfaction on my enemies.


text:
For the music director, with stringed instruments. A maskil of David. Give ear, O God, to my prayer, and do not hide yourself from my plea.


text:
because of the voice of an enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, because they bring down evil on me, and in anger they hold a grudge against me.


text:
For it is not an enemy that taunts me, or I could bear it. It is not one who hates me that magnifies himself over me, or I could hide myself from him.


text:
He safely redeems my life from the battle against me, because those standing against me are among many.


text:
God will hear and answer them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah Because they do not change, and they do not fear God.


text:
The buttery words of his mouth were smooth, but there was battle in his heart. His words were smoother than oil, but they were drawn swords.


text:
But you, O God, you will bring them down to the pit of corruption. The men of bloodshed and deceit will not live half their days, but I will trust you.


text:
For the music director, according to The Silent Dove of Distant Lands. Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be gracious to me, O God, because humankind has trampled me; fighting all the day he oppresses me.


text:
because you have delivered my soul from death. Have you not kept my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?


text:
For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy. Of David. A miktam. When he fled from Saul into the cave. Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, because in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.


text:
He will send from heaven and save me; he will reproach the one who tramples me. Selah God will send his loyal love and his faithfulness.


text:
My soul is among lions. I lie down among those who devour— the children of humankind whose teeth are spears and arrows and whose tongues are sharp swords.


text:
They have set a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit before me; they have fallen into the midst of it. Selah


text:
For the music director, according to Do not Destroy. Of David. A miktam. Do you really speak what is right when silent? Do you judge fairly the children of humankind?


text:
Let them run away like water that runs off. When he bends the bow, let his arrows be as though they were cut off.


text:
Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes; like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.


text:
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.


text:
And people will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous. Surely there is a God who judges in the land.”


text:
For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy. Of David. A miktam. When Saul dispatched men and they watched the house to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me.


text:
For look, they lie in wait for my life. The mighty attack against me, not because of my transgression or my sin, O Yahweh.


text:
And you, Yahweh, God of hosts, are the God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations. Do not be gracious to any who treacherously plot evil. Selah


text:
Do not kill them, lest my people forget. Make them to wander by your power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.


text:
By the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, even in their pride, let them be trapped, and for the curses and lies they proclaim.


text:
Destroy in anger; destroy so they are no more, so that they may know that God is ruling in Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah


text:
But as for me, I will sing of your strength, and I will hail your loyal love in the morning, because you have been my high stronghold and a refuge in my time of trouble.


text:
For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth. A miktam of David. To teach. When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons. O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us. You have been angry. Restore us!


text:
God has spoken in his holiness, “I will rejoice; I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the valley of Succoth.


text:
Moab is my washing pot; over Edom, I will cast my sandal. On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”


text:
For the music director, upon stringed instruments. Of David. Hear, O God, my cry; attend to my prayer.


text:
From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart grows faint. You will lead me to a rock that is higher than I.


text:
For the music director, on Jeduthun. A psalm of David. Only for God my soul waits in silence. From him is my salvation.


text:
How long will you attack a man? All of you will be shattered like a leaning wall, a tottering fence.


text:
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position; they are pleased with deception. With their mouths they bless, but inwardly they curse. Selah


text:
Only a vapor are men of low degree, a deception are men of high degree. Weighed in a balance, together they are lighter than a vapor.


text:
Do not trust in extortion, and do not put vain confidence in robbery. If wealth increases, do not set your heart on it.


text:
A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; I will seek you diligently. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you as in a dry and weary land without water.


text:
My soul will be satisfied as with the best and richest food, and with joyful lips my mouth will praise.


text:
However, the king will rejoice in God. Everyone who swears an oath by him will boast, because the mouth of the liars will be stopped.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. Hear my voice, O God, in my lamenting. Preserve my life from the fear of the enemy.


text:
They encourage themselves in the evil matter. They talk of secretly laying snares. They say, “Who will see them?”


text:
They carefully plot injustices saying, “We have perfected the perfect plot !” Both the inner thought and heart of a man are deep.


text:
And they who would cause him to stumble, their own tongue will be against them. All who gaze on them will shake.


text:
The righteous will rejoice in Yahweh and take refuge in him, and all the upright in heart will boast.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. A song. Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion, and to you the vow shall be fulfilled.


text:
Blessed is one whom you choose and bring near, that he may abide in your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.


text:
By awesome deeds in righteousness you will answer us, O God of our salvation, you who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the far-off seas,


text:
so that the inhabitants of the farthest reaches are in awe of your signs. You make the dawn and sunset sing for joy.


text:
You care for the land and water it; you greatly enrich it. The stream of God is filled with waters. You provide their grain, for so you have established it.


text:
The pasturelands put on flocks, and the valleys clothe themselves with grain. They shout in triumph; they even sing.


text:
Say to God, “How awesome are your works! Because of the greatness of your strength, your enemies will cringe before you.


text:
All the earth will bow in worship to you, and sing praise to you. They will sing the praise of your name.” Selah


text:
He rules by his might forever; his eyes keep watch on the nations. Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah


text:
You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you have brought us out to the place of abundance.


text:
Burnt offerings of fat animals I will offer to you, with the smoke of rams. I will do cattle with rams. Selah


text:
For the music director, with stringed instruments. A psalm. A song. May God be gracious to us and bless us. May he cause his face to shine toward us, Selah


text:
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, because you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations on the earth. Selah


text:
For the music director. Of David. A psalm. A song. God will arise; his enemies will be scattered, and those who hate him will flee from before him.


text:
As smoke is driven off, you will drive them off. As wax melts before fire, the wicked will perish before God.


text:
Sing to God, sing praises to his name. Lift up a song to the rider on the clouds—his name is Yah— and rejoice before him.


text:
God settles the lonely in a home; he brings prisoners out into prosperity. But the rebellious abide in a barren land.


text:
the earth shook; the heavens also dripped rain at the presence of God who was at Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.


text:
Though you men lie down between the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove covered in silver and its pinions in yellow gold.”


text:
Why do you look with hostility, O many-peaked mountains? This mountain God desires for his dwelling. Yes, Yahweh will abide in it forever.


text:
The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, with thousands doubled. The Lord is among them at Sinai, distinctive in victory.


text:
You have ascended on high; you have led away captives. You have received gifts from among humankind, and even from the rebellious, so that Yah God may dwell there.


text:
But God will shatter the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who continues on in his guilt.


text:
The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan; I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,


text:
so that your foot may shatter them bloody for the tongues of your dogs to have their share from the enemies.”


text:
Singers went up front, those playing stringed instruments last, between them young women playing tambourines.


text:
There is little Benjamin ruling them, with the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.


text:
Rebuke the beasts in the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, trampling the pieces of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in battles.


text:
Awesome are you, O God, from your sanctuary. The God of Israel, it is he who gives strength and might to the people. Blessed be God.


text:
For the music director, according to The Lilies. Of David. Save me, O God, because waters have come up to my neck.


text:
I sink in the mud of the deep, and there is no foothold. I have come to watery depths, and the torrent floods over me.


text:
I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched. My eyes are exhausted in my waiting for my God.


text:
More numerous than the hairs of my head are those hating me without a cause. Those who are destroying me—my enemies wrongfully — are mighty. What I did not steal, I then must restore.


text:
Let those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me, O Lord Yahweh of hosts. Let those who seek you not be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel.


text:
because the zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen on me.


text:
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Yahweh, for a favorable time, O God, according to the abundance of your loyal love. Answer me with the faithfulness of your salvation.


text:
Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me and from the watery depths.


text:
Do not let the torrent of waters flood over me, or the deep swallow me, or the pit close its mouth over me.


text:
Answer me, O Yahweh, because your loyal love is good; according to your abundant mercies, turn to me,


text:
Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick. And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.


text:
because they persecute those whom you, yourself, have struck, and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded.


text:
For the music director. Of David. To bring to remembrance. O God, make haste to deliver me. O Yahweh, make haste to help me.


text:
Let them be ashamed and abashed who seek my life. Let them be repulsed and humiliated who desire my harm.


text:
Let them rejoice and be glad in you, all those who seek you. Let them say continually, “God is great!” those who love your salvation.


text:
But I am poor and needy; O God hasten to me. You are my help and my deliverer. O Yahweh, do not delay.


text:
Be for me a rock of refuge to resort to always; you have ordained to save me, because you are my rock and my fortress.


text:
Upon you I have leaned from birth. It was you who took me from the womb of my mother. My praise is of you continually.


text:
Let them be ashamed; let them perish who are my adversaries. Let them wrap themselves with scorn and disgrace who seek my harm.


text:
My mouth will tell of your righteousness, your salvation all day long, though I do not know the full sum of them.


text:
I will come in to tell the mighty deeds of Lord Yahweh. I will make known your righteousness, yours only.


text:
And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not abandon me until I proclaim your strength to this generation, your power to every one that comes after.


text:
And your righteousness, O God, is to the height of heaven. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?


text:
You who have caused me to see many troubles and evils, you will again revive me. And from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.


text:
On my part, I will praise you with a stringed instrument, and your faithfulness, O my God. I will sing praises to you with a lyre, O Holy One of Israel.


text:
My tongue also will speak of your righteousness all the day, because they have been put to shame, because they have been humiliated who seek my harm.


text:
May he provide justice for the poor of the people, save the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.


text:
Let the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute. Let the kings of Sheba and Seba present gifts,


text:
From oppression and from violence he will redeem their lives, and their blood will be precious in his eyes.


text:
So may he live, and may gold from Sheba be given to him, and may prayers be offered for him continually. May blessings be invoked for him all day long.


text:
May there be an abundance of grain in the land even on the top of the mountains. May his crop sway like the trees of Lebanon, and may those from the city blossom like the grass of the earth.


text:
May his name endure forever. May his name increase as long as the sun shines, and let them be blessed in him. Let all nations call him blessed.


text:
And blessed be his glorious name forever, and may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.


text:
If I had said, “I will speak thus,” behold, I would have acted treacherously against your children’s generation.


text:
For indeed, those distancing themselves from you will be ruined. You destroy each who abandons you for harlotry.


text:
But as for me, the approach to God is for my good. I have set the Lord Yahweh as my refuge, in order to tell all your works.


text:
A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?


text:
Remember your congregation that you bought long ago, when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance. Remember Mount Zion where you have dwelt.


text:
Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they have set up their signs for signs.


text:
They have set fire to your sanctuary. They have defiled to the ground, the dwelling place for your name.


text:
They have said in their heart, “We will completely oppress them.” They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.


text:
Have regard for the covenant, because the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.


text:
Do not forget the sound of your adversaries, the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.


text:
For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy. A psalm of Asaph. A song. We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, and your name is near. Your wonderful deeds are told.


text:
For there is a cup in the hand of Yahweh with wine that foams, fully mixed, and he pours out from this. Surely all the wicked of the land will quaff it down to its dregs.


text:
For the music director, with stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song. God is known in Judah. His name is great in Israel.


text:
The stouthearted are plundered; they sleep their sleep, and all the able men cannot use their hands.


text:
Make vows and fulfill them to Yahweh, your God; let all surrounding him bring tribute to the one to be feared.


text:
For the music director, on Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm. I cry out with my voice to God; with my voice to God, that he may hear me.


text:
In the day I have trouble, I seek the Lord. At night my hand stretches out continually; my soul refuses to be comforted.


text:
The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightnings lit the world; the earth shook and quaked.


text:
Your way was through the sea, and your path through many waters. Yet your footprints were not discerned.


text:
We will not hide them from their children, telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh, and his power and his wonders that he has done.


text:
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children,


text:
so that the next generation might know— children yet to be born— that they might rise up and tell their children,


text:
that they might set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,


text:
and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful to God.


text:
Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed and streams gushed out, but can he also give food or provide meat for his people?”


text:
Therefore Yahweh heard and he was very angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger also rose up against Israel,


text:
the anger of God rose against them, and he killed some of the stoutest of them, even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.


text:
But he was compassionate; he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy them. And many times he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,


text:
He sent against them his fierce anger, rage and indignation and trouble, a band of destroying angels.


text:
He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death but handed their life over to the plague.


text:
And he drove out nations before them and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.


text:
Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep, awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine.


text:
He brought him from following nursing ewes to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.


text:
And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.


text:
A psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have entered your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have reduced Jerusalem to ruins.


text:
They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.


text:
Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,


text:
Do not remember against us former iniquities; let your mercies meet us quickly because we are brought very low.


text:
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for the sake of your name.


text:
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations before our eyes, by the avenging of the blood of your servants that was poured out.


text:
Let the groaning of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, spare the children appointed to death.


text:
Then we, your people and the flock of your pasture, we will give thanks to you forever. Generation after generation we will tell of your praise.


text:
For the music director, according to The Lilies. A testimony. Of Asaph. A psalm. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock. Shine forth, you who sits enthroned above the cherubim.


text:
even the stalk that your right hand planted, and concerning the shoot you strengthened for yourself.


text:
Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of humankind whom you made strong for yourself.


text:
For the music director; on the Gittith. Of Asaph. Shout out to God our strength; shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.


text:
He made it a statute in Joseph when he went out against the land of Egypt, where I heard a language I did not know.


text:
In this trouble you called, and I rescued you. Within the secret place of thunder I answered you; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah


text:
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.


text:
A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the divine assembly; he administers judgment in the midst of the gods.


text:
They do not know or consider. They go about in the darkness, so that all the foundations of the earth are shaken.


text:
They say, “Come, let us annihilate them from being a nation, so that the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”


text:
that they may know that you, whose name is Yahweh, you alone, are the Most High over the whole earth.


text:
For the music director; on the Gittith. Of the sons of Korah. A psalm. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Yahweh of hosts!


text:
My soul longs and even fails for the courtyards of Yahweh. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.


text:
Even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, near your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God.


text:
Passing through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The early rain covers it with blessings as well.


text:
Because better is a day in your courtyards than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.


text:
Because Yahweh God is a sun and a shield; Yahweh gives grace and honor. He does not withhold good from those who walk blamelessly.


text:
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A psalm. O Yahweh, you favored your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob.


text:
I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, because he will speak peace to his people, even his faithful ones, but let them not return to folly.


text:
Watch over my life because I am faithful. You are my God; save your servant. I am the one who trusts you.


text:
All the nations that you have made will come and bow down before you, O Lord, and glorify your name.


text:
O God, arrogant men have risen up against me, even a gang of ruthless men seek my life, but they do not set you before them.


text:
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love and faithfulness.


text:
Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give your strength to your servant, and grant victory to the son of your maidservant.


text:
Do a sign that benefits me, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame, because you, O Yahweh, have helped me and comforted me.


text:
I will record those who know me in Rahab and Babylon, behold in Philistia and Tyre with Cush, “This one was born there.”


text:
But with respect to Zion it shall be said, “ Each one was born in her,” for the Most High himself will establish her.


text:
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the music director; according to Mahalath Leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O Yahweh, God of my salvation, I cry out by day and through the night before you.


text:
set free among the dead, like the slain lying in the grave, whom you no longer remember, even those cut off from your hand.


text:
You have removed my acquaintances far from me. You have made me detestable to them. I am confined and cannot go out.


text:
A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing forever of Yahweh’s acts of loyal love. From generation to generation I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.


text:
For I say, “Forever your loyal love is built up. The heavens you have established with your faithfulness in them.”


text:
‘I will establish your descendants forever, and I will build up your throne from generation to generation.’ ” Selah


text:
And so the heavens will praise your wonderful deed, O Yahweh, even your faithfulness, in the assembly of the holy ones.


text:
The heavens are yours, the earth yours as well, the world with its fullness, because you founded them.


text:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loyal love and faithfulness come before your face.


text:
Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout; O Yahweh, they walk about in the light of your countenance.


text:
Formerly you spoke in a vision to your faithful ones, and said, “I have bestowed help on a mighty man; I have exalted one chosen from the people.


text:
You have also turned back the edge of his sword and have not helped him stand his ground in the battle.


text:
Remember what my lifespan is. Remember for what vanity you have created all the children of humankind.


text:
Remember, O Lord the taunting of your servants, how I bear in my bosom the taunts of all the many peoples,


text:
Before the mountains were born and you brought forth the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.


text:
You sweep them away like a flood. They fall asleep. In the morning they are like grass that sprouts anew.


text:
As for the days of our years, within them are seventy years or if by strength eighty years, and their pride is trouble and disaster, for it passes quickly and we fly away.


text:
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish for us the work of our hands, yes, the work of our hands, establish it.


text:
With his feathers he will cover you, and under his wings you can take refuge. His faithfulness will be a shield and a buckler.


text:
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.


text:
He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue and honor him.


text:
A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to Yahweh, and to sing praise concerning your name, O Most High;


text:
When the wicked flourish like grass and all the workers of evil blossom, it is so they can be destroyed forever.


text:
For behold, your enemies, O Yahweh, for behold, your enemies will perish. All the workers of evil will be scattered.


text:
Yahweh is king; he clothes himself with majesty. Yahweh clothes himself; he girds himself with might. Yes, the world is established so that it will not be moved.


text:
The rivers have lifted up, O Yahweh; the rivers have lifted up their rumbling; the rivers have lifted up their pounding.


text:
Mightier than the rumblings of many waters, mightier than the mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty.


text:
And he will repay on them their iniquity, and by their evil he will destroy them. Yahweh our God will destroy them.


text:
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today if you will hear his voice:


text:
For forty years I loathed that generation, and said, ‘ They are a people whose heart wanders. And my ways they do not know.’


text:
Say among the nations, “Yahweh is king! Yes, the world is established so that it will not be moved. He will judge the peoples fairly.”


text:
before Yahweh, for he is coming; for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his faithfulness.


text:
Cloud and thick darkness are surrounding him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.


text:
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.


text:
You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He protects the lives of his faithful; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.


text:
A psalm. Sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done wonders. His right hand and his holy arm have secured his victory.


text:
He has remembered his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


text:
before Yahweh, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.


text:
Yahweh is king; let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth shake.


text:
And the strength of the king loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.


text:
Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They called to Yahweh, and he answered them.


text:
O Yahweh our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrong deeds.


text:
Know that Yahweh, he is God; he made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.


text:
For Yahweh is good; his loyal love is forever, and his faithfulness is from generation to generation.


text:
I will give attention to the way of integrity. When will you come to me? I will walk in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house.


text:
I will not set before my eyes any wicked thing. I hate the work of those who fall away; it will not cling to me.


text:
One who slanders his neighbor in secret, him I will destroy. One haughty of eyes and arrogant of heart, him I will not endure.


text:
My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may live with me. He who walks in the way of integrity, he shall minister to me.


text:
There will not live in the midst of my house a worker of deceit. One who speaks lies will not remain before my eyes.


