# verses

text:
You had best fear the sword, for anger brings the punishment of the sword, so that you will know there is judgment!'


text:
that the triumph of the wicked is always short-lived, and the joy of the ungodly is gone in a moment?


text:
but he will vanish completely, like his own dung -those who used to see him will ask, 'Where is he?'


text:
He will have to give back what he toiled for; he won't get to swallow it down -to the degree that he acquired wealth, he won't get to enjoy it.


text:
'This is what will fill his belly! -[God] will lay on him all his burning anger and make it rain over him, into his insides.


text:
he pulls the arrow out of his back, the shining tip comes out from his innards; terrors come upon him.


text:
'Total darkness is laid up for his treasures, a fire fanned by no one will consume him, and calamity awaits what is left in his tent.


text:
'How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their calamity come upon them? How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,


text:
God lays up for their children [the punishment for their] iniquity. He should lay it on [the wicked] themselves, so that they can feel it!


text:
the clods of the valley are sweet to him; so everyone follows his example, just as before him were countless others.


text:
'For you kept your kinsmen's goods as collateral for no reason, you stripped the poorly clothed of what clothing they have,


text:
Yet he himself had filled their homes with good things! (But the advice of the wicked is far away from me.)


text:
like wild donkeys in the wilderness, they have to go out and scavenge food, [hoping that] the desert will provide food for their children.


text:
They must reap in fields that are not their own and gather late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.


text:
'There are those who pluck orphans from the breast and [those who] take [the clothes of] the poor in pledge,


text:
between these men's rows [of olives], they make oil; treading their winepresses, they suffer thirst.


text:
Men are groaning in the city, the mortally wounded are crying for help, yet God finds nothing amiss!


text:
The eye of the adulterer too waits for twilight; he thinks, 'No eye will see me'; but [to be sure], he covers his face.


text:
When it's dark, they break into houses; in the daytime, they stay out of sight. [None of them] know the light.


text:
For to all of them deep darkness is like morning, for the terrors of deep darkness are familiar to them.


text:
'May they be scum on the surface of the water, may their share of land be cursed, may no one turn on the way of their vineyards,


text:
May the womb forget them, may worms find them sweet, may they no longer be remembered -thus may iniquity be snapped like a stick.


text:
They are exalted for a little while; and then they are gone, brought low, gathered in like all others, shriveled up like ears of grain.


text:
'And even if it isn't so now, still no one can prove me a liar and show that my words are worthless.'


text:
And these are but the fringes of his ways; how faint the echo we hear of him! But who is able to grasp the meaning of his thundering power?'


text:
'I swear by the living God, who is denying me justice, and by Shaddai, who deals with me so bitterly,


text:
There where no one lives, they break open a shaft; the feet passing over are oblivious to them; far from people, suspended in space, they swing to and fro.


text:
inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky?


text:
for I delivered the poor when they cried for assistance, the orphan too, who had no one to help him.


text:
I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed itself with me; my justice was like a robe and a crown.


text:
I chose their way [for them], sitting as chief; I lived like a king in the army, like one who comforts mourners.


text:
'But now those younger than I hold me in derision, men whose fathers I wouldn't even have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep.


text:
At my right the street urchins attack, pushing me from place to place, besieging me with their ways of destruction,


text:
Terrors tumble over me, chasing my honor away like the wind; my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud.


text:
'If my steps have wandered from the way, if my heart has followed my eyes, if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;


text:
Didn't he who made me in the womb make them too? Didn't the same one shape us both before our birth?


text:
No! From my youth he grew up with me as if with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother's womb!


text:
For calamity from God has always terrified me; before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].


text:
'Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me? Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him?


text:
'Was there anyone in my tent who didn't say, 'No one can find a single person whom he has not filled with his meat'?


text:
from fear of general gossip or dread of some family's contempt. keeping silent and not going outdoors


text:
I wish I had someone who would listen to me! Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me! I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written!


text:
then let thistles grow instead of wheat and noxious weeds instead of barley! 'The words of Iyov are finished.'


text:
So these three men stopped trying to answer Iyov, because he remained convinced of his own righteousness.


text:
But then the anger of Elihu the son of Barakh'el the Buzi, from the family of Ram, blazed up against Iyov for thinking he was right and God wrong.


text:
His anger also blazed up against his three friends, because they had found no answer to Iyov but condemned him anyway.


text:
Elihu the son of Barakh'el the Buzi said: 'I am young, and you are old, so I held back from telling you my opinion.


text:
'Here, I waited for your words, I listened to your reasoning, as you were searching for what to say.


text:
'If there is for him an angel, a mediator, one among a thousand, who can vouch for the man's uprightness;


text:
then [God] is gracious to him and says, 'Redeem him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.'


text:
He prays to God and is accepted by him, so that he sees [God's] face with joy, and [God] repays the man for his righteousness.


text:
Should a hater of justice be in control? If you wouldn't tell a king, 'You're a scoundrel!'or nobles, 'You are wicked men!'then you shouldn't condemn the Just and Mighty One,


text:
who is neither partial toward princes nor favors the rich over the poor, since they all are the work of his hands.


text:
They may die in a moment, in the middle of the night -the people are shaken and pass away, the mighty are removed without human hands.


text:
'But if God is silent, who can accuse him; if he hides his face, who can see him? He may do this to nations and persons alike,


text:
Must his rewards meet your approval? Well, you are the one who doesn't like them, so you, not I, should pick the alternative; come on, say what you think!


text:
For now to his sin he adds rebellion; he [mockingly] claps his hands among us and keeps adding to his words against God.'


text:
But now, just because he doesn't get angry and punish, does it mean he doesn't know what arrogance is?


text:
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous; but when he sets kings on their throne forever, they may become proud;


text:
'If they pay attention and obey him, they spend their days in prosperity; their years pass pleasantly.


text:
Indeed [Iyov], he is drawing you away from distress to an untroubled open place, with rich food on your table.


text:
There follows a sound, a roar -he is thundering with his majestic voice, and he keeps releasing [the lightning] even while his voice is being heard.


text:
Now people don't see the light, which is bright in the sky; but then the wind blows and clears [the clouds] away.


text:
Shaddai, whom we cannot find, whose power is immense, in his great righteousness does not pervert justice.


text:
Then the earth is changed like clay under a seal, until its colors are fixed like those of a garment.


text:
Can you lead out the constellations of the zodiac in their season or guide the Great Bear and its cubs?


text:
It treats its chicks heartlessly, as if they were not its own; even if her labor is in vain, it really doesn't care;


text:
At the sound of the shofar it whinnies; as from afar it scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.


text:
If the river overflows, it doesn't worry him; he is confident even if the Yarden rushes by his mouth.


text:
'[You asked,] 'Who is this, hiding counsel, without having knowledge?'Yes, I spoke, without understanding, of wonders far beyond me, which I didn't know.


text:
After ADONAI had spoken these words to Iyov, ADONAI said to Elifaz the Teimani, 'My anger is blazing against you and your two friends, because, unlike my servant Iyov, you have not spoken rightly about me.


text:
So now, get yourselves seven young bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Iyov, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. My servant Iyov will pray for you - because him I will accept - so that I won't punish you as your boorishness deserves; because you have not spoken rightly about me, as my servant Iyov has.'


text:
So Elifaz the Teimani, Bildad the Shuchi and Tzofar the Na'amati went and did what ADONAI had ordered them to do, and ADONAI accepted Iyov['s prayer].


text:
When Iyov prayed for his friends, ADONAI restored his fortunes; ADONAI gave Iyov twice as much as he had had before.


text:
Then all his brothers and sisters came to him, also all who had known him before, and they ate a meal with him in his house. They consoled and comforted him for all the evils ADONAI had inflicted on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.


text:
ADONAI blessed Iyov's later situation even more than his earlier one - he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 pairs of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.


text:
Nowhere in the land could women be found as beautiful as Iyov's daughters; and their father gave them inheritances along with their brothers.


text:
How blessed are those who reject the advice of the wicked, don't stand on the way of sinners or sit where scoffers sit!


text:
They are like trees planted by streams -they bear their fruit in season, their leaves never wither, everything they do succeeds.


text:
For this reason the wicked won't stand up to the judgment, nor will sinners at the gathering of the righteous.


text:
The earth's kings are taking positions, leaders conspiring together, against ADONAI and his anointed.


text:
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance; the whole wide world will be your possession.


text:
Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish along the way, when suddenly his anger blazes. How blessed are all who take refuge in him.


text:
A psalm of David, when he fled from Avshalom his son: ADONAI, how many enemies I have! How countless are those attacking me;


text:
Rise up, ADONAI! Save me, my God! For you slap all my enemies in the face, you smash the teeth of the wicked.


text:
For the leader. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David: O God, my vindicator! Answer me when I call! When I was distressed, you set me free; now have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.


text:
Understand that ADONAI sets apart the godly person for himself; ADONAI will hear when I call to him.


text:
For the leader. On wind instruments. A psalm of David: Give ear to my words, ADONAI, consider my inmost thoughts.


text:
ADONAI, in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I lay my needs before you and wait expectantly.


text:
But I can enter your house because of your great grace and love; I will bow down toward your holy temple in reverence for you.


text:
Lead me, ADONAI, in your righteousness because of those lying in wait for me; make your way straight before me.


text:
For in their mouths there is nothing sincere, within them are calamities, their throats are open tombs, they flatter with their tongues.


text:
God, declare them guilty! Let them fall through their own intrigues, For their many crimes, throw them down; since they have rebelled against you.


text:
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice, let them forever shout for joy! Shelter them; and they will be glad, those who love your name.


text:
For the leader. With stringed instruments. On sh'minit [low-pitched musical instruments?]. A psalm of David: ADONAI, don't rebuke me in your anger, don't discipline me in the heat of your fury.


text:
Be gracious to me, ADONAI, because I am withering away; heal me, ADONAI, because my bones are shaking;


text:
All my enemies will be confounded, completely terrified; they will turn back and be suddenly put to shame.


text:
A shiggayon of David, which he sang to ADONAI because of Kush the Ben-Y'mini: ADONAI my God, in you I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers, and rescue me;


text:
if I paid back evil to him who was at peace with me, when I even spared those who opposed me without cause;


text:
then let the enemy pursue me until he overtakes me and tramples my life down into the earth; yes, let him lay my honor in the dust. (Selah)


text:
Rise up, ADONAI, in your anger! Arouse yourself against the fury of my foes. Wake up for me; you commanded justice.


text:
ADONAI, who dispenses judgment to the peoples, judge me, ADONAI, according to my righteousness and as my integrity deserves.


text:
Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and establish the righteous; since you, righteous God, test hearts and minds.


text:
For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of David: ADONAI! Our Lord! How glorious is your name throughout the earth! The fame of your majesty spreads even above the heavens!


text:
From the mouths of babies and infants at the breast you established strength because of your foes, in order that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.


text:
what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them; humans, that you watch over them with such care?


text:
For the leader. On the death of Labben. A psalm of David: I give thanks to ADONAI with all my heart. I will tell about all your wonderful deeds.


text:
Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you have not abandoned those who seek you, ADONAI.


text:
'Have mercy on me, ADONAI! See how I suffer from those who hate me; you raise me from the gates of death,


text:
so that I can proclaim all your praises at the gates of the daughter of Tziyon and rejoice in this deliverance of yours.'


text:
ADONAI made himself known and executed judgment; the wicked are ensnared in the work of their own hands. (Higgayon; Selah)


text:
Every scheme of the wicked in his arrogance [says], 'There is no God, [so] it won't be held against me.'


text:
His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are way up there, so he takes no notice. His adversaries? He scoffs at them all.


text:
He waits near settlements in ambush and kills an innocent man in secret; his eyes are on the hunt for the helpless.


text:
Lurking unseen like a lion in his lair, he lies in wait to pounce on the poor, then seizes the poor and drags him off in his net.


text:
You have seen; for you look at mischief and grief, so that you can take the matter in hand. The helpless commits himself to you; you help the fatherless.


text:
Break the arm of the wicked! As for the evil man, search out his wickedness until there is none left.


text:
For the leader. By David: In ADONAI I find refuge. So how can you say to me, 'Flee like a bird to the mountains!


text:
See how the wicked are drawing their bows and setting their arrows on the string, to shoot from the shadows at honest men.


text:
He will rain hot coals down on the wicked, fire, sulfur and scorching wind will be what they get to drink.


text:
For the leader. On sh'minit [low-pitched musical instruments?]. A psalm of David: Help, ADONAI! For no one godly is left; the faithful have vanished from humankind.


text:
'Because the poor are oppressed, because the needy are groaning, I will now rise up,' says ADONAI, 'and grant security to those whom they scorn.'


text:
The words of ADONAI are pure words, silver in a melting-pot set in the earth, refined and purified seven times over.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: How long, ADONAI? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?


text:
How long must I keep asking myself what to do, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long must my enemy dominate me?


text:
For the leader. By David: Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God.'They deal corruptly, their deeds are vile, not one does what is right.


text:
Don't they ever learn, all those evildoers, who eat up my people as if eating bread and never call on ADONAI?


text:
How I wish Isra'el's salvation would come out of Tziyon! When ADONAI restores his people's fortunes, Ya'akov will rejoice, Isra'el will be glad!


text:
who look with scorn on the vile, but honor those who fear ADONAI; who hold to an oath, no matter the cost;


text:
who refuse usury when they lend money and refuse a bribe to damage the innocent. Those who do these things never will be moved.


text:
Those who run after another god multiply their sorrows; To such gods I will not offer drink offerings of blood or take their names on my lips.


text:
You make me know the path of life; in your presence is unbounded joy, in your right hand eternal delight.


text:
You probed my heart, you visited me at night, and you assayed me without finding evil thoughts that should not pass my lips.


text:
Show how wonderful is your grace, savior of those who seek at your right hand refuge from their foes.


text:
with your hand, ADONAI, from human beings, from people whose portion in life is this world. You fill their stomachs with your treasure, their children will be satisfied too and will leave their wealth to their little ones.


text:
But my prayer, in righteousness, is to see your face; on waking, may I be satisfied with a vision of you.


text:
For the leader. By David the servant of ADONAI, who addressed the words of this song to ADONAI on the day when ADONAI delivered him from the power of all his enemies, including from the power of Sha'ul. He said: 'I love you, ADONAI, my strength!


text:
'ADONAI is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter, my shield, the power that saves me, my stronghold.


text:
In my distress I called to ADONAI; I cried out to my God. Out of his temple he heard my voice; my cry reached his ears.


text:
'Then the earth quaked and shook, the foundations of the mountains trembled. They were shaken because he was angry.


text:
The channels of water appeared, the foundations of the world were exposed at your rebuke, ADONAI, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.


text:
'You give me your shield, which is salvation, your right hand holds me up, your humility makes me great.


text:
'You also freed me from the quarrels of my people. You made me head of the nations; a people I did not know now serve me


text:
Great salvation he gives to his king; he displays grace to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.'


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: The heavens declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.


text:
their line goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he places a tent for the sun,


text:
which comes out like a bridegroom from the bridal chamber, with delight like an athlete to run his race.


text:
The Torah of ADONAI is perfect, restoring the inner person. The instruction of ADONAI is sure, making wise the thoughtless.


text:
The precepts of ADONAI are right, rejoicing the heart. The mitzvah of ADONAI is pure, enlightening the eyes.


text:
The fear of ADONAI is clean, enduring forever. The rulings of ADONAI are true, they are righteous altogether,


text:
more desirable than gold, than much fine gold, also sweeter than honey or drippings from the honeycomb.


text:
Also keep your servant from presumptuous sins, so that they won't control me. Then I will be blameless and free of great offense.


text:
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable in your presence, ADONAI, my Rock and Redeemer.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: May ADONAI answer you in times of distress, may the name of the God of Ya'akov protect you.


text:
Then we will shout for joy at your victory and fly our flags in the name of our God. May ADONAI fulfill all your requests.


text:
Now I know that ADONAI gives victory to his anointed one -he will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: ADONAI, the king finds joy in your strength; what great joy he displays in your victory!


text:
At your appearing, you will make them like a fiery furnace. ADONAI will swallow them up in his anger; fire will consume them.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Sunrise.'A psalm of David: My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me? Why so far from helping me, so far from my anguished cries?


text:
'He committed himself to ADONAI, so let him rescue him! Let him set him free if he takes such delight in him!'


text:
I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart has become like wax it melts inside me;


text:
my mouth is as dry as a fragment of a pot, my tongue sticks to my palate; you lay me down in the dust of death.


text:
Rescue me from the sword, Or: 'They pierced my hands and feet.' See Introduction, Section VIII, paragraph 6, and Section XIV, footnote 70. my life from the power of the dogs.


text:
'You who fear ADONAI, praise him! All descendants of Ya'akov, glorify him! All descendants of Isra'el, stand in awe of him!


text:
For he has not despised or abhorred the poverty of the poor; he did not hide his face from him but listened to his cry.'


text:
Because of you I give praise in the great assembly; I will fulfill my vows in the sight of those who fear him.


text:
The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek ADONAI will praise him; Your hearts will enjoy life forever.


text:
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to ADONAI; all the clans of the nations will worship in your presence.


text:
All who prosper on the earth will eat and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him, including him who can't keep himself alive,


text:
They will come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he is the one who did it.


text:
Even if I pass through death-dark ravines, I will fear no disaster; for you are with me; your rod and staff reassure me.


text:
You prepare a table for me, even as my enemies watch; you anoint my head with oil from an overflowing cup.


text:
Goodness and grace will pursue me every day of my life; and I will live in the house of ADONAI for years and years to come.


text:
By David. A psalm: The earth is ADONAI's, with all that is in it, the world and those who live there;


text:
Those with clean hands and pure hearts, who don't make vanities the purpose of their lives or swear oaths just to deceive.


text:
Lift up your heads, you gates! Lift them up, everlasting doors, so that the glorious king can enter!


text:
Guide me in your truth, and teach me; for you are the God who saves me, my hope is in you all day long.


text:
Don't remember my youthful sins or transgressions; but remember me according to your grace for the sake of your goodness, ADONAI.


text:
By David: ADONAI is my light and salvation; whom do I need to fear? ADONAI is the stronghold of my life; of whom should I be afraid?


text:
If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear; if war breaks out against me, even then I will keep trusting.


text:
Just one thing have I asked of ADONAI; only this will I seek: to live in the house of ADONAI all the days of my life, to see the beauty of ADONAI and visit in his temple.


text:
For he will conceal me in his shelter on the day of trouble, he will hide me in the folds of his tent, he will set me high on a rock.


text:
Then my head will be lifted up above my surrounding foes, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, sing praises to ADONAI.


text:
Do not hide your face from me, don't turn your servant away in anger. You are my help; don't abandon me; don't leave me, God my savior.


text:
don't give me up to the whims of my foes; for false witnesses have risen against me, also those who are breathing violence.


text:
By David: ADONAI, I am calling to you; my Rock, don't be deaf to my cry. For if you answer me with silence, I will be like those who fall in a pit.


text:
Don't drag me off with the wicked, with those whose deeds are evil; they speak words of peace to their fellowmen, but evil is in their hearts.


text:
Pay them back for their deeds, as befits their evil acts; repay them for what they have done, give them what they deserve.


text:
For they don't understand the deeds of ADONAI or what he has done. He will break them down; he will not build them up.


text:
ADONAI is my strength and shield; in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped. Therefore my heart is filled with joy, and I will sing praises to him.


text:
A psalm of David: Give ADONAI his due, you who are godly; give ADONAI his due of glory and strength;


text:
The voice of ADONAI causes deer to give birth and strips the forests bare -while in his temple, all cry, 'Glory!'


text:
A psalm. A song for the dedication of the house. By David: I will exalt you, ADONAI, because you drew me up; you didn't let my enemies rejoice over me.


text:
For his anger is momentary, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Tears may linger for the night, but with dawn come cries of joy.


text:
when you showed me favor, ADONAI, I was firm as a mighty mountain. But when you hid your face, I was struck with terror.


text:
'What advantage is there in my death, in my going down to the pit? Can the dust praise you? Can it proclaim your truth?


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: In you, ADONAI, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your justice, save me!


text:
Turn your ear toward me, come quickly to my rescue, be for me a rock of strength, a fortress to keep me safe.


text:
For my life is worn out with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength gives out under my guilt, and my bones are wasting away.


text:
I am scorned by all my adversaries, and even more by my neighbors; even to acquaintances I am an object of fear when they see me in the street, they turn away from me.


text:
All I hear is whispering, terror is all around me; they plot together against me, scheming to take my life.


text:
ADONAI, don't let me be put to shame, for I have called on you; let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silenced in Sh'ol.


text:
May lying lips be struck dumb, that speak insolently against the righteous with such pride and contempt.


text:
But oh, how great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you do for those who take refuge in you, before people's very eyes!


text:
In the shelter of your presence you hide them from human plots, you conceal them in your shelter, safe from contentious tongues.


text:
As for me, in my alarm I said, 'I have been cut off from your sight!'Nevertheless, you heard my pleas when I cried out to you.


text:
When I acknowledged my sin to you, when I stopped concealing my guilt, and said, 'I will confess my offenses to ADONAI'; then you, you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)


text:
This is what everyone faithful should pray at a time when you can be found. Then, when the floodwaters are raging, they will not reach to him.


text:
You are a hiding-place for me, you will keep me from distress; you will surround me with songs of deliverance. (Selah)


text:
'I will instruct and teach you in this way that you are to go; I will give you counsel; my eyes will be watching you.'


text:
Don't be like a horse or mule that has no understanding, that has to be curbed with bit and bridle, or else it won't come near you.


text:
By David, when he pretended to be insane before Avimelekh, who then drove him away; so he left: I will bless ADONAI at all times; his praise will always be in my mouth.


text:
May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to confusion; may those who are plotting harm for me be repulsed and put to shame.


text:
May destruction come over him unawares. May the net he concealed catch himself; may he fall into it and be destroyed.


text:
All my bones will say, 'Who is like you? Who can rescue the weak from those stronger than they, the poor and needy from those who exploit them?'


text:
But I, when they were ill, wore sackcloth; I put myself out and fasted; I can pray that what I prayed for them might also happen to me.


text:
But when I stumble, they gather in glee; they gather against me and strike me unawares; they tear me apart unceasingly.


text:
Adonai, how much longer will you look on? Rescue me from their assaults, save the one life I have from the lions!


text:
Don't let those who are wrongfully my enemies gloat over me; and those who hate me unprovoked -don't let them smirk at me.


text:
May those who gloat over my distress be disgraced and humiliated. May those who aggrandize themselves at my expense be covered with shame and confusion.


text:
But may those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad! Let them say always, 'How great is ADONAI, who delights in the peace of his servant!'Then my tongue will tell of your righteousness and praise you all day long.


text:
For the leader. By David, the servant of ADONAI: Crime speaks to the wicked. I perceive this in my heart; before his eyes there is no fear of God.


text:
For, the way he sees it, crime makes his life easy that is, until his wrongs are discovered; then, he is hated.


text:
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, your judgments are like the great deep. You save man and beast, ADONAI.


text:
they feast on the rich bounty of your house, and you have them drink from the stream of your delights.


text:
He will make your vindication shine forth like light, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.


text:
Be still before ADONAI; wait patiently till he comes. Don't be upset by those whose way succeeds because of their wicked plans.


text:
The wicked have unsheathed their swords, they have strung their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slaughter those whose way is upright.


text:
I have been young; now I am old; yet not once have I seen the righteous abandoned or his descendants begging for bread.


text:
For ADONAI loves justice and will not abandon his faithful; they are preserved forever. But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.


text:
Put your hope in ADONAI, keep to his way, and he will raise you up to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.


text:
ADONAI helps them and rescues them, rescues them from the wicked and saves them; because they take refuge in him.


text:
A psalm of David, serving as a reminder: ADONAI, don't rebuke me when you are angry or discipline me when you are enraged,


text:
Those seeking my life lay snares for me, those seeking to harm me speak of disaster and think up deceptions all day long.


text:
For the leader. Set in the style of Y'dutun. A psalm of David: I said, 'I will watch how I behave, so that I won't sin with my tongue; I will put a muzzle on my mouth whenever the wicked confront me.'


text:
My heart grew hot within me; whenever I thought of it, the fire burned. Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:


text:
'Make me grasp, ADONAI, what my end must be, what it means that my days are numbered; let me know what a transient creature I am.


text:
You have made my days like handbreadths; for you, the length of my life is like nothing.' Yes, everyone, no matter how firmly he stands, is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)


text:
Humans go about like shadows; their turmoil is all for nothing. They accumulate wealth, not knowing who will enjoy its benefits.


text:
With rebukes you discipline people for their guilt; like a moth, you destroy what makes them attractive; yes, everyone is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)


text:
Hear my prayer, ADONAI, listen to my cry, don't be deaf to my weeping; for with you, I am just a traveler passing through, like all my ancestors.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: I waited patiently for ADONAI, till he turned toward me and heard my cry.


text:
He brought me up from the roaring pit, up from the muddy ooze, and set my feet on a rock, making my footing firm.


text:
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will look on in awe and put their trust in ADONAI.


text:
How blessed the man who trusts in ADONAI and does not look to the arrogant or to those who rely on things that are false.


text:
How much you have done, ADONAI my God! Your wonders and your thoughts toward us -none can compare with you! I would proclaim them, I would speak about them; but there's too much to tell!


text:
Sacrifices and grain offerings you don't want; burnt offerings and sin offerings you don't demand. Instead, you have given me open ears;


text:
I have proclaimed what is right in the great assembly; I did not restrain my lips, ADONAI, as you know.


text:
I did not hide your righteousness in my heart but declared your faithfulness and salvation; I did not conceal your grace and truth from the great assembly.'


text:
For numberless evils surround me; my iniquities engulf me - I can't even see; there are more of them than hairs on my head, so that my courage fails me.


text:
May those who seek to sweep me away be disgraced and humiliated together. May those who take pleasure in doing me harm be turned back and put to confusion.


text:
But may all those who seek you be glad and take joy in you. May those who love your salvation say always, 'ADONAI is great and glorious!'


text:
But I am poor and needy; may Adonai think of me. You are my helper and rescuer; my God, don't delay!


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: How blessed are those who care for the poor! When calamity comes, ADONAI will save them.


text:
ADONAI will preserve them, keep them alive, and make them happy in the land. You will not hand them over to the whims of their enemies.


text:
When they come to see me they speak insincerely, their hearts meanwhile gathering falsehoods; then they go out and spread bad reports.


text:
For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach: Just as a deer longs for running streams, God, I long for you.


text:
I recall, as my feelings well up within me, how I'd go with the crowd to the house of God, with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs observing the festival.


text:
My soul, why are you so downcast? Why are you groaning inside me? Hope in God, since I will praise him again for the salvation that comes from his presence.


text:
My God, when I feel so downcast, I remind myself of you from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.


text:
Deep is calling to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls; all your surging rapids and waves are sweeping over me.


text:
By day ADONAI commands his grace, and at night his song is with me as a prayer to the God of my life.


text:
I say to God my Rock, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, under pressure by the enemy?


text:
My adversaries' taunts make me feel as if my bones were crushed, as they ask me all day long, 'Where is your God?''


text:
My soul, why are you so downcast? Why are you groaning inside me? Hope in God, since I will praise him again for being my Savior and God.


text:
Judge me, God, and plead my cause against a faithless nation. Rescue me from those who deceive and from those who are unjust.


text:
For you are the God of my strength; why have you thrust me aside? Why must I go about mourning, under pressure by the enemy?


text:
Send out your light and your truth; let them be my guide; let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the places where you live.


text:
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and delight; I will praise you on the lyre, God, my God.


text:
For the leader. By the descendants of Korach. A maskil: God, we heard it with our ears; our fathers told us about it -a deed which you did in their days, back in days of old.


text:
With your hand you drove out nations to plant them in [the land], you crushed peoples to make room for them.


text:
For not by their own swords did they conquer the land, nor did their own arm give them victory; rather, it was your right hand, your arm and the light of your face; because you favored them.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Lilies.' By the descendants of Korach. A maskil. A lovesong: My heart is stirred by a noble theme; I address my verses to the king; My tongue is the pen of an expert scribe.


text:
You are the most handsome of men; gracious speech flows from your lips. For God has blessed you forever.


text:
In your majesty, succeed, ride on in the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness. May your right hand teach you awesome things.


text:
Your arrows are sharp. The people fall under you, as they penetrate the hearts of the king's enemies.


text:
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy in preference to your companions.


text:
Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia; from ivory palaces stringed instruments bring you joy.


text:
Inside [the palace], the king's daughter looks splendid, attired in checker-work embroidered with gold.


text:
I will make your name known through all generations; thus the peoples will praise you forever and ever.


text:
For the leader. By the descendants of Korach. On 'alamot [high-pitched musical instruments?]. A song: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.


text:
Therefore we are unafraid, even if the earth gives way, even if the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,


text:
To the ends of the earth he makes wars cease he breaks the bow, snaps the spear, burns the shields in the fire.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of the descendants of Korach: Clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with cries of joy!


text:
The leaders of the people gather together, the people of the God of Avraham; for the rulers of the earth belong to God, who is exalted on high.


text:
A song. A psalm of the descendants of Korach: Great is ADONAI and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, his holy mountain,


text:
beautiful in its elevation, the joy of all the earth, Mount Tziyon, in the far north, the city of the great king.


text:
We heard it, and now we see for ourselves in the city of ADONAI-Tzva'ot, in the city of our God. May God establish it forever. (Selah)


text:
God, your praise, like your name, extends to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.


text:
Let Mount Tziyon rejoice, let the daughters of Y'hudah be glad, because of your judgment [on the enemy].


text:
For the leader. A psalm of the descendants of Korach: Hear this, all you peoples! Listen, everyone living on earth,


text:
For he can see that wise men will die, likewise the fool and the brute will perish and leave their wealth to others.


text:
They think their homes will last forever, their dwellings through all generations; they give their own names to their estates.


text:
Like sheep, they are destined for Sh'ol; death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning; and their forms will waste away in Sh'ol, until they need no dwelling.


text:
Our God is coming and not staying silent. With a fire devouring ahead of him and a great storm raging around him,


text:
But to the wicked God says: 'What right do you have to proclaim my laws or take my covenant on your lips,


text:
When you do such things, should I stay silent? You may have thought I was just like you; but I will rebuke and indict you to your face.


text:
'Whoever offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; and to him who goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.'


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David, when Natan the prophet came to him after his affair with Bat-Sheva: God, in your grace, have mercy on me; in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.


text:
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil from your perspective; so that you are right in accusing me and justified in passing sentence.


text:
Rescue me from the guilt of shedding blood, God, God of my salvation! Then my tongue will sing about your righteousness


text:
Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then they will offer bulls on your altar.


text:
For the leader. A maskil of David, when Do'eg from Edom came and told Sha'ul, 'David has arrived at the house of Achimelekh': Why do you boast of your evil, you tyrant, when God's mercy is present every day?


text:
This is why God will strike you down, seize you, pluck you from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)


text:
'This fellow would not make God his refuge, but trusted in his own great wealth, relying on his evil plots.'


text:
But I am like a leafy olive tree in the house of God; I put my trust in the grace of God forever and ever.


text:
I will praise you forever for what you have done, and I will put my hope in your name; for this is what is good in the presence of your faithful.


text:
For the leader. On machalat. A maskil of David: A brutish fool tells himself, 'There isn't any God.'Such people are depraved, all their deeds are vile, not one of them does what is good.


text:
Every one of them is unclean, altogether corrupt; not one of them does what is good, not a single one.


text:
Won't these evildoers ever learn? They devour my people as if they were eating bread, and they never call on God!


text:
They will be gripped with terror, even though now they are not afraid; for God will scatter the bones of him who is besieging you. You are putting them to shame, because God has rejected them.


text:
If only salvation for Isra'el would come out of Tziyon! When God restores his people's fortunes, what joy for Ya'akov! what gladness for Isra'el!


text:
For the leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David, when the Zifim came and told Sha'ul, 'David is hiding with us': God, deliver me by your name; in your power, vindicate me.


text:
For foreigners are rising against me, violent men are seeking my life; they give no thought to God. (Selah)


text:
For the leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David: Listen, God, to my prayer! Don't hide yourself from my plea!


text:
at how the enemy shouts, at how the wicked oppress; for they keep heaping trouble on me and angrily tormenting me.


text:
For it was not an enemy who insulted me; if it had been, I could have borne it. It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn; if it had been, I could have hidden myself.


text:
May he put death on them; let them go down alive to Sh'ol; for evil is in their homes and also in their hearts.


text:
He redeems me and gives me peace, so that no one can come near me. For there were many who fought me.


text:
God will hear and will humble them, yes, he who has sat on his throne from the start. (Selah) For they never change, and they don't fear God.


text:
What he said sounded smoother than butter, but his heart was at war. His words seemed more soothing than oil, but in fact they were sharp swords.


text:
Unload your burden on ADONAI, and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.


text:
But you will bring them down, God, into the deepest pit. Those men, so bloodthirsty and treacherous, will not live out half their days. But for my part, [ADONAI,] I put my trust in you.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'The Silent Dove in the Distance.' By David; a mikhtam, when the P'lishtim captured him in Gat: Show me favor, God; for people are trampling me down -all day they fight and press on me.


text:
Those who are lying in wait for me would trample on me all day. For those fighting against me are many. Most High,


text:
You have kept count of my wanderings; store my tears in your water-skin -aren't they already recorded in your book?


text:
For you rescued me from death, you kept my feet from stumbling, so that I can walk in God's presence, in the light of life.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' By David, a mikhtam, when he fled from Sha'ul into the cave: Show me favor, God, show me favor; for in you I have taken refuge. Yes, I will find refuge in the shadow of your wings until the storms have passed.


text:
He will send from heaven and save me when those who would trample me down mock me. (Selah) God will send his grace and his truth.


text:
I am surrounded by lions, I am lying down among people breathing fire, men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongues sharp-edged swords.


text:
They prepared a snare for my feet, but I am bending over [to avoid it]. They dug a pit ahead of me, but they fell into it themselves. (Selah)


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' By David, a mikhtam: [Rulers,] does your silence really speak justice? Are you judging people fairly?


text:
Before your cook-pots feel the heat of the burning thorns, may he blow them away, green and blazing alike.


text:
The righteous will rejoice to see vengeance done, they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked;


text:
and people will say, 'Yes, the righteous are rewarded; there is, after all, a God who judges the earth.'


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' By David; a mikhtam, when Sha'ul sent men to keep watch on David's house in order to kill him: My God, rescue me from my enemies! Lift me up, out of reach of my foes!


text:
For there they are, lying in wait to kill me. Openly they gather themselves against me, and not because I committed a crime or sinned, ADONAI.


text:
You, ADONAI Elohei-Tzva'ot, God of Isra'el, arouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those wicked traitors. (Selah)


text:
Look what pours out of their mouth, what swords are on their lips, [as they say to themselves,] 'No one is listening, anyway.'


text:
Don't kill them, or my people will forget; instead, by your power, make them wander to and fro; but bring them down, Adonai our Shield,


text:
for the sins their mouths make with each word from their lips. Let them be trapped by their pride for the curses and falsehoods they utter.


text:
Finish them off in wrath, finish them off, put an end to them, and let them know to the ends of the earth that God is Ruler in Ya'akov. (Selah)


text:
But as for me, I will sing of your strength; in the morning I will sing aloud of your grace. For you are my fortress, a refuge when I am in trouble.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Lily of Testimony.'A mikhtam of David for teaching about when he fought with Aram-Naharayim and with Aram-Tzovah, and Yo'av returned and killed 12,000 from Edom in the Salt Valley: God, you rejected us; you crushed us; you were angry; but now revive us.


text:
God in his holiness spoke, and I took joy [in his promise]: 'I will divide Sh'khem and determine the shares in the Sukkot Valley.


text:
From the end of the earth, with fainting heart, I call out to you. Set me down on a rock far above where I am now.


text:
For the leader. Set in the style of Y'dutun. A psalm of David: My soul waits in silence for God alone; my salvation comes from him.


text:
How long will you assail a person in order to murder him, all of you, as if he were a sagging wall or a shaky fence?


text:
They only want to shake him from his height, they take delight in lying with their mouths they bless, but inwardly they curse. (Selah)


text:
Ordinary folks are merely a breath and important people a sham; if you lay them on a balance-scale, they go up both together are lighter than nothing.


text:
Don't put your trust in extortion, don't put false hopes in robbery; even if wealth increases, don't set your heart on it.


text:
A psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Y'hudah: O God, you are my God; I will seek you eagerly. My heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a land parched and exhausted, where no water can be found.


text:
But the king will rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be silenced.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: Hear my voice, God, as I plead: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.


text:
They search for ways to commit crimes, bringing their diligent search to completion when each of them has thought it through in the depth of his heart.


text:
The righteous will rejoice in ADONAI; they will take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will exult.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David. A song: To you, God, in Tziyon, silence is praise; and vows to you are to be fulfilled.


text:
How blessed are those you choose and bring near, so that they can remain in your courtyards! We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the Holy Place of your temple.


text:
It is just that you answer us with awesome deeds, God of our salvation, you in whom all put their trust, to the ends of the earth and on distant seas.


text:
This is why those living at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your signs. The places where the sun rises and sets you cause to sing for joy.


text:
You care for the earth and water it, you enrich it greatly; with the river of God, full of water, you provide them grain and prepare the ground.


text:
the meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys blanketed with grain, so they shout for joy and break into song.


text:
With his power he rules forever; his eyes keep watch on the nations. Let no rebel arise to challenge him.


text:
You made men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water. But you brought us out to a place of plenty.


text:
I will offer you burnt offerings of fattened animals, along with the sweet smoke of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. (Selah)


text:
For the leader. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song: God, be gracious to us, and bless us. May he make his face shine toward us, (Selah)


text:
Let the nations be glad and shout for joy, for you will judge the peoples fairly and guide the nations on earth. (Selah)


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David. A song: Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from his presence.


text:
Drive them away as smoke is driven away; like wax melting in the presence of a fire, let the wicked perish in the presence of God.


text:
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; extol him who rides on the clouds by his name, Yah; and be glad in his presence.


text:
God gives homes to those who are alone and leads prisoners out into prosperity. But rebels must live in a parched wasteland.


text:
God, when you went out at the head of your people, when you marched out through the wilderness, (Selah)


text:
the earth quaked, and rain poured from the sky, at the presence of God. Even Sinai [shook] at the presence of God, the God of Isra'el.


text:
Even if you lie among the animal stalls, there are wings of a dove covered with silver and its plumes with green gold.


text:
You rugged mountain, why look with envy at the mountain God wants for his place to live? Truly, ADONAI will live there forever.


text:
After you went up into the heights, you led captivity captive, you took gifts among mankind, yes, even among the rebels, so that Yah, God, might live there.


text:
God will surely crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who continue in their guilt.


text:
Adonai said, 'I will bring them back from Bashan, I will fetch [those rebels] even from the depths of the sea;


text:
so that you can wash your feet in their blood, and your dogs' tongues too can get their share from your foes.


text:
There is Binyamin, the youngest, at the head; the princes of Y'hudah, crowding along; the princes of Z'vulun; the princes of Naftali.


text:
Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, that herd of bulls with their calves, the peoples, who ingratiate themselves with bars of silver; let him scatter the peoples who take pleasure in fighting.


text:
Acknowledge that strength belongs to God, with his majesty over Isra'el and his strength in the skies.


text:
How awe-inspiring you are, God, from your holy places, the God of Isra'el, who gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God!


text:
I am sinking down in the mud, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep water; the flood is sweeping over me.


text:
I am exhausted from crying, my throat is dry and sore, my eyes are worn out with looking for my God.


text:
Those who hate me for no reason outnumber the hairs on my head. My persecutors are powerful, my enemies accuse me falsely. Am I expected to return things I didn't steal?


text:
Let those who put their hope in you, Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot, not be put to shame through me; let those who are seeking you, God of Isra'el, not be disgraced through me.


text:
because zeal for your house is eating me up, and on me are falling the insults of those insulting you.


text:
As for me, ADONAI, let my prayer to you come at an acceptable time; In your great grace, God, answer me with the truth of your salvation.


text:
Rescue me from the mud! Don't let me sink! Let me be rescued from those who hate me and from the deep water.


text:
Don't let the floodwaters overwhelm me, don't let the deep swallow me up, don't let the pit close its mouth over me.


text:
Insults have broken my heart to the point that I could die. I hoped that someone would show compassion, but nobody did; and that there would be comforters, but I found none.


text:
For God will save Tziyon, he will build the cities of Y'hudah. [His people] will settle there and possess it.


text:
May those who seek my life be disgraced and humiliated. May those who take pleasure in doing me harm be turned back and put to confusion.


text:
But may all those who seek you be glad and take joy in you. May those who love your salvation say always, 'God is great and glorious!'


text:
Be for me a sheltering rock, where I can always come. You have determined to save me, because you are my bedrock and stronghold.


text:
May those who are opposed to me be put to shame and ruin; may those who seek to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.


text:
All day long my mouth will tell of your righteous deeds and acts of salvation, though their number is past my knowing.


text:
So now that I'm old, and my hair is gray, don't abandon me, God, till I have proclaimed your strength to the next generation, your power to all who will come,


text:
your righteousness too, God, which reaches to the heights. God, you have done great things; who is there like you?


text:
You have made me see much trouble and hardship, but you will revive me again and bring me up from the depths of the earth.


text:
As for me, I will praise you with a lyre for your faithfulness, my God. I will sing praises to you with a lute, Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
All day long my tongue will speak of your righteousness. For those who are seeking to harm me will be put to shame and disgraced.


text:
By Shlomo: God, give the king your fairness in judgment, endow this son of kings with your righteousness,


text:
The kings of Tarshish and the coasts will pay him tribute; the kings of Sh'va and S'va will offer gifts.


text:
May [the king] live long! May they give him gold from the land of Sh'va! May they pray for him continually; yes, bless him all day long.


text:
May there be an abundance of grain in the land, all the way to the tops of the mountains. May its crops rustle like the L'vanon. May people blossom in the city like the grasses in the fields.


text:
May his name endure forever, his name, Yinnon, as long as the sun. May people bless themselves in him, may all nations call him happy.


text:
They are like a dream when one awakens; Adonai, when you rouse yourself, you will despise their phantoms.


text:
But for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made Adonai ELOHIM my refuge, so that I can tell of all your works.


text:
A maskil of Asaf: Why have you rejected us forever, God, with your anger smoking against the sheep you once pastured?


text:
Remember your community, which you acquired long ago, the tribe you redeemed to be your very own. Remember Mount Tziyon, where you came to live.


text:
The roar of your foes filled your meeting-place; they raised their own banners as a sign of their conquest.


text:
They said to themselves, 'We will oppress them completely.'They have burned down all God's meeting-places in the land.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Do Not Destroy!'A psalm of Asaf. A song: We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks; your name is near, people tell of your wonders.


text:
In ADONAI's hand there is a cup of wine, foaming, richly spiced; when he pours it out, all the wicked of the earth will drain it, drinking it to the dregs.'


text:
For the leader. With string music. A psalm of Asaf. A song: In Y'hudah God is known; his name is great in Isra'el.


text:
The bravest have been stripped of their spoil and now are sleeping their final sleep; not one of these courageous men finds strength to raise his hands.


text:
Make vows to ADONAI your God, and keep them; all who are around him must bring presents to the one who should be feared.


text:
On the day of my distress I am seeking Adonai; my hands are lifted up; my tears flow all night without ceasing; my heart refuses comfort.


text:
The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightning flashes lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook.


text:
Your way went through the sea, your path through the turbulent waters; but your footsteps could not be traced.


text:
we will not hide from their descendants; we will tell the generation to come the praises of ADONAI and his strength, the wonders that he has performed.


text:
He raised up a testimony in Ya'akov and established a Torah in Isra'el. He commanded our ancestors to make this known to their children,


text:
so that the next generation would know it, the children not yet born, who would themselves arise and tell their own children,


text:
Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation with unprepared hearts, with spirits unfaithful to God.


text:
He had done wonderful things in the presence of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Tzo'an.


text:
True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, until the vadis overflowed; but what about bread? Can he give that? Can he provide meat for his people?'


text:
Therefore, when ADONAI heard, he was angry; fire blazed up against Ya'akov; his anger mounted against Isra'el;


text:
when the anger of God rose up against them and slaughtered their strongest men, laying low the young men of Isra'el.


text:
Yet he, because he is full of compassion, forgave their sin and did not destroy; many times he turned away his anger and didn't rouse all his wrath.


text:
He sent over them his fierce anger, fury, indignation and trouble, with a company of destroying angels


text:
He expelled nations before them, apportioned them property to inherit and made Isra'el's tribes live in their tents.


text:
They turned away and were faithless, like their fathers; they were unreliable, like a bow without tension.


text:
A psalm of Asaf: God, the pagans have entered your heritage. They have defiled your holy temple and turned Yerushalayim into rubble.


text:
They have given the corpses of your servants as food for the birds in the air, yes, the flesh of those faithful to you for the wild animals of the earth.


text:
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, on the kingdoms that don't call out your name;


text:
Don't count past iniquities against us, but let your compassion come quickly to meet us, for we have been brought very low.


text:
Help us, God of our salvation, for the sake of the glory of your name. Deliver us, forgive our sins, for your name's sake.


text:
Why should the nations ask, 'Where is their God?' Let the vengeance taken on your servants' shed blood be known among the nations before our eyes.


text:
Let the groaning of the captives come before you; by your great strength save those condemned to death.


text:
Then we, your people and the flock in your pasture, will give you thanks forever. From generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.


text:
For the leader. Set to 'Lilies.'A testimony. A psalm of Asaf: Shepherd of Isra'el, listen! You who lead Yosef like a flock, you whose throne is on the k'ruvim, shine out!


text:
For the Leader. On the gittit. By Asaf: Sing for joy to God our strength! Shout to the God of Ya'akov!


text:
He placed it as a testimony in Y'hosef when he went out against the land of Egypt. I heard an unfamiliar voice say,


text:
You called out when you were in trouble, and I rescued you; I answered you from the thundercloud; I tested you at the M'rivah Spring [by saying,] (Selah)


text:
I am ADONAI your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth, and I will fill it.'


text:
A psalm of Asaf: Elohim [God] stands in the divine assembly; there with the elohim [judges], he judges:


text:
They don't know, they don't understand, they wander about in darkness; meanwhile, all the foundations of the earth are being undermined.


text:
For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of the sons of Korach: How deeply loved are your dwelling-places, ADONAI-Tzva'ot!


text:
My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing for the courtyards of ADONAI; my heart and body cry for joy to the living God.


text:
As the sparrow finds herself a home and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young, [so my resting-place is] by your altars, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, my king and my God.


text:
Passing through the [dry] Baka Valley, they make it a place of springs, and the early rain clothes it with blessings.


text:
Better a day in your courtyards than a thousand [days elsewhere]. Better just standing at the door of my God's house than living in the tents of the wicked.


text:
For ADONAI, God, is a sun and a shield; ADONAI bestows favor and honor; he will not withhold anything good from those whose lives are pure.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of the sons of Korach: ADONAI, you have shown favor to your land; you have restored the fortunes of Ya'akov,


text:
I am listening. What will God, ADONAI, say? For he will speak peace to his people, to his holy ones -but only if they don't relapse into folly.


text:
Preserve my life, for I am faithful; save your servant, who puts his trust in you because you are my God.


text:
ADONAI, teach me your way, so that I can live by your truth; make me single-hearted, so that I can fear your name.


text:
God, arrogant men are rising against me, a gang of brutes is seeking my life, and to you they pay no attention.


text:
Turn to me, and show me your favor; strengthen your servant, save your slave-girl's son. Give me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me will see it and be ashamed, because you, ADONAI, have helped and comforted me.


text:
I count Rahav and Bavel among those who know me; Of P'leshet, Tzor and Ethiopia [they will say], 'This one was born there.'


text:
But of Tziyon it will be said, 'This one and that was born in it, for the Most High himself establishes it.'


text:
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korach. For the leader. Set to 'Sickness that Causes Suffering.' A maskil of Heiman the Ezrachi. ADONAI, God of my salvation, when I cry out to you in the night,


text:
left by myself among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave -you no longer remember them; they are cut off from your care.


text:
Since my youth I have been miserable, close to death; I am numb from bearing these terrors of yours.


text:
A maskil of Eitan the Ezrachi: I will sing about ADONAI's acts of grace forever, with my mouth proclaim your faithfulness to all generations;


text:
because I said, 'Grace is built to last forever; in the heavens themselves you established your faithfulness.'


text:
How happy are the people who know the joyful shout! They walk in the light of your presence, ADONAI.


text:
There was a time when you spoke in a vision; you declared to your loyal [prophets], 'I have given help to a warrior, I have raised up someone chosen from the people.


text:
It will be established forever, like the moon, which remains a faithful witness in the sky.' (Selah)


text:
Where, Adonai, are the acts of grace you once did, those which, in your faithfulness, you swore to David?


text:
Remember, Adonai, the taunts hurled at your servants, which I carry in my heart [from] so many peoples!


text:
Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, from eternity past to eternity future you are God.


text:
The span of our life is seventy years, or if we are strong, eighty; yet at best it is toil and sorrow, over in a moment, and then we are gone.


text:
Let our joy last as long as the time you made us suffer, for as many years as we experienced trouble.


text:
May the favor of Adonai our God be on us, prosper for us all the work that we do -yes, prosper the work that we do.


text:
he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his truth is a shield and protection.


text:
He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble. I will extricate him and bring him honor.


text:
A psalm. A song for Shabbat: It is good to give thanks to ADONAI and sing praises to your name, 'Elyon,


text:
that when the wicked sprout like grass, and all who do evil prosper, it is so that they can be eternally destroyed,


text:
My eyes have gazed with pleasure on my enemies' ruin, my ears have delighted in the fall of my foes.


text:
ADONAI is king, robed in majesty; ADONAI is robed, girded with strength; The world is well established; it cannot be moved.


text:
ADONAI, the deep is raising up, the deep is raising up its voice, the deep is raising its crashing waves.


text:
But he repays them as their guilt deserves; he will cut them off with their own evil; ADONAI our God will cut them off.


text:
For he is our God, and we are the people in his pasture, the sheep in his care. If only today you would listen to his voice:


text:
For forty years I loathed that generation; I said, 'This is a people whose hearts go astray, they don't understand how I do things.'


text:
Say among the nations, 'ADONAI is king!'The world is firmly established, immovable. He will judge the peoples fairly.


text:
before ADONAI, because he has come, he has come to judge the earth; he will judge the world rightly and the peoples with his faithfulness.


text:
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of ADONAI, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.


text:
All who worship images will be put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols. Bow down to him, all you gods!


text:
You who love ADONAI, hate evil! He keeps his faithful servants safe. He rescues them from the power of the wicked.


text:
A psalm: Sing a new song to ADONAI, because he has done wonders. His right hand, his holy arm have won him victory.


text:
remembered his grace and faithfulness to the house of Isra'el. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.


text:
before ADONAI, for he has come to judge the earth; he will judge the world rightly and the peoples fairly.


text:
Moshe and Aharon among his cohanim and Sh'mu'el among those who call on his name called on ADONAI, and he answered them.


text:
ADONAI our God, you answered them. To them you were a forgiving God, although you took vengeance on their wrongdoings.


text:
Be aware that ADONAI is God; it is he who made us; and we are his, his people, the flock in his pasture.


text:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courtyards with praise; give thanks to him, and bless his name.


text:
For ADONAI is good, his grace continues forever, and his faithfulness lasts through all generations.


text:
I will follow the path of integrity; when will you come to me? I will run my life with a sincere heart inside my own house.


text:
I will not allow before my eyes any shameful thing. I hate those who act crookedly; what they do does not attract me.


text:
If someone slanders another in secret, I will cut him off. Haughty eyes and proud hearts I cannot abide.


text:
I look to the faithful of the land, so that they can be my companions; those who live lives of integrity can be servants of mine.


text:
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of ADONAI.


text:
Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint before ADONAI: ADONAI, hear my prayer! Let my cry for help reach you!


text:
Don't hide your face from me when I am in such distress! Turn your ear toward me; when I call, be quick to reply!


text:
You will arise and take pity on Tziyon, for the time has come to have mercy on her; the time determined has come.


text:
I plead, 'God, your years last through all generations; so don't take me away when my life is half over!


text:
They will vanish, but you will remain; like clothing, they will all grow old; yes, you will change them like clothing, and they will pass away.


text:
The children of your servants will live securely and their descendants be established in your presence.'


text:
But the mercy of ADONAI on those who fear him is from eternity past to eternity future, and his righteousness extends to his children's children,


text:
you laid the beams of your palace on the water. You make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind.


text:
You grow grass for the cattle; and for people you grow the plants they need to bring forth bread from the earth,


text:
What variety there is in your works, ADONAI! How many [of them there are]! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creations.


text:
Look at the sea, so great, so wide! It teems with countless creatures, living beings, both large and small.


text:
If you hide your face, they vanish; if you hold back their breath, they perish and return to their dust.