text:
Each morning, I will destroy all the wicked of the land, cutting off from the city of Yahweh all evildoers.


text:
A prayer of one afflicted, when he grows faint and pours out his lament before Yahweh. O Yahweh, hear my prayer, and let my cry for help come to you.


text:
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble. Incline your ear to me. In the day I call, answer me quickly,


text:
I say, “My God, do not carry me off from my life in the middle of my days.” Your years continue throughout all generations.


text:
They will perish, but you will endure. And like a garment they will all wear out, you will replace them like clothing, and they will be set aside.


text:
But the loyal love of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to their children’s children,


text:
Bless Yahweh, O my soul. O Yahweh my God, you are very great. You clothe yourself with splendor and majesty,


text:
you who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a tent curtain,


text:
the one who sets beams in the waters for his upper chambers, who makes clouds his chariot, who rides on the wings of the wind,


text:
They ascended the mountains and drained though the valleys to the place that you established for them.


text:
You are the one who waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The earth is full with the fruit of your labors:


text:
who causes grass to grow for the cattle and herbs for the service of humankind, to bring forth food from the earth,


text:
and wine that makes glad the heart of man, so that their faces shine from oil, and bread that strengthens the heart of man.


text:
How many are your works, O Yahweh; all of them you have done in wisdom. The earth is full of your creatures.


text:
This is the great and wide sea, in which are moving animals without number, living things small and great.


text:
You hide your face, they are terrified. You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.


text:
Let sinners perish completely from the earth, and the wicked not remain alive. Bless Yahweh, O my soul. Praise Yah.


text:
that I may see the good done your chosen ones, to be glad in the joy of your nation, to glory together with your inheritance.


text:
Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand your wonderful works. They did not remember your many acts of loyal love, and so they rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.


text:
So he said he would exterminate them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to reverse his wrath from destroying them.


text:
and they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and so the land was defiled with the blood.


text:
Many times he delivered them, but they rebelled in their counsel, and were brought low by their iniquity.


text:
Save us, O Yahweh our God, and gather us from the nations, so that we may give thanks to your holy name and boast in your praise.


text:
Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting. And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise Yah.


text:
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love, and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,


text:
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,


text:
and let them exalt him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.


text:
Whoever is wise, then let him observe these things, and let them consider Yahweh’s acts of loyal love.


text:
A song. A psalm of David. My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.


text:
God has spoken in his holiness, “I will exult, I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the valley of Succoth.


text:
Let the iniquity of his ancestors be remembered before Yahweh, and let the sin of his mother not be blotted out.


text:
because he did not remember to show loyal love, but he pursued anyone, poor or needy or brokenhearted, to slay them.


text:
Because he loved cursing, let it come upon him. Because he did not delight in blessing, let it be far from him.


text:
But you, O Yahweh my Lord, deal with me for your name’s sake. Because your loyal love is good, deliver me,


text:
Let them curse, but you bless. When they arise, let them be put to shame, that your servant may be glad.


text:
Of David. A psalm. A declaration of Yahweh to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”


text:
Your people will volunteer in the day of your power. In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, you will have the dew of your youth.


text:
Yahweh has sworn and he will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.”


text:
He will judge among the nations; he will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the rulers of many countries.


text:
Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart, in the assembly of the upright and the congregation.


text:
He has declared the power of his works for his people, by giving to them the inheritance of the nations.


text:
He has sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever; holy and fearful is his name.


text:
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom; all who do them have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.


text:
The wicked sees it and is vexed. He gnashes his teeth and becomes weak. The desire of the wicked perishes.


text:
Not to us, O Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, because of your loyal love, because of your faithfulness.


text:
they have their hands, but they cannot feel, their feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot utter a sound in their throats.


text:
Yahweh remembers us; he will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.


text:
Ah, Yahweh, I am indeed your servant; I am your servant, the child of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.


text:
They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire of thorns. In the name of Yahweh I opposed them indeed.


text:
The sound of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.


text:
Yahweh is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.


text:
Let the arrogant be put to shame, because they have wronged me with lies. As for me, I will meditate on your precepts.


text:
How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute justice against those who persecute me?


text:
A song of ascents. Of David. I rejoiced in those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of Yahweh.”


text:
where the tribes go up, the tribes of Yah as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.


text:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Yahweh our God, until he is gracious to us.


text:
For long enough our soul has had its fill of the derision of the self-confident, the contempt of the arrogant.


text:
Our soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of fowlers. The snare is broken, and we have escaped.


text:
A song of ascents. Those who trust in Yahweh are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.


text:
As mountains are round about Jerusalem, so Yahweh is round about his people, from now until forever.


text:
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land of the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wickedness.


text:
But regarding those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.


text:
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing. Then they said among the nations, “Yahweh has done great things for these people.”


text:
He who diligently goes out with weeping, carrying the seed bag, shall certainly come in with rejoicing, carrying his sheaves.


text:
A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless Yahweh builds a house, its builders labor at it in vain. Unless Yahweh guards a city, a guard watches in vain.


text:
It is in vain for you who rise early and sit late, eating the bread of anxious toil, when thus he provides for his beloved in his sleep.


text:
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. They shall not be put to shame when they speak with enemies at the gate.


text:
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots about your table.


text:
so that passersby do not say, “The blessing of Yahweh be upon you. We bless you in the name of Yahweh.”


text:
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. Yes, more than watchmen for the morning.


text:
O Israel, wait for Yahweh. For with Yahweh there is loyal love, and with him there is abundant redemption.


text:
A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not haughty nor my eyes arrogant. And I do not concern myself with things too great and difficult for me.


text:
Rather I have soothed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like the weaned child is my soul with me.


text:
Yahweh swore in truth to David; he will not turn back from it. “One from the fruit of your body I will set on your throne.


text:
If your sons will heed my covenant and my testimonies that I will teach them, their sons also forever will sit on your throne.”


text:
A song of ascents. Of David. Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.


text:
It is like the fragrant oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, that runs down upon the edges of his robes.


text:
It is like the dew of Hermon that runs down upon the mountains of Zion, because there Yahweh commanded the blessing— life forever.


text:
A song of ascents. Look, bless Yahweh, all you the servants of Yahweh, who serve in the house of Yahweh by night.


text:
He causes clouds to rise from the edge of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain; he brings out the wind from his storehouses.


text:
For there our captors asked of us words of a song, and our tormentors asked of us jubilation, “Sing for us from a song of Zion.”


text:
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if do not I exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.


text:
Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, the ones who said, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare to its foundation!”


text:
O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated, happy shall be he who pays back to you what you paid out to us.


text:
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name, because of your loyal love and faithfulness, for you have magnified your word according to all your name.


text:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me alive. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my enemies, and you save me with your right hand.


text:
Yahweh accomplishes things for my benefit. O Yahweh, your loyal love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands.


text:
even the darkness is not too dark for you, and the night shines as the day— the darkness and the light are alike for you.


text:
I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it well.


text:
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly, and intricately woven in the depths of the earth.


text:
Your eyes saw my embryo, and in your book they all were written— days fashioned for me when there was not one of them.


text:
For the music director. A psalm of David. Rescue me, O Yahweh, from evil men. Preserve me from violent men,


text:
Protect me, O Yahweh, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from violent men, who have planned to make me stumble.


text:
The proud have hidden a trap for me, and cords. They have spread out a net along the side of the path. They have set snares for me. Selah


text:
Do not grant, O Yahweh, the desires of the wicked. Do not allow them to attain their plan, lest they be exalted. Selah


text:
Let burning coals fall on them; let them be dropped into the fire, into bottomless pits from which they cannot rise.


text:
Do not let a slanderer be established in the land; as for the man of violence, let evil hunt him quickly.


text:
Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked deeds with men who do iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.


text:
Let a righteous one strike me in kindness, and let him chasten me. It is oil for my head; let not my head refuse. For still my prayer is against their evil deeds.


text:
When their judges are thrown down the sides of a cliff, then they will understand that my words were pleasant.


text:
A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer. I cry out with my voice to Yahweh; I implore favor with my voice to Yahweh.


text:
When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. On the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me;


text:
look to my right and see. There is no one looking out for me; there is no escape for me; no one cares for my soul.


text:
Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my pursuers, for they are stronger than I.


text:
Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will encircle me, because you will deal bountifully with me.


text:
A psalm of David. O Yahweh, hear my prayer; listen to my supplications. In your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness.


text:
For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me dwell in dark places like those long dead.


text:
Quickly answer me, O Yahweh; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I will become like those descending to the pit.


text:
Cause me to hear your loyal love in the morning, for I trust you. Cause me to know the way that I should go, for I lift up my soul to you.


text:
And in your loyal love destroy my enemies, and exterminate all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.


text:
my loyal love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, and one in whom I take refuge, the one who subdues peoples under me.


text:
O Yahweh, what is humankind that you take knowledge of him, or the son of man that you take thought of him?


text:
Stretch out your hands from on high; Rescue me and deliver me from many waters, from the hand of foreigners,


text:
Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks falsely, and whose right hand is a false right hand,


text:
that our sons may be like plants, full grown in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars, carved in the style of a palace,


text:
that our granaries may be full, providing produce of all kinds, that our sheep may produce by the thousands, by the tens of thousands in our open fields,


text:
that our cattle may be pregnant; that there be no breach in our walls, and no going out in exile, and no outcry in our plazas.


text:
They will utter the renown of your abundant goodness, and they will proclaim with joy your righteousness.


text:
to make known to the children of humankind his mighty deeds, and the glory of the majesty of his kingdom.


text:
Yahweh protects the strangers. He helps up the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he thwarts.


text:
who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth, who causes grass to grow on the mountains.


text:
let them praise the name of Yahweh, because his name alone is is exalted. His splendor is above earth and heavens.


text:
And he has raised high a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful— for the children of Israel, a people close to him. Praise Yah.


text:
to execute on them the judgment that is decreed. This will be honor for all his faithful ones; Praise Yah.


text:
If they say, “Come with us! We shall lie in wait for blood; we shall ambush the innocent without cause.


text:
“ How long, O simple ones, will you love simplicity? And how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?


text:
May you turn to my argument! Behold, I shall pour out my spirit upon you; I will make my words known to you.


text:
When your panic comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you,


text:
for the waywardness of the simple ones will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.


text:
So that you will walk on the road of those who are good, and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.


text:
And those who are wicked will be cut off from the land, and those who are treacherous will be uprooted from it.


text:
For they will not sleep if they have not done wrong, and they are robbed of their sleep if they do not cause stumbling.


text:
But the path of the righteous ones is like the light of dawn, leading and shining until the day is full.


text:
She is a deer of love and a doe of grace; may her breasts satisfy you always; by her love may you be intoxicated continually.


text:
do this, then, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into the palm of your neighbor’s hand: Go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor.


text:
Upon such a man, suddenly shall his calamity come; in a moment he will be damaged and there is no healing.


text:
When you walk, she will lead you, When you lie down, she will watch over you, and when you awake, she will converse with you.


text:
For like a lamp is a commandment, and instruction is light, and the way of life is the reproof of discipline,


text:
For the price of a woman, a prostitute, is the price of a loaf of bread, but the woman belonging to a man hunts precious life.


text:
He goes after her suddenly; like an ox to the slaughter he goes, and like a stag to the instruction of a fool,


text:
until an arrow pierces his entrails, like a bird rushing into a snare, but he does not know that it will cost him his life.


text:
The fear of Yahweh is hatred of evil, pride, and arrogance and an evil way. And I hate a mouth of perversity.


text:
when he assigned his limits to the sea, that waters shall not transgress his command, when he marked the foundations of the earth,


text:
Happy is the person who listens to me, in order to keep watch at my doors day by day, in order to guard the frames of my entrances.


text:
Give to a wise one and he will become more wise; teach a righteous one and he will increase learning.


text:
Yahweh will not cause a righteous person to go hungry, but the craving of the wicked he will thwart.


text:
He who gathers in the summer is a child who is prudent; he who sleeps at the harvest is a child who brings shame.


text:
Whoever walks in integrity will walk securely, but whoever follows perversity, his ways will be made known.


text:
On the lips of one who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of one who lacks sense.


text:
With the passing of the tempest, there is no wickedness, but the righteous have a foundation forever.


text:
The righteousness of the blameless will keep his ways straight, but the wicked will fall by his wickedness.


text:
The righteousness of the upright will save them, but by a scheme the treacherous will be taken captive.


text:
When good is with the righteous, the city rejoices, and with the perishing of the wicked, jubilation.


text:
By the blessing of the upright, a city will be exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked, it will be overthrown.


text:
He who brings trouble to his household, he will inherit wind, and a fool will serve the wise of heart.


text:
For his mouth of good sense, a man will be recommended, but he who is of perverse mind will be despised.


text:
From the fruit of the mouth of a man, he is filled with good, and the reward of a man’s labor will return to him.


text:
There is one who speaks rashly, like the thrust of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.


text:
From the fruit of the mouth of a man, he shall eat what is good, but the desire of the treacherous, wrongdoing.


text:
He who despises a word will bring destruction on himself, but he who respects a commandment will be rewarded.


text:
Poverty and disgrace belong to him who ignores instruction, but he who guards reproof will be honored.


text:
He who is good will leave an inheritance to his grandchildren, and stored up for the righteous is the wealth of a sinner.


text:
When there are no oxen the manger is empty, but an abundance of crops comes by the strength of an ox.


text:
The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, but in its joy, it will not share itself with a stranger.


text:
Have they not erred, those who plan evil? But loyalty and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.


text:
In the heart of him who has understanding, wisdom rests, but even in the midst of fools it becomes known.


text:
The favor of a king is for the servant who deals wisely, but his wrath will be on him who acts shamefully.


text:
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination of Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.


text:
The heart of him who understands will seek knowledge, but the faces of fools, they will feed on folly.


text:
A man who is hot-tempered will stir up strife, but he who is slow to anger, he will calm contention.


text:
The house of the proud, Yahweh will tear it down, but he will maintain the property line of the widow.


text:
He who makes trouble for his house is he who is greedy for unjust gain, but he who hates bribes will live.


text:
An abomination of Yahweh are all who are arrogant of heart; rest assured, he will not go unpunished.


text:
By loyalty and faithfulness, iniquity will be covered over, and by fear of Yahweh one turns from evil.


text:
When the ways of a man are pleasing to Yahweh, even his enemies he will cause to make peace with him.


text:
The wise of heart is called perceptive, but he who is pleasant of lips will increase persuasiveness.


text:
He who winks his eyes does so in order to plan perverse things; he who purses his lips will bring evil to pass.


text:
He who is slow to anger is better than him who is mighty, and he who controls his spirit than him who captures a city.


text:
A slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully, and in the midst of brothers he will share his inheritance.


text:
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, the two of them are both abominations of Yahweh.


text:
He who is crooked of heart will not find goodness, and he who is perverse, by his tongue he will fall into calamity.


text:
The words of a whisper are like delicious morsels, and they themselves go down to inner parts of the body.


text:
In the presence of destruction, the heart of a man will be haughty, but in the presence of honor, humble.


text:
A brother who is offended is worse than a city of strength, and quarrels are like the bars of a fortification.


text:
From the fruit of a man’s mouth, his stomach will be satisfied, as for the yield of his lips, it will satisfy.


text:
All the brothers of the poor, if they hate him, how much more will his friends keep away from him. He pursues them with words, and they are gone.


text:
The scoffer you shall strike, and the simple, may they learn prudence, and reprove the intelligent and he will gain knowledge.


text:
He who does violence to a father, he who chases away a mother, is a child who causes shame and brings reproach.


text:
Take his garment, for he has given security to a stranger, and on behalf of a foreigner—take it as pledge.


text:
Loyalty and faithfulness will preserve a king, and he is upheld with the righteousness of his throne.


text:
Streams of water are the heart of a king in the hand of Yahweh; wherever he will desire, he will turn.


text:
With the punishment of a scoffer, the simple will become wise, and with the instruction of the wise, he will obtain knowledge.


text:
In order to show you what is right—sayings of truth— in order to return a true saying to him who sent you.


text:
A man who is skillful in his work, you shall see: before kings, he will serve; he will not serve before the commoners.


text:
Your eyes will alight on it, but there is nothing to it, for suddenly it will make for itself wings like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.


text:
For, like hair in his throat, so it is. “Eat and drink!” he will say to you, but his heart will not be with you.


text:
To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint? To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?


text:
And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea, and like him who lies down on top of a mast.


text:
“They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it. When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”


text:
Rescue those who are led away to the death and those who stagger to the slaughter. If you hold back,


text:
if you say, “Look, we do not know this,” does not he who weighs hearts perceive it? And he who keeps your soul, he knows and will repay humankind according to his deeds.


text:
Thus know wisdom for the sake of your soul, if you find it, then there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.


text:
Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against the home of the righteous; do not do violence to his dwelling place.


text:
For seven times the righteous will fall, but he will rise, but the wicked will be overthrown by calamity.


text:
Whoever says to the guilty, “You are righteous,” the people will curse him; the nations will abhor him.


text:
Prepare your work in the street and get it ready for yourself in the field; afterward, then you shall build your house.


text:
Do not say, “Just as he has done to me, so shall I do to him; I will pay back the man according to his deed.”


text:
and behold, it was overgrown—all of it was covered with thorns, its surface with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.


text:
For it is better that he say to you, “Ascend here,” than he humble you before a noble. What your eyes have seen,


text:
do not hastily bring out to court, for what will you do at its end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?


text:
Like the cold of snow on a day of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him, and the soul of his master is refreshed.


text:
Like one who removes a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on natron, is he who sings songs to a heavy heart.


text:
Like the sparrow is to fluttering and like the swallow is to flying, so an undeserved curse does not go forth.


text:
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels, and they go down to the inner parts of the body.


text:
An appetite that is sated spurns honey, but to an appetite that is ravenous, all bitterness is sweet.


text:
As for your friend and a friend of your father, do not forsake them, and the house of your brother, do not enter on the day of your calamity. Better is a close neighbor than a distant brother.


text:
He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, a curse will be reckoned to him.


text:
A crucible is for the silver, and a furnace for the gold, but a man is tested by the mouth of him who praises him.


text:
If you crush a fool in the mortar with the pestle along with the crushed grain, it will not drive folly from upon him.


text:
When the grass is gone, then green growth will appear, and the herbs of the mountains will be gathered.


text:
And there will be enough goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household and the nourishment of your maidservants.


text:
By the rebellion of a land, her rulers increase, but by a person of intelligence who knows justice, it will last.


text:
Those who forsake instruction will praise the wicked, but they who guard instruction will struggle against them.


text:
He who keeps instruction is a child of understanding, but the companion of gluttons will shame his father.