text:
so I can see how well things are going with those whom you have chosen, so that I can rejoice in your nation's joy, and glory in your heritage.


text:
Our ancestors in Egypt failed to grasp the meaning of your wonders. They didn't keep in mind your great deeds of grace but rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Suf.


text:
Therefore he said that he would destroy them, [and he would have,] had not Moshe his chosen one stood before him in the breach to turn back his destroying fury.


text:
Yes, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to Kena'an's false gods, polluting the land with blood.


text:
Many times [God] rescued them, but they kept making plans to rebel. Thus they were brought low by their own wrongdoing.


text:
Save us, ADONAI our God! Gather us from among the nations, so that we can thank your holy name and glory in praising you.


text:
Blessed be ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, from eternity past to eternity future. Now let all the people say, 'Amen! Halleluyah!'


text:
The sailors were raised up to the sky, then plunged into the depths. At the danger, their courage failed them,


text:
For wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me, spoken against me with lying tongues,


text:
May the wrongs of his ancestors be remembered by ADONAI, and may the sin of his mother not be erased;


text:
For he did not remember to show kindness but hounded the downtrodden, the poor and the brokenhearted to death.


text:
He clothed himself with cursing as routinely as with his coat; May it enter inside him as easily as water, as easily as oil into his bones.


text:
Let them go on cursing; but you, bless! When they attack, let them be put to shame; but let your servant rejoice.


text:
A psalm of David: ADONAI says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'


text:
ADONAI will send your powerful scepter out from Tziyon, so that you will rule over your enemies around you.


text:
On the day your forces mobilize, your people willingly offer themselves in holy splendors from the womb of the dawn; the dew of your youth is yours.


text:
ADONAI has sworn it, and he will never retract -'You are a cohen forever, to be compared with Malki-Tzedek.'


text:
He will pass judgment among the nations, filling it with dead bodies; he will shatter heads throughout an extensive territory.


text:
Halleluyah! I will wholeheartedly give thanks to ADONAI in the council of the upright and in the assembly.


text:
He sent redemption to his people and decreed that his covenant should last forever. His name is holy and fearsome


text:
the first and foremost point of wisdom is the fear of ADONAI; all those living by it gain good common sense. His praise stands forever.


text:
He distributes freely, he gives to the poor; his righteousness stands forever. His power will be increased honorably.


text:
The wicked will be angry when they see this; they will gnash their teeth and waste away, the desires of the wicked will come to nothing.


text:
they have hands, but they can't feel; they have feet, but they can't walk; with their throats they can't make a sound.


text:
ADONAI has kept us in mind, and he will bless. He will bless the house of Isra'el; he will bless the house of Aharon;


text:
The cords of death were all around me, Sh'ol's constrictions held me fast; I was finding only distress and anguish.


text:
Oh, ADONAI! I am your slave; I am your slave, the son of your slave-girl; you have removed my fetters.


text:
They surrounded me like bees but were extinguished [as quickly] as a fire in thorns; in the name of ADONAI I cut them down.


text:
The sound of rejoicing and victory is heard in the tents of the righteous: 'ADONAI's right hand struck powerfully!


text:
ADONAI is God, and he gives us light. Join in the pilgrim festival with branches all the way to the horns of the altar.


text:
Let the proud be ashamed, because they wrong me with lies; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.


text:
The tribes have gone up there, the tribes of ADONAI, as a witness to Isra'el, to give thanks to the name of ADONAI.


text:
As a servant looks to the hand of his master, or a slave-girl to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes turn to ADONAI our God, until he has mercy on us.


text:
A song of ascents: Those who trust in ADONAI are like Mount Tziyon, which cannot be moved but remains forever.


text:
For the scepter of wickedness will not rule the inheritance of the righteous, so that the righteous will not themselves turn their hands to evil.


text:
But as for those who turn aside to their own crooked ways, may ADONAI turn them away, along with those who do evil. Shalom on Isra'el!


text:
Our mouths were full of laughter, and our tongues shouted for joy. Among the nations it was said, 'ADONAI has done great things for them!'


text:
He who goes out weeping as he carries his sack of seed will come home with cries of joy as he carries his sheaves of grain.


text:
A song of ascents. By Shlomo: Unless ADONAI builds the house, its builders work in vain. Unless ADONAI guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.


text:
In vain do you get up early and put off going to bed, working hard to earn a living; for he provides for his beloved, even when they sleep.


text:
How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; he will not have to be embarrassed when contending with foes at the city gate.


text:
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner parts of your house. Your children around the table will be like shoots from an olive tree.


text:
Everything in me waits for Adonai more than guards on watch wait for morning, more than guards on watch wait for morning.


text:
Isra'el, put your hope in ADONAI! For grace is found with ADONAI, and with him is unlimited redemption.


text:
A song of ascents. By David: ADONAI, my heart isn't proud; I don't set my sight too high, I don't take part in great affairs or in wonders far beyond me.


text:
No, I keep myself calm and quiet, like a little child on its mother's lap -I keep myself like a little child.


text:
ADONAI swore an oath to David, an oath he will not break: 'One of the sons from your own body I will set on your throne.


text:
If your sons keep my covenant and my instruction, which I will teach them, then their descendants too, forever, will sit on your throne.'


text:
A song of ascents. By David: Oh, how good, how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in harmony.


text:
It is like fragrant oil on the head that runs down over the beard, over the beard of Aharon, and flows down on the collar of his robes.


text:
It is like the dew of Hermon that settles on the mountains of Tziyon. For it was there that ADONAI ordained the blessing of everlasting life.


text:
A song of ascents: Come, bless ADONAI, all you servants of ADONAI, who serve each night in the house of ADONAI.


text:
He raises clouds from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash in the rain and brings the wind out from his storehouses.


text:
when those who had taken us captive asked us to sing them a song; our tormentors demanded joy from us -'Sing us one of the songs from Tziyon!'


text:
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I fail to count Yerushalayim the greatest of all my joys.


text:
Remember, ADONAI, against the people of Edom the day of Yerushalayim's fall, how they cried, 'Tear it down! Tear it down! Raze it to the ground!'


text:
Daughter of Bavel, you will be destroyed! A blessing on anyone who pays you back for the way you treated us!


text:
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth; for you have made your word [even] greater than the whole of your reputation.


text:
You keep me alive when surrounded by danger; you put out your hand when my enemies rage; with your right hand you save me.


text:
ADONAI will fulfill his purpose for me. Your grace, ADONAI, continues forever. Don't abandon the work of your hands!


text:
even darkness like this is not too dark for you; rather, night is as clear as day, darkness and light are the same.


text:
I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; your works are wonders -I know this very well.


text:
My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.


text:
Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed.


text:
For the leader. A psalm of David: Rescue me, ADONAI, from evil people, protect me from violent people.


text:
Keep me, ADONAI, from the hands of the wicked, protect me from violent people who are trying to trip me up.


text:
The arrogant hide snares for me; they spread nets by the side of the road, hoping to trap me there. (Selah)


text:
ADONAI, don't grant the wicked their wishes; make their plot fail, so they won't grow proud. (Selah)


text:
May burning coals rain down on them, may they be flung into the fire, flung into deep pits, never to rise again.


text:
A psalm of David: ADONAI, I have called you; come to me quickly! Listen to my plea when I call to you.


text:
Don't let my heart turn to anything evil or allow me to act wickedly with men who are evildoers; keep me from eating their delicacies.


text:
Let the righteous strike me, let him correct me; it will be an act of love. Let my head not refuse such choice oil, for I will keep on praying about their wickedness.


text:
When their rulers are thrown down from the cliff, [the wicked] will hear that my words were fitting.


text:
A maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer: With my voice I cry to ADONAI, with my voice I plead to ADONAI for mercy.


text:
When my spirit faints within me, you watch over my path. By the road that I am walking they have hidden a snare for me.


text:
Listen to my cry, for I have been brought very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.


text:
Lead me out of prison, so that I can give thanks to your name; in me the righteous will be crowning themselves, because you will have treated me generously.


text:
A psalm of David: ADONAI, hear my prayer; listen to my pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer me, and in your righteousness.


text:
For an enemy is pursuing me; he has crushed my life into the ground and left me to live in darkness, like those who have been long dead.


text:
Answer me quickly, ADONAI, because my spirit is fainting. Don't hide your face from me, or I'll be like those who drop down into a pit.


text:
Make me hear of your love in the morning, because I rely on you. Make me know the way I should walk, because I entrust myself to you.


text:
Teach me to do your will, because you are my God; Let your good Spirit guide me on ground that is level.


text:
He shows me grace; and he is my fortress, my stronghold, in whom I find shelter, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.


text:
Reach out your hands from on high; rescue me; save me out of deep water, out of the power of strangers,


text:
Rescue me, save me from the power of strangers, whose mouths speak worthless words and whose right hands swear false oaths.


text:
Our sons in their youth will be like full-grown saplings, our daughters will be like sculptured pillars fit for the corner of a palace.


text:
Our barns are full with crops of every kind; the sheep in our fields number thousands, tens of thousands.


text:
our oxen are well-fed, our city walls have no breach, our people are not taken captive, and there are no cries of protest in our cities' open places.


text:
Praise. By David: I will praise you to the heights, my God, the king; I will bless your name forever and ever.


text:
ADONAI opens the eyes of the blind, ADONAI lifts up those who are bent over. ADONAI loves the righteous.


text:
ADONAI watches over strangers, he sustains the fatherless and widows; but the way of the wicked he twists.


text:
Let them praise the name of ADONAI, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above both earth and heaven.


text:
He has increased the power of his people, granted praise to all his faithful, to the descendants of Isra'el, a people close to him. Halleluyah!


text:
Someone who is already wise will hear and learn still more; someone who already understands will gain the ability to counsel well;


text:
Suppose they say, 'Come with us: we'll ambush somebody and kill him, we'll waylay some harmless soul, just for fun;


text:
'How long, you whose lives have no purpose, will you love thoughtless living? How long will scorners find pleasure in mocking? How long will fools hate knowledge?


text:
yes, when terror overtakes you like a storm and your disaster approaches like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble assail you.


text:
For the aimless wandering of the thoughtless will kill them, and the smug overconfidence of fools will destroy them;


text:
Do not let grace and truth leave you -bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.


text:
Don't tell your neighbor, 'Go away! Come another time; I'll give it to you tomorrow,' when you have it now.


text:
For they can't sleep if they haven't done evil, they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone fall.


text:
a lovely deer, a graceful fawn; let her breasts satisfy you at all times, always be infatuated with her love.


text:
My son, if you have put up security for your friend, if you committed yourself on behalf of another;


text:
Do this now, my son, and extricate yourself, since you put yourself in your friend's power: go, humble yourself, and pester your friend;


text:
When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you wake up, they will talk with you.


text:
but even he, if caught, must pay back sevenfold; he may have to give up all the wealth that he owns.


text:
when I saw among the young men there, among those who don't think for themselves, a young fellow devoid of all sense.


text:
At once he follows her like an ox on its way to be slaughtered; like a fool to be punished in the stocks;


text:
or like a bird rushing into a trap, not knowing its life is at stake till an arrow pierces its liver.


text:
when he prescribed boundaries for the sea, so that its water would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,


text:
I was with him as someone he could trust. For me, every day was pure delight, as I played in his presence all the time,.


text:
But he doesn't realize that the dead are there, and that those who accept her invitation are in the depths of Sh'ol.


text:
The proverbs of Shlomo: A wise son is a joy to his father, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.


text:
The speech of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the speech of the wicked is a cover for violence.


text:
He who observes discipline is on the way to life; but he who ignores correction is making a mistake.


text:
The righteousness of the upright rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their own intrigues.


text:
A person wins praise in keeping with his common sense, but a person with a warped mind is treated with contempt.


text:
One can be filled with good as the result of one's words, and one gets the reward one's deeds deserve.


text:
A [good] man enjoys good as a result of what he says, but the essence of the treacherous is violence.


text:
There are those with nothing who pretend they are rich, also those with great wealth who pretend they are poor.


text:
Wealth gotten by worthless means dwindles away, but he who amasses it by hard work will increase it.


text:
A good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren, but the wealth of a sinner is stored up for the righteous.


text:
The home of the righteous is a storehouse of treasure, but the earnings of the wicked bring trouble.


text:
The balance and scales of justice have their origin in ADONAI; all the weights in the bag are his doing.


text:
How much better than gold it is to gain wisdom! Yes, rather than money, choose to gain understanding.


text:
Common sense is a fountain of life to one who has it, whereas fools are punished by their own folly.


text:
One who winks knowingly is planning deceit; one who pinches his lips together has already done wrong.


text:
He who controls his temper is better than a war hero, he who rules his spirit better than he who captures a city.


text:
Starting a fight is like letting water through [a dike] -better stop the quarrel before it gets worse.


text:
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous -both alike are an abomination to ADONAI.


text:
Those who love quarreling love giving offense; those who make their gates tall are courting disaster.


text:
The discerning person focuses on wisdom there before him, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.


text:
The name of ADONAI is a strong tower; a righteous person runs to it and is raised high [above danger].


text:
It is harder to win an offended brother than a strong city; their fights are like the bars of a fortress.


text:
A person's belly will be filled with the fruit of his mouth; with what his lips produce he will be filled.


text:
Better to be poor and live one's life uprightly than engage in crooked speech, for such a one is a fool.


text:
To act without knowing how you function is not good; and if you rush ahead, you will miss your goal.


text:
A poor man's relatives all hate him; even more his friends stay away from him. He may pursue them with entreaties, but they aren't there to be found.


text:
If you strike a scorner, the simple will learn to act wisely; if you reprove the intelligent, he will understand what you mean.


text:
The dread of a king is like when a lion roars; he who makes him angry commits a life-threatening sin.


text:
Seize his clothes, because he guaranteed a stranger's loan; take them as security for that unknown woman.


text:
When a scorner is punished, the simple become wiser; and when the wise is instructed, he takes hold of knowledge.


text:
Thorns and snares beset the way of the stubborn; he who values his life keeps his distance from them.


text:
Doing wrong is firmly tied to the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away from him.


text:
so you will know that these sayings are certainly true and bring back true sayings to him who sent you.


text:
If you make your eyes rush at it, it's no longer there! For wealth will surely grow wings, like an eagle flying off to the sky.


text:
For he is like someone who keeps accounts -'Eat! Drink!' he says to you, but he doesn't really mean it.


text:
Who has misery? Who has regret? Who fights and complains all the time? Who gets bruised for no good reason? Who has bloodshot eyes?


text:
'They hit me, but I didn't feel it! They beat me up, and I didn't even know it! When will I wake up? . . . I'll go get another drink.'


text:
If you say, 'We knew nothing about it,'won't he who weighs hearts discern it? Yes, he who guards you will know it and repay each one as his deeds deserve.


text:
Know that wisdom is similar[ly sweet] to your soul; if you find it, then you will have a future, what you hope for will not be cut off.


text:
Prepare your outside work, and get things ready for yourself on the land; after that, build your house.


text:
There it was, overgrown with thistles; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.


text:
For it is better to be told, 'Come up here,'than be degraded in the presence of a nobleman. What your eyes have seen,


text:
don't rush to present in a dispute. For what will you do later on, if your neighbor puts you to shame?


text:
Like the coldness of snow in the heat of the harvest is a faithful messenger to the one who sends him; he refreshes his master's spirit.


text:
Relying on an untrustworthy person in a time of trouble is like [relying on] a broken tooth or an unsteady leg.


text:
Like removing clothes on a chilly day or like vinegar on soda is someone who sings songs to a heavy heart.


text:
If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.


text:
Telling a message to a fool and sending him out is like cutting off one's feet and drinking violence.


text:
Don't abandon a friend who is also a friend of your father. Don't enter your brother's house on the day of your calamity -better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.


text:
Seize his clothes because he guaranteed a stranger's loan; take them as security for that unknown woman.


text:
whoever can restrain her can restrain the wind or keep perfume on his hand from making itself known.


text:
Whoever tends the fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who is attentive to his master will be honored.


text:
The crucible [tests] silver, and the furnace [tests] gold, but a person [is tested] by [his reaction to] praise.


text:
You can crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with the grain being crushed; yet his foolishness will not leave him.


text:
and there will be enough goat's milk to [buy] food for you and your household and maintenance for your servant-girls.


text:
A land which transgresses [is punished by] having many rulers; but with a man of understanding and knowledge, stability is prolonged.


text:
He who increases his wealth by charging exorbitant interest amasses it for someone who will bestow it on the poor.


text:
Whoever causes the honest to pursue evil ways will himself fall into his own pit, but the pure-hearted will inherit good.


text:
Whoever lives blamelessly will be saved, but he whose ways are crooked will fall in one [of those ways].


text:
He who farms his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows futilities will have plenty of poverty.


text:
A trustworthy person will receive many blessings, but one rushing to get rich will not go unpunished.


text:
When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice; but when the wicked are in power, the people groan.


text:
An unjust person is an abomination to the righteous, but he who lives uprightly is an abomination to the wicked.


text:
Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!


text:
keep falsehood and futility far from me, and give me neither poverty nor wealth. Yes, provide just the food I need today;


text:
for if I have too much, I might deny you and say, 'Who is ADONAI?'And if I am poor, I might steal and thus profane the name of my God.


text:
There is a type of people whose teeth are like swords, yes, their fangs are knives; they devour the poor from the earth, the needy from humankind.


text:
The leech has two daughters; they cry, 'Give! Give!' Three things are never satisfied; four never say, 'Enough!'


text:
Sh'ol and a barren womb; the earth, never satisfied with water; and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'


text:
The eye that mocks his father and scorns obeying his mother will be pecked out by the ravens in the valley, and the vultures will eat it.


text:
the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the open sea, and the way of a man with a girl.


text:
If you have been boorish, exalting yourself, or if you have been scheming, lay your hand on your mouth.


text:
For as pressing milk produces butter and pressing the nose produces blood, so pressing out anger produces strife.


text:
It is not for kings, L'mu'el, not for kings to drink wine; it is not for rulers to ask, 'Where can I find strong liquor?'


text:
It's still dark when she rises to give food to her household and orders to the young women serving her.


text:
The wind blows south, then it turns north; the wind blows all around and keeps returning to its rounds.


text:
All the rivers flow to the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they keep on flowing.


text:
Everything is wearisome, more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, the ear not filled up with hearing.


text:
What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.


text:
Is there something of which it is said, 'See, this is new'? It existed already in the ages before us.


text:
No one remembers the people of long ago; and those to come will not be remembered by those who come after them.


text:
I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied!


text:
I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it's all pointless, feeding on wind.


text:
I said to myself, 'Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me.'Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge;


text:
yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.


text:
I said to myself, 'Come now, I will test myself with pleasure and enjoying good things'; but this too was pointless.


text:
I searched my mind for how to gratify my body with wine and, with my mind still guiding me with wisdom, how to pursue foolishness; my object was to find out what was the best thing for people to do during the short time they have under heaven to live.


text:
I bought male and female slaves, and I had my home-born slaves as well. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than anyone before me in Yerushalayim.


text:
I amassed silver and gold, the wealth of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, things that provide sensual delight, and a good many concubines.


text:
I denied my eyes nothing they wanted. I withheld no pleasure from myself; for I took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward for all my work.


text:
Then I looked at all that my hands had accomplished and at the work I had toiled at; and I saw that it was all meaningless and feeding on wind, and that there was nothing to be gained under the sun.


text:
So I decided to look more carefully at wisdom, stupidity and foolishness; for what can the man who succeeds the king do, except what has already been done?


text:
The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet the same fate awaits them all.


text:
So I said to myself, 'If the same thing happens to the fool as to me, then what did I gain by being wise?' and I thought to myself, 'This too is pointless.


text:
For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered, inasmuch as in the times to come, everything will long ago have been forgotten. The wise man, no less than the fool, must die.'


text:
So I came to hate life, because the activities done under the sun were loathesome to me, since everything is meaningless and feeding on wind.


text:
I hated all the things for which I had worked under the sun, because I saw that I would have to leave them to the man who will come after me.


text:
Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the things I worked for and which demonstrated how wise I am under the sun. This too is pointless.


text:
Here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, knowledge and skill; yet he has to leave it to someone who has put no work into it. This is not only pointless, but a great evil.


text:
For what does a person get from all his efforts and ambitions permeating the work he does under the sun?


text:
His whole life is one of pain, and his work is full of stress; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is pointless.


text:
So there is nothing better for a man to do than eat, drink and and let himself enjoy the good that results from his work. I also realized that this is from God's hand.


text:
For to the man who is good from [God's] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God's viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.


text:
He has made everything suited to its time; also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can't fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does.


text:
I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.


text:
Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God.


text:
I know that whatever God does will last forever; there is nothing to add or subtract from it; and God has done it so that people will fear him.


text:
That which was is here already; and that which will be has already been, but God seeks out what people chase after.


text:
Another thing I observed under the sun: There, in the same place as justice, was wickedness; there, in the same place as righteousness, was wickedness.


text:
I said to myself, 'The righteous and the wicked God will judge, because there is a right time for every intention and for every action.'


text:
Concerning people, I said to myself, 'God is testing them, so that they will see that by themselves they are just animals.


text:
After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing - just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway.


text:
Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?'


text:
So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?


text:
But I turned away and thought about all the kinds of oppression being done under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. The power was on the side of their oppressors, and they had no one to comfort them.


text:
So I considered the dead happier, because they were already dead, than the living, who must still live their lives;


text:
but happier than either of them is the one who has not yet been born, because he has not yet seen the evil things that are done under the sun.


text:
Next I realized that all effort and achievement stem from one person's envy of another. This too is futility and feeding on wind.


text:
the situation in which a solitary individual without a companion, with neither son nor brother, keeps on working endlessly but never has enough wealth. 'For whom' [he should ask], 'am I working so hard and denying myself pleasure?'This too is truly pointless, a sorry business.


text:
if one of them falls, the other will help his partner up - woe to him who is alone when he falls and has no one to help him up.


text:
Again, if two people sleep together, they keep each other warm; but how can one person be warm by himself?


text:
Moreover, an attacker may defeat someone who is alone, but two can resist him; and a three-stranded cord is not easily broken.


text:
Better a youth who is poor but wise than a king who is old but foolish, no longer willing to listen to advice.


text:
I observed that all who live and walk under the sun took the side of the youth mentioned first who would rule in place of the king,


text:
and that no limit was set for the number of his subjects. Nevertheless, those who come afterwards will not regard him highly. This too is certainly pointless and feeding on wind.


text:
Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Offering to listen is better than fools offering sacrifices, because they don't discern whether or not they are doing evil.


text:
Don't speak impulsively - don't be in a hurry to give voice to your words before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; so let your words be few.


text:
If you make a vow to God, don't delay in discharging it. For God takes no pleasure in fools, so discharge your vow!


text:
Don't let your words make you guilty, and don't tell the temple official that you made the vow by mistake. Why give God reason to be angry at what you say and destroy what you have accomplished?


text:
For [this is what happens when there are too] many dreams, aimless activities and words. Instead, just fear God!


text:
If you see the poor oppressed, rights violated and justice perverted in the province, don't be surprised; for a high official has one higher watching him, and there are others above them.


text:
The lover of money never has enough money; the lover of luxury never has enough income. This too is pointless.


text:
When the quantity of goods increases, so does the number of parasites consuming them; so the only advantage to the owner is that he gets to watch them do it.


text:
The sleep of a working man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the overfullness of the rich won't let them sleep at all.


text:
Here is a gross evil which I have seen under the sun: the owner of wealth hoards it to his own hurt.


text:
Due to some misfortune, the wealth turns to loss; and then if he has fathered a son, he has nothing to leave him.


text:
Just as he came from his mother's womb, so he will go back naked as he came, and for his efforts he will take nothing that he can carry away in his hand.


text:
This too is a gross evil, that in every respect as he came, so will he go; thus what profit does he have after toiling to earn the wind?


text:
This is what I have seen to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work that he engages in under the sun for all the days of his life that God has given him, for this is his allotted portion.


text:
Also, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, along with the power to enjoy it, so that he takes his allotted portion and finds pleasure in his work - this is a gift of God;


text:
for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since God keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy.


text:
the case in which God gives someone riches, wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing that he wants; but God does not give him the power to enjoy them, and some stranger gets to enjoy them - this is meaningless, evil, sick.


text:
Suppose a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that he has a long life, but he fails to enjoy himself; then, even if he were to [live indefinitely and therefore] never be buried, I say that it would be better to be born dead.


text:
For the arrival of a stillborn baby is a futile thing, and its departure is in darkness; its name is [forgotten,] covered in darkness;


text:
without enjoying himself, even if he were to live a thousand years twice over. Doesn't everyone go to the same place?


text:
Whatever he is, he was named long ago, and it is known that he is merely human; moreover, he cannot defeat what is mightier than he [death].


text:
For who knows what is good for someone during life, during the days of his pointless life spent like a shadow? Who can tell what will happen under the sun after a person is gone?


text:
Better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for all are destined to be mourned; the living should lay this to heart.


text:
The thoughts of the wise are in the house of mourning, but the thoughts of fools are in the house of pleasure.


text:
For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot; this too is pointless.


text:
For wisdom is a shelter, and money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom keeps the one who has it alive.


text:
When things are going well, enjoy yourself; but when things are going badly, consider that God made the one alongside the other, so that people would learn nothing of their futures.


text:
In my pointless life, I've seen everything -from the righteous person perishing in his uprightness to the wicked one who lives a long life and keeps on doing wrong.


text:
Don't grasp just one of these rules; take hold of the other as well; for he who is in fear of God will live by both of them.


text:
Also, don't take seriously every word spoken, such as when you hear your servant speaking badly of you;


text:
All this I have put to the test of wisdom; I said, 'I will acquire wisdom'; but wisdom remained far away from me.


text:
So I turned myself and my thoughts to know, search out and seek wisdom and the reasons behind things, also to know how foolish it is to be wicked and how stupid to act like a fool.


text:
I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare and whose hands are like prison chains. The man who pleases God will escape from her, but the sinner will be caught by her.


text:
I searched a long time without finding it: one man in a thousand I have found, but a woman among all those I have not found.


text:
This is the only thing I have found, that God made human beings upright, but they have devised many schemes.


text:
Don't be quick to leave his presence, and don't persist in doing what is wrong, for he does whatever he pleases.


text:
Whoever obeys his command will never come to harm, and the wise person will know the right time and judgment.


text:
Just as no one has the power to keep the wind from blowing, so no one has power over the day of death. If one is drafted to fight a war, one can't send a substitute; likewise the wicked won't escape death by their wickedness.


text:
All this I have seen, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun when one person tyrannizes another.


text:
Thus I saw the wicked buried; they had even come from the Holy Place. But those who had acted uprightly were forgotten in the city. This too is a futile thing;


text:
because the punishment decreed for an evil act is not promptly carried out; therefore people who plan to do evil are strengthened in their intentions.


text:
For a sinner can do evil a hundred times and still live a long life; although I know that in the end things will go well with those who fear God, because they fear him.


text:
But things will not go well with the wicked; and, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days; because he doesn't fear God.


text:
There is something frustrating that occurs on earth, namely, that there are righteous people to whom things happen as if they were doing wicked deeds; and, again, there are wicked people to whom things happen as if they were doing righteous deeds. I say that this too is pointless.


text:
So I recommend enjoyment - a person can do nothing better under the sun than eat, drink and enjoy himself; this is what should accompany him as he does his work for as long as God gives him to live under the sun.


text:
When I applied myself to gain wisdom and to observe how people occupy themselves on earth, that people's eyes don't see sleep either by day or by night,


text:
then, on looking over all of God's work, I realized that it is impossible to grasp all the activity taking place under the sun; because even if a person works hard at searching it out, he won't grasp it; and even if a wise person thinks he knows it, he still won't be able to grasp it.


text:
I applied myself to all of this, sifted through it and concluded that the righteous and the wise, along with their deeds, are in God's hands - a person cannot know whether these people and deeds will be rewarded with love or with hatred; all options are open.


text:
Anything can happen to anyone; the same thing can happen to the righteous as to the wicked, to the good and clean and to the unclean, to someone who offers a sacrifice and to someone who doesn't offer a sacrifice; it is the same for a good person as for a sinner, for someone who takes an oath rashly as for someone who fears to take an oath.


text:
This is another evil among all those done under the sun, that the same events can occur to anyone. Truly, the human mind is full of evil; and as long as people live, folly is in their hearts; after which they go to be with the dead.


text:
For as long as a person is linked with the living, there is hope - better to be a living dog than a dead lion!


text:
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; there is no longer any reward for them, because all memory of them is lost.


text:
What they loved, what they hated and what they envied all disappeared long ago, and they no longer have a share in anything done under the sun.


text:
So go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God has already accepted your deeds.


text:
Enjoy life with the wife you have loved throughout your meaningless life that he has given you under the sun, all the days of your futility; for that is your allotted portion in life and in your labor that you work at under the sun.


text:
Whatever task comes your way to do, do it with all your strength; because in Sh'ol, where you will go, there is neither working nor planning, neither knowledge nor wisdom.


text:
Yet another thing I observed under the sun is that races aren't won by the swift or battles by the strong, and that food doesn't go to the wise or wealth to the intelligent or favor to the experts; rather, time and chance rule them all.


text:
For people don't know when their time will come any more than fish taken in the fatal net or birds caught in a snare; similarly, people are snared at an unfortunate time, when suddenly it falls on them.


text:
there was a small town with few people in it; and a great king came to attack it; he surrounded it and built massive siege-works against it.


text:
Now there was found in it a man who was poor but wise, and by his wisdom he saved the city; yet afterwards, nobody remembered that poor man.


text:
So, although I say that wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised; nobody pays attention to what he says.


text:
If the [hatchet's] iron [blade] is blunt, and [its user] doesn't sharpen it, he will have to exert more effort; but the expert has the advantage of his skill.


text:
A fool keeps talking and talking, yet no one knows what the future will bring -can anyone tell a person what will happen after he's gone?


text:
Happy are you, land, when your king is well-born, and your princes eat at the proper time, in order to stay strong, not to get drunk!


text:
Parties are made for having a good time, wine adds cheer to life, and money has an answer for everything.


text:
Don't insult the king, not even in your thoughts; and don't insult the wealthy, not even in your bedroom; for a bird in the air might carry the news, a creature with wings might repeat what you said.


text:
Divide your merchandise into seven or eight shares, since you don't know what disasters may come on the earth.


text:
If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. Whether a tree falls toward the north or the south, the place where the tree falls is where it stays.


text:
Just as you don't know the way of the wind or how bones grow in a pregnant woman's womb, so you don't know the work of God, the maker of everything.


text:
In the morning, sow your seed; and don't slack off until evening; for you don't know which sowing will succeed, this, or that, or if both will do well.


text:
For if a person lives many years, let him take joy in them all; yet remembering that there will be many days of darkness, that all to come is futile.


text:
Young person, if you spend your youth only having fun, if you use your early years just to entertain yourself, if you follow your heart as you live your life, and let your eyes be your guide; understand that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.


text:
Therefore, remove anger from your heart; and keep from harming your body; for neither adolescence nor youth has any lasting value.


text:
So remember your creator while you are young, before the evil days come, and the years approach when you will say, 'They no longer give me pleasure';


text:
before the sun and the light grow dim, also the moon and the stars; before the clouds return after the rain;


text:
on the day when the guards of the house are trembling, and men of courage are bent over double; when the women stop grinding grain, because there are so few; when the women at the windows can no longer see out;


text:
when the doors to the streets are kept shut; when the noise from the grain-mill fades; when a person is startled by the chirp of a bird, yet their singing is hard to hear;


text:
when they will be afraid to go up a hill, and terrors will stalk the way, even though the almond tree is in bloom; when the locust can only drag itself along, and the caper berry has no [aphrodisiac] effect -because the person is headed for his eternal home, and the mourners are already gathering in the marketplace


text:
before the silver cord is snapped the bowl of gold is cracked, the pitcher is shattered at the spring, the pulley is broken at the cistern,


text:
the dust returns to earth, as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it! Pointless! Meaningless! -says Kohelet, Nothing matters at all! 9 Not only was Kohelet wise, he also taught the people what he knew; also he weighed, researched and corrected many ethical sayings. 10 Kohelet worked to develop an attractive writing style, in which he expressed the truth straightforwardly. 11 The sayings of the wise are as sharp as goads, and those given by leaders of assemblies are like well-fixed nails; [in this case,] they are presented by a single shepherd. 12 In addition, my son, take heed: one can write many books - there's no end to it; and one can study so much that it wearies the flesh. 13 Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about. 14 For God will bring to judgment everything we do, including every secret, whether good or bad. [Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about.]


text:
Your anointing oils have a wonderful fragrance; your name is like anointing oil poured out. This is why young women love you


text:
'Take me with you. We will run after you.' The king has brought me into his rooms. [Chorus] We will be glad and rejoice for you. We will praise your love more than wine. How right it is for them to love you!


text:
[She] I am dark tan but beautiful, you daughters of Yerushalayim, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Shlomo.


text:
Don't stare at me because I'm dark; it's the sun that tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me look after the vineyards. But I haven't cared for my own vineyard.


text:
Tell me, my love, where you pasture your flock, where you have them rest at noon; for why should I veil myself [like a whore] beside the flocks of your friends?


text:
[Chorus] If you do not know, you most beautiful of women, then follow the footprints of the flock and let your kids graze by the shepherds' tents.


text:
[She] Like an apple tree among the other trees in the forest is my darling among the other men. I love to sit in his shadow; his fruit is sweet to my taste.


text:
I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim, by the gazelles and deer in the wilds, not to awaken or stir up love until it wants to arise!


text:
My darling is like a gazelle or young stag. There he is, standing outside our wall, looking in through the windows, peering in through the lattice.


text:
the flowers are appearing in the countryside, the time has come for [the birds] to sing, and the cooing of doves can be heard in the land.


text:
The fig trees are forming their unripe figs, and the grapevines in bloom give out their perfume. Get up, my love, my beauty! Come away!'


text:
[He] My dove, hiding in holes in the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see your face and hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.


text:
[She] 'Catch the foxes for us, yes, the little foxes! They are ruining the vineyards when our vineyards are in bloom!'


text:
Before the daytime breeze rises and the shadows flee, return, my love, like a stag or gazelle on the hills of Beter.


text:
'I will get up now and roam the city, through the streets and the open places, I will look for the man I love.' I looked for him, but I didn't find him.


text:
Scarcely had I left them, when I found the man I love. I took hold of him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house, to the bedroom of the woman who conceived me.


text:
Who is this, coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, chosen from the merchant's crushed spices?


text:
all of them wield the sword and are expert fighters; each one has his sword ready at his side to combat the terrors of night.


text:
He made its columns of silver, its roof of gold, its seat of purple cloth; its inside was lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Yerushalayim.


text:
Daughters of Tziyon, come out, and gaze upon King Shlomo, wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, his day of joy!


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep that have just come up from being washed; each of them is matched, and none of them is missing.


text:
Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like a pomegranate split open behind your veil.


text:
Your neck is like the tower of David, built magnificently, on which hang a thousand bucklers, each one a brave warrior's shield.


text:
When the day's cool breeze comes up and the shadows lengthen, I will get myself to the mountain of myrrh to the hill of frankincense.


text:
Come with me from the L'vanon, my bride, come with me from the L'vanon. Come down from the heights of Amanah, from the heights of S'nir and Hermon, down from the lions' lairs and the leopard-haunted hills.


text:
My sister, my bride, you have carried my heart away! With just one glance, with one bead of your necklace you have carried my heart away.


text:
My sister, my bride, how sweet is your love! How much better your love than wine, more fragrant your perfumes than any spice!


text:
Your lips, my bride, drip honey; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of the L'vanon.


text:
nard, saffron and aromatic cane, cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense trees, myrrh, aloes, all the best spices.


text:
[She] Awake, north wind! Come, south wind! Blow on my garden to spread its fragrance. Let my darling enter his garden and eat its finest fruit.


text:
[She] I am asleep, but my heart is awake. Listen! I hear my darling knocking! [He] Open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my flawless one! For my head is wet with dew, my hair with the moisture of the night.


text:
The man I love put his hand through the hole by the door-latch, and my heart began pounding at the thought of him.


text:
I got up to open for the man I love. My hands were dripping with myrrh pure myrrh ran off my fingers onto the handle of the bolt.


text:
I opened for my darling, but my darling had turned and gone. My heart had failed me when he spoke I sought him, but I couldn't find him; I called him, but he didn't answer.


text:
The watchmen roaming the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took away my cloak, those guardians of the walls!


text:
I charge you, daughters of Yerushalayim, that if you find the man I love, what are you to tell him? That I am sick with love.


text:
[Chorus] How does the man you love differ from any other, you most beautiful of women? How does the man you love differ from any other, that you should give us this charge?


text:
His cheeks are like beds of spices, like banks of fragrant herbs. His lips are like lilies dripping with sweet myrrh.


text:
His legs are like pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like the L'vanon, as imposing as the cedars.


text:
His words are sweetness itself; he is altogether desirable. This is my darling, and this is my friend, daughters of Yerushalayim.


text:
[Chorus] Where has your darling gone, you most beautiful of women? Which way did your darling turn, so that we can help you find him?


text:
[She] My darling went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.


text:
[He] You are as beautiful as Tirtzah, my love, as lovely as Yerushalayim, but formidable as an army marching under banners.


text:
Turn your eyes away from me, because they overwhelm me! Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Gil'ad.


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that have just come up from being washed; each of them is matched, and none of them is missing.


text:
but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, her mother's only child, the darling of the one who bore her.


text:
The daughters see her and call her happy; the queens and concubines praise her. 'Who is this, shining forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun'-but formidable as an army marching under banners?


text:
[She] I had gone down to the nut orchard to see the fresh green plants in the valley, to see if the vine had budded,


text:
or if the pomegranate trees were in bloom. Before I knew it, I found myself in a chariot, and with me was a prince.


text:
[Chorus] Come back, come back, girl from Shulam! Come back, come back to where we can see you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam as if she were dancing for two army camps?


text:
[He] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, you daughter of princes! The curves of your thighs are like a necklace made by a skilled craftsman. Your navel is like a round goblet that never lacks spiced wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled by lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns,


text:
twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bat-Rabbim, your nose like a tower in the L'vanon overlooking Dammesek. You hold your head like the Karmel, and the hair on your head is like purple cloth -the king is held captive in its tresses.


text:
How beautiful you are, my love, how charming, how delightful! Your appearance is stately as a palm tree, with its fruit clusters your breasts. I said, 'I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches.'


text:
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, your breath as fragrant as apples, and your mouth like the finest wine. [She] May the wine go straight to the man I love and gently move the lips of those who are asleep.


text:
We'll get up early and go to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, to see if their flowers have opened, or if the pomegranate trees are in bloom. There I will give you my love.


text:
The mandrakes are sending out their fragrance, all kinds of choice fruits are at our doors, fruits both new and old, my darling, which I have kept in store for you.


text:
I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house, and she would instruct me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, fresh juice from my pomegranates.


text:
[Chorus] Who is this, coming up from the desert, leaning on her darling? [He] I awakened you under the apple tree. It was there that your mother conceived you; there she who bore you conceived you.


text:
[She] Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, passion as cruel as Sh'ol; its flashes are flashes of fire, [as fierce as the] flame of Yah.


text:
No amount of water can quench love, torrents cannot drown it. If someone gave all the wealth in his house for love, he would gain only utter contempt.


text:
[Chorus] We have a little sister; her breasts are still unformed. What are we to do with our sister when she is asked for in marriage?


text:
If she is a wall, we will build on her a palace of silver; and if she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.


text:
Shlomo had a vineyard at Ba'al-Hamon, and he gave the vineyard to caretakers; each of them would pay for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.


text:
My vineyard is mine; I tend it, myself. You can have the thousand, Shlomo, and the fruit-caretakers, two hundred!


text:
This is the vision of Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y'hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of 'Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyahu, kings of Y'hudah:


text:
'Hear, heaven! Listen, earth! For ADONAI is speaking. 'I raised and brought up children, but they rebelled against me.


text:
An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master's stall, but Isra'el does not know, my people do not reflect.


text:
'Oh, sinful nation, a people weighed down by iniquity, descendants of evildoers, immoral children! They have abandoned ADONAI, spurned the Holy One of Isra'el, turned their backs on him!


text:
'Where should I strike you next, as you persist in rebelling? The whole head is sick, the whole heart diseased.


text:
From the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy, only wounds, bruises and festering sores that haven't been dressed or bandaged or softened up with oil.


text:
'Your land is desolate, your cities are burned to the ground; foreigners devour your land in your presence; it's as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods.


text:
The daughter of Tziyon is left like a shack in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.'


text:
If ADONAI-Tzva'ot had not left us a tiny, tiny remnant, we would have become like S'dom, we would have resembled 'Amora.


text:
'Why are all those sacrifices offered to me?' asks ADONAI. 'I'm fed up with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals! I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls, lambs and goats!


text:
Yes, you come to appear in my presence; but who asked you to do this, to trample through my courtyards?


text:
Stop bringing worthless grain offerings! They are like disgusting incense to me! Rosh-Hodesh, Shabbat, calling convocations - I can't stand evil together with your assemblies!


text:
Everything in me hates your Rosh-Hodesh and your festivals; they are a burden to me - I'm tired of putting up with them!


text:
'When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; no matter how much you pray, I won't be listening; because your hands are covered with blood.


text:
'Come now,' says ADONAI, 'let's talk this over together. Even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; even if they are red as crimson, they will be like wool.


text:
How the faithful city has become a whore! Once she was filled with justice, righteousness lodged in her; but now murderers!


text:
Your leaders are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and run after gifts. They give no justice to orphans, the widow's complaint doesn't catch their attention.


text:
'Therefore,' says the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the Mighty One of Isra'el, 'I will free myself of my adversaries, I will take vengeance on my enemies.


text:
But I will also turn my hand against you! I will cleanse your impurities as with lye and remove all your alloyed base metal.


text:
I will restore your judges as at first and your advisers as at the beginning. After that, you will be called the City of Righteousness, Faithful City.


text:
The strong will be like tinder and [the idol's] maker like a spark; both will burn together, and no one will put them out.'


text:
In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of ADONAI's house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there.


text:
Many peoples will go and say, 'Come, let's go up to the mountain of ADONAI, to the house of the God of Ya'akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.' For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of ADONAI from Yerushalayim.


text:
He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Then they will hammer their swords into plow-blades and their spears into pruning-knives; nations will not raise swords at each other, and they will no longer learn war.


text:
For you have abandoned your people the house of Ya'akov. Now they are filled from the east, full of sorcerers, like the P'lishtim; even the children of foreigners are enough for them!


text:
Their land is full of silver and gold; They have no end of treasures. Their land is full of horses; They have no end of chariots.


text:
Their land is full of idols; everyone worships the work of his hands, what his own fingers have made.


text:
The proud looks of man will be humiliated; the arrogance of men will be bowed down; and when that day comes, ADONAI alone will be exalted.


text:
Yes, ADONAI-Tzva'ot has a day in store for all who are proud and lofty, for all who are lifted high to be humiliated;


text:
The pride of man will be bowed down, the arrogance of men will be humiliated, and when that day comes, ADONAI alone will be exalted.


text:
People will enter cracks in the rocks and holes in the ground to escape the terror of ADONAI and his glorious majesty, when he sets out to convulse the earth.


text:
On that day a man will take hold of his idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, and fling them away to the moles and bats!


text:
Then they will enter the cracks in the rocks and the crevices in the cliffs to escape the terror of ADONAI and his glorious majesty, when he sets out to convulse the earth.


text:
Stop relying on man, in whose nostrils is a mere breath - after all, he doesn't count for much, does he?


text:
For see! The Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, will remove from Yerushalayim and Y'hudah every kind of support all reserves of food and water;


text:
People will oppress each other - everyone his friend, everyone his neighbor. The young will be insolent toward their elders, the insignificant arrogant toward the respected.


text:
A man will take hold of his brother in his father's house and say, 'You have a coat, so rule us! Take charge of this ruin!'


text:
But on that day, he will protest, 'I don't have a remedy, I lack food and clothing for my own house; don't put me in charge of people!'


text:
For Yerushalayim is ruined, and Y'hudah has fallen; because their words and deeds defy ADONAI, in open provocation of his glory.


text:
Their very look witnesses against them! They parade their sin, like S'dom; they don't even try to hide it - all the worse for them! - they bring evil on themselves.


text:
My people - children oppress them, and women are ruling over them. My people! Your guides lead you astray and obliterate the paths you should follow.


text:
ADONAI presents the indictment against the leaders and officers of his people: 'It is you who devour the vineyard; in your houses is plunder taken from the poor.


text:
What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding down the faces of the poor?' says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot.


text:
Moreover ADONAI says: 'Because Tziyon's women are so proud, walking with their heads in the air and throwing seductive glances, moving with mincing steps and jingling their anklets


text:
Adonai will strike the crown of the heads of Tziyon's women with sores, and ADONAI will expose their private parts.'


text:
Then, there will be instead of perfume, a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, a shaved scalp; instead of a rich robe, a sackcloth skirt; and a slave-brand instead of beauty.


text:
On that day, seven women will grab hold of one man and say, 'We will supply our own food and wear our own clothes. Just let us bear your name; take away our disgrace.'


text:
On that day, ADONAI's plant will be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the land will be the pride and splendor of Isra'el's survivors.


text:
Those left in Tziyon and remaining in Yerushalayim will be called holy, and everyone in Yerushalayim written down for life.


text:
When Adonai washes away the filth of the women of Tziyon and cleanses Yerushalayim from the blood shed in it with a blast of searing judgment,


text:
ADONAI will create over the whole site of Mount Tziyon and over those who assemble there a smoking cloud by day and a shining, flaming fire by night; for the Glory will be over everything like a hupah.


text:
A sukkah will give shade by day from the heat; it will also provide refuge and cover from storm and rain.


text:
I want to sing a song for someone I love, a song about my loved one and his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.


text:
He dug up its stones and cleared them away, planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and carved out in its rock a winepress. He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only sour, wild grapes.


text:
What more could I have done for my vineyard that I haven't already done in it? So why, when I expected good grapes, did it produce sour, wild grapes?


text:
Now come, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and [its grapes] will be eaten up; I will break through its fence, and [its vines] will be trampled down.


text:
I will let it go to waste: it will be neither pruned nor hoed, but overgrown with briars and thorns. I will also order the clouds not to let rain fall on it.


text:
Now the vineyard of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is the house of Isra'el, and the men of Y'hudah are the plant he delighted in. So he expected justice, but look - bloodshed! - and righteousness, but listen - cries of distress!


text:
Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there's no room for anyone else, and you live in splendor alone on your land.


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot said in my ears, 'Many houses will be brought to ruin, large, magnificent ones left empty;


text:
for a ten-acre vineyard will produce only five gallons of wine, and seed from five bushels of grain will yield but half a bushel.'


text:
Woe to those who get up early to pursue intoxicating liquor; who stay up late at night, until wine inflames them.


text:
They have lutes and lyres, drums and flutes, and wine at their parties; but they pay no attention to how ADONAI works and never look at what his hands have made.


text:
For such lack of knowledge 442 my people go into exile; this is also why their respected men starve and their masses are parched from thirst.


text:
Therefore Sh'ol has enlarged itself and opened its limitless jaws - and down go their nobles and masses, along with their noise and revels.


text:
But ADONAI-Tzva'ot is exalted through justice, God the Holy One is consecrated through righteousness.


text:
Then lambs will be able to feed as if they were in their own pasture, and those wandering through will eat from the ruined fields of the overfed.


text:
Woe to those who begin by pulling at transgression with a thread, but end by dragging sin along as if with a cart rope.


text:
They say, 'We want God to speed up his work, to hurry it along, so we can see it! We want the Holy One of Isra'el's plan to come true right now, so we can be sure of it!'


text:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!


text:
Therefore, as fire licks up the stubble, and the chaff is consumed in the flame; so their root will rot, and their flowers scatter like dust; because they have rejected the Torah of ADONAI-Tzva'ot, they have despised the word of the Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
This is why ADONAI's anger blazed up against his people, why he stretched out his hand against them and struck them [so hard that] the hills shook, and corpses lay like trash in the streets. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.


text:
He will give a signal to faraway nations, he will whistle for them to come from the ends of the earth; and here they come, so fast!


text:
none of them tired or stumbling, none of them sleeping or drowsy, none with a loose belt, none with a broken sandal-strap.


text:
Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung, their horses' hoofs are like flint, and their [chariot] wheels like a whirlwind.


text:
They will roar like lions - yes, roaring like young lions, they growl and seize the prey and carry it off, with no one to rescue.


text:
On that day they will growl at them, like the sea when it growls - and when one looks toward land, one sees darkness closing in; the light is dissipated in the obscuring overcast.


text:
In the year of King 'Uziyahu's death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple.


text:
S'rafim stood over him, each with six wings - two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying.


text:
They were crying out to each other, 'More holy than the holiest holiness is ADONAI-Tzva'ot! The whole earth is filled with his glory!'


text:
Then I said, 'Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, ADONAI-Tzva'ot!'


text:
One of the s'rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.


text:
He touched my mouth with it and said, 'Here! This has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone, your sin is atoned for.'


text:
Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying, 'Whom should I send? Who will go for us?' I answered, 'I'm here, send me!'


text:
He said, 'Go and tell this people: 'Yes, you hear, but you don't understand. You certainly see, but you don't get the point!'


text:
'Make the heart of this people [sluggish with] fat, stop up their ears, and shut their eyes. Otherwise, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, then understanding with their hearts, they might repent and be healed!'


text:
I asked, 'Adonai, how long?' and he answered, 'Until cities become uninhabited ruins, houses without human presence, the land utterly wasted;


text:
If even a tenth [of the people] remain, it will again be devoured. 'But like a pistachio tree or an oak, whose trunk remains alive after its leaves fall off, the holy seed will be its trunk.'


text:
During the days of Achaz the son of Yotam, the son of 'Uziyahu, king of Y'hudah, Retzin the king of Aram and Pekach the son of Remalyah, king of Isra'el, advanced on Yerushalayim to attack it but were unable to conquer it.


text:
It was told to the house of David that Aram and Efrayim had become allies. Achaz's heart began to tremble, as did the hearts of his people, like forest trees shaken by the wind.


text:
Then ADONAI said to Yesha'yahu, 'Go out now to meet Achaz, you and your son Sh'ar Yashuv, at the end of the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderers' Field;


text:
and say to him, 'Take care to stay calm and unafraid; don't be demoralized by these two smoldering stumps of firewood, by the blazing anger of Retzin and Aram or the son of Remalyah;


text:
'We will invade Y'hudah, tear it apart, divide it among ourselves and appoint the son of Tav'el as king there.'


text:
For the head of Aram is Dammesek, and the head of Dammesek Retzin. In sixty-five years Efrayim will be broken and will cease to be a people.


text:
The head of Efrayim is Shomron, and the head of Shomron is the son of Remalyah. Without firm faith, you will not be firmly established.'''


text:
'Ask ADONAI your God to give you a sign. Ask it anywhere, from the depths of Sh'ol to the heights above.'


text:
Then [the prophet] said, 'Listen here, house of David! Is trying people's patience such a small thing for you that you must try the patience of my God as well?


text:
Therefore Adonai himself will give you people a sign: the young woman will become pregnant, bear a son and name him 'Immanu El [God is with us].


text:
By the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, he will [have to] eat curdled milk and [wild] honey.


text:
Yes, before the child knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be left abandoned.


text:
ADONAI will bring the king of Ashur on you, your people and your father's house. These will be days worse than any you've known since Efrayim broke loose from Y'hudah.' Or: 'the virgin.' See Introduction, Section XIV, footnote 69.


text:
Yes, when that day comes, ADONAI will whistle for the fly in the farthest streams of the Nile in Egypt and for the bee in the land of Ashur.


text:
They will come and settle, all of them, in steep vadis and holes in the rocks and on all thorn bushes and brambles.


text:
When that day comes, Adonai will shave - with a razor hired beyond the [Euphrates] River, that is, with the king of Ashur - the head and the hair between the legs, and get rid of the beard as well.


text:
Will they produce in abundance? No, he will [have to] eat curdled milk. Indeed, everyone left in the land will eat curdled milk and [wild] honey.


text:
When that day comes, wherever there once were a thousand grapevines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, there will be only briars and thorns.


text:
You won't visit hills once worked with a hoe, for fear of the briars and thorns; it will be good only for pasturing cattle and being trampled down by sheep.


text:
ADONAI said to me, 'Take a large tablet, and write on it in easily readable letters; 'Maher shalal, hash baz [the spoil hurries, the prey speeds along].''


text:
I had it witnessed for me by reliable witnesses - Uriyah the cohen and Z'kharyahu the son of Y'verekhyahu.


text:
Then I had sexual relations with my wife; she became pregnant and gave birth to a son; and ADONAI said to me, 'Name him Maher Shalal Hash Baz;


text:
because before the child knows how to cry, 'Abba!' and 'Eema!', the riches of Dammesek and the spoil of Shomron will be carried off and given to the king of Ashur.'