text:
He who misleads the upright onto the way of evil, into his pits he will fall. But as for the blameless, they will inherit good.


text:
When the righteous triumphs, great is the glory, but with the rising of the wicked, a person will be hidden.


text:
He who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes will obtain mercy.


text:
Happy is the person who fears continuously, but he who is stubborn of heart, will fall into calamity.


text:
A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but those who hate unjust gain will have long days.


text:
A person who is burdened with the blood of another, until death he will flee; do not take hold of him.


text:
He who tills his ground will have plenty bread, but he who follows fantasies will have plenty of poverty.


text:
A man of faithfulness has abundant blessings, but he who hurries to become rich will not go unpunished.


text:
He who hurries for wealth is a man with an evil eye, but he does not know that poverty will come upon him.


text:
He who robs his father and his mother and says, “There is no crime,” is partner to a man who corrupts.


text:
For he who gives to the poor, there is no lacking, but for he who turns his eyes, there are many curses.


text:
With the rising of the wicked, humankind will be hidden, and with their perishing, the righteous will multiply.


text:
A man who is reproved, being stubborn of neck— suddenly he will be broken, and there will not be healing.


text:
When the righteous are numerous, the people will rejoice, but when the wicked are ruling, people will groan.


text:
A man who loves wisdom will make his parents glad, but the friend of prostitutes will squander his wealth.


text:
If a wise man goes to court with a foolish man, then there is rankling and ridicule, but there is no relief.


text:
With the increase of the wicked, transgression will increase, but the righteous will look on his downfall.


text:
When there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but as for he who guards instruction, happiness is his.


text:
A man of injustice is an abomination to the righteous, but the upright is an abomination to the wicked.


text:
Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of his hand? Who has wrapped water in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is the name of his child? For surely you know.


text:
Keep falsehood and a lying word far from me; do not give me poverty or wealth; provide me with food only for my need.


text:
Or else I will be satisfied and will deny him and say “Who is Yahweh?” Or I will be poor and will steal and profane the name of my God.


text:
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, but from its filthiness it will not be cleansed.


text:
There is a generation whose teeth are swords, and its jawbones, knives, in order to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from humankind.


text:
For the leech, there are two daughters; “Give, give!” they cry. As for three of these, they are not satisfied; as for four, they do not say enough.


text:
The eye that mocks a father and scorns the obedience of a mother— the ravens of the valley will peck it out, and the offspring of vultures will eat it.


text:
the way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.


text:
This is the way of a woman committing adultery: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says “I have not done wrong.”


text:
If you have been foolish by exalting yourself, and if you have devised evil, put your hand to your mouth.


text:
For pressing milk produces curd, and pressing the nose produces blood, so pressing anger produces strife.


text:
It is not for the kings, O Lemuel; drinking wine is not for the kings, nor is strong drink for rulers.


text:
Or else he will drink and forget what has been decreed, and he will pervert the rights of all the afflicted.


text:
And she arises while it is still night, and gives food to her household, and tasks to her servant girls.


text:
The wind goes to the south and goes around to the north; around and around it goes, and on its circuit the wind returns.


text:
All the streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.


text:
All things toil continuously; no one can ever finish describing this. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled with hearing.


text:
What has been—it is what will be; what has been done—it is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.


text:
There is a thing of which it is said, “Look at this! This is new!” But it already existed in ages past before us.


text:
There is neither remembrance of former generations, nor will there be remembrance of future generations.


text:
I applied my mind to seek and to search by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. It is a grievous task God has given to humans.


text:
I said to myself, “Look! I have become great and have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has preceded me over Jerusalem. I have acquired a great deal of wisdom and knowledge.”


text:
So I dedicated myself to learn about wisdom and to learn about delusion and folly. However, I discovered that this also is chasing wind.


text:
I said to myself, “Come! I will test pleasure to see whether it is worthwhile.” But look, “This also is vanity!”


text:
I also explored the effects of indulging my flesh with wine. My mind guiding me with wisdom, I investigated folly so that I might discover what is good under heaven for humans to do during the days of their lives.


text:
I acquired male slaves and female slaves, as well as children born in my house. I also had livestock, cattle, and flocks more than anyone who was before me in Jerusalem.


text:
I also gathered to myself silver and gold—the royal and provincial treasuries. I acquired for myself male and female singers, as well as the delight of men, voluptuous concubines.


text:
Thus, I accomplished far more than anyone who was before me in Jerusalem—indeed, my wisdom stood by me.


text:
I neither withheld anything from my eyes that they desired, nor did I deprive any pleasure from my heart. My heart rejoiced in all my toil, for this was my reward from all my toil.


text:
Yet when I considered all the effort which I expended and the toil with which I toiled to do, then behold, “Everything is vanity and chasing wind! There is nothing profitable under the sun!”


text:
Next, I considered wisdom, as well as delusion and folly. What can anyone do who will come after the king that has not already been done?


text:
The wise man can see where he is walking, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that both of them suffer the same fate.


text:
So I said to myself, “ If I also suffer the same fate as the fool, what advantage is my great wisdom?” So I said to myself, “This also is vanity!”


text:
Certainly no one will remember the wise man or the fool in future generations. When future days come, both will have been forgotten already. How is it that the wise man dies the same as the fool?


text:
So I hated life because the work done under the sun is grievous to me. For everything is vanity and chasing wind!


text:
So I hated all my toil with which I have toiled under the sun, for I must leave it behind to someone who will be after me.


text:
And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will exercise control of all the fruit of my toil with which I toiled wisely under the sun. This also is vanity!


text:
For although a person may toil with great wisdom and skill, he must leave his reward to someone who has not toiled for it. This also is vanity and a great calamity.


text:
For what does a person receive for all his toil and in the longing of his heart with which he toils under the sun?


text:
All his days are painful, his labor brings grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also is vanity!


text:
There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and find delight in his toil. For I also realized that this is from the hand of God!


text:
For to the person who is good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give it to him who is pleasing to him. This also is vanity and chasing wind!


text:
a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;


text:
He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put the past in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.


text:
So I realized that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy themselves during their lives.


text:
And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, to enjoy the fruit of all his toil, this also is a gift of God.


text:
I know everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, for God so acts that humans might stand in awe before him.


text:
I saw something else under the sun: instead of justice there was evil; instead of righteousness there was wickedness.


text:
So I said to myself, “God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time of judgment for every deed and every work.”


text:
I said to myself concerning humans, “God sifts them in order to show them that they are like beasts.”


text:
For the fate of humans and the fate of the beast is the same. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for both are mortal. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.


text:
For no one knows whether the spirit of a human ascends to heaven and whether the spirit of the beast descends to the ground!


text:
So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy the fruit of his labor, for this is his lot in life. For no one knows what will happen in the future.


text:
I looked again, and I saw all the oppression that occurs under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed— no one comforts them! Those who oppress them are powerful— no one can comfort them !


text:
But better off than both of them is the one who has not yet been born and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.


text:
I also realized that all of the toil and all of the skillful work that is done—it is envy between one man and another. This also is vanity and chasing wind!


text:
Sometimes a man is all alone with no companion; he also has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eye is not satisfied with wealth. He laments, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity—it is an unhappy business!


text:
For if one falls, his companion may help him up. But pity the one who falls and there is no one to help him up.


text:
Although an assailant may overpower one person, two may withstand him. A threefold cord is not easily broken !


text:
A poor but wise youth is better than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to receive advice.


text:
I saw all the living who move about under the sun with the youth; the second who will stand in his place.


text:
There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him. Yet the later generation will not rejoice in him, for this also is vanity and chasing wind!


text:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; draw near to listen rather than to offer a sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.


text:
Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart be quick to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore, let your words be few.


text:
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow!


text:
Do not let your mouth lead your flesh into sin, and do not tell the messenger that it was a mistake. Why anger God at your words, so that he destroys the work of your hands?


text:
Do not be surprised if you see the poor being oppressed with violence or do not see justice and righteousness in the province. For one official is watched by a higher official, and there are even higher officials over them!


text:
The produce of the land is exploited by everyone; even the king profits from the field of the poor  !


text:
Whoever loves money is not satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is not satisfied with profit. This also is vanity!


text:
When prosperity increases, those who consume it increase. So its owner gains nothing, except to see his wealth before it is spent.


text:
The sleep of the laborer is pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the wealth of the rich man does not allow him to rest.


text:
That wealth was lost in a bad venture. Although he has borne a child, he has nothing to leave to him.


text:
Just as he came from his mother’s womb naked, he will depart just as he came; he will take nothing with him for his toil.


text:
This also is a grievous illness. Exactly as he came, so he will go. What profit does he gain for all his toil for the wind?


text:
Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and to enjoy all the fruit of the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him—for this is his lot.


text:
This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him to enjoy them, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in the fruit of his toil.


text:
For he does not remember the brief days of his life, for God keeps his heart preoccupied with enjoyment of life.


text:
God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it—instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This is vanity—indeed, it is a grievous ill!


text:
Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his heart is not satisfied with his prosperity and he does not receive a proper burial, I deem the stillborn better than him.


text:
Even if a man lives a thousand years twice, if he does not enjoy prosperity, both suffer the same fate !


text:
So do the wise really have an advantage over fools? Can the poor really gain anything by knowing how to act in front of others?


text:
Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more. This also is vanity and chasing wind!


text:
Whatever is—it was already determined, what will be—it has already been decided. As for man, he cannot argue against what is more powerful than him.


text:
For who knows what is good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen in the future under the sun?


text:
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.


text:
Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for death is the end of every person, and the living should take it to his heart.


text:
Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.


text:
For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection. But knowledge has an advantage—wisdom restores life to its possessor.


text:
In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen in the future.


text:
I have seen all these things in my vain life: Sometimes a righteous man perishes in spite of his righteousness, and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in spite of his evil.


text:
It is good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.


text:
I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is delusion.


text:
I myself found that more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare, and whose hands are bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.


text:
What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one upright woman among all these.


text:
Who is like the sage? Who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.


text:
Do not be terrified of his presence! Go at once and do not delay when a matter is unpleasant, for he can do anything that he desires.


text:
Whoever obeys his command will not suffer disaster. The wise mind knows the proper time and the right procedure.


text:
For there is a proper time and right procedure for every matter, even though the trouble of man weighs heavy upon him.


text:
Just as no one can control the wind to restrain the wind, so also no one can control the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not deliver the wicked.


text:
I saw all this as I applied my heart to all the deeds done under the sun: sometimes those in authority harm others.


text:
Meanwhile, I saw the wicked being honorably buried, but those who came and went from the holy place were forgotten in the city, even though they had done so. This also is vanity!


text:
Because sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of humans fills up within them to do evil.


text:
Although the sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will be good for those who fear God—because they fear his presence.


text:
But it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not prolong their days, like the shadow; because there is no fearing God’s presence.


text:
There is a vanity that happens on earth: sometimes the righteous suffer what the wicked deserve, and sometimes the wicked receive what the righteous deserve. I said, “This also is vanity!”


text:
So I recommend enjoyment. For there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.


text:
I applied my mind to know wisdom and to understand the business that is done on earth—how neither day nor night one’s eyes see sleep.


text:
Then I saw all the work of God—man is not able to discover the work that is done under the sun. Although man may toil in seeking, he cannot find it. Even if a wise man claims that he knows it, he cannot find it.


text:
So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will come to them, whether it will be love or hatred.


text:
The same fate comes to everyone: to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As with the good man, so also to the sinner; as with those who swear an oath, so also those who fear oaths.


text:
This is the injustice that is done under the sun: the same fate comes to everyone. Also the hearts of humans are full of evil; delusion is in their hearts during their lives, and then they die.


text:
Whoever is joined to all the living has hope. After all, even a live dog is better than a dead lion!


text:
For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.


text:
What they loved and hated, as well as what they desired, has already perished. They no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.


text:
Go—eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart! For God already has approved your deeds.


text:
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he gives you under the sun, because this is your lot in life and in the toil with which you toil under the sun.


text:
Whatever your hand finds to do—do it with all your might; for in Sheol—where you are going—no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.


text:
I looked again and saw under the sun that the race does not belong to the swift, the battle does not belong to the mighty, food does not belong to the wise, wealth does not belong to the intelligent, and success does not belong to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them.


text:
For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also humans are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.


text:
There was a small city with few people in it. A great king came and besieged it, building great siege works against it.


text:
So I concluded that wisdom is better than might, yet the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.


text:
The words of the wise are heard in peace more than the shouting of a ruler is heard among the fools.


text:
Dead flies cause a bad smell and ruin the ointment of the perfumer. So also a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.


text:
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for calmness can undo great offenses.


text:
If the ax is blunt but one does not sharpen its edge, he must exert more effort, but the advantage of wisdom is it brings success.


text:
The fool talks too much, for no one knows what will be. Who can tell anyone what will happen in the future?


text:
Blessed are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobility and your princes feast at the proper time— to gain strength and not to get drunk.


text:
Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich even in your own bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice; a winged messenger may repeat your words.


text:
When the clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north, the place where the tree falls—there it will be.


text:
Just as you do not know how the path of the wind goes, nor how the bones of a fetus form in a mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.


text:
Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper— whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.


text:
For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many— all that is coming is vanity!


text:
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth! Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes— but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.


text:
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth— before the days of trouble come and the years draw near when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them!”


text:
When the guards of the house tremble, and the men of strength are bent; the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows see dimly.


text:
When the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding mill is low; one rises up to the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low.


text:
They are afraid of heights, and terrors are on the road. The almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper draws itself along, and desire fails because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the streets.


text:
Before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken; and the jar at the foundation is broken, and the wheel at the cistern is broken.


text:
The Teacher was full of wisdom, and he taught the people with knowledge. He carefully considered many proverbs and carefully arranged them.


text:
The words of the wise are like cattle goads; the collections of the sages are like pricks inflicted by one shepherd.


text:
My son, be careful about anything beyond these things. For the writing of books is endless, and too much study is wearisome.


text:
Now that all has been heard, here is the final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.


text:
As fragrance, your perfumes are delightful; your name is poured out perfume; therefore young women love you.


text:
Draw me after you, let us run! May the king bring me into his chambers! Let us be joyful and let us rejoice in you; let us extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you!


text:
I am black but beautiful, O maidens of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.


text:
Do not gaze at me because I am black, because the sun has stared at me. The sons of my mother were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own “vineyard” I did not keep.


text:
Tell me, you whom my heart loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do your sheep lie down at the noon? For why should I be like one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?


text:
If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.


text:
As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. In his shade I sat down with delight, and his fruit was sweet to my palate.


text:
I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!


text:
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! He is standing behind our wall, gazing through the window, looking through the lattice.


text:
The blossoms appear in the land; the time of singing has arrived; the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.


text:
The fig tree puts forth her figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give fragrance. Arise, my beloved! Come, my beauty !”


text:
My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secluded place in the mountain, Let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.


text:
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or young stag on the cleft mountains.


text:
Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.


text:
Scarcely had I passed by them when I found him whom my heart loves. I held him and I would not let him go until I brought him to the house of my mother, into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.


text:
What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?


text:
All of them wield swords; they are trained in warfare, each with his sword at his thigh to guard against terror in the night.


text:
He made its column of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior is inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem.


text:
Come out and look, O maidens of Zion, at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the joy of his heart!


text:
Oh my ! You are beautiful, my beloved! Oh my ! You are beautiful! Your eyes are doves from behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats that move down from the mountains of Gilead.


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that came up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is none bereaved among them.


text:
Your lips are like a thread of crimson, and your mouth is lovely. Your temple is like pomegranate from behind your veil.


text:
Your neck is like the tower of David, built in courses; a thousand ornaments are hung on it, all the shields of the warriors.


text:
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of the myrrh, to the hill of the frankincense.


text:
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride! Come with me from Lebanon! Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the dwelling places of the lions, from the mountains of leopard.


text:
You have stolen (my) heart, my sister bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance from your eyes, with one ornament from your necklaces.


text:
How beautiful is your love, my sister bride! How better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!


text:
Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your lips; the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.


text:
nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon spice with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all chief spices.


text:
Awake, O north wind! Come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden! Let its fragrances waft forth! Let my beloved come to his garden, let him eat his choice fruit!


text:
I have come to my garden, my sister bride, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk! Eat, O friends! Drink and become drunk with love !


text:
I was asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, my hair drenched from the moist night air.”


text:
I myself arose to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.


text:
I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.


text:
The sentinels making rounds in the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took my cloak away from me— those sentinels on the walls !


text:
I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am lovesick !


text:
How is your beloved better than another lover, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another lover, that you adjure us thus?


text:
His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances; his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.


text:
His legs are columns of alabaster, set on bases of gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.


text:
His mouth is sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved; this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.


text:
Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned that we may seek him with you?


text:
My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the garden bed of the spice, to pasture his flock and to gather lilies in the garden.


text:
You are beautiful, my beloved, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, overwhelming as an army with banners.


text:
Turn away your eyes from before me, for they overwhelm me. Your hair is like a flock of the goats that moves down from Gilead.


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of the ewes that have come up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is none bereaved among them.


text:
My dove, she is the one; my perfect, she is the only one; she is the favorite of her mother who bore her. Maidens see her and consider her fortunate; queens and concubines praise her:


text:
“Who is this that looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, overwhelming as an army with banners?”


text:
I went down to the orchard of the walnut trees to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vine s have sprouted, whether the pomegranates have blossomed.


text:
Turn, turn, O Shulammite! Turn, turn so that we may look upon you! Why do you look upon the Shulammite as at a dance of the two armies?


text:
How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O royal princess! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a craftsman.


text:
Your navel is a round wine-mixing bowl that does not lack mixed wine! Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies.


text:
Your neck is like a tower of ivory; your eyes are pools in Heshbon at the gate of Beth Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking out over Damascus.


text:
Your head crowns you like Carmel; the flowing locks of your head are like purple tapestry; a king is held captive in the tresses!


text:
I say, “I will climb up the palm tree; I will lay hold of its fruit clusters.” Let your breasts be pleasing like clusters of the vine and the scent of your breath like the apples.


text:
Your palate is like the best wine that goes down for my beloved, smoothly gliding over my lips and teeth.


text:
Let us rise early to go to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has budded, whether the grape blossom has opened, and whether the pomegranates are in bloom; there I will give my love to you.


text:
The mandrakes give off their fragrance, and over our doorway is every kind of delicious fruit; both fresh and dried fruit I have stored up for you, O my beloved.


text:
How I wish that you were my little brother, who nursed upon my mother’s breasts ! If I met you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me !


text:
I would surely bring you to the house of my mother, who would surely teach me; I would give you spiced wine to drink, the sweet wine of my pomegranates.


text:
Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother conceived you; there she who was in labor gave birth to you.


text:
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; passion is fierce as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire; it is a blazing flame.


text:
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned.


text:
We have a little sister, and she does not yet have any breasts. What should we do for our sister on the day when she is betrothed?


text:
If she is a wall, we will adorn her with a turret of silver; but if she is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar.


text:
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he entrusted his vineyard to the keepers; people paid a thousand silver pieces for its fruit.


text:
My own “vineyard” belongs to me; the “thousand” are for you, O Solomon, and “two hundred” for those who tend its fruit.