text:
'Since this people has rejected the gently flowing waters from Shilo'ach and takes joy in Retzin and the son of Remalyah;


text:
now Adonai will bring upon them the mighty floodwaters of the [Euphrates] River - that is, the king of Ashur and his power. It will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks.


text:
It will sweep through Y'hudah, flooding everything and passing on. It will reach even up to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the whole expanse of the land.' God is with us! [Hebrew: 'immanu El]


text:
You may make an uproar, peoples; but you will be shattered. Listen, all of you from distant lands: arm yourselves, but you will be shattered; yes, arm yourselves, but you will be shattered;


text:
devise a plan, but it will come to nothing; say anything you like, but it won't happen; because God is with us [Hebrew: 'immanu El].


text:
For this is what ADONAI said to me, speaking with a strong hand, warning me not to live the way this people does:


text:
'Don't regard as alliance what this people calls alliance, and don't fear what they fear or be awestruck by it;


text:
He is there to be a sanctuary. But for both the houses of Isra'el he will be a stone to stumble over, a rock obstructing their way; a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.


text:
Meanwhile, I and the children whom ADONAI has given me will become for Isra'el signs and wonders from ADONAI-Tzva'ot living on Mount Tziyon. YESHA'YAHU (ISAIAH) 819


text:
So when they tell you to consult those squeaking, squawking mediums and fortune-tellers; [you are to answer], 'Shouldn't a people seek their God? Must the living ask the dead


text:
Distressed and hungry they will pass through the land; and because of their hunger they will grow angry and curse by their king and by their God. But whether they look up [to God]


text:
or [down] at the earth, they will see only trouble and darkness, anguished gloom and pervasive darkness.


text:
But there will be no more gloom for those who are now in anguish. In the past the land of Z'vulun and the land of Naftali were regarded lightly; but in the future he will honor the way to the lake, beyond the Yarden, Galil-of-the-Goyim.


text:
The people living in darkness have seen a great light; upon those living in the land that lies in the shadow of death, light has dawned.


text:
You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice in your presence as if rejoicing at harvest time, the way men rejoice when dividing up the spoil.


text:
For the yoke that weighed them down, the bar across their shoulders, and their driver's goad you have broken as on the day of Midyan['s defeat].


text:
For all the boots of soldiers marching and every cloak rolled in blood is destined for burning, fuel for the fire.


text:
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Pele-Yo'etz El Gibbor Avi-'Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace],


text:
in order to extend the dominion and perpetuate the peace of the throne and kingdom of David, to secure it and sustain it through justice and righteousness henceforth and forever. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.


text:
All the people know it, Efrayim and the inhabitants of Shomron. But they say in pride, in the arrogance of their hearts,


text:
'The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stone; the sycamore-fig trees have been chopped down, but we will replace them with cedars.'


text:
Aram from the east, P'lishtim from the west; and they devour Isra'el with an open mouth. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.


text:
Therefore ADONAI will cut off Isra'el's head and tail, [tall] palm frond and [lowly] reed in a single day.


text:
Therefore Adonai takes no joy in their young men and has no compassion on their orphans and widows; for everyone is ungodly and does evil, every mouth speaks foolishly. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.


text:
For wickedness burns like fire, it devours briars and thorns; it sets the forest underbrush ablaze, with clouds of smoke whirling upward.


text:
The anger of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is burning up the land; the people, too, are fuel for the fire - no one spares even his brother.


text:
The one on the right grabs but stays hungry, the one on the left eats but is unfilled. Everyone devours his own arm's flesh


text:
M'nasheh devours Efrayim; and Efrayim, M'nasheh; while together they oppose Y'hudah. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.


text:
to deprive the impoverished of justice and rob my people's poor of their rights, looting widows and preying on orphans!


text:
What will you do on the day of punishment, when calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth,


text:
so as not to squat among the prisoners or fall among the slain? Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.


text:
I am sending him against a hypocritical nation, ordering him to march against a people who enrage me, to take the spoil and the plunder and trample them down like mud in the street.


text:
That is not what Ashur intends, that is not what they think; rather, they mean to destroy, to cut down nation after nation.


text:
Just as my hand reached the kingdoms of non-gods, with more images than in Yerushalayim and Shomron;


text:
Therefore when Adonai has done everything he intends to do to Mount Tziyon and Yerushalayim, 'I will punish the king of Ashur for the boasting that comes from his proud heart and from reveling in his arrogant looks.


text:
For he says, ''With my own strong arm I have done this, and with my wisdom, because I'm so clever! I erased the boundaries between peoples, I plundered their stores for the future; as a mighty man, I subjugated the inhabitants.


text:
My hand found the riches of the peoples like a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth! Not one wing fluttered, not one beak opened or let out a chirp!''


text:
Should the axe glorify itself over the one who chops with it? Should the saw magnify itself over the one who moves it? It's as if a stick could wave the hand that raises it up, or as if a wooden staff could lift [a person, who is] not made of wood.


text:
Therefore the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, will send leanness to his well-fed ones; and in place of his glory, a fire will be kindled that will burn and burn.


text:
The light of Isra'el will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, burning and devouring his thorns and briars in a single day.


text:
The glory of his forest and of his fertile land he will consume body and soul, like an invalid wasting away.


text:
On that day the remnant of Isra'el, those of the house of Ya'akov who escaped, will no longer rely on the man who struck them down, but will truly rely on ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
For, although your people, Isra'el, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with justice.


text:
Therefore Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot says: 'My people living in Tziyon, don't be afraid of Ashur, even when he strikes you with a stick and raises his staff against you, the way it was in Egypt.


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot will wield a whip against them, as he did when striking Midyan at the Rock of 'Orev; as his staff was over the sea, he will raise it, the way it was in Egypt.


text:
On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck; the yoke will be destroyed by your prosperity.


text:
This very day he will stop at Nov; and he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon, at the hill of Yerushalayim.


text:
See how Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot lops off the branches with terrible violence! The ones standing highest are chopped down, the lofty are laid low.


text:
The Spirit of ADONAI will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fearing ADONAI


text:
he will be inspired by fearing ADONAI. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear,


text:
but he will judge the impoverished justly; he will decide fairly for the humble of the land. He will strike the land with a rod from his mouth and slay the wicked with a breath from his lips.


text:
The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; calf, young lion and fattened lamb together, with a little child to lead them.


text:
Cow and bear will feed together, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.


text:
They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of the knowledge of ADONAI as water covering the sea.


text:
On that day the root of Yishai, which stands as a banner for the peoples - the Goyim will seek him out, and the place where he rests will be glorious.


text:
On that day Adonai will raise his hand again, a second time, to reclaim the remnant of his people who remain from Ashur, Egypt, Patros, Ethiopia, 'Eilam, Shin'ar, Hamat and the islands in the sea.


text:
He will hoist a banner for the Goyim, assemble the dispersed of Isra'el, and gather the scattered of Y'hudah from the four corners of the earth.


text:
Efrayim's jealousy will cease - those who harass Y'hudah will be cut off, Efrayim will stop envying Y'hudah, and Y'hudah will stop provoking Efrayim.


text:
They will swoop down on the flank of the P'lishtim to the west. Together they will pillage the people to the east - they will put out their hand over Edom and Mo'av, and the people of 'Amon will obey them.


text:
ADONAI will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea. He will shake his hand over the [Euphrates] River to bring a scorching wind, dividing it into seven streams and enabling people to cross dryshod.


text:
There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who are still left from Ashur, just as there was for Isra'el when he came out from the land of Egypt.


text:
On that day you will say: 'I thank you, ADONAI, because, although you were angry at me, your anger is now turned away; and you are comforting me.


text:
'See! God is my salvation. I am confident and unafraid; for Yah ADONAI is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation!'


text:
On that day you will say, 'Give thanks to ADONAI! Call on his name! Make his deeds known among the peoples, declare how exalted is his name.


text:
Shout and sing for joy, you who live in Tziyon; for the Holy One of Isra'el is with you in his greatness!'


text:
Listen! A tumult on the mountains - it sounds like a vast multitude! Listen! The uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathering together! ADONAI-Tzva'ot is mustering an army for war.


text:
They come from a distant land, from beyond the horizon. It's ADONAI, with the weapons of his rage, to lay waste to all the earth.


text:
They will be gripped by panic, seized with pain and agony, writhing like a woman in labor, looking aghast at each other, faces aflame.


text:
Here comes the Day of ADONAI, full of cruelty, rage and hot fury, to desolate the earth and destroy the sinners in it.


text:
For the stars, the constellations in the sky, will no longer give their light; the sun will be dark when it rises; and the moon will no longer shine.


text:
'I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the arrogance of the proud and humble the insolence of tyrants.


text:
This is why I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of ADONAI-Tzva'ot on the day of his fierce anger.


text:
Then, like a hunted gazelle, like sheep with no one to gather them, everyone will head back to his own people; everyone will flee to his own land.


text:
Their bows will tear young men to pieces, they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye will not spare children.'


text:
Thus Bavel, that jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Kasdim, will be like S'dom and 'Amora when overthrown by God.


text:
It will never again be inhabited, never lived in through all generations. Arabs will not pitch tents there nor shepherds bring their flocks.


text:
But wildcats will lie there, their houses will be full of owls, ostriches will live there, and wild goats will dance there.


text:
Jackals will howl in their palaces and wild dogs in their temples of delight. Its time is close at hand, its days will not last long.


text:
For ADONAI will have compassion on Ya'akov - he will once again choose Isra'el and resettle them in their own land, where foreigners will join them, attaching themselves to the house of Ya'akov.


text:
Peoples will take and escort them to their homeland, and the house of Isra'el will possess them in the land of ADONAI as male and female slaves. They will take their captors captive and rule over their oppressors.


text:
Then, when ADONAI gives you rest from your suffering and trouble and from the hard service imposed on you,


text:
you will take up this taunt-song against the king of Bavel: 'At last the oppressor is stilled, his arrogance is ended!


text:
which furiously struck down peoples with unceasing blows, angrily beating down nations with relentless persecution.


text:
The cypresses rejoice over you, with the cedars of the L'vanon - 'Now that you are laid low, no one comes to cut us down.'


text:
'Sh'ol below is stirred up to meet you when you come. It awakens for you the ghosts of the dead who were leaders on earth; it makes all the kings of the nations arise from their thrones.


text:
Your pride has been brought down to Sh'ol with the music of your lyres, under you a mattress of maggots, over you a blanket of worms.'


text:
'How did you come to fall from the heavens, morning star, son of the dawn? How did you come to be cut to the ground, conqueror of nations?


text:
You thought to yourself, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above God's stars. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north.


text:
Those who see you will stare at you, reflecting on what has become of you: 'Is this the man who shook the earth, who made kingdoms tremble,


text:
But you are discarded, unburied, like a loathed branch, clothed like the slain who were pierced by the sword, then fall to the stones inside a pit, like a corpse to be trampled underfoot.


text:
You will not be joined with those kings in the grave, because you destroyed your own land, you have brought death to your own people. The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.


text:
Get ready to slaughter his sons for the iniquity of their fathers; so they won't arise, take over the earth and cover the world with their cities.'


text:
'I will arise against them,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot. 'I will cut off from Bavel name and remnant, offshoot and offspring,' says ADONAI.


text:
'I will make it a haunt for hedgehogs, it will become a swampy waste, I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot has sworn, 'Just as I thought it, it will occur; just as I planned it, so it will be.


text:
I will break Ashur in my land, I will trample him down on my mountains. Then his yoke will fall off them, his burden be removed from their shoulders.'


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot has made his decision. Who is there that can stop him? He has stretched out his hand. Who can turn it back?


text:
Do not rejoice, P'leshet, any of you, that the rod which struck you is broken; for out of the snake's root will come a viper, and his offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.


text:
While the firstborn of the poor graze and the needy lie down in safety, I will kill off your root with famine and slaughter the rest of you.


text:
Howl, gate! Cry, city! Melt away, P'leshet, all of you! For a smoke is coming from the north, with not a straggler in its ranks.


text:
And what is one to answer the messengers of the nation? That ADONAI founded Tziyon, and there the poor of his people will find refuge.


text:
This is a prophecy about Mo'av: The night 'Ar is sacked, Mo'av is ruined. The night Kir is sacked, Mo'av is ruined.


text:
He went up to the temple, to Dibon and to the high places, to weep. On N'vo and Meidva Mo'av is howling, every head shaved bald, every beard cut off.


text:
In the streets they wear sackcloth; on their roofs and in their squares, everyone howls and weeps profusely.


text:
Heshbon and El'aleh cry out, they are heard as far as Yachatz. Mo'av's best troops cry aloud, as their courage faints away.


text:
My heart cries out for Mo'av! Its fugitives flee to Tzo'ar, a calf three years old. They ascend the slope of Luchit, weeping as they go; on their way to Horonayim, they utter heartrending cries.


text:
The waters of Nimrim are desolate, the grass is dried up, the new growth fails, nothing green is left.


text:
Therefore they carry away their wealth, everything they have put aside, across the Vadi of the Willows.


text:
For the cry has circulated throughout Mo'av's territory - its howling has reached Eglayim, its howling has reached Be'er-Elim.


text:
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, yet I have worse in store for Dimon - a lion for those who escape from Mo'av and for those who remain in its land.


text:
Send lambs for the ruler of the land from the crags toward the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon.


text:
'Give [us] counsel! Decide [to help]! Make your shadow [over us] like night in the middle of noonday. Hide [our] outcasts! Don't betray [our] fugitives!


text:
Let our outcasts live with you! Protect Mo'av from the attacks of robbers!' For when the extorting ends, the spoiling ceases, and those trampling on the land are destroyed,


text:
a throne will be set up by grace, and on it, in the tent of David, will sit an honest judge, seeking justice and pursuing righteousness.


text:
We have heard about Mo'av's pride, how very proud they are; about their haughty arrogance, their insolence and bravado.


text:
Therefore Mo'av will wail for Mo'av - they will all wail! You will sigh, stricken by grief, for the raisin-cakes of Kir-Hareset.


text:
For the grainfields of Heshbon are withering, also the vineyards of Sibmah, whose red grapes overpowered rulers of nations - once they reached as far as Ya'zer and trailed out into the desert; their spreading branches even crossed the sea.


text:
Therefore I will weep for Sibmah's vine as I weep for Ya'zer; I will water you with my tears, Heshbon and El'aleh; because the shouts of battle are falling on your summer fruits and harvest;


text:
gladness and joy are removed from the fruitful fields. No revelry in the vineyards, no happy shouting, no one treading grapes in the wine presses - I have silenced the vintage-cheers.


text:
Even when Mo'av is seen growing weary of worshipping on the high places and entering their sanctuaries to pray, they will have accomplished nothing.


text:
But now ADONAI has said, 'Within three years [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Mo'av will be brought into contempt, despite its large population; and the surviving remnant will be few and feeble.'


text:
This is a prophecy about Dammesek: 'Dammesek will soon stop being a city; it will become a heap of ruins.


text:
Efrayim will have no defenses, Dammesek will cease to rule, and Aram's survivors will share the fate of Isra'el's finest sons,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.


text:
as when the harvester collects the standing grain, reaping the ears of grain with his arm; yes, as when they glean the grain in the Refa'im Valley.


text:
Yet gleanings will be left, as when beating an olive tree - two or three olives at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches,' says ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.


text:
He will pay no heed to the altars made with his own hands, he will not turn toward what his fingers made, the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.


text:
When that day comes, his strong cities, which others abandoned when Isra'el advanced, will be like abandoned woods and forests; they will be laid waste.


text:
For you have forgotten the God who saved you, failed to remember the Rock of your strength; so you plant pagan-style gardens and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.


text:
Though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and in the morning your seedlings flower; the crop will vanish the day disease comes, a day of incurable pain.


text:
Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples, roaring like the roar of the seas, and the rushing about of nations, rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!


text:
Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean, but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee, driven like chaff by a mountain wind, like whirling dust in advance of the storm.


text:
As evening falls, you can see terror; before sunrise, they have ceased to be. This is the lot of those who plunder us, the fate of those who prey on us.


text:
they send ambassadors by sea, across the water in papyrus-reed boats! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed, to a people feared far and near, to a strong and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers!


text:
All you inhabitants of the world, you who live on the earth: when a banner is hoisted on the mountains, look! When the shofar is blown, listen!


text:
For ADONAI has said this to me: 'I will look on from my place and do nothing, like heat shimmering in the sun, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'


text:
For before the harvest, when the flowering is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives, lop off the twigs and take them away.


text:
They will all be left to the vultures in the mountains and to the wild animals in the fields; the vultures will feed on them in summer, and the wild animals of the fields in winter.


text:
At that time tribute will be brought to ADONAI-Tzva'ot from a nation tall and bronzed, from a people feared far and near, from a strong and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers, to the place where the name of ADONAI-Tzva'ot lives, Mount Tziyon.


text:
This is a prophecy about Egypt: Look! ADONAI is riding a swift cloud, on his way to Egypt. Before him Egypt's idols tremble, Egypt's courage melts within them.


text:
'I will incite Egypt against Egypt, brother will fight against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.


text:
The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it, I will reduce its counsel to confusion. They will consult idols and mediums, ghosts and spirits.


text:
I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master. A harsh king will rule them,' says the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot.


text:
The rivers will become foul, the canals of Egypt's Nile will dwindle and dry up, the reeds and rushes will wither.


text:
The river-plants on the banks of the Nile and everything sown near the Nile will dry up, blow away and be no more.


text:
Fishermen too will lament, all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn, those who spread nets on the water lose heart.


text:
The princes of Tzo'an are utter fools, Pharaoh's wisest counselors give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, 'I'm a sage, descended from kings of old.'


text:
Where are they, then, those sages of yours? Let them tell you, so all can know what ADONAI-Tzva'ot has planned against Egypt!


text:
The princes of Tzo'an have been fooled, the princes of Nof have been duped, Egypt's clan chiefs have led her astray.


text:
ADONAI has mixed up their minds with a spirit that distorts judgment, so they make Egypt stagger in whatever she does, like a drunk staggering in his vomit.


text:
Nobody in Egypt will find work to do - neither head nor tail, neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.


text:
On that day Egypt will be like women trembling with fear, because ADONAI-Tzva'ot is shaking his fist at them.


text:
Just mentioning the land of Y'hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of what ADONAI-Tzva'ot has planned for them.


text:
On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Kena'an and swear loyalty to ADONAI-Tzva'ot; one of them will be called the City of Destruction.


text:
On that day there will be an altar to ADONAI in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone for ADONAI at its border.


text:
It will be a sign and witness to ADONAI-Tzva'ot in the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out to ADONAI for help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them.


text:
ADONAI will make himself known to Egypt; on that day, the Egyptians will know ADONAI. They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings, they will make vows to ADONAI and keep them.


text:
Yet ADONAI will strike Egypt, both striking and healing, so they will return to ADONAI. He will listen to their prayers, and he will heal them.


text:
On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Ashur. Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur, and Egypt will worship with Ashur.


text:
for ADONAI-Tzva'ot has blessed him: 'Blessed be Egypt my people, Ashur the work of my hands and Isra'el my heritage.' Hebrew 'ir haheres, parodying 'ir hacheres, 'City of the Sun,' i.e., Heliopolis


text:
In the year that Sargon the king of Ashur sent his commander-in-chief to attack Ashdod, he captured it.


text:
It was at that time that ADONAI, speaking through Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, said, 'Go and unwind the sackcloth from around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet.' So he did it, going about unclothed and barefoot.


text:
In time, ADONAI said, 'Just as my servant Yesha'yahu has gone about unclothed and barefoot for three years as a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,


text:
so will the king of Ashur lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and barefoot, with their buttocks exposed, to the shame of Egypt.


text:
On that day, the people living along this coast will say, 'Look what happened to the people to whom we fled for help, hoping they would rescue us from the king of Ashur! How will we escape now?''


text:
A prophecy about the coastal desert: Like whirlwinds sweeping over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.


text:
A dire vision has been shown to me: the betrayer betrays, and the spoiler spoils. 'Eilam, advance! Madai, lay siege! I will end all groaning.


text:
This is why my insides are racked with pain; I am seized by pangs, like a woman in labor; wrenched by what I hear, aghast at what I see.


text:
If he sees the cavalry, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be on alert, on full alert!'


text:
He calls out like a lion: 'My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, I stay at my post all night.'


text:
Then, as they appeared - the cavalry, horsemen in pairs - he spoke these words: 'She has fallen! She has fallen - Bavel! All the carved images of her gods lie shattered on the ground.'


text:
My people, who have been threshed, grain trodden down on my threshing-floor: I am telling you what I have heard from ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el.


text:
A prophecy about Dumah: Someone is calling to me from Se'ir: 'Watchman, how much longer is it night? Watchman, how much longer is it night?'


text:
The watchman answers: 'Morning is coming, but also the night. If you want to ask, ask! Come back again!'


text:
For this is what Adonai has told me: 'Within a year [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Kedar will come to an end.


text:
A prophecy about the Valley of Vision: Tell me what is wrong with you, that you have all gone up on the roofs.


text:
You city full of noise, confusion and boisterous excitement, your slain did not fall to the sword, nor did they die in battle.


text:
All your leaders fled together and were captured without the use of a bow; all from you who were found were captured, even though they had fled far away.


text:
This is why I said, 'Don't look at me, leave me alone to weep bitterly, don't try to comfort me over the destruction of my people.'


text:
For it is a day of panic, trampling and confusion from Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot in the Valley of Vision. With walls crashing down, they cry for help to the mountains.


text:
In time, your choicest valleys are overrun by chariots, and the cavalry take their posts by the gate;


text:
You also built a reservoir between the two walls for the water from the Old Pool; but you didn't look to Him who made these things; you had no respect for Him who fashioned them long ago.


text:
That day Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot called on you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth;


text:
but instead, one sees joy and celebrating, killing of oxen, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, drinking of wine 'Let's eat and drink now, because tomorrow we'll be dead!'


text:
Then ADONAI-Tzva'ot revealed himself in my ears: 'You will not atone for this iniquity until you die.' This is what Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot says.


text:
Thus says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot: 'Go and find that steward, Shevna, administrator of the palace, and ask him:


text:
'What do you own here, and who gave you the right to cut yourself a tomb here? Why do you get such an eminent tomb? Why are you carving a resting-place for yourself in the rock?''


text:
roll you up, and toss you around like a ball in the open country. There you will die, with your fancy chariots, you disgrace to your master's palace!


text:
I will dress him in your robe, gird him with your sash of office, and invest him with your authority. He will be a father to the people living in Yerushalayim and to the house of Y'hudah.


text:
I will place the key of David's house on his shoulder; no one will shut what he opens; no one will open what he shuts.


text:
They will hang on him all the weight of his clan, descendants and offspring, as well as all the vessels of small capacity, from pitchers to cups.


text:
When that day comes, the peg fastened firmly in place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the weight that was on it will be cut off.' For ADONAI has said it.


text:
A prophecy about Tzor: Howl, you 'Tarshish' ships, because the harbor is destroyed! On returning from Kittim, they discover they cannot enter it.


text:
Silence, you who live on the coast, you who have been enriched by the merchants of Tzidon crossing the sea.


text:
By the great water the grain of Shichor, the harvest of the Nile, brought you profits. She was marketplace for the nations.


text:
Shame, Tzidon, for the sea speaks; the fortress of the sea says, 'I no longer have labor pains or bear children, yet I have raised neither boys nor girls.'


text:
Is this your boisterous city, whose feet long ago in antiquity carried her off to found distant colonies?


text:
Who planned this against Tzor, the city that once bestowed crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are honored throughout the earth?