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


text:
Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, for Yahweh has spoken: “I reared children and I brought them up, but they rebelled against me.


text:
An ox knows its owner and a donkey the manger of its master. Israel does not know; my people do not understand.


text:
Ah, sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken Yahweh; they have despised the holy one of Israel. They are estranged and gone backward.


text:
Why do you want to be beaten again? You continue in rebellion. The whole of the head is sick, and the whole of the heart is faint.


text:
From the sole of the foot and up to the head there is no health in it; bruise and sore and bleeding wound have not been cleansed, and they have not been bound up and not softened with the oil.


text:
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; As for your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence, and it is desolate, like devastation by foreigners.


text:
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a city that is besieged.


text:
If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors, we would have been as few as Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.


text:
What is the abundance of your sacrifices to me? says Yahweh. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals and I do not delight in the blood of bulls and ram-lambs and goats.


text:
You must not continue to bring offerings of futility, incense—it is an abomination to me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation— I cannot endure iniquity with solemn assembly.


text:
Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become to me like a burden, I am not able to bear them.


text:
And when you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are full of blood.


text:
“Come now, and let us argue,” says Yahweh. “Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow; even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.


text:
But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”


text:
How has a faithful city become like a whore? Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.


text:
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Every one loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan and the legal dispute of the widow does not come before them.


text:
Therefore, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will be relieved of my enemies, and I will avenge myself on my foes.


text:
And I will turn my hand against you; I will purify your dross like lye, and I will remove all of your tin.


text:
And I will restore your judges, as at the first, and your counselors, as at the beginning. After this you will be called the city of righteousness, faithful city.


text:
But the destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh will perish.


text:
For you will be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted, and you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.


text:
For you shall be like an oak withering its leaves, and like a garden where there is no water for her.


text:
And the strong man shall become like tinder, and his work like a spark. And both of them shall burn together, and there is not one to quench them.”


text:
And it shall happen in the future of the days the mountain of the house of Yahweh shall be established; it will be among the highest of the mountains, and it shall be raised from the hills. All of the nations shall travel to him;


text:
many peoples shall come. And they shall say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths.” For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.


text:
He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again.


text:
For you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob, because they are full from the east, and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they make alliances with the offspring of foreigners.


text:
And its land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to its treasures; and its land is filled with horses, and there is no end to its chariots.


text:
Its land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what they made with their fingers.


text:
Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust from the presence of the terror of Yahweh and from the glory of his majesty.


text:
The haughty eyes of humanity will be brought low, and the pride of everyone will be humbled, and Yahweh alone will be exalted on that day.


text:
For there is a day for Yahweh of hosts against all of the proud and the lofty and against all that is lifted up and humble,


text:
and against all the lofty and lifted up cedars of Lebanon, and against all the large trees of Bashan,


text:
And the haughtiness of the people shall be humbled, and the pride of everyone shall be brought low, and Yahweh alone will be exalted on that day.


text:
and they will enter into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the ground from the presence of the terror of Yahweh and from the glory of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth.


text:
On that day humanity will throw away its idols of silver and its idols of gold, which they made for it to worship, to the rodents and to the bats—


text:
to enter into the crevices of the rocks and into the clefts of the crags from the presence of the terror of Yahweh and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.


text:
For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support from Jerusalem and from Judah: all of the supplies of bread and all of the supplies of water,


text:
captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank, and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.


text:
And the people will be oppressed by each other and a man by his neighbor. The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder, and the dishonorable toward the honorable.


text:
Indeed, a man will seize his brother in the house of his father: “ You have a cloak; you shall be a leader for us, and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”


text:
He will lift up his voice on that day, saying, “I will not be a healer; in my house there is no bread and there is no cloak. You shall not make me the leader of the people!”


text:
For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh, defying the eyes of his glory.


text:
The look on their faces testifies against them and they declare their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil to themselves.


text:
My people—children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders are misleading you, and they confuse the course of your paths.


text:
Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes. “And you! You have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses!


text:
And Yahweh said: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and they walk with outstretched neck, and they give flirting glances with their eyes, mincing along as they go, and with their feet they rattle their bangles,


text:
the Lord will make the heads of the daughters of Zion scabby, and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”


text:
In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets and the headbands and the crescent necklaces,


text:
And this shall happen: There will be a stench instead of perfume, and a rope instead of a sash, and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo, and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe, branding instead of beauty.


text:
And seven women shall grasp at one man on that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and we will wear our own clothing; only let us be called by your name ! Take away our disgrace!”


text:
On that day the branch of Yahweh shall become beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall become the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.


text:
And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone written for life in Jerusalem,


text:
when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.


text:
Then Yahweh will create over all of the site of Mount Zion and over her assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,


text:
and it will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day, and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.


text:
Let me sing for my beloved a song of my love concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.


text:
And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it with choice vines, and he built a watchtower in the middle of it, and he even hewed out a wine vat in it, and he waited for it to yield grapes— but it yielded wild grapes.


text:
What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?


text:
And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation. I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.


text:
And I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned and hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thornbushes. And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send rain down upon it.


text:
For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is the plantation of his delight. And he waited for justice, but look! Bloodshed! For righteousness, but look! A cry of distress!


text:
Ah! Those who join house with house, they join field together with field until there is no place and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.


text:
Yahweh of hosts said in my ears: Surely many houses shall become a desolation, large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.


text:
Ah! Those who rise early in the morning, they pursue strong drink. Those who linger in the evening, wine inflames them.


text:
And there will be lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts, but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh, and they do not see the work of his hands.


text:
Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge, and their nobles will be men of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst.


text:
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat, and it has opened wide its mouth without limit, and her nobles will go down, and her multitude, her tumult and those who revel in her.


text:
And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and fatlings, kids will eat among the sites of ruins.


text:
those who say, “Let him make haste; let him hurry his work so that we may see it and let it draw near and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come so that we may know it !”


text:
Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!


text:
Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become like the stench, and their blossom will go up like the dust. For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts, and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.


text:
Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the middle of the streets. In all of this his anger has not turned back, and still his hand is stretched out.


text:
And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar, and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth. And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!


text:
None is weary, and none among him stumbles; none slumbers and none sleeps. And no loincloth on his waist is opened, and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.


text:
Whose arrows are sharp, and all of his bows are bent. The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint, and his wheels like the storm wind.


text:
His roaring is like the lion, and he roars like young lions. And he growls and seizes his prey, and he carries it off, and not one can rescue it.


text:
And he will roar over him on that day like the roaring of the sea, and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress! And the light grows dark with its clouds.


text:
In the year of the death of Uzziah the king, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne, and the hem of his robe was filling the temple.


text:
Seraphs were standing above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.


text:
And the one called to the other and said, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory.”


text:
And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called, and the house was filled with smoke.


text:
And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I am living among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”


text:
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.


text:
And he touched my mouth, and he said, “Look! This has touched your lips and has removed your guilt, and your sin is annulled.”


text:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “I am here! Send me!”


text:
And he said, “Go and say to this people, ‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!’


text:
Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend with its mind and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”


text:
Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And he said, “Until the cities lie wasted without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is ruined and a waste,


text:
And even if only a tenth part remain, again she will be destroyed like a terebinth or like an oak, which although felled, a tree stump remains in them. The seed of holiness will be her tree stump.”


text:
This happened in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem for warfare against it, but he was not able to fight against it.


text:
When it was reported to the house of David, saying “Aram stands by Ephraim,” his heart and the heart of his people shook like the shaking of the trees of the forest because of the wind.


text:
Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the washer’s field.


text:
And you must say to him, ‘Take heed and be quiet! You must not fear, and your heart must not be faint because of these two stumps of smoldering firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.


text:
“Let us go up against Judah and let us tear her apart, and let us lay it open and so bring it unto ourselves, and let us install the son of Tabeel as king in her midst.”


text:
For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.


text:
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not believe then you will not endure.” ’ ”


text:
Then he said, “Hear, house of David! Is it too little for you to make men weary, that you should also make my God weary?


text:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! the virgin is with child and she is about to give birth to a son, and she shall call his name ‘God with us.’


text:
For before the boy knows to reject the evil and to choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.


text:
“Yahweh will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your ancestor days that have not come since the day Ephraim departed from Judah: the king of Assyria.”


text:
And this shall happen: On that day, Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the stream of Egypt and the bee that is in the land of Assyria.


text:
And all of them will come and settle in the rivers of the cliffs and in the clefts of the rocks and on all of the thornbushes and watering places.


text:
On that day, the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the feet with a razor of the one hired from beyond the river—with the king of Assyria—and it will even take off the beard.


text:
And this shall happen: on that day, a young man will keep a young cow of the herd and two sheep alive.


text:
And this shall happen: because of the abundance of milk production, he will eat curds, for every one that is left in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey.


text:
And this shall happen on that day: Every place where there are a thousand vines for a thousand silver pieces will become briers, and it will be thornbushes.


text:
And as for all of the hills that they hoed with the hoe, you will not go there, for fear of briers and thornbushes. And it will become like pastureland for cattle and overtrodden land for sheep.


text:
Then Yahweh said to me, “Take yourself a large tablet and write on it with a common stylus pen: Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz.


text:
And I will require reliable witnesses as a witness for me: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”


text:
And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz.


text:
For before the boy knows to call ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ one will carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.”


text:
“Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,


text:
therefore look! The Lord is bringing up the waters of the great and mighty river against them, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will rise above all his channels, and he will flow over all his banks.


text:
And he will sweep into Judah; he will overflow and he will flood up to the neck. He will reach, and he will spread his wings out over your entire land, God with us.”


text:
Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed. And listen, all distant parts of the earth; gird yourselves and be dismayed; gird yourselves and be dismayed!


text:
For Yahweh said this to me while his hand weighed heavily on me, and he warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,


text:
“You must not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy, and you must not share its fear, and you must not be in dread.


text:
And he will become like a sanctuary and a stumbling-stone, and like a stumbling-rock for the two houses of Israel, like a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
And many shall stumble among them, and they shall fall and they shall be broken, and they shall be ensnared and they shall be caught.”


text:
Look! I and the children whom Yahweh has given to me are like signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, the one who dwells on the mountain of Zion.


text:
Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living,


text:
And it will pass through it distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods, and it will face upwar


text:
or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!


text:
But there will be no gloom for those who were in distress. In former times he treated the land of Zebulun and Naphtali with contempt, but in the future he will honor the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.


text:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; light has shined on those who lived in a land of darkness.


text:
You have made the nation numerous; you have not made the joy great. They rejoice in your presence as with joy at the harvest, as they rejoice when they divide plunder.


text:
For you have shattered the yoke of its burden and the stick of its shoulder, the rod of its oppressor, on the day of Midian.


text:
For every boot that marches and shakes the earth and garment rolled in blood will be for burning—fire fuel.


text:
For a child has been born for us; a son has been given to us. And the dominion will be on his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.


text:
His dominion will grow continually, and to peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and sustain it with justice and righteousness now and forever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.


text:
And all of the people knew it, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria in pride and arrogance of heart, saying,


text:
“ The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stone. The sycamore-fig trees were felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”


text:
Aram from the east and Philistines from the west— and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth. He has not turned away his anger in all of this, and his hand is still stretched out.


text:
Therefore the Lord did not rejoice over its young men, and he did not have compassion on its orphans and widows, for everyone was godless and an evildoer, and every mouth was speaking folly. In all of this his anger did not turn away, and still his hand is stretched out.


text:
For wickedness burned like fire; it consumed brier and thorn. And it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.


text:
The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and the people became like fire fuel. People had no compassion toward each other.


text:
They devoured on the right but still were hungry and devoured on the left but they were not satisfied. Each one devoured the flesh of his arm,


text:
Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they were against Judah. In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand is stretched out.


text:
to guide the needy away from legal claims, and to rob the justice from the poor of my people, to make widows their spoil; and they plunder orphans.


text:
And what will you do at the day of punishment, and at calamity? It comes from afar! To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth,


text:
save that they bow down under the prisoners and fall under the slain? In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand is stretched out.


text:
I send him against a godless nation, and I command him against the people of my wrath, to capture spoil and to carry off plunder, and to make them a trampling place, like the clay of the streets.


text:
But he does not think this, and his heart does not plan this. For it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off not a few nations.


text:
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols —and their images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria—


text:
And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”


text:
For he says, “I have done it by the strength of my hand and by my wisdom, for I have understanding, and I have removed the boundaries of peoples, and I have plundered their stores, and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.


text:
And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples, and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth. And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”


text:
Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it, or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro? As if a rod should move the one who lifts it ! As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood !


text:
Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors, and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.


text:
And the light of Israel will become like a fire, and his holy one like a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.


text:
And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely, and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.


text:
And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.


text:
For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of it will return. Annihilation is determined, overflowing with righteousness.


text:
For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts: “My people who live in Zion, you must not be afraid of Assyria. It beats you with the rod, and it lifts up its staff against you as the Egyptians did.


text:
My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”


text:
And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him, as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb; and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift him up as he did in Egypt.


text:
And this shall happen: on that day, he will remove his burden from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat.


text:
They crossed over the pass; Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.


text:
This day taking a stand at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.


text:
Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches with great power, and the towering trees will be felled, and the tall trees will be brought low.


text:
And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.


text:
And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him— a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.


text:
And his breath is in the fear of Yahweh. And he shall judge not by his eyesight, and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with his ears.


text:
But he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips.


text:
And a wolf shall stay with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie down with a kid, and a calf and a lion and a fatling together as a small boy leads them.


text:
And a cow and a bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together. And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle.


text:
They will not injure and they will not destroy on all of my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.


text:
And this shall happen on that day: the nations shall inquire of the root of Jesse, which shall be standing as a signal to the peoples, and his resting place shall be glorious.


text:
And this shall happen on that day: The Lord will again extend his hand a second time to acquire the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,


text:
and he will raise a signal for the nations. And he will gather the outcasts of Israel, and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners of the earth.


text:
And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.


text:
But they shall swoop upon the Philistine shoulder, westward. Together they shall plunder the sons of the east. Edom and Moab will be under their command, and the sons of Ammon will be their subjugated people.


text:
And Yahweh will divide the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind; and he will strike it into seven streams, and he will make it passable by foot.


text:
So there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that remains, as there was for Israel when it went up from the land of Egypt.


text:
And you will say on that day, “I will give you thanks, Yahweh, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me.


text:
Look! God is my salvation; I will trust, and I will not be afraid, for my strength and might is Yah, Yahweh; and he has become salvation for me.”


text:
And you will say on that day, “Give thanks to Yahweh; call on his name. Make his deeds known among the peoples; bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.


text:
Raise a signal on a bare hill, lift up your voice to them; wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen.


text:
I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones, I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger, the ones who exalt over my majesty.


text:
A sound, a noise is on the mountains, the likeness of many people! A sound of the roar of the kingdoms, of nations gathering! Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.


text:
They are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole earth.


text:
and they will be dismayed. Pangs and labor pains will seize them; they will tremble like a woman giving birth. They will stare at one another, their faces flushing.


text:
Look! The day of Yahweh is coming, cruel and wrath and the burning of anger, to make the earth a desolation, and he will destroy its sinners from it.


text:
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will keep back when it comes out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.


text:
And I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and I will bring the haughtiness of tyrants low.


text:
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will quake from its place because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day his anger burns.


text:
And this shall happen: like a hunted gazelle or sheep with none to gather them, they will each turn to his own people, and they will each flee to his own land.


text:
Everyone who is found will be pierced through, and everyone who is carried away will fall by the sword.


text:
And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.


text:
And their bows will shatter young men. And they will not show mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not look compassionately on children.


text:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.


text:
It will not be inhabited forever, and it will not be dwelled in forever; and no Arab will pitch a tent there, and shepherds will not allow their flocks to lie down there.


text:
But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures, and the daughters of ostriches will live there, and goats will dance there.


text:
And hyenas will answer in its palaces, and jackals in the pleasure palaces; and its time is coming soon, and its days will not be prolonged.


text:
But Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and he will again choose Israel and set them on their land, and the immigrant will join himself to them, and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.


text:
And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will take possession of them in the land of Yahweh as slaves and female slaves. And this will happen: they will take their captors captive and rule over their oppressors.


text:
And it shall happen on the day Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and hard labor which you had to perform,


text:
that you will take this taunt against the king of Babylon, and you will say: “How the oppressor has ceased! his insolence has ceased.


text:
that struck the peoples in wrath, a blow without ceasing, that ruled the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.


text:
Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: ‘Since you were laid down, no wood cutter comes up against us.’


text:
Sheol below is getting excited over you, to meet you when you come; it arouses the dead spirits for you, all of the leaders of the earth. It raises all of the kings of the nations from their thrones.


text:
All of them will respond and say to you, ‘You yourself also were made weak like us! You have become the same as us!’


text:
Your pride is brought down to Sheol, and the sound of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you like a bed, and your covering is worms.


text:
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn! You are cut down to the ground, conqueror of nations!


text:
And you yourself said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise up my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of assembly on the summit of Zaphon;


text:
Those who see you will stare at you, they will look closely at you: ‘ Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who caused kingdoms to shake,


text:
who made the world like the desert and destroyed its cities, who would not let his prisoners go home?’


text:
But as for you, you are thrown away from your grave, like an abhorrent shoot, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, those who go down to the stones of the pit, like a corpse that is trodden down.


text:
You will not be united with them in burial because you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. The descendants of evildoers will not be mentioned for eternity!


text:
Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons because of the sin of their ancestors. Let them not rise and take possession of the earth or fill up the face of the world with cities.”


text:
“And I will rise up against them,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and I will cut off name and a remnant from Babylon, and offspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh.


text:
“And I will make her a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.


text:
Yahweh of hosts has sworn, saying, “ Surely just as I have intended, so it shall be. And just as I have planned, it shall stand:


text:
to break Assyria in my land, and I will trample him down on my mountains; and he shall remove his yoke from them, and he shall remove his burden from his shoulders.”


text:
This is the plan that is planned concerning all of the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all of the nations.


text:
For Yahweh of hosts has planned, and who will frustrate it? And his hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?


text:
You must not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken, for a viper will come forth from the root of the snake, and its fruit will be a flying serpent.


text:
And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy will lie down in security; but I will cause your root to die in famine, and it will kill your remnant.


text:
Wail, gate! Cry, city! Melt, Philistia, all of you! For smoke is coming from the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.


text:
And what will one answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and the needy of his people will take refuge in it.


text:
An oracle of Moab: Because Ar is devastated in a night, Moab is destroyed; because Kir of Moab is devastated in a night, it is destroyed.


text:
It has gone up to the house, and Dibon to the high places for weeping over Nebo, and Moab wails over Medeba. Every head is bald, every beard is shaved.


text:
They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets; on its roofs and public squares everyone wails, going down in weeping.


text:
And Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out; its soul quivers for him.


text:
My heart cries out for Moab; its fugitives flee up to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping; for on the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.


text:
For the waters of Nimrim are wastelands; for the grass has withered, the vegetation has vanished, there is no greenness.


text:
Therefore they carry the abundance it has made and their store of goods over the river of the poplars.


text:
For a cry for help has encircled the territory of Moab, her wailing is heard as far as Eglaim, and her wailing as far as Beer Elim.


text:
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; but I will place added things upon Dimon: a lion for the survivors of Moab and for the remnant of the land.


text:
And this shall be: like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.


text:
“Bring counsel, make a decision; make your shade like the night in the middle of noonday. Hide the outcasts; you must not betray the fugitive.


text:
Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you; be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.” When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped, the one who tramples has disappeared from the land,


text:
then a throne shall be established in steadfast love, and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and zealous for righteousness.


text:
We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud— of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; his boasting is not true.


text:
Therefore Moab wails; all of it wails for Moab, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly devastated.


text:
For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah; rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils, they reached up to Jazer, they wandered to the desert; her shoots spread abroad, they crossed over the sea.


text:
Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh, for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest.


text:
And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyards no one exults, no one shouts for joy; no treader treads wine in the presses; I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.


text:
And this shall happen: when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.


text:
But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.


text:
The cities of Aroer will be deserted; they will be for the flocks, and they will lie down and no one will frighten them.


text:
And the fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel,” declares Yahweh of hosts.


text:
“And this shall happen: On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will become lean.


text:
And it shall be as when a reaper gathers standing grain and he reaps grain with his arm, and it shall be like one who gathers ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim.


text:
And gleanings will be left over in it, as when an olive tree is beaten, two or three ripe olive berries in the top of a branch, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.


text:
it will not look to the altars, the work of its hands, and it will not see what its fingers made and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars.


text:
On that day, its fortified cities will be like the abandonment of the wooded place and the summit, which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.


text:
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge; therefore you plant plants of pleasantness, and you plant a vine of a foreigner.


text:
On your planting day you make them grow, and in the morning of your sowing you bring them into bloom, yet the harvest will flee in a day of sickness and incurable pain.


text:
Ah! The noise of many peoples, they make a noise like the noise of the seas! And the roar of nations, they roar like the roar of mighty waters!


text:
The nations roar like the roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of the mountains before the wind and like tumbleweed before the storm.


text:
At the time of evening, and look, terror! Before morning he is no more. This is the fate of those who plunder us and the lot of those who plunder us.


text:
that sends messengers by the sea and in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a tall and smooth nation, to a people feared near and far, a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land rivers divide.


text:
All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, you must look, and when a trumpet is blown, you must listen!


text:
For Yahweh said this to me: “I will be quiet, and I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat because of light, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”


text:
For before the harvest, when the blossom is complete and a blossom becomes ripening fruit, and one cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and one removes, tears away the tendrils.


text:
They shall all be left for birds of prey of the mountains and for the animals of the earth. And the birds of prey will pass the summer on it, and every animal of the earth will winter on it.


text:
At that time, a gift will be brought to Yahweh of hosts from a tall and smooth people, and from a people feared near and far, a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, the mountain of Zion.


text:
An oracle of Egypt: Look! Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. And the idols of Egypt will tremble in front of him, and the heart of Egypt melts in his inner parts.


text:
“And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and each one will fight against his brother and each one against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.


text:
And the spirit of the Egyptians will be disturbed in his midst, and I will confuse his plans, and they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, and the ghosts and the spiritists.


text:
And I will hand over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a powerful king will rule over them,” declares the Lord Yahweh of hosts.


text:
And the rivers will become foul-smelling; the branches of the Nile of Egypt will become little and dry up; reed and rush will wither.


text:
Bare places by the Nile will be dried up, by the edge of the Nile and all the sown land of the Nile; it will be driven about, and it will be no more.


text:
And the fishers will mourn, and all of those who cast fishhooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread out fishing nets on the surface of the water will languish.


text:
Surely the princes of Zoan are foolish; the wise of the counselors of Pharaoh give senseless counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I myself am a son of sages, a descendant of ancient kings”?


text:
Where are your sages then? Now, let them tell you, and let them know what Yahweh of hosts has planned against Egypt.


text:
The princes of Zoan have become foolish; the princes of Memphis are deceived; the leaders of her tribes have led Egypt astray.


text:
Yahweh has mixed a spirit of confusion into her midst, and they have caused Egypt to stagger in all of its doings, as when a drunkard staggers in his vomit.


text:
On that day, Egypt will be like women, and will tremble and be afraid before the waving hand of Yahweh of hosts that he is waving against it.


text:
And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt, everyone to whom one mentions it will be afraid in himself because of the plan of Yahweh of hosts that he is planning against him.


text:
On that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear an oath to Yahweh of hosts. One will be called “City of the Sun.”


text:
On that day, there will be an altar for Yahweh in in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a stone pillar for Yahweh at her border.


text:
And it will be a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry out to Yahweh because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.


text:
And Yahweh will make himself known to Egypt, and Egypt will know Yahweh on that day, and they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to Yahweh, and they will fulfill them.


text:
And Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing; and they will return to Yahweh, and he will respond to their prayer, and he will heal them.


text:
On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt will worship together with Assyria.


text:
whom Yahweh of hosts blessed, saying, “May Egypt my people be blessed, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and my inheritance, Israel.”


text:
In the year the commander-in-chief came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and he took it,


text:
at that time, Yahweh had spoken by the hand of Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins, and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.


text:
Then Yahweh said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,


text:
so shall the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks, the shame of Egypt.


text:
And they shall be dismayed, and they shall be ashamed because of Cush, their hope, and because of Egypt, their pride.


text:
And the inhabitant of the coastland will say this on that day: ‘Look! This is our hope to whom we fled for help, to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?’ ”


text:
The oracle of the wilderness of the sea: As storm winds passing over in the Negev, it comes from the desert, from a frightful land.


text:
A hard revelation is told to me; the treacherous deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; lay siege, Media! I put an end to all of her sighing.


text:
Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth. I am too bent to hear, I am too dismayed to see.


text:
When he sees riders, a pair of horsemen, riders of donkeys, riders of camels, then he must listen attentively, paying attention, paying special attention.”


text:
Then the watchman called, “Lord, I am standing on the watchtower continually by day, and I am standing at my post throughout the night.


text:
And look at this! A man’s a chariot is coming, a pair of horsemen!” Then he responded and said, “It has fallen! Babylon has fallen! And all the images of her gods are smashed on the ground!”


text:
My downtrodden people and the son of my threshing floor, I will announce to you what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel.


text:
The oracle of Dumah: One is calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”


text:
The watchman says, “Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.”


text:
An oracle concerning Arabia: You will spend the night in the thicket in a desert-plateau, caravans of Dedanites.


text:
When you happen to meet the thirsty, bring water. Inhabitants of the land of Tema came to meet the fugitive with his bread.


text:
For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword and the bent bow, and from the heaviness of the battle.


text:
For the Lord said this to me: “ In one more year, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.


text:
And the remainder of the number of the bows of the warriors of the sons of Kedar will be few.” For Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.


text:
noisy, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are they dead from battle.


text:
All of your rulers have fled together without a bow; all of you who were found were captured. They were captured together; they had fled far away.


text:
Therefore I said, “Look away from me, let me weep bitterly; you must not insist on comforting me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”


text:
For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a tearing down of walls and a cry for help to the mountains.


text:
And this happened: the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots, and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.


text:
And he uncovered the covering of Judah. And you looked, on that day, to the weapons of the House of the Forest,


text:
and you saw that the breaches in the walls of the city of David were many, and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.


text:
And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool, but you did not look to its maker, and you did not see the one who created it long ago.


text:
And the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called on that day for weeping and mourning, and for baldness and girding with sackcloth.


text:
But look! Joy and gladness, the killing of oxen and the slaughtering of sheep, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”


text:
And it was revealed in my ears by Yahweh of hosts: “Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!” says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.


text:
‘What business do you have here, and who do you have here, that you have cut a grave cutting here for yourself, carving his grave on the height, a dwelling place for him in the rock?


text:
he will wind a winding tightly around you like a ball, to a wide land. There you shall die, and there the chariots of your splendor will be, disgrace to your master’s house!


text:
and I will clothe him with your tunic, and I will bind your sash firmly about him, and I will put your authority into his hand, and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.


text:
And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder, and he shall open and no one will be able to shut; and he shall shut and no one will be able to open.


text:
And I will drive him in like a peg into a secure place, and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.


text:
And they will hang all of the heaviness of his father’s house on him, the offspring and the offshoot, all of the small vessels, from the bowls to the jars.


text:
On that day, declares Yahweh of hosts, the peg that was driven will move away into a secure place, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on her will be cut off. For Yahweh has spoken.’ ”


text:
The oracle of Tyre: Wail, ships of Tarshish, for the house is destroyed so that no one can enter; it is announced to them from the land of Cyprus.


text:
And on the great waters is the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile is its produce, and she was the merchandise of the nations.


text:
Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea, the fortress of the sea said, saying, “I was not in labor, and I have not given birth, and I have not reared young men, brought up young women.”


text:
Is this your exultant one, her origin from the days of long ago? Her feet brought her to dwell afar as an alien.


text:
Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, her traders the honored ones of the earth?


text:
Yahweh of hosts has planned it: to defile the pride of all glory, to humble all the honored ones of the earth.


text:
He has stretched his hand out over the sea; he has made kingdoms shake. Yahweh has commanded concerning Canaan to destroy her fortresses.


text:
And he said, “You will not continue to exult, crushed one, virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus! There will be no rest for you even there.”


text:
Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This people no longer exists. Assyria destined it for wild animals. They erected its siege towers; they demolished its citadel fortresses. It made her like a ruin.


text:
And this will happen on that day: And Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:


text:
“Take a harp, go around the city, forgotten prostitute! Do it well, playing a stringed instrument! Make numerous songs, that you may be remembered.”


text:
And this shall happen: at the end of seventy years, Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she will return to her harlot’s wages, and she will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.


text:
And this shall happen: her merchandise and her harlot’s wages will be set apart for Yahweh; it will not be stored up, and it will not be hoarded, but her merchandise will be for those who live before the presence of Yahweh, for eating to satiation and for fine clothing.


text:
Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants.


text:
And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends.


text:
The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.


text:
The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish,


text:
and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant.


text:
Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.


text:
the joy of the tambourine has stopped. The noise of the jubilant has ceased; the joy of the lyre has stopped.


text:
there is an outcry over the wine in the streets. All joy turns into darkness; the joy of the earth disappears.


text:
For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth, among the nations, like the beating of an olive tree, like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.


text:
They lift up their voices; they sing for joy; they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.


text:
Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.


text:
We hear songs from the edge of the earth: “Glory to the righteous one !” But I say, “Ruin to me! Ruin to me! Woe to me! The treacherous ones deal treacherously, and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”


text:
And this shall happen: The one who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and the one who goes up from inside the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows from heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.


text:
The earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard, and it sways like a hut, and its transgression is heavy upon it, and it falls and does not rise again.


text:
And this shall happen on that day: Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven, and the kings of the earth on the earth.


text:
And they will be gathered in a gathering, like a prisoner in a pit. And they will be shut in a prison and be punished after many days.


text:
And the full moon will be ashamed and the sun will be ashamed, for Yahweh of hosts will rule on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders in glory.


text:
Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans of old, in faithfulness, trustworthiness.


text:
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin, the palace of foreigners is no longer a city; it will never be rebuilt.


text:
For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless was like a rainstorm against a wall,


text:
the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry land. You subdued the heat with the shade of a cloud; the song of the ruthless was silenced.


text:
And on this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of aged wines, fat filled with marrow, filtered aged wine.


text:
And on this mountain he will destroy the face of the shroud, the shroud over all peoples, and the woven covering over all nations.


text:
He will destroy death forever, and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken.


text:
And one will say, on that day, “Look! This is our God! We have waited for him and he saved us! This is Yahweh; we waited for him! Let us be glad, and let us rejoice in his salvation.”


text:
For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down under him as a heap of straw is trampled down in waters of a dung heap.


text:
And it will spread out its hands in the midst of it, just as the swimmer spreads out to swim, and its pride will be brought low with the movement of its hands.


text:
And he will throw down the fortification of the high point of your walls; he will bring it low; he will send it to the ground, to the dust.


text:
On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “ We have a strong city; he sets up victory like walls and ramparts!


text:
For he has thrown down the inhabitants of the height, he lays low the lofty city. He lays it low to the ground; he throws her to the dust.


text:
Surely we wait for you in the path of your judgments, Yahweh, for your name and renown are the desire of the soul.


text:
I desire you with all my soul in the night; also I seek you with my spirit within me, for when your judgments are upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.


text:
Though the wicked person is shown compassion, he does not learn righteousness; he acts unjustly in the land of uprightness, and he does not see the majesty of Yahweh.


text:
Yahweh, though your hand reaches high, they do not see it. Let them see, and let them be ashamed of the zeal of people. Indeed, let the fire of your enemies consume them.


text:
The dead do not live; dead spirits do not rise because you have punished and destroyed them, and you have destroyed all memory of them.


text:
You have added to the nation, Yahweh. You have added to the nation; you are honored. You have extended all the ends of the land.


text:
Yahweh, in distress they have visited you; they poured out an incantation; your discipline was on them.


text:
Like a pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes; she cries in her labor pains. So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.


text:
We became pregnant, we writhed; we gave birth to wind. We cannot bring about deliverance on the earth, and no inhabitants of the world are born.


text:
Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise. Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust, for your dew is celestial dew, and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.


text:
Go, my people, enter into your chambers and shut your doors behind you; hide for a very little while, until the wrath has passed over.


text:
For look! Yahweh is about to come out from his place to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth against him, and the earth will disclose her blood and will no longer cover her slain.


text:
On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.


text:
I, Yahweh, am her keeper; I water it again and again. Lest one afflict harm on it, I guard it night and day;


text:
I have no wrath. Whatever gives me thorns and briers, I will step forth against in battle. I will set it on fire altogether.


text:
Days are coming, let Jacob take root; Israel will blossom and send out shoots, and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.


text:
Does he strike him as he struck down those who struck him? Or is he killed as those who killed him were killed?


text:
By expelling her, by her sending away, you argue with her. He removed them with his strong wind, in the day of the east wind.


text:
Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob, and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk, no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.


text:
For the fortified city is solitary, a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; the calf grazes there, lies down there and destroys its branches.


text:
When its branches are dry, they are broken; women are coming and setting light to it. For it is not a people of understanding; therefore his maker will not have compassion on him, and his creator will not show him favor.


text:
And this shall happen: on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadi of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel.


text:
And this shall happen: on that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come, and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt, and they will bow down to Yahweh on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.


text:
Ah! The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim and the withering flower of the glory of his beauty, which is at the head of the rich valley, ones overcome with wine!


text:
Look! The Lord has a mighty and strong one, like a rainstorm of hail, a wind storm of destruction, like a rainstorm of mighty overflowing waters, he will put them to the earth with his hand.


text:
and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty which is at the head of the rich valley will be like its early fig before summer, which the one who sees it swallows while it is still in his hand.


text:
In that day, Yahweh of hosts will become a garland of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people,


text:
and a spirit of justice to the one who sits over judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.


text:
And these also stagger because of wine and stagger because of strong drink; priest and prophet stagger because of strong drink; they are confused because of wine. They stagger because of strong drink; they err in vision. They stagger in the rendering of a decision,


text:
To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast?


text:
For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah, blah-blah upon blah-blah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there.


text:
to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they were not willing to hear.


text:
And to them the word of Yahweh will be blah-blah upon blah-blah blah-blah upon blah-blah gah-gah upon gah-gah gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there, so that they may go and stumble backward and be broken and ensnared and captured.


text:
Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and we have made an agreement with Sheol. The overwhelming flood, when it passes through, will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”


text:
Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this: “Look! I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a founded foundation: ‘The one who trusts will not panic.’


text:
And I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will flood over the hiding place.


text:
And your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; you will become a trampling place for the overwhelming flood when it passes through.


text:
As often as it passes through, it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass through, in the day and in the night, and understanding the message will be only terror.”


text:
For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim; he will rave as in the valley at Gibeon to do his deed—his deed is strange— and to work his work—his work is alien!


text:
And now you must not scoff, or your bonds will be strong, for I have heard from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts: complete destruction decreed upon all the land.


text:
When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, and sow cumin seed, and plant wheat in planted rows, and barley in an appointed place, and spelt grain as its border?


text:
For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a wheel of a utility cart rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.


text:
Grain is crushed fine, but certainly one does not thresh it forever; and one drives the wheel of his cart, but his horses do not crush it.


text:
Yet I will inflict Ariel, and there shall be mourning and lamentation, and it shall be to me like an altar hearth.


text:
And I will encamp in a circle against you, and I will lay siege to you with towers and I will raise up siegeworks against you.


text:
Then you shall be low; you shall speak from the earth, and your words will be low, from dust. And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost, and your word will whisper from the dust.


text:
But the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of tyrants like chaff that passes by. And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.


text:
You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great sound, storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.


text:
And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, all those who fight against her and her stronghold, and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.


text:
And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating! And he wakes up and his inner self is empty. Or as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking! And he wakes up and look, he is faint, and his inner self is longing for water. So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.


text:
Be astonished and be amazed! Blind yourselves and be blinded! They are drunk but not from wine; they stagger but not from strong drink.


text:
For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and he has shut your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the seers.


text:
And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. When they give it to one who knows the document, saying, “ Read this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.”


text:
And if the document is given to one who does not know how to read, saying, “ Read this now!” he says, “I do not know how to read.”


text:
And the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with its mouth, and with its lips it honors me, and its heart is far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,


text:
therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular and a spectacle with this spectacular people. And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish, and the discernment of its discerning ones shall keep itself hidden.”


text:
Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh, and their deeds are in a dark place. And they say, “Who sees us? And who knows us?”


text:
Your perversity! As if a potter shall be regarded as the clay! That the product of its maker says, “He did not make me,” and the thing made into shape says of its potter, “He has no understanding.”