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot planned it to break the pride of all the arrogant, to humiliate all those who are honored everywhere on earth.


text:
People of Tarshish! Nothing restricts you now. You can flow freely over your land just like the Nile River.


text:
He has stretched out his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms; ADONAI has ordered that Kena'an's fortresses be destroyed.


text:
He has said, 'Exult no more, oppressed virgin daughter of Tzidon. Arise, cross to Kittim; even there you will find no rest.'


text:
Look at the land of the Kasdim! This was the people who did not exist when Ashur destined it for desert creatures. They erected their siege towers and tore down her palaces, so that it has been made a ruin.


text:
When that day comes, Tzor will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of a king. After seventy years, its fate will be the same as that of the prostitute in this song:


text:
'Take a lyre, walk the city, you poor, forgotten whore! Play sweetly, sing all your songs, so that they will remember you!'


text:
After seventy years are over ADONAI will remember Tzor. She will receive her wages again and prostitute herself to all the world's kingdoms on the face of the earth.


text:
But her merchandise and profits will be dedicated to ADONAI; they will not be stored up or hoarded, because her profits will be for those living in ADONAI's presence, so that they can eat their fill and wear fine clothing.


text:
Look! ADONAI is stripping and destroying the land, turning it upside down and scattering its inhabitants


text:
cohen and commoner, slave and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.


text:
The land lies defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the teachings, changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant.


text:
Therefore a curse is devouring the land, and its inhabitants are punished for their guilt. It is why those living there waste away, and the people left are few.


text:
the happy sound of tambourines ceases, the shouts of merrymakers are stilled, the joy of the lyre ends.


text:
Around the earth, among the peoples, it will be as when beating an olive tree, as when gleaning the grapes at the end of the harvest.


text:
From the farthest part of the earth we have heard them sing, 'Glory to the Righteous One!' But, I say, I'm wasting away, I am wasting away! Woe to me! Traitors betray! Oh, how the traitors betray and betray!


text:
He who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit. He who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows above have been opened, and the earth's foundations shake.


text:
The earth staggers to and fro like a drunk, sways back and forth like a watchman's shelter; its transgression weighs heavy upon it; it will fall and not rise again.


text:
When that day comes, ADONAI will punish the armies of the high heaven on high, and the kings of the earth here on earth.


text:
Then the moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for ADONAI-Tzva'ot will rule on Mount Tziyon and in Yerushalayim, with his glory manifest to the rulers of his people.


text:
ADONAI, you are my God. I exalt you, I praise your name. For you have accomplished marvels, [fulfilled] ancient plans faithfully and truly.


text:
For you have made a city a heap of stones, turned a fortified city into rubble, made the foreigners' fortress a city that will never be rebuilt.


text:
For you have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, shelter from the storm, shade from the heat for the blast from the ruthless was like a storm that could destroy a wall.


text:
Like desert heat, you subdue the foreigners' uproar; like heat subdued by a cloud's shadow, the song of the ruthless dies away.


text:
On this mountain ADONAI-Tzva'ot will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and superb wines, delicious, rich food and superb, elegant wines.


text:
On this mountain he will destroy the veil which covers the face of all peoples, the veil enshrouding all the nations.


text:
He will swallow up death forever. Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For ADONAI has spoken.


text:
On that day they will say, 'See! This is our God! We waited for him to save us. This is ADONAI ; we put our hope in him. We are full of joy, so glad he saved us!'


text:
For on this mountain the hand of ADONAI will rest. But Mo'av will be trampled down where they are, like straw trampled into a pile of manure.


text:
They will spread out their hands in Mo'av, like a swimmer using his hands to tread water; but their pride will be humbled and sunk, no matter how clever the strokes of their hands.


text:
On that day this song will be sung in the land of Y'hudah: 'We have a strong city! He has built walls and ramparts for our safety.


text:
For he has humbled those in high places, levelling the lofty city, levelling it to the ground, laying it in the dust.


text:
Following the way of your judgments, we put our hope in you. The desire of all our soul is to remember you and your name.


text:
My soul desires you at night, my spirit in me seeks you at dawn; for when your judgments are here on earth, the people in the world learn what righteousness is.


text:
Even if pity is shown to the wicked, he still doesn't learn what righteousness is. In a land of uprightness he will still act wrongly and fail to see the majesty of ADONAI.


text:
ADONAI, you raised your hand, but they still didn't see. Yet with shame they will see your zeal for the people. Yes, fire will destroy your enemies.


text:
The dead will not live again, the ghosts will not rise again; for you punished and destroyed them, wiped out all memory of them.


text:
You enlarged the nation, ADONAI, you enlarged the nation; and thus you glorified yourself; you extended all the frontiers of the country.


text:
ADONAI, when they were troubled, they sought you. When you chastened them, they poured out a silent prayer.


text:
As a pregnant woman about to give birth cries out and writhes in her labor pains, so we have been at your presence, ADONAI


text:
we have been pregnant and been in pain. But we, as it were, have given birth to wind; we have not brought salvation to the land, and those inhabiting the world have not come to life.


text:
Your dead will live, my corpses will rise; awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the morning dew, and the earth will bring the ghosts to life.


text:
Come, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.


text:
For see! ADONAI emerges from his place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain.


text:
On that day ADONAI, with his great, strong, relentless sword, will punish Livyatan the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent Livyatan; he will slay the sea monster.


text:
'I, ADONAI, guard it. Moment to moment I water it. So that no harm will come to it, I guard it night and day.


text:
I have no anger in me. If it gives me briars and thorns, then, as in war, I will trample it down and burn it up at once;


text:
The time is coming when Ya'akov will take root; Isra'el will bud and flower, and fill the whole world with a harvest.


text:
[ADONAI] will not strike Isra'el, as he did others who struck Isra'el; he will not kill them, as he did the others.


text:
Your controversy with her is fully resolved by sending her [into exile]. He removes her with a rough gust of wind on a day when it's blowing from the east.


text:
So the iniquity of Ya'akov is atoned for by this, and removing his sin produces this result: he chops up all the altar stones like chalk - sacred poles and sun-pillars stand no more.


text:
For the fortified city is alone, abandoned and deserted, like the desert. Calves graze and lie down there, stripping its branches bare.


text:
When its harvest dries up, it is broken off; women come and set it on fire. For this is a people without understanding. Therefore he who made them will not pity them, he who formed them will show them no mercy.


text:
On that day ADONAI will beat out the grain between the Euphrates River and the Vadi of Egypt; and you will be gathered, one by one, people of Isra'el!


text:
On that day a great shofar will sound. Those lost in the land of Ashur will come, also those scattered through the land of Egypt; and they will worship ADONAI on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.


text:
Woe to the haughty crown of Efrayim's drunks, to the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley belonging to people overcome by wine!


text:
Adonai has someone strong and powerful. He comes like a hailstorm, a destructive tempest, like a flood of water, rushing, overwhelming; with his hand he hurls them to the ground.


text:
and the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley, is like the first ripe fig of summer whoever sees it picks and eats it.


text:
On that day, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will be a glorious crown, a brilliant diadem for the remnant of his people.


text:
He will also be a spirit of justice for whoever sits as a judge, and a source of strength for those repelling enemy attacks at the gate.


text:
But there are others reeling from wine, staggering about because of strong liquor; cohen and prophet reel from strong liquor, they are confused by wine. Led astray by strong liquor, they err in their visions and stumble when judging.


text:
Can no one be taught anything? Can no one understand the message? Must one teach barely weaned toddlers, babies just taken from the breast,


text:
so that [one has to use nursery rhymes]? Tzav la-tzav, tzav la-tzav, kav la-kav, kav la-kav z'eir sham, z'eir sham [Precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there].


text:
He once told this people, 'It's time to rest, the exhausted can rest, now you can relax' - but they wouldn't listen.


text:
So now the word of ADONAI for them comes 'precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there,' so that when they walk, they stumble backward, and are broken, trapped and captured!


text:
Because you said, 'We made a covenant with death, we made a contract with Sh'ol. When the raging flood passes through, it will not touch us. For we have made lies our refuge and hid ourselves in falsehoods'


text:
therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'Look, I am laying in Tziyon a tested stone, a costly cornerstone, a firm foundation-stone; he who trusts will not rush here and there.


text:
I will make justice the plumbline and righteousness the plumb-bob; hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, water will overflow the hiding place,


text:
your covenant with death will be annulled, and your contract with Sh'ol will not stand. When the raging flood passes through, you will be trampled down by it.


text:
As often as it passes through, it will take you, for it will pass through every morning, day after day, night after night; understanding the message will be sheer terror.'


text:
For, [as the saying goes,] 'The bed is too short for a person to stretch, and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold] even if he crams himself in.'


text:
For ADONAI will arise, as at Mount P'ratzim, and storm with rage, as in the Giv'on Valley; so he can do his deed, his strange deed, and perform his task, his alien task.


text:
Therefore, now, stop your scoffing, or your bonds will be further tightened; for I have heard from Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot that destruction is decreed for the whole land.


text:
No - when he finishes levelling it, he scatters his dill-seed, sows his cumin, puts wheat in rows, barley where it belongs, and plants buckwheat around the edges;


text:
Dill must not be threshed with a sledge or cartwheels driven over cumin; rather, dill one beats with a stick and cumin with a flail.


text:
When crushing grain for bread, one doesn't thresh it forever; one drives the horse and cart wheels over it but doesn't crush it to powder.


text:
Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,


text:
but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.


text:
Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.


text:
But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.


text:
You will be visited by ADONAI-Tzva'ot with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises, whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.


text:
Then, all the nations fighting Ari'el, every one at war with her, the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.


text:
It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted - it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.


text:
If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.


text:
For ADONAI has poured over you a spirit of lethargy; he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets) and covered your heads (that is, the seers).


text:
For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, 'Please read this,' he answers, 'I can't, because it's sealed.'


text:
If the scroll is given to someone who can't read with the request, 'Please read this,' he says, 'I can't read.'


text:
Then Adonai said: 'Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their 'fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin


text:
therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the 'wisdom' of their 'wise ones' vanishes, and the 'discernment' of their 'discerning ones' is hidden away.'


text:
Woe to those who burrow down deep to hide their plans from ADONAI! They work in the dark and say to themselves, 'Nobody sees us, nobody knows us.'


text:
How you turn things upside down! - Is the potter not better than the clay, Does something made say of its maker, 'He didn't make me'? Does the product say of its producer, 'He has no discernment'?


text:
In but a little while the L'vanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.


text:
On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.


text:
those whose words make a man out to be a sinner, those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate, and those who groundlessly deny justice to the one in the right.


text:
Therefore, here are the words of ADONAI, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya'akov: 'Ya'akov will no longer be ashamed, no longer will his face grow pale.


text:
When his descendants see the work of my hands among them, they will consecrate my name. Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya'akov and stand in awe of the God of Isra'el.


text:
'Woe to the rebellious children,' says ADONAI. 'They make plans, but the plans are not mine; they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit, in order to pile sin upon sin.


text:
They go down to Egypt but don't consult me, seeking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.


text:
they all are disappointed with a people that doesn't help them, who give no assistance and no advantage, only disappointment and disgrace.'


text:
A prophecy about the animals in the Negev: In a land of trouble and anguish, of lionesses and roaring lions, of vipers and poisonous flying serpents, they carry their riches on donkeys' backs and their treasures on camels' humps to a people who will not help them.


text:
Now go, inscribe it on a tablet, write it for them in a scroll, so that on the final day it will be a witness forever and ever.


text:
For this is a rebellious people; they are lying children, children who refuse to hear the Torah of ADONAI.


text:
They say to the seers, 'Do not see!' to those who have visions, 'Do not tell us the visions you have as they really are; but flatter us, fabricate illusions!


text:
Therefore here is what the Holy One of Isra'el says: 'Because you reject this word, trust in extortion and rely on deceit,


text:
this sin will become for you a crack bulging out high on a wall, showing signs it is ready to fall; then suddenly, all at once, it breaks.'


text:
He will break it like a clay pot, ruthlessly shattering it into pieces so tiny not even a potsherd remains for taking fire from the fireplace or scooping water from the cistern.


text:
For this is what Adonai ELOHIM, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: 'Returning and resting is what will save you; calmness and confidence will make you strong - but you want none of this!


text:
'No!' you say, 'We will flee on horseback!' Therefore you will surely flee. And, 'We will ride on swift ones!' So your pursuers will be swift.


text:
A thousand will flee at the threat of one, you all will flee at the threat of five, until you are left isolated, like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.'


text:
Yet ADONAI is just waiting to show you favor, he will have pity on you from on high; for ADONAI is a God of justice; happy are all who wait for him!


text:
People in Tziyon, who live in Yerushalayim, you will weep no more. At the sound of your cry, he will show you his grace; on hearing it, he will answer you.


text:
Though Adonai may give you but bread and water, and not very much of that; your teacher will no longer hide himself, but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.


text:
With your ears you will hear a word from behind you: 'This is the way; stay on it, whether you go to the right or the left.'


text:
You will treat as unclean your silver-covered idols and your cast metal images plated with gold; you will throw them away, like menstrual cloths; you will say to them, 'Get out of here!'


text:
Then he will give you rain for the seed you use to sow your land; and the food that comes from the ground will be rich and abundant. When that day comes, your cattle will graze in spacious pastures.


text:
The oxen and donkeys that work the land will eat a tasty mixture, winnowed free of chaff, spread by pitchfork and shovel.


text:
On every high mountain and lofty hill will be streams and flowing brooks, on a day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.


text:
Moreover, the light of the moon will be as bright as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will be seven times stronger, like the light of seven days [in one], on the day ADONAI binds up the wounds of his people and heals the bruise caused by the blow.


text:
Here comes the name of ADONAI from afar, his anger burning, in thick rising smoke. His lips are full to the brim with fury, his tongue a consuming fire.


text:
His breath is like a racing torrent that rises up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and put a bridle in the peoples' mouths to lead them astray.


text:
Your song will be like one that is sung on a night when a holy feast is kept, and your hearts will be happy, as if walking to the sound of the flute, to the mountain of ADONAI, to the Rock of Isra'el.


text:
ADONAI will make his glorious voice heard, and he will reveal his arm descending with furious anger in a flaming firestorm, with cloudbursts, tempests and hailstones.


text:
Every sweep of the punishing rod that ADONAI imposes on him will be to tambourines and lyres, as he brandishes his arm against them in battle.


text:
For the Tofet fire pit has long been ready, prepared for the king, made large and deep, with plenty of wood and blazing with fire; like a stream of sulfur, ADONAI's breath sets it aflame.


text:
Woe to those going down to Egypt expecting help - relying on horses; trusting in chariots, because they have many, and in the strength of their cavalrymen - but not looking to the Holy One of Isra'el, not consulting ADONAI.


text:
But he too is wise and can bring disaster, and he does not take back his words; he will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.


text:
Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. So when ADONAI stretches out his hand, both he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall; both will perish together.


text:
For here is what ADONAI says to me: 'As a lion or lion cub growls at its prey and isn't frightened away by the shouts of hordes of shepherds called out against him - their voices do not upset him - so likewise ADONAI-Tzva'ot will descend to fight on Mount Tziyon, on its hill.


text:
Like hovering birds, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will protect Yerushalayim. In protecting it, he will rescue it; in sparing it, he will save it.


text:
For on that day everyone will discard his idols of silver and idols of gold, which you made for yourselves with your own sinful hands.


text:
Then Ashur will fall by a sword not of mortals, a sword, not of humans, will devour him; he will flee before the sword, and his young men will be put to forced labor.


text:
His rock, out of terror, will pass away, and his panicked officers will desert the standard.' So says ADONAI, whose fire is in Tziyon, whose furnace is in Yerushalayim.


text:
A man will be like a refuge from the wind, like protection from a storm, like streams of water on arid ground, like a rock cliff shading a weary land.


text:
The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully, the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.


text:
for the mean person will speak meanness, his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly, spreading error concerning ADONAI, as he lets the hungry go on starving and deprives the thirsty of drink.


text:
The mean person's means are mean - he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor and needy with lies, even when their cause is just.


text:
In a year and a few days more, you overconfident women will shudder, because the vintage will fail, the harvest will not come.


text:
Tremble, you complacent women! Shudder, you overconfident women! Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.


text:
For the palace will be abandoned, the crowded city deserted, 'Ofel and fortress wastelands forever, a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks


text:
till the Spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes a fertile field, with the fertile field regarded as a forest.


text:
Woe, destroyer, yourself undestroyed! Woe, betrayer, yourself unbetrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you tire of betraying, they will betray you.


text:
ADONAI, show us mercy; we have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, and our salvation in time of trouble.


text:
At the sound of the tumult, the peoples wander off; when you exalt yourself, the nations are scattered.


text:
He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge, and fear of ADONAI, which is his treasure.


text:
The highways are deserted, there are no travelers. He has broken the covenant, despised the cities; he has no regard for human life.


text:
The land is mourning and wilting away. The L'vanon is withering with shame. The Sharon has become like the 'Aravah. Bashan and Karmel have been shaken bare.


text:
The sinners in Tziyon are frightened; trembling has seized the ungodly. 'Who of us can live with the devouring fire? Who of us can live with eternal burning?'


text:
He whose life is right and whose speech is straight, he who scorns getting rich by extortion, he who shakes his hands free of bribes, stops his ears against talk of bloodshed and shuts his eyes against looking at evil.


text:
Such a person will live on the heights, his refuge a fortress among the cliffs, his food and water in steady supply.


text:
Your mind will meditate on the terror: 'Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the man who did the weighing? Where is the man who numbered the towers?'


text:
You will not see the intransigent people, that people whose language is so obscure, whose stuttering speech you cannot understand.


text:
Look at Tziyon, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Yerushalayim a secure abode, a tent that will not be removed, whose pegs will never be pulled out and whose guy-ropes will not be cut.


text:
But there in his splendor ADONAI will be with us, in a place of rivers and broad streams. But no boat with oars will go there, no majestic ship will pass by.


text:
For your ropes are hanging loose, not holding the mast, not spreading the sail. Then the plunder shared out is so huge that even the lame get part of the spoil.


text:
Come close, you nations, and listen! Pay close attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and everything in it; the world, with all it produces.


text:
For ADONAI is angry at every nation, furious with all their armies; he has completely destroyed them, handed them over to slaughter.


text:
Their slain will be thrown out, the stench will rise from their corpses, the mountains will flow with their blood.


text:
The whole host of heaven will decompose, the heavens themselves be rolled up like a scroll; all their array will wither away like a withering grape-leaf that falls from a vine or a withered fig from a fig tree.


text:
'For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven; now it descends on Edom to judge them, the people I have doomed to destruction.'


text:
There is a sword that belongs to ADONAI. It is filled with blood, gorged with fat, filled with the blood of lambs and goats, gorged with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For ADONAI has a sacrifice in Botzrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


text:
The wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong, mature ones. Their land will be drunk with blood and their dust made greasy with fat.


text:
that will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. In all generations it will lie waste; no one will pass through it ever again.


text:
Horned owl and hawk will possess it, screech owl and raven will live there; he will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion and the plumbline of the empty void.


text:
Thorns will overgrow its palaces, nettles and thistles its fortresses; it will become a lair for jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.


text:
Wildcats and hyenas will meet there; and billy-goats call to each other; Lilit [the night monster] will lurk there and find herself a place to rest.


text:
There the hoot owl will nest, lay her eggs, hatch and gather her young in its shade. There the vultures will assemble, every one with its mate.


text:
Consult the book of ADONAI and read it: not one of these will be missing, none will be lacking a mate. For by his own mouth he gave the order, and by his Spirit he brought them together.


text:
It is he who cast the lot for them, his hand measured out their shares. They will possess it forever, and live there through all generations.


text:
It will burst into flower, will rejoice with joy and singing, will be given the glory of the L'vanon, the splendor of Karmel and the Sharon. They will see the glory of ADONAI, the splendor of our God.


text:
Say to the fainthearted, 'Be strong and unafraid! Here is your God; he will come with vengeance; with God's retribution he will come and save you.'


text:
then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the mute person's tongue will sing. For in the desert, springs will burst forth, streams of water in the 'Aravah;


text:
the sandy mirage will become a pool, the thirsty ground springs of water. The haunts where jackals lie down will become a marsh filled with reeds and papyrus.


text:
A highway will be there, a way, called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass over it, but it will be for those whom he guides fools will not stray along it.


text:
No lion or other beast of prey will be there, traveling on it. They will not be found there, but the redeemed will go there.


text:
Those ransomed by ADONAI will return and come with singing to Tziyon, on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee.


text:
It was in the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu that Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y'hudah and captured them.


text:
From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Rav-Shakeh to Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. He positioned himself by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers' Field.


text:
Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went out to meet him.


text:
I say: do mere words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?


text:
Look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff - when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.


text:
But if you tell me, 'We trust in ADONAI our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, 'You must worship before this altar'?


text:
Do you think I have come up to this land to destroy it without ADONAI's approval? ADONAI said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!''''


text:
Elyakim, Shevnah and Yo'ach said to Rav-Shakeh, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don't speak to us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening.'


text:
But Rav-Shakeh answered, 'Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?'


text:
Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king says: 'Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern,


text:
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards.


text:
Beware of Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, 'ADONAI will save us.' Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?


text:
Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S'farvayim? Did they save Shomron from my power?


text:
Where is the god of any of these countries that has saved its country from my power, so that ADONAI might be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?''


text:
But they kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word, for the king's order was, 'Don't answer him.'


text:
Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said.


text:
Maybe ADONAI your God will hear the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which ADONAI your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left.''


text:
Then he heard it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him. On hearing this, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, after ordering them,


text:
'ADONAI-Tzva'ot, God of Isra'el, who dwells above the k'ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.


text:
Turn your ear, ADONAI, and hear! Open your eyes, ADONAI, and see! Hear all the words that Sancheriv sent to taunt the living God.


text:
and have thrown their gods into the fire. For those were non-gods, merely the products of people's hands, wood and stone; this is why they could destroy them.


text:
Now therefore, ADONAI our God, save us from his power - so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you are ADONAI - you only.'


text:
Then Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: 'ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur.'


text:
Here is ADONAI's answer concerning him: ''The virgin daughter of Tziyon despises you; she laughs you to scorn. The daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at you.


text:
''Through your servants you taunted Adonai. You said, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the mountain heights even in the far reaches of the L'vanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best cypress trees. I reached its remotest heights and its best forests.


text:
I dug [wells] and drank the water. The soles of my [soldiers'] feet dried up all the rivers of Egypt.'


text:
''Haven't you heard? Long ago I made it; in antiquity I produced it; and now I am making it happen: you are turning fortified cities into heaps of ruins,


text:
''This will be the sign for you [people of Isra'el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.


text:
'Therefore this is what ADONAI says concerning the king of Ashur: ''He will not come to this city or even shoot an arrow there; he will not confront it with a shield or erect earthworks against it.


text:
Then the angel of ADONAI went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of Ashur. Early the next morning, there they were, all of them, corpses - dead.


text:
One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, his sons Adramelekh and Shar'etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.


text:
Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, 'Here is what ADONAI says: 'Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.''


text:
'Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is what ADONAI, the God of David your ancestor, says: 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life.


text:
that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.'' So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.


text:
'I once said: 'In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.'


text:
'I said, 'I will never again see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will look on human beings no more or be with those who live in this world.


text:
My home is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. Between day and night you could finish me off.


text:
I try to be strong like a lion till morning, but still my illness breaks all my bones - between day and night you could finish me off.


text:
I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'


text:
'What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was.


text:
Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life


text:
though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back.


text:
'Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.


text:
The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness.


text:
ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI.'


text:
Then Yesha'yahu said, 'Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover.'


text:
M'rodakh-Bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Bavel, heard that Hizkiyahu had been ill and had recovered, so he sent a letter and a gift to him.


text:
Hizkiyahu was pleased with the gifts and showed the messengers all of the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also all of the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury - there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.


text:
Then Yesha'yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, 'What did these men say? Where did they come from?' Hizkiyahu answered, 'They came to me from a distant country, Bavel.'


text:
'They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel.'


text:
Hizkiyahu said to Yesha'yahu, 'The word of ADONAI which you have just told me is good'; because he thought, 'At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime.'


text:
'Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her that she has completed her time of service, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received at the hand of ADONAI double for all her sins.'


text:
A voice cries out: 'Clear a road through the desert for ADONAI! Level a highway in the 'Aravah for our God!


text:
Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill lowered, the bumpy places made level and the crags become a plain.


text:
Then the glory of ADONAI will be revealed; all humankind together will see it, for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken.'


text:
A voice says, 'Proclaim!' And I answer, 'What should I proclaim?' 'All humanity is merely grass, all its kindness like wildflowers:


text:
the grass dries up, the flower fades, when a wind from ADONAI blows on it. Surely the people are grass!


text:
You who bring good news to Tziyon, get yourself up on a high mountain; you who bring good news to Yerushalayim, cry out at the top of your voice! Don't be afraid to shout out loud! Say to the cities of Y'hudah, 'Here is your God!


text:
Here comes Adonai ELOHIM with power, and his arm will rule for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense is before him.


text:
He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering his lambs with his arm, carrying them against his chest, gently leading the mother sheep.'


text:
Who has counted the handfuls of water in the sea, measured off the sky with a ruler, gauged how much dust there is on the earth, weighed the mountains on scales, or the hills in a balance?


text:
Whom did he consult, to gain understanding? Who taught him how to judge, taught him what he needed to know, showed him how to discern?


text:
The nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count like a grain of dust on the scales. The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.


text:
An image made by a craftsman, which a goldsmith overlays with gold, for which he then casts silver chains?


text:
A man too poor to afford an offering chooses a piece of wood that won't rot, then seeks out a skilled artisan to prepare an image that won't fall over.


text:
Don't you know? Don't you hear? Haven't you been told from the start? Don't you understand how the earth is set up?


text:
He who sits above the circle of the earth - for whom its inhabitants appear like grasshoppers - stretches out the heavens like a curtain, spreads them out like a tent to live in.


text:
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely their stem taken root in the ground, when he blows on them, they dry up, and the whirlwind carries them off like straw.


text:
Turn your eyes to the heavens! See who created these? He brings out the army of them in sequence, summoning each by name. Through his great might and his massive strength, not one of them is missing.


text:
Why do you complain, Ya'akov; why do you say, Isra'el, 'My way is hidden from ADONAI, my rights are ignored by my God'?


text:
Haven't you known, haven't you heard that the everlasting God, ADONAI, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow tired or weary? His understanding cannot be fathomed.


text:
but those who hope in ADONAI will renew their strength, they will soar aloft as with eagles' wings; when they are running they won't grow weary, when they are walking they won't get tired.


text:
'Keep silence before me, coastlands! Let the peoples replenish their strength! Let them approach; then let them speak. Let us assemble for judgment.'


text:
Who has raised from the east one who is just and called him to be in his service? He hands nations over to him and subjects kings to him; his sword reduces them to dust, his bow to driven straw.


text:
Whose work is this? Who has brought it about? He who called the generations from the beginning, 'I, ADONAI, am the first; and I am the same with those who are last.'


text:
The coastlands have seen and became afraid. The ends of the earth have trembled. They have approached, and now they have come.


text:
The woodworker encourages the goldsmith, the polisher encourages the hammerer; he says of the soldering, 'Yes, that's good,' then puts nails in [the idol] to keep it from moving.


text:
I have taken you from the ends of the earth, summoned you from its most distant parts and said to you, 'You are my servant' - I have chosen you, not rejected you.


text:
Don't be afraid, for I am with you; don't be distressed, for I am your God. I give you strength, I give you help, I support you with my victorious right hand.


text:
All those who were angry with you will be disgraced, put to shame; those who fought against you will be destroyed, brought to nothing.


text:
You will seek them but not find them, those who contended with you; yes, those who made war with you will be brought to nothing, nothing at all.


text:
Have no fear, Ya'akov, you worm, you men of Isra'el!' I will help you,' says ADONAI; 'Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
'I will make you into a threshing-sledge, new, with sharp, pointed teeth, to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust, to reduce the hills to chaff.


text:
As you fan them, the wind will carry them off, and the whirlwind will scatter them. Then you will rejoice in ADONAI, you will glory in the Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
'The poor and needy look for water in vain; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, ADONAI, will answer them. I, the God of Isra'el, will not leave them.


text:
I will open up rivers on the barren hills and wells down in the broad valleys. I will turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs.


text:
I will plant the desert with cedars, acacias, myrtles and olive trees; In the 'Aravah I will put cypresses together with elm trees and larches.'


text:
Then the people will see and know, together observe and understand that the hand of ADONAI has done this, that the Holy One of Isra'el created it.


text:
Bring out those idols! Have them foretell the future for us, tell us about past events, so that we can reflect on them and understand their consequences. Or tell us about events yet to come,


text:
state what will happen in the future, so that we can know you are gods. At least, do something, either good or bad - anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!


text:
'I roused someone from the north, and he has come from the rising sun; he will call on my name. He will trample on rulers as if they were mud, like a potter treading clay.'


text:
Who said this at the start, so we could know, or foretold it, so we could say, 'He's right'? In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it - the fact is, nobody hears what you say.


text:
But when I look around, there is no one - not a single one can give counsel, who, when I ask, can give an answer.


text:
'Here is my servant, whom I support, my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the Goyim.


text:
He will not snap off a broken reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. He will bring forth justice according to truth;


text:
he will not weaken or be crushed until he has established justice on the earth, and the coastlands wait for his Torah.'


text:
Thus says God, ADONAI, who created the heavens and spread them out, who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it:


text:
'I, ADONAI, called you righteously, I took hold of you by the hand, I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Goyim,


text:
so that you can open blind eyes, free the prisoners from confinement, those living in darkness from the dungeon.


text:
See how the former predictions come true; and now new things do I declare - before they sprout I tell you about them.'


text:
Sing to ADONAI a new song! Let his praise be sung from the ends of the earth by those sailing the sea and by everything in it, by the coastlands and those living there.


text:
Let the desert and its cities raise their voices, the villages where Kedar lives; let those living in Sela shout for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops!


text:
ADONAI will go out like a soldier, like a soldier roused to the fury of battle; he will shout, yes, he raises the battle cry; as he triumphs over his foes.


text:
'For a long time I have held my peace, I have been silent, restrained myself. Now I will shriek like a woman in labor, panting and gasping for air.


text:
I will devastate mountains and hills, wither all their vegetation, turn the rivers into islands and dry up the lakes.


text:
The blind I will lead on a road they don't know, on roads they don't know I will lead them; I will turn darkness to light before them, and straighten their twisted paths. These are things I will do without fail.


text:
Who is as blind as my servant, or as deaf as the messenger I send? Who is as blind as the one I rewarded, as blind as the servant of ADONAI?'


text:
But this is a people pillaged and plundered, all trapped in holes and sequestered in prisons. They are there to be plundered, with no one to rescue them; there to be pillaged, and no one says, 'Return them!'


text:
Who gave Ya'akov to be pillaged, Isra'el to the plunderers? Didn't ADONAI, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they refused to walk, he whose Torah they did not obey?


text:
This is why he poured on him his blazing anger as well as the fury of battle - it wrapped him in flames, yet he learned nothing; it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.


text:
But now this is what ADONAI says, he who created you, Ya'akov, he who formed you, Isra'el: 'Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I am calling you by your name; you are mine.


text:
When you pass through water, I will be with you; when you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched - the flame will not burn you.


text:
For I am ADONAI, your God, the Holy One of Isra'el, your Savior - I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and S'va for you.


text:
Because I regard you as valued and honored, and because I love you. For you I will give people, nations in exchange for your life.


text:
Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the east, and I will gather you from the west;


text:
I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Don't hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,


text:
All the nations are gathered together, and the peoples are assembled. Who among them can proclaim this and reveal what happened in the past? Let them bring their witnesses to justify themselves, so that others, on hearing, can say, 'That's true.'


text:
'You are my witnesses,' says ADONAI, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you can know and trust me and understand that I am he no god was produced before me, nor will any be after me.


text:
I have declared, saved and proclaimed - not some alien god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses,' says ADONAI. 'I am God.


text:
Here is what ADONAI, your redeemer, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: 'For your sake I have sent [an army] to Bavel and knocked down the fleeing Kasdim, all of them; their songs of triumph are now lamentations.


text:
who led out chariot and horse, the army in its strength - they lay down, never to rise again, snuffed out and quenched like a wick:


text:
I am doing something new; it's springing up - can't you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland.


text:
The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland, for my chosen people to drink,


text:
You have not brought me sheep for your burnt offerings, you have not honored me with your sacrifices. I didn't burden you by requiring grain offerings. or weary you by demanding frankincense.


text:
You have not spent money to buy me sweet cane or filled me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your crimes.


text:
Therefore I repudiated the officials of the sanctuary, delivered Ya'akov to the curse of destruction, and subjected Isra'el to scorn.


text:
Thus says ADONAI, who made you, formed you in the womb, and will help you: Don't be afraid, Ya'akov my servant, Yeshurun, whom I have chosen.


text:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring.


text:
One will say, 'I belong to ADONAI.' Another will be called by the name of Ya'akov. Yet another will write that he belongs to ADONAI. and adopt the surname Isra'el.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI, Isra'el's King and Redeemer, ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'I am the first, and I am the last; besides me there is no God.


text:
Who is like me? Let him speak out! Let him show me clearly what has been happening since I set up the eternal people; let him foretell future signs and events.


text:
Don't be frightened, don't be afraid - Didn't I tell you this long ago? I foretold it, and you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? There is no other Rock - I know of none.'


text:
All idol-makers amount to nothing; their precious productions profit no one; and their witnesses, to their own shame, neither see nor understand.


text:
All involved will be ashamed, but more than anyone else, the people who made them. Let them all be assembled, let them stand up; let them fear and be shamed together.


text:
A blacksmith makes a tool over burning coals; with his strong arm he shapes it with hammers. But when he gets hungry, his strength fails; if he doesn't drink water, he grows tired.


text:
A carpenter takes his measurements, sketches the shape with a stylus, planes the wood, checks it with calipers, and carves it into the shape of a man; and, since it is honored like a man, of course it has to live in a house.


text:
He goes to chop down cedars; he takes an evergreen and an oak; he especially tends one tree in the forest, plants a pine for the rain to nourish.


text:
In time, when it's ready for use as fuel, he takes some of it to keep himself warm and burns some more to bake bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, carves it into an idol and falls down before it.


text:
So half of it he burns in the fire; with that half he roasts meat and eats his fill; he warms himself; says, 'It feels so good, getting warm while watching the flames!'


text:
With the rest of the log he fashions a god, a carved image, then falls down before it; he worships it and prays to it. 'Save me,' he says, 'for you are my god!'


text:
Such people know nothing, understand nothing. Their eyes are sealed shut, so that they can't see; their hearts too, so they can't understand.


text:
Not one thinks to himself or has the knowledge or the discernment to say, 'I burned half of it in the fire, baked bread on its coals, roasted meat and ate it. Should I now make the rest an abomination? Should I prostrate myself to a tree trunk?'


text:
He is relying on ashes! A deceived heart has led him astray; so that now he won't save himself, just won't say, 'This thing in my hand is a fraud!'


text:
'Keep these matters in mind, Ya'akov, for you, Isra'el, are my servant. I formed you, you are my own servant; Isra'el, don't forget me.


text:
Like a thick cloud, I wipe away your offenses; like a cloud, your sins. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you.'


text:
Sing, you heavens, for ADONAI has done it! Shout, you depths of the earth! Mountains, break out into song, along with every tree in the forest! For ADONAI has redeemed Ya'akov; he glorifies himself in Isra'el.


text:
Here is what ADONAI says, your Redeemer, he who formed you in the womb: 'I am ADONAI, who makes all things, who stretched out the heavens all alone, who spread out the earth all by myself.


text:
I frustrate false prophets and their omens, I make fools of diviners, I drive back the sages and make their wisdom look silly.


text:
I confirm my servants' prophecies and make my messengers' plans succeed. I say of Yerushalayim: 'She will be lived in,' of the cities of Y'hudah, 'They will be rebuilt; I will restore their ruins.'


text:
I say of Koresh, 'He is my shepherd, he will do everything I want. He will say of Yerushalayim, 'You will be rebuilt,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'''


text:
Thus says ADONAI to Koresh, his anointed, whose right hand he has grasped, so that he subdues nations before him and strips kings of their robes, so that doors open in front of him, and no gates are barred:


text:
I will give you treasures hoarded in the dark, secret riches hidden away, so that you will know that I, ADONAI, calling you by your name, am the God of Isra'el.


text:
It is for the sake of Ya'akov my servant, yes, for Isra'el my elect, that I call you by your name and give you a title, although you don't know me.


text:
I am ADONAI; there is no other; besides me there is no God. I am arming you, although you don't know me,


text:
so that those from the east and those from the west will know that there is none besides me - I am ADONAI; there is no other.


text:
'Heavens above, rain down justice; let the clouds pour it down. Let the earth open, so that salvation springs up, and justice sprouts with it. I, ADONAI, have created it.'


text:
Woe to anyone who argues with his maker, like potsherds lying on the ground! Does the clay ask the potter, 'What are you doing?' or, 'What's this you're making, that has no hands?'


text:
Woe to him who asks a father, 'Of what are you the father?' or who asks a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'


text:
Thus says ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el, his Maker: 'You ask for signs concerning my children? You give orders concerning the work of my hands?


text:
I am the one who made the earth! I created human beings on it! I- my hands - stretched out the heavens, and directed all their number.


text:
I am stirring up Koresh to righteousness, I am smoothing out all his paths. He will rebuild my city; and he will free my exiles, taking neither ransom nor bribe,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'The earnings of Egypt, the commerce of Ethiopia, and men of stature from S'va will come over to you and become yours; they will come in chains and follow you. They will prostrate themselves before you; they will pray to you: 'Surely God is with you; there is no other, other gods are nothing.''


text:
But Isra'el, saved by ADONAI with an everlasting salvation, you will never, ever, be ashamed or disgraced.


text:
For thus says ADONAI, who created the heavens, God, who shaped and made the earth, who established and created it not to be chaos, but formed it to be lived in: 'I am ADONAI; there is no other.


text:
I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Ya'akov, 'It is in vain that you will seek me.' I, ADONAI, speak rightly; I say what is true.


text:
Assemble, come and gather together, you refugees from the nations! Those carrying their wooden idols are ignorant, they pray to a god that cannot save.


text:
Let them stand and present their case! Indeed, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, announced it in times gone by? Wasn't it I, ADONAI? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides me.


text:
In the name of myself I have sworn, from my mouth has rightly gone out, a word that will not return - that to me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear


text:
about me that only in ADONAI are justice and strength.' All who rage against him will come to him ashamed,


text:
Bel bows down, N'vo stoops low; their idols are borne by animals, beasts of burden. The loads you yourselves were carrying are now burdening tired animals.


text:
'Listen to me, house of Ya'akov, all who remain of the house of Isra'el: I have borne you from birth, carried you since the womb.


text:
Till your old age I will be the same - I will carry you until your hair is white. I have made you, and I will bear you; yes, I will carry and save you.


text:
They squander the gold from their bags and weigh silver on a scale; they hire a goldsmith to make a god, before which they fall down and worship!


text:
It is borne on shoulders and carried, then set in its place; and there it stands. From its place it does not move. If one cries to it, it cannot answer or save anyone from his troubles.


text:
'Remember things that happened at the beginning, long ago - that I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.


text:
At the beginning I announce the end, proclaim in advance things not yet done; and I say that my plan will hold, I will do everything I please to do.


text:
I call a bird of prey from the east, the man I intended, from a distant country. I have spoken and will bring it about; I have made a plan, and I will fulfill it.


text:
I am bringing my justice nearer, it is not far away; my salvation will not be delayed, I will place my salvation in Tziyon for Isra'el my glory.


text:
'Come down, and sit in the dust, you virgin daughter of Bavel! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, daughter of the Kasdim! No longer are you to be called dainty and delicate.


text:
Take the millstones, and grind meal; take off your veil, strip off your skirt, uncover your legs, wade through the streams.


text:
Your private parts will be exposed; yes, your shame will be seen. I am going to take vengeance, and no one will stand in my way.'


text:
'Sit there speechless, go into darkness, you daughter of the Kasdim! For you will no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.


text:
I was angry with my people, I desecrated my own possession 510 and gave them over to you. But you showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy, even upon the aged.


text:
You said, 'I will be mistress forever.' so you didn't consider these things or think about the consequences.


text:
Now hear this, you lover of luxuries, lolling at ease and saying to yourself, 'I am important, and no one else! I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.'


text:
But both will come over you in an instant, in a single day loss of children and widowhood; they will utterly overwhelm you, despite your many occult practices and powerful spells to prevent it.'


text:
You were at ease in your wickedness, you thought, 'No one sees me.' Your 'wisdom' and 'knowledge' perverted you, as you thought to yourself, 'I am important, and no one else.'


text:
Yet disaster will befall you, and you won't know how to charm it away; calamity will come upon you, and you won't be able to turn it aside; ruin will overcome you, suddenly, before you know it.


text:
So for now, keep on with your powerful spells and your many occult practices; from childhood you have been working at them; maybe they will do you some good, maybe you will inspire terror!


text:
You are worn out with all your consultations - so let the astrologers and stargazers, the monthly horoscope-makers, come forward now and save you from the things that will come upon you!


text:
Look, they will be like straw! The fire will consume them. They will not save even themselves from the power of the flame. It will not be coals for warming oneself, not a fire to sit beside!


text:
So much for your [wizards], with whom you have worked all your life! Each will wander off in his own direction, and nobody will save you.


text:
Listen to this, house of Ya'akov, called by the name of Isra'el, who have come from the spring of Y'hudah, who swear by the name of ADONAI and invoke the God of Isra'el! - it is not sincerely or justifiably


text:
that they call themselves people of the holy city or rely on the God of Isra'el - ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name:


text:
'I announced things that happened at the beginning, long ago; they issued from my mouth, I proclaimed them. Then suddenly I acted, and they occurred.


text:
I announced it to you long ago; before it occurred, I proclaimed it to you; so that you could not say, 'My idol did it; my carved image, my statue, gave the order for it.'


text:
You have heard and seen all this, so why won't you admit it? 'Now I am announcing new things to you, secret things you have not known,


text:
created now, not long ago; before today, you did not hear them: so you can't say, 'I already know about them.'


text:
No, you haven't heard, and you haven't known; these things have not reached your ears before. For I knew how treacherous you were - you were called a rebel from the womb.


text:
Yet for the sake of my own reputation I am deferring my anger; for the sake of my praise I am patient with you, so as not to cut you off.


text:
'Look, I have refined you, but not [as severely] as silver; [rather] I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.


text:
For my sake I will do it, for my own sake. I will not let [my reputation] be tarnished; I will not yield my glory to anyone else.


text:
My hand laid the foundation of the earth, my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summoned them, at once they rose into being.


text:
'All of you, assemble and listen: which of you has foretold what is coming? ADONAI's friend will do his will against Bavel, using his arm against the Kasdim.


text:
'Come close to me, and listen to this: since the beginning I have not spoken in secret, since the time things began to be, I have been there; and now Adonai ELOHIM has sent me and his Spirit.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Isra'el: 'I am ADONAI, your God, who teaches you for your own good, who guides you on the path you should take.


text:
If only you would heed my mitzvot! Then your peace would flow on like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.


text:
Your descendants would be numerous as the sand, your offspring countless as its grains. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from my presence.'


text:
Get out of Bavel! Flee the Kasdim! With shouts of joy announce it, proclaim it! Send the news out to the ends of the earth! Say, 'ADONAI has redeemed his servant Ya'akov.'


text:
They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts, he made water flow from the rock for them - he split the rock, and out gushed the water.


text:
Coastlands, listen to me; listen, you peoples far away: ADONAI called me from the womb; before I was born, he had spoken my name.


text:
He has made my mouth like a sharp sword while hiding me in the shadow of his hand; he has made me like a sharpened arrow while concealing me in his quiver.


text:
But I said, 'I have toiled in vain, spent my strength for nothing, futility.' Yet my cause is with ADONAI, my reward is with my God.


text:
So now ADONAI says - he formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Ya'akov back to him, to have Isra'el gathered to him, so that I will be honored in the sight of ADONAI, my God having become my strength


text:
he has said, 'It is not enough that you are merely my servant to raise up the tribes of Ya'akov and restore the offspring of Isra'el. I will also make you a light to the nations, so my salvation can spread to the ends of the earth.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI, the Redeemer of Isra'el, his Holy One, says to the one despised, whom the nations detest, to the servant of tyrants: 'When kings see you, they will stand up; princes too will prostrate themselves, because of ADONAI, who is faithful, the Holy One of Isra'el, who has chosen you.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'At the time when I choose, I will answer you; on the day of salvation, I will help you. I have preserved you, and I have appointed you to be the covenant for a people, to restore the land and distribute again its ruined inheritances to their owners,


text:
to say to the prisoners, 'Come out!' to those in darkness, 'Show yourselves!' They will feed along the paths, and all the high hills will be their pastures.


text:
They will be neither hungry nor thirsty; neither scorching wind nor sun will strike them; for he who has mercy on them will lead them and guide them to springs of water.


text:
There they come, some from far away, some from the north, some from the west, and some from the land of Sinim.'


text:
Sing, heaven! Rejoice, earth! Break out in song, you mountains! For ADONAI is comforting his people, having mercy on his own who have suffered.


text:
Can a woman forget her child at the breast, not show pity on the child from her womb? Even if these were to forget, I would not forget you.


text:
Raise your eyes, and look around: they are all gathering and coming to you. ADONAI swears: 'As surely as I am alive, you will wear them all like jewels, adorn yourself with them like a bride.'


text:
For your desolate places and ruins and your devastated land will be too cramped for those living in it; your devourers will be far away.


text:
The day will come when the children born when you were mourning will say to you, 'This place is too cramped for me! Give me room, so I can live!'


text:
Then you will ask yourself, 'Who fathered these for me? I've been mourning my children, alone, as an exile, wandering to and fro; so who has raised these? I was left alone, so where have these come from?'


text:
Adonai ELOHIM answers: 'I am beckoning to the nations, raising my banner for the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.


text:
Kings will be your foster-fathers, their princesses your nurses. They will bow to you, face toward the earth, and lick the dust on your feet. Then you will know that I am ADONAI - those who wait for me will not be sorry.'


text:
Here is ADONAI's answer: 'Even a warrior's captives will be snatched away, and the booty of the fearful will be freed. I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.


text:
I will feed those oppressing you with their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood as with wine. Then everyone will know that I, ADONAI, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Ya'akov.'


text:
ADONAI says: 'Where is your mother's divorce document which I gave her when I divorced her? Or: to which of my creditors did I sell you? You were sold because of your sins; because of your crimes was your mother divorced.


text:
Why was no one here when I came? Why, when I called, did nobody answer? Is my arm too short to redeem? Have I too little power to save? With my rebuke I dry up the sea; I turn rivers into desert, their fish rot for lack of water and they die of thirst;


text:
Adonai ELOHIM has given me the ability to speak as a man well taught, so that I, with my words, know how to sustain the weary. Each morning he awakens my ear to hear like those who are taught.


text:
I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.


text:
For Adonai ELOHIM will help. This is why no insult can wound me. This is why I have set my face like flint, knowing I will not be put to shame.


text:
My vindicator is close by; let whoever dares to accuse me appear with me in court! Let whoever has a case against me step forward!


text:
Look, if Adonai ELOHIM helps me, who will dare to condemn me? Here, they are all falling apart like old, moth-eaten clothes.


text:
Who among you fears ADONAI? Who obeys what his servant says? Even when he walks in the dark, without any light, he will trust in ADONAI's reputation and rely on his God.


text:
But all of you who are lighting fires and arming yourselves with firebrands: go, walk in the flame of your own fire, among the firebrands you lit! From my hands this [fate] awaits you: you will lie down in torment.


text:
'Listen to me, you pursuers of justice, you who seek ADONAI: consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug


text:
consider Avraham your father and Sarah, who gave birth to you; in that I called him when he was only one person, then blessed him and made him many.


text:
For ADONAI will comfort Tziyon, will comfort all her ruined places, will make her desert like 'Eden, her 'Aravah like the garden of ADONAI. Joy and gladness will be there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.


text:
'Pay attention to me, my people! My nation, listen to me! For Torah will go out from me; I will calm them with my justice as a light for the peoples.


text:
My righteousness is at hand, my salvation goes out, my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands are putting their hope in me, trusting in my arm.


text:
'Raise your eyes toward the skies, look at the earth below. The skies will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like clothing. Those living on it will die like flies; but my salvation will be forever, and my justice will never end.


text:
'Listen to me, you who know justice, you people who have my Torah in your heart: don't be afraid of people's taunts, don't be upset by their insults.


text:
For the moth will eat them up like clothing, the worm will eat them like wool; but my justice will be forever, and my salvation for all generations.'


text:
Awake! Awake! Arm of ADONAI, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days of old, as in ancient generations! Wasn't it you who hacked Rahav to pieces, you who pierced the sea monster?


text:
Wasn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; you who made the sea bottom a road for the redeemed to cross?


text:
Those ransomed by ADONAI will return and come with singing to Tziyon; on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee. Rahav symbolizes Egypt; the sea monster symbolizes Pharaoh 518


text:
'I, yes I, am the one who comforts you! Why are you afraid of a man, who must die; of a human being, who will wither like grass?


text:
You have forgotten ADONAI, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. Instead, you are in constant fear all day because of the oppressor's rage, as he prepares to destroy! But where is the oppressor's rage?


text:
The captive will soon be set free; he will not die and go down to Sh'ol; on the contrary, his food supply will be secure.


text:
For I am ADONAI your God, who stirs up the sea, who makes its waves roar - ADONAI-Tzva'ot is my name.


text:
I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand, in order to plant the skies [anew], lay the foundations of the earth [anew] and say to Tziyon, 'You are my people.''


text:
Awake! Awake! Stand up, Yerushalayim! At ADONAI's hand you drank the cup of his fury; you have drained to the dregs the goblet of drunkenness.


text:
There is no one to guide her among all the sons she has borne. Not one of all the children she raised is taking her by the hand.


text:
These two disasters have overcome you - yet who will grieve with you? - plunder and destruction, famine and sword; by whom can I comfort you?


text:
Your children lie helpless at every street corner, like an antelope trapped in a net; they are full of ADONAI's fury, the rebuke of your God.


text:
this is what your Lord ADONAI says, your God, who defends his people: 'Here, I have removed from your hand the cup of drunkenness, the goblet of my fury. You will never drink it again.


text:
I will put it in the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, 'Bend down, so we can trample you,' and you flattened your back on the ground like a street for them to walk on.'


text:
Awake! Awake, Tziyon! Clothe yourself with your strength! Dress in your splendid garments, Yerushalayim, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more.


text:
Shake off the dust! Arise! Be enthroned, Yerushalayim! Loosen the chains on your neck, captive daughter of Tziyon!


text:
For thus says Adonai ELOHIM: 'Long ago my people went down to Egypt to live there as aliens, and Ashur oppressed them for no reason.


text:
So now, what should I do here,' asks ADONAI, 'since my people were carried off for nothing? Their oppressors are howling,' says ADONAI, 'and my name is always being insulted, daily.


text:
Therefore my people will know my name; therefore on that day they will know that I, the one speaking - here I am!'


text:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation and saying to Tziyon, 'Your God is King!'


text:
Listen! Your watchmen are raising their voices, shouting for joy together. For they will see, before their own eyes, ADONAI returning to Tziyon.


text:
Break out into joy! Sing together, you ruins of Yerushalayim! For ADONAI has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim!


text:
ADONAI has bared his holy arm in the sight of every nation, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.


text:
Leave! Leave! Get out of there! Don't touch anything unclean! Get out from inside it, and be clean, you who carry ADONAI's temple equipment.


text:
You need not leave in haste, you do not have to flee; for ADONAI will go ahead of you, and the God of Isra'el will also be behind you.


text:
Just as many were appalled at him, because he was so disfigured that he didn't even seem human and simply no longer looked like a man,


text:
so now he will startle many nations; because of him, kings will be speechless. For they will see what they had not been told, they will ponder things they had never heard.'


text:
For before him he grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us.


text:
People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him.


text:
In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God.


text:
But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed.


text:
We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt of all of us. Or: and in fellowship with him


text:
Though mistreated, he was submissive - he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to be slaughtered, like a sheep silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth.


text:
After forcible arrest and sentencing, he was taken away; and none of his generation protested his being cut off from the land of the living for the crimes of my people, who deserved the punishment themselves.


text:
He was given a grave among the wicked; in his death he was with a rich man. Although he had done no violence and had said nothing deceptive,


text:
yet it pleased ADONAI to crush him with illness, to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering. If he does, he will see his offspring; and he will prolong his days; and at his hand ADONAI's desire will be accomplished.


text:
After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction. 'By his knowing [pain and sacrifice], my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers.


text:
Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners, while actually bearing the sin of many and interceding for the offenders.'


text:
'Sing, barren woman who has never had a child! Burst into song, shout for joy, you who have never been in labor! For the deserted wife will have more children than the woman who is living with her husband,' says ADONAI.


text:
Enlarge the space for your tent, extend the curtains of your dwelling; do not hold back, lengthen your cords, make your tent pegs firm.


text:
For you will spread out to the right and the left, your descendants will possess the nations and inhabit the desolated cities.


text:
Don't be afraid, for you won't be ashamed; don't be discouraged, for you won't be disgraced. You will forget the shame of your youth, no longer remember the dishonor of being widowed.


text:
For your husband is your Maker, ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name. The Holy One of Isra'el is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of all the earth.


text:
For ADONAI has called you back like a wife abandoned and grief-stricken; 'A wife married in her youth cannot be rejected,' says your God.


text:
I was angry for a moment and hid my face from you; but with everlasting grace I will have compassion on you,' says ADONAI your Redeemer.


text:
'For me this is like Noach's flood. Just as I swore that no flood like Noach's would ever again cover the earth, so now I swear that never again will I be angry with you or rebuke you.


text:
For the mountains may leave and the hills be removed, but my grace will never leave you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,' says ADONAI, who has compassion on you.


text:
'Storm-ravaged [city], unconsoled, I will set your stones in the finest way, lay your foundations with sapphires,


text:
In righteousness you will be established, far from oppression, with nothing to fear; far from ruin, for it will not come near you.


text:
Any alliance that forms against you will not be my doing; whoever tries to form such an alliance will fall because of you.


text:
It is I who created the craftsman who blows on the coals and forges weapons suited to their purpose; I also created the destroyer to work havoc.


text:
No weapon made will prevail against you. In court you will refute every accusation. The servants of ADONAI inherit all this; the reward for their righteousness is from me,' says ADONAI.


text:
'All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You without money, come, buy, and eat! Yes, come! Buy wine and milk without money - it's free!


text:
Why spend money for what isn't food, your wages for what doesn't satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well, you will enjoy the fat of the land.


text:
Open your ears, and come to me; listen well, and you will live - I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the grace I assured David.


text:
You will summon a nation you do not know, and a nation that doesn't know you will run to you, for the sake of ADONAI your God, the Holy One of Isra'el, who will glorify you.'


text:
Let the wicked person abandon his way and the evil person his thoughts; let him return to ADONAI, and he will have mercy on him; let him return to our God, for he will freely forgive.


text:
'As high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


text:
For just as rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return there, but water the earth, causing it to bud and produce, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater;


text:
so is my word that goes out from my mouth - it will not return to me unfulfilled; but it will accomplish what I intend, and cause to succeed what I sent it to do.'


text:
Yes, you will go out with joy, you will be led forth in peace. As you come, the mountains and hills will burst out into song, and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands.


text:
Cypresses will grow in place of thorns, myrtles will grow instead of briars. This will bring fame to ADONAI as an eternal, imperishable sign.