text:
In a very little while shall not Lebanon change into a fruitful land, and the fruitful land be regarded as a forest?


text:
And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of gloom and darkness.


text:
And the meek have joy after joy in Yahweh, and the needy of the people shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.


text:
For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall come to an end. And all those lying in wait for evil shall be cut off;


text:
those who mislead a person into sin with a word and set a trap for the arbitrator in the gate and guide away the righteous by emptiness.


text:
Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob: “Jacob will no longer be ashamed, and his face will no longer grow pale.


text:
For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will treat my name as holy, and they will treat the holy one of Jacob as holy, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.


text:
And those who err in spirit will acquire understanding, and those who grumble will learn instruction.


text:
“Oh rebellious children!” declares Yahweh, “to make a plan, but not from me, and pour out a libation, but not from my Spirit, so as to add sin to sin.


text:
Who go to go down to Egypt, but they do not ask of my mouth, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.


text:
And the protection of Pharaoh shall be shame to you, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, humiliation.


text:
Everyone will start to stink because of a people that cannot profit them, not for help and not for profiting, but for shame and also for disgrace.”


text:
An oracle of the animals of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and lion, among them are snake and flying serpent; they carry their wealth on the backs of male donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.


text:
For Egyptians help with vanity and emptiness, therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are sitting.”


text:
Now go, write it on a tablet with them, and inscribe it on a scroll, that it may be for the time to come, forever, forever.


text:
For it is a people of rebellion, deceitful children, children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,


text:
who say to those who do see, “You must not see!” and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us; speak smooth things to us, see illusions,


text:
turn aside from the way, turn aside from the path, put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”


text:
Therefore the holy one of Israel says this: “Because you are rejecting this word and you trust in oppression and cunning and you rely on it,


text:
therefore this iniquity shall come for you like a breach about to fall, bulging out on a high wall that breaks suddenly, in an instant.


text:
And he breaks it like a vessel of a potter breaks, that is crushed; he has no compassion, and no potsherd is found among its fragments to take fire from the hearth, or to skim water from the cistern.”


text:
For the Lord Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, said this: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; your strength shall be in quietness and in trust.” But you were not willing,


text:
and you said, “No! For we will flee on horses!” Therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride on swift horses!” Therefore your pursuers shall be swift!


text:
One thousand because of a threat of one, because of a threat of five you shall flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on top of a mountain, and like a signal on a hill.


text:
Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy, for Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.


text:
For people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep. Surely he will be gracious to you; when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.


text:
And the Lord will give you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, but your teachers will not hide themselves any longer. And your eyes shall see your teachers.


text:
And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying, “this is the way; walk in it,” when you go to your right and when you go to your left.


text:
And you will defile the plating of your silver idols and the covering of your gold image. You will scatter them like contaminated things; you will say to it, “Filth!”


text:
And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fertile. On that day, your cattle will graze in broad pastures;


text:
and the oxen and the donkeys that till the ground will eat fodder, sorrel that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.


text:
And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill, watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.


text:
And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people, and he heals the wound of his blow.


text:
Look! The name of Yahweh comes from afar, burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.


text:
And his breath is like an overflowing river; it reaches up to the neck to shake the nations with the sieve of worthlessness; and a bridle that leads astray is on the jawbones of the peoples.


text:
You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept, and a gladness of heart like one who goes with the flute, to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel.


text:
And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones of hail.


text:
And every stroke of the staff of foundation that Yahweh lays will be on it with timbrels and lyres, and he will fight against it with battles of brandishing.


text:
For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday; indeed, it is made ready for the king. He makes its pile of wood deep and wide; he makes fire and wood abundant. The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.


text:
Ah! Those who go down to Egypt for help! They rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very numerous, and they do not look to the holy one of Israel, and they do not consult Yahweh.


text:
And indeed, he is wise, and he brings disaster, and he does not remove his words, and he will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of workers of iniquity.


text:
And the Egyptians are human and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. And Yahweh stretches out his hand, and the helper will stumble, and the one being helped will fall, and together all of them will come to an end.


text:
For Yahweh said this to me: “As which a lion growls and a young lion over its prey when a full group of shepherds is called against him, it is not terrified by their voice, and to their noise it does not respond, so Yahweh of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.


text:
Like birds flying overhead, so Yahweh of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will pass over and rescue it.


text:
For on that day, each one will reject his idols of silver and his idols of gold which your hands have made in sin for you.


text:
And Assyria shall fall by a sword not of a man, and a sword not of a human shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.


text:
And his rock will pass over because of terror, and his officers will be terrified because of the flag,” declares Yahweh, who has a fire in Zion and has a furnace in Jerusalem.


text:
And each one will be like a hiding place from the wind and a covering from the rainstorm, like streams of water in a dry region, like the shade of a large rock in a weary land.


text:
And the minds of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongues of stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.


text:
For a fool speaks folly, and his mind does iniquity: to behave wickedly, and to speak error concerning Yahweh, to leave the throat of the hungry empty, and he deprives the thirsty of drink.


text:
And a scoundrel, his weapons are evil; he plans evil devices to ruin the poor with words of deception even when the speech of the needy is right.


text:
In a year you will tremble, carefree ones, for the vintage will come to an end; the harvest will not come.


text:
Tremble, you who are at ease; tremble, carefree ones; strip, and strip yourself, and gird yourself on your loins,


text:
over the soil of my people. It goes up in thorns and briers, indeed over all of the houses of joy in the jubilant city.


text:
For the palace will be forsaken, the crowded city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become a cave forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks.


text:
Until a spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is reckoned as the forest.


text:
And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the work of righteousness, quietness and security forever.


text:
And my people will dwell in a settlement of peace and in a dwelling place of security and in undisturbed resting places.


text:
Ah, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed! And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him! When you cease destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop dealing treacherously, one will deal treacherously with you.


text:
Yahweh, be gracious to us, we wait for you. Be our arm in the mornings, indeed our salvation in the time of trouble.


text:
and he will be the security of your times, an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is his treasure.


text:
Highways are deserted; the traveler on the road ceases. One breaks a treaty, he rejects the cities, he does not hold man in high regard.


text:
The land mourns; it languishes. Lebanon feels abashed; it withers. Sharon is like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel are losing their leaves.


text:
And the peoples will be burning to lime— they are burned like thorns that have been cut down in the fire.


text:
Sinners are afraid in Zion; trembling has seized the godless: “Who of us can live with devouring fire? Who of us can live with everlasting consuming hearths?”


text:
He who walks in righteousness and speaks uprightness, who rejects the gain of extortion, who refuses a bribe, who stops up his ears from hearing bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.


text:
That one will live on the heights; the fortresses of rocks will be his refuge. His food will be given; his waters will endure.


text:
Your mind will meditate on the terror: “Where is the one who counted? Where is the one who weighed out? Where is the one who counted the towers?”


text:
You will not see the insolent people, the people whose language is too obscure to understand, whose stammering of tongue cannot be understood.


text:
Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed settlement, a tent that is not moved. No one will ever pull out its tent pegs, and none of its ropes will be torn in two.


text:
Rather, there Yahweh will be mighty for us, a place of rivers and broad streams, a galley ship with oars cannot go in it, and a mighty ship cannot pass through it.


text:
For Yahweh is our judge; Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king; he is the one who will save us.


text:
Your riggings hang slack; they do not hold the base of their mast firm, they do not spread out the sail. Then the prey of spoil in abundance will be divided; the lame will take plunder.


text:
And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who live in it, their iniquity will be taken away.


text:
Come near, nations, to hear; and peoples, listen attentively! Let the earth hear, and that which fills it; the world and all its offspring.


text:
For the anger of Yahweh is against all the nations, and his wrath is against all their armies; he has put them under a ban, he has given them up for slaughter.


text:
And their slain shall be cast out; as for their corpses, their stench shall go up. And the mountains shall melt with their blood,


text:
and all the host of heaven shall rot. And the skies shall roll up like a scroll, and all their host shall wither like the withering of a leaf from a vine, or like the withering from a fig tree.


text:
When my sword is drenched in the heavens, look! It will descend upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.


text:
Yahweh has a sword; it is full of blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams, for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


text:
And wild oxen shall go down with them, and steers with strong bulls. And their land shall be drenched with blood, and their soil shall be fattened with fat.


text:
And its streams shall be changed to pitch and its soil to sulfur, and its land shall become like burning pitch.


text:
Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall be in ruins; forever and ever there will be no one who passes through her.


text:
But the large bird and the hedgehog shall take possession of it, and the owl and the raven shall live in it. And he shall stretch the measuring line of confusion out over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.


text:
And thorns shall go up her citadel fortress, weeds and thistle plants in her fortresses; and it shall be the settlement of jackals, green grass for the daughters of an ostrich.


text:
And desert creatures shall meet with hyenas, and a goat-demon shall call to his neighbor; surely there Lilith shall repose, and she shall find a resting place for herself.


text:
There the owl shall nest and lay and hatch and care for her chicks in her shadow; surely there the birds of prey shall be gathered, each one with her mate.


text:
Seek from the book of Yahweh and read; none of these shall be missing; none shall miss her mate. For my mouth is the one that has commanded, and his spirit is the one that has gathered them.


text:
And he is the one that has cast the lot for them, and his hand has apportioned it to them with the measuring line; they shall take possession of it forever, they shall live in it from generation to generation.


text:
It shall blossom abundantly, and it shall rejoice indeed with rejoicing and exulting. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They are the ones who shall see the glory of Yahweh, the majesty of our God.


text:
Say to those who are hasty of heart, “Be strong; you must not fear! Look! your God will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He is the one who will come and save you.”


text:
Then the lame shall leap like the deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy, for waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.


text:
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Her resting place is in a settlement of jackals; the grass shall become like reeds and rushes.


text:
And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not travel through it, but it is for them, he who walks on the way; and fools shall not wander about.


text:
No lion shall be there, and no ferocious wild beast shall go up it. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.


text:
And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and they shall come to Zion with rejoicing. And everlasting joy shall be on their head; joy and gladness shall overtake them, and sorrow and sighing shall flee.


text:
And this happened: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them.


text:
And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a large army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the field of the washer.


text:
And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.


text:
And Rabshakeh said to them, “Now say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What is this confidence in which you trust?


text:
I said, ‘Only a word of lips! War has power and a plan !’ Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?


text:
Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him.


text:
And if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ was it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? And he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall bow down in the presence of this altar.’ ”


text:
And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, that is, if you are able put riders for yourself on them!


text:
But how can you drive back one governor among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?


text:
And now was it without Yahweh that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it!” ’ ”


text:
And Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we can understand it, and you must not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”


text:
But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your masters and you? Was it not for the people who sit on the wall, to eat their dung and drink their urine with you?”


text:
Then Rabshakeh stood and called in a great voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.


text:
And do not let Hezekiah make you rely on Yahweh, saying, “Surely Yahweh will deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!”


text:
You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: “Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat from his vine and from his fig tree and drink water from his cistern,


text:
until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards,


text:
lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, ‘Yahweh will save us!’ Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?


text:
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?


text:
Who are there among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?” ’ ”


text:
But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, “You must not answer him.”


text:
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder, came to Hezekiah with torn garments and told him the words of Rabshakeh.


text:
And this happened: When King Hezekiah heard, he tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the temple of Yahweh.


text:
And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.


text:
And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the cervical opening, and there is no strength to give birth.


text:
Maybe Yahweh your God heard the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.’ ”


text:
Isaiah said to them, “You must say this to your master: ‘Thus says Yahweh: “You must not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.


text:
Look! I am about to put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor and he shall return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.” ’ ”


text:
And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had left from Lachish.


text:
Now he heard concerning Tirhakah the king of Cush, saying, “He has set out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,


text:
“You shall say this to Hezekiah, king of Judah: ‘ Do not let your God in whom you trust in him deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”


text:
Look! you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands to destroy them, and you—shall you be delivered?


text:
Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed deliver them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?


text:
Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”


text:
And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it. Then he went up to the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before the presence of Yahweh.


text:
“Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel who is enthroned on the cherubim, you are the one, God by yourself, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you are the one who made the heavens and the earth.


text:
Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God!


text:
to set their gods in the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them.


text:
So now, Yahweh, our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, you alone!”


text:
And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria,


text:
this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion; she shakes her head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.


text:
Whom have you taunted and blasphemed, and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward? To the holy one of Israel!


text:
By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said, “With my many chariots, I myself have gone up the height of the mountains, to the remote areas of Lebanon. And I cut off its tall cedars, the choicest of its junipers. And I came to the height of its limit, the forest of its orchard.


text:
I myself dug and drank waters, and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”


text:
Have you not heard from a long time ago? I have made it from days of primeval time, and I formed it. Now I have brought it about, and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.


text:
And their inhabitants are weak; they are dismayed, and they are ashamed; they have become like plants of the field, and like greens of grass, like grass on the roofs and a cultivated field before the standing grain.


text:
Because you were enraged against me, and your noise has come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.


text:
And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants this year, and in the second year self-seeded plants, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.


text:
And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall grow roots downwards and make fruit upwards.


text:
For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem and survivors from mountain Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’


text:
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come to this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there, and he shall not meet it with a shield, and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.


text:
And the angel of Yahweh set out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When they rose in the morning, look! All of them were dead corpses.


text:
And this happened: he was bowing in worship in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword. And they themselves escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son reigned as king in his place.


text:
In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Order your house, for you are about to die, and you shall not recover.’ ”


text:
and he said, “O Yahweh, please remember how I have walked before your presence in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done the good in your eyes!” And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.


text:
“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add fifteen years to your days.


text:
And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.” ’


text:
Look! I will cause the shadow of the steps, which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, to turn backwards ten steps.” And the sun turned back ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.


text:
I was the one who said, “I must go in the quiet of my days; I am summoned through the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.”


text:
I said, “I shall not see Yah! Yah in the land of the living! I shall no more look at humankind among the inhabitants of the world.


text:
My dwelling place is pulled up and removed from me like the tent of my shepherd; I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the thrum; from day to night you bring me to an end.


text:
I lie down until morning; like a lion, so he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.


text:
Like a horse or a crane, so I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weak toward the height. Lord, I have oppression; lend me support!


text:
What can I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.


text:
Lord, they live by them, and the life of my spirit belongs to all among them. And restore me to health and keep me alive!


text:
Look! Bitterness was bitter to me for peace. And you were the one who loved my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.


text:
For Sheol cannot praise you; death cannot praise you. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.


text:
The living, the living one praises you like me today; a father will make your faithfulness known to children.


text:
Yahweh, save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the temple of Yahweh.”


text:
And Isaiah said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and let them rub it on the boil so that he may recover.”


text:
At that time, Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and recovered.


text:
And Hezekiah rejoiced over them and showed them his house of aromatic gum, the silver, gold, spices, good oil, all the house of his weapons, and all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing that Hezekiah had not shown them in his house or in all his dominion.


text:
And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah answered, “They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.”


text:
And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing that I have not shown them in my storehouses.”


text:
‘Look! days are coming, and all that is in your house and that which your ancestors have stored up to this day shall be carried off to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,’ says Yahweh.


text:
‘And some of your sons who go out from you, whom you fathered, shall be taken, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”


text:
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good,” for he thought, “Surely there will be peace and security in my days.”


text:
“Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins.”


text:
A voice is calling in the wilderness, “Clear the way of Yahweh! Make a highway smooth in the desert for our God!


text:
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall become low, And the rough ground shall be like a plain, and the rugged ground like a valley-plain.


text:
And the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all humankind together shall see it, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”


text:
A voice is saying, “Call!” And he said, “What shall I call?” All humankind are grass, and all his loyalty is like the flowers of the field.


text:
Grass withers; the flower withers when the breath of Yahweh blows on it. Surely the people are grass.


text:
Get yourself up to a high mountain, Zion, bringer of good news! Lift up your voice with strength, Jerusalem, bringer of good news! Lift it up; you must not fear! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”


text:
Look! The Lord Yahweh comes with strength, and his arm rules for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense in his presence.


text:
He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arm, and he will carry them in his bosom; he will lead those who nurse.


text:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a third of a measure and weighed out the mountains in the scales, and the hills in a balance?


text:
With whom has he consulted, that he enlightened him and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and made the way of understanding known to him?


text:
Look! The nations are like a drop from a bucket, and they are counted like dust of the balances! Look! He weighs the islands like a thin covering.


text:
A craftsman pours out the idol, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and he smelts chains of silver.


text:
The one who is too impoverished for a gift chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks a skillful artisan for himself to set up an image that will not be knocked over.


text:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?


text:
He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; the one who stretches out the heavens like a veil and spreads them out like a tent to live in,


text:
Indeed, hardly are they planted; indeed, hardly are they sown; indeed, hardly has their shoot taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carries them like stubble.


text:
Lift your eyes up on high, and see! Who created these? The one who brings out their host by number. He calls all them by name. Because he is great of power and mighty of power, no man is missing.


text:
Why do you say, Jacob, and you speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and my judgment is passed over by my God?”


text:
Have you not known, or have you not heard? Yahweh is the God of eternity, the creator of the ends of the earth! He is not faint, and he does not grow weary! There is no searching his understanding.


text:
But those who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength. They shall go up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not be faint.


text:
Listen to me in silence, coastlands, and let nations renew their strength. Let them approach, then let them speak; let us draw near together for judgment.


text:
Who has roused salvation from the east, summoned him to his foot, gives nations in his presence, and subjugates kings? He makes them like the dust with his sword, like scattered stubble with his bow.


text:
Who has accomplished and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, am first; and I am the one with the last.


text:
The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near, and they have come.


text:
And the artisan encourages the goldsmith, the one who makes smooth with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good!” And they strengthen it with nails so it cannot be knocked over.


text:
you whom I grasped from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and told, “You are my servant; I have chosen you and I have not rejected you.”


text:
You must not fear, for I am with you; you must not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you, indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation.


text:
Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated; your opponents shall be like nothing and shall become lost.


text:
You shall seek them, but you shall not find them; your opponents shall be like nothing, and the men of your war like nothing.


text:
For I, Yahweh your God, am grasping your right hand; it is I who say to you, “You must not fear; I myself, I will help you.


text:
You must not fear, O worm of Jacob; people of Israel, I myself, I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel.


text:
Look! I will make you into a new sharp threshing sledge, with sharp edges. You shall thresh and crush the mountains, and you shall make the hills like chaff.


text:
You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you yourself shall rejoice in Yahweh; you shall boast in the holy one of Israel.


text:
The poor and the needy are seeking water and there is none; their tongue is dried up with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.


text:
I will open rivers on the barren heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness like a pool of water and the land of dryness like springs of water.


text:
I will put the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive oil tree in the wilderness; I will set the cypress, elm, and box tree together in the desert


text:
so that they may see and know, and take to heart and understand together that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the holy one of Israel has created it.”


text:
Let them bring them, and let them tell us what will happen. Tell us what the former things are so that we may take them to our heart and know their outcome. Declare to us the things to come;


text:
tell us the things coming hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Indeed, do good or do evil, that we may be afraid and see together.


text:
I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun. He shall call on my name, and he shall come on officials as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.


text:
Who declared it from the beginning so that we might know, and beforehand so that we might say, “ He is right !” Indeed, there was no one who declared it; Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it. Indeed there was no one who heard your words.


text:
But I look and there is no man, and I look among these and there is no counselor, that I might ask them and they might answer a word.


text:
Look! here is my servant; I hold him, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit on him; he will bring justice forth to the nations.


text:
He will not break a broken reed, and he not will extinguish a dim wick. He will bring justice forth in faithfulness.


text:
He will not grow faint, and he will not be broken until he has established justice in the earth. And the coastlands wait for his teaching.


text:
Thus says the God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.


text:
“I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness, and I have grasped your hand and watched over you; and I have given you as a covenant of the people, as a light of the nations,


text:
to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoner out from the dungeon, those who sit in darkness from the house of imprisonment.


text:
Look! the former things have come, and I declare new things. I announce them to you before they sprout up.”


text:
Sing a new song to Yahweh; praise him from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea and that which fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.


text:
Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them shout loudly from the top of the mountains.


text:
Yahweh goes forth like a mighty warrior; he stirs up zeal like a man of war. He raises the war cry, indeed he raises the battle shout; he prevails against his foes.


text:
I have been silent for a long time; I have kept silent; I have restrained myself like one giving birth; I will moan, pant, and gasp together.


text:
I will cause mountains and hills to dry up, and I will cause all their herbage to wither; and I will make rivers like islands, and I will cause pools to dry up.


text:
And I will lead the blind by a road they do not know; I will cause them to tread on paths they have not known. I will make darkness in their presence into light and rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.


text:
They shall turn back; they shall be greatly ashamed, those who trust in an image, who say to a cast image, “You are our gods.”


text:
Who is blind but my servant or deaf like my messenger whom I sent? Who is blind like the one who is repaid or blind like the servant of Yahweh?


text:
Yahweh was willing for the sake of his righteousness; he showed his teaching to be great and proved it to be glorious.


text:
But this is a people plundered and looted; all of them are trapped in holes, and they are kept hidden in houses of imprisonment. They have become like plunder, and there is no one who saves; like booty, and there is no one who says, “Restore!”


text:
Who gave Jacob to a plunderer and Israel to those who plunder? Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned? And they were not willing to walk in his ways, and they would not obey his law.


text:
So he poured the wrath of his anger upon him and the strength of war. And it set him afire all around, but he did not understand; and it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.


text:
But now thus says Yahweh, he who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “You must not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name; you are mine.


text:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not flow over you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not scorch you.


text:
For I am Yahweh, your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior. I give you Egypt as ransom, Cush and Seba in place of you.


text:
Because you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I myself love you, and I give people in place of you, and nations in place of your life.


text:
You must not fear, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and I will gather you from the west.


text:
I will say to the north, ‘Give!’ and to the south, ‘You must not withhold!’ Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the end of the earth—


text:
everyone who is called by my name, and whom I created for my glory, whom I formed, indeed whom I made.”


text:
Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them has declared this, and declared the former things to us? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be in the right, and let them hear and say, “ It is true!”


text:
“You are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh, “and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe in me and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and none shall be after me.


text:
I myself declared and saved, and I proclaimed. And there was no strange god among you. And you are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh, “and I am God.


text:
Indeed, from this day I am the one, and no one can deliver from my hand. I perform, and who can cancel it?”


text:
Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon, and I will cause all of them to fall down as fugitives, and the Chaldeans, their rejoicing on the ships.


text:
who brings out chariot and horse, army and mighty one. Together they lie down; they cannot rise. They are extinguished, quenched like a wick.


text:
Look! I am about to do a new thing! Now it sprouts! Do you not perceive it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.


text:
The animals of the field will honor me, jackals and daughters of the ostrich, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give a drink to my chosen people,


text:
You have not brought me your sheep for a burnt offering nor honored me with your sacrifice. I have not made you serve with offerings, nor have I made you weary with frankincense.


text:
You have not bought me spice reed with money or satisfied me with the fat of sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have made me weary with your iniquities.


text:
Take me to court; let us enter into judgment together. You, make an account so that you may be in the right.


text:
And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reviling.


text:
Thus says Yahweh, who made you, and who formed you in the womb and will help you: you must not fear, my servant Jacob, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen.


text:
For I will pour out water on a thirsty land and streams on dry ground. I will pour my spirit out on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.


text:
This one will say, ‘I belong to Yahweh!’ And that one will be called by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand ‘Yahweh’s’ and take the name of Israel.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel, and its redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: “I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no god besides me.


text:
And who is like me? Let him proclaim it ! And let him declare it and set it in order for me since I established an eternal people and things that are to come, and let them tell them the things that are coming.


text:
You must not tremble, and you must not be paralyzed with fear. Have I not made you hear from of old and declared it, and you are my witnesses? Is there a god besides me? And there is no rock! I know none!”


text:
All those who form an idol are nothing, and their delightful things do not profit. And their witnesses do not see or know, so they will be ashamed.


text:
Look! all his companions shall be ashamed, and the artisans are human! Let all of them assemble; let them stand up. They shall tremble; they shall be ashamed together.


text:
The ironsmith works in the coals with his tool and forms it with hammers. And he makes it with his strong arm; indeed, he becomes hungry, and he lacks strength; he does not drink water, and he is faint.


text:
The woodworker stretches out a line; he makes an outline of it with a marker. He makes it with a knife and makes an outline of it with a compass. He makes it like the image of a man, like the beauty of a human, to dwell in a temple.


text:
Cutting down cedars for himself, he chooses a holm tree and an oak, and he lets it grow strong for him among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar, and the rain makes it grow.


text:
And it becomes fuel for a human, and he takes some of it and grows warm; also, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and bows in worship; he makes himself an image and bows down to it!


text:
He burns half of it in the fire; he eats meat over half of it; he roasts a roast and is satisfied. Also he grows warm and says, “Ah! I am warm! I see the fire!”


text:
And he makes the remainder of it into a god! He bows down to his idol, and he bows in worship and prays to him, and he says, “Save me, for you are my god!”


text:
They do not know, and they do not understand, for their eyes are besmeared so that they cannot see, their minds so that they have no insight.


text:
And no one takes it to heart, and there is no knowledge and no understanding to say, “I burned half of it in the fire and also I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat, and I have eaten. And I shall make the rest of it into an abomination! I shall bow down to a block of wood!”


text:
He feeds on ashes; a deceived mind misleads him. And he cannot save himself, and he cannot say, “Is this not an illusion in my right hand?”


text:
“Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant: I formed you; you are my servant; Israel, you will not be forgotten by me!


text:
I have wiped your transgressions out like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you!”


text:
Sing for joy, heavens, for Yahweh has done it ! Shout, depths of the earth! Break forth, mountains, in rejoicing, forest and every tree in it, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and he will show his glory in Israel!


text:
Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, and he who formed you in the womb: “I am Yahweh, who made everything, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth—who was with me?—


text:
who frustrates the signs of oracle priests and makes a fool of diviners, who drives the wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish,


text:
who keeps the word of his servant and carries out the plan of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt, and I will restore its ruins’;


text:
who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd,’ and he shall carry out all my wishes; and saying of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be rebuilt,’ and the temple, ‘It shall be founded.’ ”


text:
Thus says Yahweh to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subjugate nations before him, and I uncover the loins of kings to open doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:


text:
“I myself will go before you, and I will level the mountains. I will break the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.


text:
And I will give you the treasures of darkness and treasures of secret places so that you may know that I am Yahweh, the one who calls you by your name, the God of Israel,


text:
for the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen one. And I call you by your name; I give you a name of honor, though you do not know me.


text:
I am Yahweh, and there is none besides me; besides me there is no god. I gird you though you do not know me,


text:
so that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me; I am Yahweh and there is none besides me.


text:
I form light and I create darkness; I make peace and I create evil; I am Yahweh; I do all these things.


text:
Trickle, O heavens, from above, and let clouds trickle with righteousness; let the earth open so that salvation may be fruitful, and let it cause righteousness to sprout along with it. I myself, Yahweh, have created it.


text:
Woe to the one who strives with his maker, a potsherd among potsherds of earth! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ and ‘Your work has no hands’?


text:
Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What you are begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘ With what are you in labor?’ ”


text:
Thus says Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, and its maker: “Ask me of the things to come about my children, and you command me about the work of my hands.


text:
I myself made the earth, and I created humankind upon it. I, my hands, stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.


text:
I myself have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his paths smooth. He himself shall build my city, and he shall set my exiles free, not for price or a gift,” says Yahweh of hosts.


text:
Thus says Yahweh: “The acquisition of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabeans, tall men, shall pass over to you; they shall be yours, and they shall walk behind you. They shall pass over in chains, and they shall bow down to you; they will pray to you: ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other. Besides him there is no God.’ ”


text:
Israel is saved by Yahweh with everlasting salvation; you shall not be ashamed, and you shall not be humiliated to all eternity.


text:
For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens, he is God, who formed the earth and who made it. He himself established it; he did not create it as emptiness— he formed it for inhabiting. “I am Yahweh and there is none besides me.


text:
I have spoken not in secrecy, in a place, a land, of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain !’ I, Yahweh, am speaking righteousness, declaring uprightness.


text:
Assemble and come; draw near together, survivors of the nations! They do not know, those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a god who cannot save.


text:
Declare and present your case, also let them consult together! Who made this known from former times, declared it from of old? Was it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God besides me, and no savior besides me.


text:
I have sworn by myself; a word that shall not return has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness: ‘Every knee shall kneel down to me; every tongue shall swear.’


text:
‘Only in Yahweh,’ one shall say to me, ‘ are righteousness and strength.’ He shall come to him, and all those who were angry with him shall be ashamed.


text:
Bel bows down; Nebo is stooping. Their idols are on animals and on cattle; your cargo is carried as a burden on weary animals.


text:
They stoop; they bow down together. They are not able to save the burden, but they themselves go in captivity.


text:
“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been carried from the belly, who have been carried from the womb:


text:
Even to your old age I am he; even to your advanced age I myself will support you. I myself have made you, and I myself will carry you, and I myself will support you, and I will save you.


text:
Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the balance scales; hire a goldsmith and he makes him a god; they bow down, indeed they bow in worship.


text:
They carry it on their shoulder; they support it and they set it in its place, and it stands in position. It cannot be removed from its place; even when he cries out to it, it does not answer. It does not save him from his trouble.


text:
Remember the former things from a long time ago, for I am God and there is none besides me, God and there is none like me,


text:
who from the beginning declares the end, and from before, things that have not been done, who says, ‘My plan shall stand,’ and, ‘I will accomplish all my wishes,’


text:
who calls a bird of prey from the east, the man of his plan from a country from afar. Indeed I have spoken; indeed I will bring it to being. I have formed it; indeed I will do it.


text:
I bring my righteousness near; it is not far. And my salvation will not delay; and I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”


text:
Come down and sit on the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of Chaldea! For they shall no longer call you tender and delicate.


text:
Take the pair of mill stones and grind flour! Uncover your veil, strip off your skirt, uncover your thigh, pass through the rivers!


text:
Your nakedness shall be exposed; indeed, your shame shall become visible. I will take vengeance and I will not spare a person.


text:
Sit silently and go into the darkness, daughter of Chaldea, for they shall no longer call you mistress of kingdoms.


text:
I was angry with my people; I profaned my inheritance, and I gave them into your hand. You did not give them mercy; on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.


text:
And you said, “I shall be an eternal mistress forever!” You did not set these things upon your heart; you did not remember its end.


text:
Therefore now hear this, luxuriant one who sits in security, who says in her heart, “I am, and besides me there is no one. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know the loss of children.”


text:
And these two shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood shall come on you completely, in spite of your many sorceries, in spite of the power of your great enchantments.


text:
And you felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “ No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and besides me there is no one.”


text:
And evil shall come upon you, you will not know; it will be on the lookout for her. And disaster shall fall upon you; you will not be able to avert it. And ruin shall come on you suddenly; you do not know.


text:
Stand, now, in your enchantments, and in your many sorceries with which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may be able to benefit; perhaps you may scare away.


text:
You struggle with your many consultations; let them stand, now, and save you— those who see the stars, divide the celestial sphere, who inform by new moons— from those things that are coming upon you.


text:
Look! They are like stubble; the fire burns them completely. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there is no coal for warming oneself, no fire before which to sit.


text:
So are to you those with whom you have labored, your traders from your youth. They wander, each to his side; there is no one who can save you.


text:
Hear this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and came out from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yahweh, and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth and not in righteousness.


text:
For they call themselves after the holy city, and they lean on the God of Israel— Yahweh of hosts is his name.


text:
“I declared the former things from of old, and they went out from my mouth. And I announced them suddenly; I acted, and they came to pass,


text:
And I declared them to you from of old; I  announced them to you before they came to pass so that you would not say, ‘My idol did them, and my image and my cast image commanded them.’


text:
You have heard; see it all. And will you not declare it? I announce new things to you from this time and hidden things that you have not known.


text:
Now they are created, and not from of old, and before today, and you have not heard them so that you could not say, “Look! I knew them.”


text:
Neither have you heard, nor have you known, nor from of old has your ear been opened. For I knew you would deal treacherously, very treacherously, and you are called a rebel from the womb.


text:
For the sake of my name I refrain from my anger, and for my praise I restrain it for you so as not to cut you off.


text:
For my own sake, for my own sake I do it; for why should it be defiled? And I will not give my glory to another.”


text:
Indeed, my hand founded the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand in position together.


text:
Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them declared these things? Yahweh loves him; he shall perform his wish against Babylon and his arm against the Chaldeans.


text:
I, I myself, I have spoken! Indeed, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will be successful in his way.


text:
Draw near to me; hear this! I have not spoken in secrecy from the beginning; from the time it came to be, there I have been; And now the Lord Yahweh has sent me and his Spirit.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, leads you in the way you should go.


text:
O that you had listened attentively to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.


text:
And your offspring would have been like the sand, and the descendants of your body like its grains. It would not be cut off, and its name would not be destroyed from my presence.”


text:
Go out from Babylon! Flee from Chaldea! Proclaim it with a shout of rejoicing; proclaim this! Send it forth to the end of the earth; say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”


text:
And when he led them through the deserts, they were not thirsty; he made water flow from the rock for them, and he split the rock, and the water gushed out.


text:
Listen to me, coastlands, and listen attentively, peoples from far away! Yahweh called me from the womb; from the body of my mother he made my name known.


text:
And he made my mouth like a sharp sword; he hid me in the shadow of his hand, and he made me like an sharpened arrow; he hid me in his quiver.


text:
But I myself said, “I have labored in vain; I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity! Nevertheless, my justice is with Yahweh, and my reward is with my God.”


text:
And now Yahweh says, who formed me from the womb as a servant for him, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might not be gathered, for I am honored in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become my strength.


text:
And he says, “It is trivial for you to be a servant for me, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one, to the one who despises life, to the one who abhors the nation, to the slave of rulers: “Kings shall see and stand up; princes, and they shall bow down, for the sake of Yahweh, who is faithful, the holy one of Israel, and he has chosen you.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh: “I have answered you in a time of favor, and helped you on a day of salvation, and watched over you, and given you as a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to give the desolate hereditary property as an inheritance,


text:
saying to the prisoners, “Come out!” to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves!” they shall feed along the ways, and their pasturage shall be on all the barren heights.


text:
They shall not be hungry or thirsty, and heat and sun shall not strike them, for he who takes pity on them will lead them, and he will guide them to springs of water.


text:
Look! These shall come from afar, And look! These from the north and from the west and these from the land of Sinim.”


text:
Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth! Mountains must break forth in rejoicing! For Yahweh has comforted his people, and he will take pity on his afflicted ones.


text:
Can a woman forget her suckling, refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb? Indeed, these may forget, but I, I will not forget you!


text:
Lift your eyes up all around and see; all of them gather; they come to you. As surely as I live, declares Yahweh, surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament, and you shall bind them on like a bride.


text:
Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins, surely now you will be too cramped for your inhabitants, and those who engulfed you will be far away.


text:
Yet the children born when you were bereaved will say in your hearing, “The place is too cramped for me; make room for me so that I can dwell.”


text:
Then you will say in your heart, “Who has borne me these?” And, “I was bereaved and barren, exiled and thrust away; so who raised these? Look at me! I was left alone; where have these come from?”


text:
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I will lift my hand up to the nations, and I will raise my signal to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.


text:
And kings shall be your guardians, and their queens your nurses. They shall bow down, faces to the ground, to you, and they will lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; those who await me shall not be ashamed.


text:
But thus says Yahweh: “Indeed a captive of the mighty shall be taken, and the war-booty of the tyrant shall be rescued, for I myself will dispute with your opponent, and I myself will save your children.


text:
And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am Yahweh, your savior and redeemer, the strong one of Jacob.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh: “Where is this divorce document of your mother’s divorce, with which I dismissed her? or to whom of my creditors did I sell you? Look! you were sold because of your sin, and your mother was dismissed because of your transgressions.


text:
Why was there no man when I came, no one who answered when I called? Do I lack the strength to save? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Look! by my rebuke I dry up the sea; I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink because there is no water, and they die because of thirst.


text:
The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of a pupil, to know how to help the weary with a word. He awakens morning by morning, awakens an ear for me to listen as do the pupils.


text:
I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.


text:
And the Lord Yahweh helps me, therefore I have not been put to shame; therefore I have set my face like flint. And I know that I shall not be ashamed;


text:
he who obtains rights for me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is the master of my judgment? Let him approach me.


text:
Look! The Lord Yahweh helps me. Who is the one who will declare me guilty? Look! All of them will be worn out like a garment; the moth will eat them.


text:
Who among you is in fear of Yahweh, obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light, trusts in the name of Yahweh and depends on his God?


text:
Look! All of you are kindlers of fire, who gird yourselves with flaming arrows. Walk in the light of your fire, and among the flaming arrows you have kindled! You shall have this from my hand: you shall lie down in a place of torment.


text:
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the excavation of the pit from which you were quarried.


text:
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah; she brought you forth. For I called him alone, but I blessed him and made him numerous.”


text:
For Yahweh will comfort Zion; he will comfort all its sites of ruins. And he will make its wilderness like Eden, and its desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the sound of song.


text:
“Listen attentively to me, my people, and my nation, listen to me! For a teaching will go out from me, and I will cause my justice to rest for a light to the peoples.


text:
My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they wait.


text:
Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look to the earth beneath, for the heavens will be torn to pieces like smoke, and the earth will be worn out like a garment, and those who inhabit her will die like gnats. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be broken to pieces.


text:
Listen to me, you who know righteousness, people who have my teaching in their heart; you must not fear the reproach of men, or be terrified because of their abuse.


text:
For a moth will eat them like garments; a moth will devour them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation for generation after generation. ”


text:
Awake! Awake; put on strength, O arm of Yahweh! Awake as in days of long ago, the generations of a long time back! Are you not the one who cut Rahab in pieces, the one who pierced the sea-dragon?


text:
Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, the one who made the depths of the sea a way for those who are redeemed to cross over?


text:
So the redeemed ones of Yahweh shall return, and they shall come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. Joy and gladness shall appear; sorrow and sighing shall flee away!


text:
“I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man? He dies! And of the son of humankind? He is sacrificed as grass!


text:
And you have forgotten Yahweh, your maker, who stretched out the heavens, and founded the earth. And you tremble continually, all day, because of the wrath of the oppressor when he takes aim to destroy. But where is the wrath of the oppressor?


text:
The fettered one shall make haste to be freed. And he shall not die in the pit, and he shall not lack his bread.


text:
For I am Yahweh, your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of hosts is his name.


text:
And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, to plant the heavens and to found the earth, saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”


text:
Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Stand up, Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunk the goblet, the cup of staggering; you have drained it out.


text:
There is no one who guides her among all the children she has borne, and there is no one who grasps her by the hand among all the children she raised.


text:
Two things here have happened to you—who will show sympathy for you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword—who will comfort you?


text:
Your children have fainted; they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a snare, those who are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.


text:
Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, and your God pleads the cause of his people: “Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering. You shall not continue to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer.


text:
And I will put it in the hand of your tormenters, who have said to you, ‘Bow down that we may pass over you !’ And you have made your back like the ground, and like the street for those who pass over you.”


text:
Awake! Awake; put on your strength, Zion! Put on the garments of your beauty, Jerusalem, holy city ! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall not continue to enter you any longer.


text:
Shake yourself free from the dust! Rise up; sit, Jerusalem! Free yourselves from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!


text:
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “My people went down to Egypt in the beginning, to dwell as aliens there, and Assyria oppressed him without cause.


text:
And now what do I have here?” declares Yahweh, “for my people is taken without cause. Its rulers howl,” declares Yahweh—“and my name is reviled continually, all day.


text:
Therefore my people shall know my name, therefore in that day, that I am the one who speaks. Here am I.”


text:
How delightful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns as a king.”


text:
The voices of your watchmen! They lift up their voices; together they sing for joy; for they clearly see Yahweh’s return to Zion.


text:
Break forth, sing for joy together, ruins of Jerusalem, for Yahweh has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.


text:
Yahweh has bared his holy arm to the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.


text:
Depart, depart, go out from there! You must not touch any unclean thing. Go out from the midst of it, keep clean, you who carry the vessels of Yahweh.


text:
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for Yahweh is going before you, and your rear guard is the God of Israel.


text:
Look, my servant shall achieve success; he shall be exalted, and he shall be lifted up, and he shall be very high.


text:
Just as many were appalled at you— such was his appearance beyond human disfigurement, and his form beyond the sons of mankind—


text:
so he shall sprinkle many nations; because of him, kings shall shut their mouths. For they shall see what has not been told them, and they shall consider with full attention what they have not heard.


text:
For he went up like a shoot before him, and like a root from dry ground. He had no form and no majesty that we should see him, and no appearance that we should take pleasure in him.


text:
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness, and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in high regard.


text:
However, he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses, and he carried our pain, yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.


text:
But he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we were healed.


text:
All of us have wandered about like sheep; we each have turned to his own way; and Yahweh let fall on him the iniquity of us all.


text:
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep is dumb before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.


text:
He was taken by restraint of justice, and who concerned himself with his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he received a blow because of the transgression of my people.


text:
He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.


text:
Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him; he made him sick. If she places his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong days, and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.


text:
From the trouble of his life he will see; he will be satisfied. In his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, shall declare many righteous, and he is the one who will bear their iniquities.


text:
Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many, and with the strong ones he will divide bounty, because he poured his life out to death and was counted with the transgressors; and he was the one who bore the sin of many and will intercede for the transgressors.


text:
“Sing for joy, barren woman; who has not borne! Burst forth into rejoicing and rejoice, she who has not been in labor! For the children of the desolate woman are more than the children of the married woman,” says Yahweh.


text:
“Enlarge the site of your tent, and let them stretch out the tent curtains of your dwelling place. You must not spare; make your tent cords long and strengthen your pegs,


text:
for you will spread out to the right and to the left. And your descendants will be heir to the nations, and they will inhabit desolate towns.


text:
You must not fear, for you will not be ashamed, and you must not be confounded, for you will not feel abashed, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.


text:
For your husband is your maker, his name is Yahweh of hosts; and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel, he is called the God of all of the earth.


text:
For Yahweh has called you like a wife forsaken and hurt of spirit, like the wife of childhood when she is rejected, says your God.


text:
I hid my face from you for a moment, in the flowing of anger, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting faithfulness” says your redeemer, Yahweh.


text:
“For this is like the waters of Noah to me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again pass over the earth, so I swore that I would not be angry at you and rebuke you.


text:
For the mountains may depart, and the hills may sway, but my faithfulness shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not sway,” says Yahweh, who has compassion on you,


text:
“O afflicted one, driven away, who is not consoled. Look! I am about to set your stones in hard mortar, and I will lay your foundation with sapphires.


text:
And I will make your battlements of ruby, and your gates of stones of beryl, and all your wall of precious stones.


text:
In righteousness you shall be established. Be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.


text:
Look! I myself have created the craftsman who blows the fire of coals, and who produces a weapon for his work; also I myself have created the destroyer to destroy.


text:
Every weapon formed against you shall not succeed, and you shall declare guilty every tongue that rises against you for judgment. This is the inheritance of the servants of Yahweh, and their legal right from me,” declares Yahweh.


text:
“Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters! And whoever has no money, come, buy and eat, and come, buy without money, wine and milk without price!


text:
Why do you weigh out money for what is not food, and your labor for what cannot satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul take pleasure in rich food.


text:
Extend your ear, and come to me! Listen so that your soul may live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the enduring proofs of the mercies shown to David.


text:
Look! You shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that does not know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.”


text:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of sin his thoughts. And let him return to Yahweh, that he may take pity on him, and to our God, for he will forgive manifold.


text:
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


text:
For just as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and they do not return there except they have watered the earth thoroughly and cause it to bring forth and sprout, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,


text:
so shall be my word that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me without success, but shall accomplish what I desire and be successful in the thing for which I sent it.


text:
For you shall go out in joy, and you shall be led in peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you, rejoicing and all the trees of the field shall clap hands.


text:
Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper shall go up; instead of the brier, the myrtle shall go up, and it shall serve as a memorial to Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”


text:
Thus says Yahweh: “Observe justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is close to coming, and my justice to being revealed.


text:
Happy is the man who does this, and the son of humankind who keeps hold of it, who keeps the Sabbath so as not to profane it, and who keeps his hand from doing any evil.”


text:
And do not let the foreigner who joins himself to Yahweh say, “Surely Yahweh will separate me from his people.” And do not let the eunuch say, “Look! I am a dry tree!”


text:
For thus says Yahweh, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose that in which I delight, and who keep hold of my covenant.


text:
And I will give them a monument and a name in my house and within my walls, better than sons and daughters; I will give him an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.


text:
And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh, to become his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, so as not to profane it, and those who keep hold of my covenant,


text:
I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,”


text:
declares the Lord Yahweh, who gathers the scattered ones of Israel (still I will gather to him, to his gathered ones).


text:
His watchmen are blind, none of them know. They are all dumb dogs; they are unable to bark, panting, lying down, loving to slumber.


text:
And the dogs have a greedy appetite; they are never satisfied. And they are the shepherds! They do not have understanding. They all turn to their own way, each one for his own gain, every one of them.


text:
“Come, let me take wine, and let us carouse with intoxicating drink, and tomorrow will be like today, very great indeed.”


text:
The righteous one perishes, and there is no one who takes it to heart. And men of faithfulness are gathered, while there is no one who understands, for the righteous is gathered from the presence of wickedness.


text:
“But you, come near here, you children of a soothsayer, offspring of an adulterer and she who commits fornication.


text:
At whom do you make fun? At whom do you open your mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of deception,


text:
who burn with lust among the oaks, under every leafy tree, who slaughter children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?


text:
Your portion is among the smooth stones of the valley; they, they are your lot; indeed, to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a food offering. Shall I relent concerning these things?


text:
You have set your bed upon a high and lofty mountain; indeed, you went up there to slaughter sacrifice.


text:
And you have set your symbol behind the door and the doorpost; for you depart from me, and you go up; you make your bed wide, and you make a deal with them, you have loved their bed; you have seen their genitals.


text:
And you climbed down to the king with oil, and you made your perfumes numerous, and you sent your envoys far away, and you sent down deep to Sheol.


text:
You grow weary by the greatness of your way, but you did not say, ‘Despairing!’ You found the renewal of your strength, therefore you do not grow weak.


text:
And of whom were you afraid and feared, that you deceived and did not remember me? Did you not place it on your heart? Have I not been silent, even from long ago, and so you do not fear me?


text:
When you cry, let your collection deliver you, and the wind will carry all of them away; a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall take possession of the land, and he shall inherit my holy mountain.”


text:
And one shall say, “Build up, build up! Clear the way! Remove the obstacles from the way of my people!”


text:
For thus says the high and lofty one who resides forever, and whose name is holy: “I reside in a high and holy place, and with the contrite and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.


text:
For I will not attack forever, and I will not be angry forever, for the spirit will grow faint before me, and the breaths that I myself I have made.


text:
I was angry because of his sin of gain, and I struck him; I hid and I was angry, but he walked apostate, in the ways of his heart.


text:
I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; and I will lead him and give him and his mourners comfort as a recompense,


text:
But the wicked are like the churning sea, that is not able to keep quiet, and its waters toss up mire and mud.


text:
“Call with the throat; you must not keep back! lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.


text:
Yet they seek me day by day, and they desire the knowledge of my ways like a nation that practiced righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of its God; they ask me for righteous judgments, they desire the closeness of God.


text:
‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it? We humiliate our soul, and you do not notice it?’ Look! You find delight on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers!


text:
Look! You fast to quarrel and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. You shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice heard on the height.


text:
Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate himself? To bow his head like a reed, and make his bed on sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?


text:
Is this not the fast I choose: to release the bonds of injustice, to untie the ropes of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and tear every yoke to pieces?


text:
Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring home the poor, the homeless. When you see the naked, you must cover him, and you must not hide yourself from your relatives.


text:
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall grow quickly. And your salvation shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.


text:
Then you shall call, and Yahweh himself will answer. You shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am !’ If you remove from among you the yoke, the finger-pointing and evil speech,


text:
if you offer your soul to the hungry, and you satisfy the appetite of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like noon.


text:
And Yahweh will lead you continually, and satisfy your soul in a barren land, and he will strengthen your bones, and you shall be like a well-watered garden, and like a spring of water whose water does not fail.


text:
And they shall rebuild ancient ruins from you; you shall erect the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the bricklayer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in.


text:
If you hold your foot back from the Sabbath, from doing your affairs on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a pleasure, the holy day of Yahweh honorable, if you honor him more than doing your ways, than finding your affairs and speaking a word,


text:
then you shall take your pleasure in Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will feed you the heritage of Jacob your ancestor, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”


text:
Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing.


text:
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue speaks wickedness.


text:
There is nobody who pleads with justice, and there is nobody who judges with honesty. They rely on nothing and speak vanity. They conceive trouble and beget iniquity;


text:
they hatch viper eggs, and they weave a spider web. One who eats their eggs dies, and that which is pressed is hatched as a serpent.


text:
Their webs cannot become clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.


text:
Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their highways.


text:
They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their firm paths. They have made their paths crooked for themselves; everyone who walks in it knows no peace.


text:
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look! there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.


text:
We grope like the blind along a wall, and we grope as without eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight; among the strong we are like the dead.


text:
We all groan like bears, and we coo mutteringly like doves. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.


text:
For our transgressions are numerous before you, and our sins testify against us. Indeed, our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:


text:
transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God; speaking oppression and falsehood, conceiving and uttering words of deception from the heart.


text:
And justice is pushed back, and righteousness stands afar; for truth stumbles in the public square, and straightforwardness is unable to enter,


text:
and truth is missing, and he who turns aside from evil is plundered. And Yahweh saw, and it was displeasing in his eyes that there was no justice


text:
And he saw that there was no man, and he was appalled that there was no one who intercedes, so his arm came to assist him, and his righteousness was what sustained him.


text:
And he put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head, and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a robe.


text:
According to deeds, so he will repay; wrath to his enemies, requital to those who are his enemies. He will repay requital to the coastlands.


text:
So they shall fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the sunrise, for he will come like a narrow stream; the wind of Yahweh drives it on.


text:
“And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,” declares Yahweh.


text:
“And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have placed in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children,” says Yahweh, “from now on and forever.”


text:
For look! darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Yahweh will rise on you, and his glory will appear over you.


text:
Lift up your eyes all around and see! All of them gather; they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be looked after on the hip.


text:
Then you shall see and you shall be radiant; and your heart shall tremble and open itself wide, because the abundance of the sea shall fall upon you; the wealth of the nations shall come to you.


text:
A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young male camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praise of Yahweh.


text:
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall serve you. They shall present a sacrifice for favor on my altar, and I will glorify my honorable house.


text:
Because the coastlands wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish are first to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God, and for the holy one of Israel, because he has glorified you.


text:
And foreigners shall build your walls, and their kings shall serve you, for in my anger I struck you, but in my favor I have taken pity on you.


text:
And your gates shall continually be open, day and night they shall not be shut, to bring you the wealth of nations, and their kings shall be led.


text:
For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you shall perish, and the nations shall be utterly devastated.


text:
The glory of Lebanon shall come to you; the cypress, the plane, and the pine together, to glorify the place of my sanctuary, and I will do honor to the place of my feet.


text:
And the children of those who oppressed you shall come to you bending low, and all those who treated you disrespectfully shall bow down at the soles of your feet. And they shall call you the city of Yahweh, Zion of the holy one of Israel.


text:
Instead of you being forsaken and hated with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting object of pride, a joy of coming generations.


text:
And you shall suck the milk of nations, and suck the breast of kings, and you shall know that I am Yahweh your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Strong One of Jacob.


text:
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver, and instead of wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. And I will appoint peace as your overseer, and righteousness as your ruling body.


text:
Violence shall no longer be heard in your land; devastation or destruction on your borders. And you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates, Praise.


text:
The sun shall no longer be your light by day, and for bright light the moon shall not give you light, but Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and your God your glory.


text:
Your sun shall no longer go down, and your moon shall not wane, for Yahweh himself will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall come to an end.


text:
And all your people shall be righteous; they shall take possession of the land forever, the shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to show my glory.


text:
The small one shall become a tribe, and the smallest one a mighty nation. I am Yahweh; I will hasten it in its time.”


text:
The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and liberation to those who are bound,


text:
to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and our God’s day of vengeance, to comfort all those in mourning,


text:
to give for those in mourning in Zion, to give them a head wrap instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. And they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, to show his glory.


text:
And they shall build the ancient ruins, they shall erect the former deserted places. And they shall restore the devastated cities, the deserted places of many generations.


text:
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers.


text:
But you shall be called the priests of Yahweh, you will be called servers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and you shall boast in their riches.


text:
Instead of your shame, a double portion, and instead of insult, they will rejoice over their portion. Therefore they will take a double portion in their land; they shall possess everlasting joy.


text:
For I, Yahweh, love justice, hate robbery and injustice, and I will faithfully give their reward, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.


text:
And their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All those who see them shall recognize them, that they are descendants whom Yahweh has blessed.


text:
I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh; my being shall shout in exultation in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns himself with a head wrap like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewelry.


text:
For as the earth produces its sprout, and as a garden makes its plants sprout, so the Lord Yahweh will make righteousness sprout, and praise before all the nations.


text:
For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not maintain a quiet attitude, until her righteousness goes out like the bright light, and her salvation burns like a torch.


text:
And the nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you will be called a new name that the mouth of Yahweh will designate.


text:
And you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of Yahweh, and a headband of royalty in the hand of your God.


text:
It shall no longer be said of you, “Forsaken,” and it shall no longer be said of your land, “Desolation!” but you will be called “My Delight Is In Her,” and your land, “Married,” for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married.


text:
For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as is the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.


text:
I have appointed watchmen upon your walls, Jerusalem; all day and all night they shall never be silent. You who profess Yahweh have no rest.


text:
And you must not give him rest until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem an object of praise in the earth.


text:
Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by his mighty arm, “Surely I will never again give your grain as food to your enemies, and surely foreigners shall not drink your new wine at which you have labored.”


text:
But those who gather it shall eat it, and they shall praise Yahweh, and those who gather it shall drink it in my holy courts.


text:
Pass through, pass through the gates! Make the way clear for the people! Pile up, pile up the highway; clear it of stones! Lift up an ensign over the peoples!


text:
Look! Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to daughter Zion, “Look, your salvation is coming! Look, his reward is with him, and his reward before him.


text:
And they shall call them “The Holy People, The Redeemed Of Yahweh,” and you shall be called “Sought After, A City Is Not Forsaken.”


text:
Who is this, coming from Edom, from Bozrah in bright red garments? Who is this honored in his garment, lying down in his great strength? “ It is I, speaking in justice, mighty to save!”


text:
“I have trodden the winepress alone, and there was no man from the peoples with me. And I trod them in my anger, and I trampled them in my wrath, and spattered their juice on my garments, and stained all my clothing,


text:
And I looked, but there was no helper, and I was appalled, but there was no one who sustains, so my arm came to assist me, and my wrath was what sustained me.


text:
And I trampled peoples in my anger, and I made them drunk in my wrath, and I brought their juice down to the earth.”


text:
I will mention the loyal love of Yahweh, the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has done for us, and the greatness of goodness to the house of Israel that he has done to them according to his mercy and the abundance of his loyal love.


text:
And he said, “Surely my people are children; they will not break faith.” And he became a Savior to them.


text:
In all their distress, there was no distress, and the messenger of his presence saved them, in his love and compassion he himself redeemed them, and he lifted them up, and he supported them all the days of old.


text:
But they were the ones who rebelled, and they grieved his Holy Spirit, so he became an enemy to them; he himself fought against them.