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'Observe justice, do what is right, for my salvation is close to coming, my righteousness to being revealed.'


text:
Happy is the person who does this, anyone who grasps it firmly, who keeps Shabbat and does not profane it, and keeps himself from doing any evil.


text:
A foreigner joining ADONAI should not say, 'ADONAI will separate me from his people'; likewise the eunuch should not say, 'I am only a dried-up tree.'


text:
For here is what ADONAI says: 'As for the eunuchs who keep my Shabbats, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant:


text:
in my house, within my walls, I will give them power and a name greater than sons and daughters; I will give him an everlasting name that will not be cut off.


text:
'And the foreigners who join themselves to ADONAI to serve him, to love the name of ADONAI, and to be his workers, all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant,


text:
I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.'


text:
Adonai ELOHIM says, he who gathers Isra'el's exiles: 'There are yet others I will gather, besides those gathered already.'


text:
[Isra'el's] watchmen are, all of them, blind; they don't know anything. They are all dumb dogs, unable to bark, lying there dreaming, loving to sleep.


text:
Greedy dogs, never satisfied - such are the shepherds, unable to understand; they all turn to their own way, each one intent on his own gain:


text:
'Come, I'll get some wine, we'll fill up on good, strong liquor! Tomorrow will be like today; in fact, it will be even better!'


text:
The righteous person perishes, and nobody gives it a thought. Godly men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous person is taken away from the evil yet to come.


text:
Whom are you making fun of? At whom are you laughing and sticking out your tongue? Aren't you rebellious children, just a brood of liars?


text:
You go into heat among the oak trees, under every spreading tree. You kill the children in the valleys under the cracks in the rocks.


text:
Your place is among the smooth stones in the vadi; these, these are what you deserve; you pour out drink offerings to them, you offer grain offerings to them. Should I calmly ignore these things?


text:
Behind door and doorpost you set up your [lewd] memorial; then, far from me, you uncovered your bed, climbed up on it and opened it wide, made an agreement with some of them, whose bed you loved when you saw their hand beckoning.


text:
You went to the king with scented oil; you added to your perfumes; you sent your envoys far away, even down to Sh'ol.


text:
Though worn out by so much travel, you did not say, 'All hope is gone'; rather, finding your strength renewed, you did not grow weak.


text:
Of whom have you been so afraid, so fearful that you lied? But me you don't remember, you don't give me a thought! I have held my peace so long that you no longer fear me.


text:
When you cry, will those [idols] you gathered rescue you? The wind will carry them all away, a puff of air will take them off. But whoever takes refuge in me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain.'


text:
Then he will say, 'Keep building! Keep building! Clear the way! Remove everything blocking my people's path!'


text:
For thus says the High, Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy: 'I live in the high and holy place but also with the broken and humble, in order to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the hearts of the broken ones.


text:
For I will not fight them forever or always nurse my anger; otherwise their spirits would faint before me, the creatures I myself have made.


text:
It was because of their flagrant greed that I was angry and struck them; I hid myself and was angry, but they continued on their own rebellious way.


text:
I have seen their ways, and I will heal them; I will lead them and give comfort to them and to those who mourn for them


text:
I will create the right words: 'Shalom shalom to those far off and to those nearby!' says ADONAI; 'I will heal them!''


text:
Shout out loud! Don't hold back! Raise your voice like a shofar! Proclaim to my people what rebels they are, to the house of Ya'akov their sins.


text:
'Oh yes, they seek me day after day and [claim to] delight in knowing my ways. As if they were an upright nation that had not abandoned the rulings of their God, they ask me for just rulings and [claim] to take pleasure in closeness to God,


text:
[asking,] 'Why should we fast, if you don't see? Why mortify ourselves, if you don't notice?' 'Here is my answer: when you fast, you go about doing whatever you like, while keeping your laborers hard at work.


text:
Your fasts lead to quarreling and fighting, to lashing out with violent blows. On a day like today, fasting like yours will not make your voice heard on high.


text:
'Is this the sort of fast I want, a day when a person mortifies himself? Is the object to hang your head like a reed and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself? Is this what you call a fast, a day that pleases ADONAI?


text:
'Here is the sort of fast I want - releasing those unjustly bound, untying the thongs of the yoke, letting the oppressed go free, breaking every yoke,


text:
sharing your food with the hungry, taking the homeless poor into your house, clothing the naked when you see them, fulfilling your duty to your kinsmen!'


text:
Then your light will burst forth like the morning, your new skin will quickly grow over your wound; your righteousness will precede you, and ADONAI's glory will follow you.


text:
Then you will call, and ADONAI will answer; you will cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you will remove the yoke from among you, stop false accusation and slander,


text:
generously offer food to the hungry and meet the needs of the person in trouble; then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom become like noon.


text:
ADONAI will always guide you; he will satisfy your needs in the desert, he will renew the strength in your limbs; so that you will be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.


text:
You will rebuild the ancient ruins, raise foundations from ages past, and be called 'Repairer of broken walls, Restorer of streets to live in.'


text:
'If you hold back your foot on Shabbat from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call Shabbat a delight, ADONAI's holy day, worth honoring; then honor it by not doing your usual things or pursuing your interests or speaking about them.


text:
If you do, you will find delight in ADONAI - I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Ya'akov, for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken.'


text:
Rather, it is your own crimes that separate you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he doesn't hear.


text:
For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with crime; your lips speak lies, your tongues utter wicked things.


text:
No one sues with just cause, no one pleads honestly in court, they trust in empty words and say worthless things; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.


text:
They hatch viper eggs and spin spiderwebs; whoever eats their eggs dies, and the crushed egg hatches a snake.


text:
Their webs are useless as clothing, their deeds are useless for wearing; their deeds are deeds of wickedness, their hands produce violence.


text:
Their feet run to evil, they rush to shed innocent blood, their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness, their paths lead to havoc and ruin.


text:
The way of shalom they do not know, their goings-about obey no law, they make devious paths for themselves; no one treading them will ever know shalom.


text:
This is why justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn't catch up with us; we look for light, but see only darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom.


text:
We grope for the wall like the blind; like people without eyes we feel our way; we stumble at noonday as if it were dusk, we are in dark places like the dead.


text:
We growl, all of us, like bears and moan pitifully like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.


text:
For our crimes multiply before you, our sins testify against us; for our crimes are present with us; and our sins, we know them well:


text:
rebelling and denying ADONAI, turning away from following our God, talking about oppression and revolt, uttering lies which our hearts have conceived.


text:
Thus justice is repelled, righteousness stands apart, at a distance; 530 for truth stumbles in the public court, and uprightness cannot enter.


text:
Honesty is lacking, he who leaves evil becomes a target. ADONAI saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.


text:
He saw that there was no one, was amazed that no one interceded. Therefore his own arm brought him salvation, and his own righteousness sustained him.


text:
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, salvation as a helmet on his head; he clothed himself with garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in a mantle of zeal.


text:
He repays according to their deeds - fury to his foes, reprisal to his enemies; to the coastlands he will repay their due;


text:
in the west they will fear the name of ADONAI, and likewise, in the east, his glory. For he will come like a pent-up stream, impelled by the Spirit of ADONAI.


text:
'And as for me,' says ADONAI, 'this is my covenant with them: my Spirit, who rests on you, and my words which I put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your children's children, now or ever,' says ADONAI.


text:
For although darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples; on you ADONAI will rise; over you will be seen his glory.


text:
Raise your eyes and look around: they are all assembling and coming to you; your sons are coming from far off, your daughters being carried on their nurses' hips.


text:
Then you will see and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with delight; for the riches of the seas will be brought to you, the wealth of nations will come to you.


text:
Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels from Midyan and 'Eifah, all of them coming from Sh'va, bringing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of ADONAI.


text:
All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered for you, the rams of N'vayot will be at your service; they will come up and be received on my altar, as I glorify my glorious house.


text:
The coastlands are putting their hope in me, with the 'Tarshish' ships in the lead, to bring your children from far away, and with them their silver and gold, for the sake of ADONAI your God, the Holy One of Isra'el, who glorifies you.


text:
Foreigners will rebuild your walls, their kings will be at your service; for in my anger I struck you, but in my mercy I pity you.


text:
Your gates will always be open, they will not be shut by day or by night, so that people can bring you the wealth of nations, with their kings led in procession.


text:
For the nation or kingdom that won't serve you will perish; yes, those nations will be utterly destroyed.


text:
'The glory of the L'vanon will come to you, cypresses together with elm trees and larches, to beautify the site of my sanctuary - I will glorify the place where I stand.


text:
The children of your oppressors will come and bow low before you, all who despised you will fall at your feet, calling you the city of ADONAI, Tziyon of the Holy One of Isra'el.


text:
'In the past you were abandoned and hated, so that no one would even pass through you; but now I will make you the pride of the ages, a joy for many generations.


text:
You will drink the milk of nations, you will nurse at royal breasts and know that I, ADONAI, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Ya'akov.


text:
'For bronze I will bring you gold, for iron I will bring you silver, bronze in place of wood, and iron in place of stones. I will make shalom your governor and righteousness your taskmaster.


text:
Violence will no longer be heard in your land, desolation or destruction within your borders; instead, you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.


text:
'No more will the sun be your light by day, nor will moonlight shine on you; instead ADONAI will be your light forever and your God your glory.


text:
No longer will your sun go down; your moon will no longer wane; for ADONAI will be your light forever; your days of mourning will end.


text:
All your people will be tzaddikim; they will inherit the land forever; they will be the branch I planted, my handiwork, in which I take pride.


text:
The smallest will grow to a thousand, the weakest will become a mighty nation. I, ADONAI, when the right time comes, will quickly bring it about.'


text:
The Spirit of Adonai ELOHIM is upon me, because ADONAI has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim freedom to the captives, to let out into light those bound in the dark;


text:
to proclaim the year of the favor of ADONAI and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn,


text:
yes, provide for those in Tziyon who mourn, giving them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness planted by ADONAI, in which he takes pride.


text:
They will rebuild the ancient ruins, restore sites long destroyed; they will renew the ruined cities, destroyed many generations ago.


text:
but you will be called cohanim of ADONAI, spoken of as ministers to our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and revel in their riches.


text:
Because of your shame, which was doubled, and because they cried, 'They deserve disgrace,' therefore in their land what they own will be doubled, and joy forever will be theirs.


text:
'For I, ADONAI, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offerings. So I will be faithful to reward them and make an eternal covenant with them.'


text:
Their descendants will be known among the nations, their offspring among the peoples; all who see them will acknowledge that they are the seed ADONAI has blessed.


text:
I am so joyful in ADONAI! My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in salvation, dressed me with a robe of triumph, like a bridegroom wearing a festive turban, like a bride adorned with her jewels.


text:
For just as the earth brings forth its plants, or a garden makes its plants spring up, so ADONAI, God, will cause victory and glory to spring up before all nations.


text:
For Tziyon's sake I will not be silent, for Yerushalayim's sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out brightly and her salvation like a blazing torch.


text:
The nations will see your vindication and all kings your glory. Then you will be called by a new name which ADONAI himself will pronounce.


text:
You will no longer be spoken of as 'Azuvah [Abandoned] or your land be spoken of as 'Sh'mamah [Desolate]; rather, you will be called Heftzi-Vah [My-Delight-Is-In-Her] and your land Be'ulah [Married]. For ADONAI delights in you, and your land will be married


text:
as a young man marries a young woman, your sons will marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.


text:
I have posted watchmen on your walls, Yerushalayim; they will never fall silent, neither by day nor by night. You who call on ADONAI, give yourselves no rest;


text:
ADONAI has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: 'Never again will I give your grain to your enemies as food; nor will strangers drink your wine, for which you worked so hard;


text:
but those who harvest the grain will eat it with praises to ADONAI; those who gathered the wine will drink it in the courtyards of my sanctuary.'


text:
Go on through, go on through the gates, clear the way for the people! Build up a highway, build it up! Clear away the stones! Raise a banner for the peoples!


text:
ADONAI has proclaimed to the end of the earth, 'Say to the daughter of Tziyon, 'Here, your Salvation is coming! Here, his reward is with him, and his recompense is before him.''


text:
They will call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of ADONAI. You will be called D'rushah [Sought-After], 'Ir Lo Ne'ezvah [City-No-Longer-Abandoned].


text:
Who is this, coming from Edom, from Botzrah with clothing stained crimson, so magnificently dressed, so stately in his great strength? 'It is I, who speak victoriously, I, well able to save.'


text:
'I have trodden the winepress alone; from the peoples, not one was with me. So I trod them in my anger, trampled them in my fury; so their lifeblood spurted out on my clothing, and I have stained all my garments;


text:
I looked, but there was no one to help, and I was appalled that no one upheld me. Therefore my own arm brought me salvation, and my own fury upheld me.


text:
In my anger I trod down the peoples, made them drunk with my fury, then poured out their lifeblood on the earth.'


text:
I will recall the grace of ADONAI and the praises of ADONAI, because of all that ADONAI has granted us and his great goodness toward the house of Isra'el, which he bestowed on them in keeping with his mercy, in keeping with the greatness of his grace.


text:
In all their troubles he was troubled; then the Angel of His Presence saved them; in his love and pity he redeemed them. He had lifted them up and carried them throughout the days of old.


text:
However, they rebelled, they grieved his Holy Spirit; so he became their enemy and himself fought against them.


text:
But then his people remembered the days of old, the days of Moshe: 'Where is he who brought them up from the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit right there among them,


text:
who caused his glorious arm to go at Moshe's right hand? He divided the water ahead of them, to make himself an eternal name;


text:
like cattle going down into a valley the Spirit of ADONAI had them rest. This is how you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.'


text:
Look down from heaven; and see from your holy, glorious dwelling. Where are your zeal and your mighty deeds, your inner concern and compassion? Don't hold back,


text:
for you are our father. Even if Avraham were not to know us, and Isra'el were not to acknowledge us, you, ADONAI, are our father, Our Redeemer of Old is your name.


text:
ADONAI, why do you let us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes who are your possession.


text:
It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you!


text:
When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence!


text:
No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.


text:
You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved.


text:
All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind.


text:
No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us.


text:
But now, ADONAI, you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands.


text:
Do not be so very angry, ADONAI! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people.


text:
Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined.


text:
ADONAI, after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?


text:
'I made myself accessible to those who didn't ask for me, I let myself be found by those who didn't seek me. I said, 'Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation not called by my name.


text:
I spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who live in a way that is not good, who follow their own inclinations;


text:
a people who provoke me to my face all the time, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks.


text:
They sit among the graves and spend the night in caverns; they eat pig meat and their pots hold soup made from disgusting things.


text:
They say, 'Keep your distance, don't come near me, because I am holier than you.' These are smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day!


text:
See, it is written before me; I will not be silent until I repay them; I will repay them to the full,


text:
your own crimes and those of your ancestors together,' says ADONAI. 'They offered incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills. First I will measure out their wages and then repay them in full.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'As when juice is found in a cluster of grapes, and people say, 'Don't destroy it, there is still some good in it,' so I will do likewise for the sake of my servants, and not destroy them all.


text:
I will bring forth descendants from Ya'akov, heirs of my mountains from Y'hudah; my chosen ones will possess them, and my servants will live there.


text:
The Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, the Akhor Valley a place for cattle to rest, for my people who have sought me.


text:
'But as for you who abandon ADONAI, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for a Gad, a god of luck, and fill bowls of mixed wine for Meni, a god of destiny


text:
I will destine you to the sword, you will all bow down to be slaughtered; because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did what was evil from my point of view and chose what did not please me.'


text:
Therefore this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'My servants will eat, while you go hungry; my servants will drink, while you go thirsty. My servants will rejoice, while you will be ashamed.


text:
Yes, my servants will sing for joy from their hearts, but you will cry out from the pain in your heart and howl from an anguished spirit.


text:
My chosen will use your name as a curse - 'May Adonai ELOHIM strike you dead!' But to his servants he will give another name.


text:
Thus someone on earth who blesses himself will bless himself by the God of truth, and someone on earth who swears an oath will swear by the God of truth; for past troubles will be forgotten, hidden from my eyes.


text:
'For, look! I create new heavens and a new earth; past things will not be remembered, they will no more come to mind.


text:
So be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy, and her people a delight.


text:
I will rejoice in Yerushalayim and take joy in my people. The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in it, no longer the sound of crying.


text:
No more will babies die in infancy, no more will an old man die short of his days - he who dies at a hundred will be thought young, and at less than a hundred thought cursed.


text:
They will not build and others live there, they will not plant and others eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen will themselves enjoy the use of what they make.


text:
They will not toil in vain or raise children to be destroyed, for they are the seed blessed by ADONAI; and their offspring with them.


text:
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion eat straw like an ox (but the serpent - its food will be dust). They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain,' says ADONAI.


text:
'Heaven is my throne,' says ADONAI, 'and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house could you build for me? What sort of place could you devise for my rest?


text:
Didn't I myself make all these things? This is how they all came to be,' says ADONAI. 'The kind of person on whom I look with favor is one with a poor and humble spirit, who trembles at my word.


text:
Those others might as well kill a person as an ox, as well break a dog's neck as sacrifice a lamb, as well offer pig's blood as offer a grain offering, as well bless an idol as burn incense. Just as these have chosen their ways and enjoy their disgusting practices,


text:
so I will enjoy making fools of them, and bring on them the very things they fear. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not hear. Instead they did what was evil in my sight and chose what did not please me.'


text:
Hear the word of ADONAI, you who tremble at his word: 'Your brothers, who hate you and reject you because of my name, have said: 'Let ADONAI be glorified, so we can see your joy.' But they will be put to shame.'


text:
That uproar in the city, that sound from the temple, is the sound of ADONAI repaying his foes what they deserve.


text:
Who ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Is a country born in one day? Is a nation brought forth all at once? For as soon as Tziyon went into labor, she brought forth her children.


text:
'Would I let the baby break through and not be born?' asks ADONAI. 'Would I, who cause the birth, shut the womb?' asks your God.


text:
Rejoice with Yerushalayim! Be glad with her, all you who love her! Rejoice, rejoice with her, all of you who mourned for her;


text:
so that you nurse and are satisfied by her comforting breast, drinking deeply and delighting in the overflow of her glory.


text:
For ADONAI says, 'I will spread shalom over her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried in her arm and cuddled in her lap.


text:
Your heart will rejoice at the sight, your bodies will flourish like newly sprouted grass. It will be known that the hand of ADONAI is with his servants; but with his enemies, his fury.


text:
For - look! - ADONAI will come in fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind, to render his anger furiously, his rebuke with blazing fire.


text:
For ADONAI will judge all humanity with fire and with the sword, and those slain by ADONAI will be many.


text:
'Those who consecrate and purify themselves in order to enter the gardens, then follow the one who was already there, eating pig meat, reptiles and mice, will all be destroyed together,' says ADONAI.


text:
'For I [know] their deeds and their thoughts. '[The time] is coming when I will gather together all nations and languages. They will come and see my glory,


text:
and I will give them a sign. I will send some of their survivors to the nations of Tarshish, Pul, Lud (these are archers), Tuval, Greece and more distant coasts, where they have neither heard of my fame nor seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory in these nations;


text:
and they will bring all your kinsmen out of all the nations as an offering to ADONAI - on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, on camels - to my holy mountain Yerushalayim,' says ADONAI, 'just as the people of Isra'el themselves bring their offerings in clean vessels to the house of ADONAI.


text:
'For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence,' says ADONAI, 'so will your descendants and your name continue.


text:
'Every month on Rosh-Hodesh and every week on Shabbat, everyone living will come to worship in my presence,' says ADONAI.


text:
'As they leave, they will look on the corpses of the people who rebelled against me. For their worm will never die, and their fire will never be quenched; but they will be abhorrent to all humanity.' ['Every month on Rosh-Hodesh and every week on Shabbat, everyone living will come to worship in my presence,' says ADONAI.]


text:
These are the words of Yirmeyahu the son of Hilkiyahu, one of the cohanim living in 'Anatot, in the territory of Binyamin.


text:
The word of ADONAI came to him during the days of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y'hudah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.


text:
It also came during the days of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, continuing until the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, right up until the time Yerushalayim was carried away captive, in the fifth month.


text:
'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I separated you for myself. I have appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.'


text:
But ADONAI said to me, 'Don't say, 'I'm just a child.' 'For you will go to whomever I send you, and you will speak whatever I order you.


text:
Then ADONAI put out his hand and touched my mouth, and ADONAI said to me, 'There! I have put my words in your mouth.


text:
Today I have placed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.'


text:
The word of ADONAI came to me, asking, 'Yirmeyahu, what do you see?' I answered, 'I see a branch from an almond tree [Hebrew: shaked].


text:
Then ADONAI said to me, 'You have seen well, because I am watching [Hebrew: shoked] to fulfill my word.'


text:
A second time the word of ADONAI came to me, asking, 'What do you see?' I answered, 'I see a caldron tilted away from the north, over a fire fanned by the wind.'


text:
because I will summon all the families in the kingdoms of the north,' says ADONAI, 'and they will come and sit, each one, on his throne at the entrance to the gates of Yerushalayim, opposite its walls, all the way around, and opposite all the cities of Y'hudah.


text:
I will pronounce my judgments against them for all their wickedness in abandoning me, offering incense to other gods and worshipping what their own hands made.


text:
'But you, dress for action; stand up and tell them everything I order you to say. When you confront them, don't break down; or I will break you down in front of them!


text:
For today, you see, I have made you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze against the whole land - against the kings of Y'hudah, against its princes, against its cohanim and the people of the land.


text:
They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you,' says ADONAI, 'to rescue you.'


text:
'Go and shout in the ears of Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: 'I remember your devotion when you were young; how, as a bride, you loved me; how you followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.


text:
''Isra'el is set aside for ADONAI, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devour him will incur guilt; evil will befall them,' says ADONAI.


text:
here is what ADONAI says: 'What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings?


text:
They didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and ravines, through a land of drought and death-dark shadows, through a land where no one travels and where no one ever lived?'


text:
I brought you into a fertile land to enjoy its fruit and all its good things; but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage loathsome.


text:
The cohanim didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI?' Those who deal with the Torah did not know me, the people's shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba'al and went after things of no value.


text:
Cross to the coasts of the Kitti'im and look; send to Kedar and observe closely; see if anything like this has happened before:


text:
has a nation ever exchanged its gods (and theirs are not gods at all!)? Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for something without value.


text:
'For my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!


text:
The young lions are roaring at him - how loudly they are roaring! They desolate his country, demolishing and depopulating his cities.


text:
If you go to Egypt, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the Nile? If you go to Ashur, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the [Euphrates] River?


text:
Your own wickedness will correct you, your own backslidings will convict you; you will know and see how bad and bitter it was to abandon ADONAI your God, and how fear of me is not in you,' says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot.


text:
'For long ago I broke your yoke; when I snapped your chains, you said, 'I won't sin.' Yet on every high hill, under every green tree, you sprawled and prostituted yourself.


text:
But I planted you as a choice vine of seed fully tested and true. How did you degenerate into a wild vine for me?


text:
Even if you scrub yourself with soda and plenty of soap, the stain of your guilt is still there before me,' says Adonai ELOHIM.


text:
'How can you say, 'I am not defiled, I have not pursued the ba'alim'? Look at your conduct in the valley, understand what you have done. You are a restive young female camel, running here and there,


text:
wild, accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her lust - who can control her when she's in heat? Males seeking her need not weary themselves, for at mating season they will find her.


text:
'Stop before your shoes wear out, and your throat is dry from thirst! But you say, 'No, it's hopeless! I love these strangers, and I'm going after them.'


text:
Just as a thief is ashamed when caught, so is the house of Isra'el ashamed - they, their kings, their leaders, their cohanim and their prophets,


text:
who say to a log, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave us birth.' For they have turned their backs to me instead of their faces. But when trouble comes, they will plead, 'Rouse yourself and save us!'


text:
Where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rouse themselves, if they can save you when trouble comes. Y'hudah, you have as many gods as you have cities!


text:
'In vain have I struck down your people. They would not receive correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a marauding lion.


text:
You of this generation, look at the word of ADONAI: Have I been a desert to Isra'el? or a land of oppressive darkness? Why do my people say, 'We're free to roam, we will no longer come to you'?


text:
Does a girl forget her jewellery, or a bride her wedding sash? Yet my people have forgotten me, days beyond numbering.


text:
Right there on your clothing is the blood of the innocent poor, although you never caught them breaking and entering. Yet concerning all these things,


text:
you say, 'I am innocent; surely he's no longer angry at me.' Here, I am passing sentence on you, because you say, 'I have done nothing wrong.'


text:
You cheapen yourself when you change course so often - you will be disappointed by Egypt too, just as you were disappointed by Ashur.


text:
Yes, you will leave him too, with your hands on your heads [in shame]. For ADONAI rejects those in whom you trust; from them you will gain nothing.'


text:
[ADONAI] says: 'If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and marries another man, then if the first one marries her again, that land will be completely defiled. But you prostituted yourself to many lovers, yet you want to return to me?' says ADONAI.


text:
'Raise your eyes to the bare hills, take a look: where have you not had sex? You sat by the roadsides waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.


text:
For this reason the showers have been withheld, there has been no rain in the spring; still you maintain a whore's brazen look and refuse to be ashamed.


text:
[thinking,] 'He won't bear a grudge forever, will he? He wouldn't maintain it right to the end.' You say this, but you keep doing evil things, you just do whatever you want.'


text:
In the days of Yoshiyahu the king, ADONAI asked me, 'Have you seen the things that backsliding Isra'el has been doing? She goes up on every bare hill and under every green tree and prostitutes herself there.


text:
I said that after she had done all these things, she would return to me; but she hasn't returned. Meanwhile, her unfaithful sister Y'hudah has been watching.


text:
I saw that even though backsliding Isra'el had committed adultery, so that I had sent her away and given her a divorce document, unfaithful Y'hudah her sister was not moved to fear - instead she too went and prostituted herself.


text:
The ease with which Isra'el prostituted herself defiled the land, as she committed adultery with stones and with logs.


text:
Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Y'hudah has not returned to me wholeheartedly; she only makes a pretense of it,' said ADONAI.


text:
Then ADONAI said to me, 'Backsliding Isra'el has proved herself more righteous than unfaithful Y'hudah.


text:
Go and proclaim these words toward the north: ''Return, backsliding Isra'el,' says ADONAI. 'I will not frown on you, for I am merciful,' says ADONAI. 'I will not bear a grudge forever.


text:
Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have committed crimes against ADONAI your God, that you were promiscuous with strangers under every green tree, and that you have not paid attention to my voice,' says ADONAI.


text:
'Return, backsliding children,' says ADONAI; 'for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and bring you to Tziyon.


text:
I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding.


text:
'''And,' says ADONAI, 'in those days, when your numbers have increased in the land, people will no longer talk about the ark for the covenant of ADONAI - they won't think about it, they won't miss it, and they won't make another one.


text:
When that time comes, they will call Yerushalayim the throne of ADONAI. All the nations will be gathered there to the name of ADONAI, to Yerushalayim. No longer will they live according to their stubbornly evil hearts.


text:
In those days, the house of Y'hudah will live together with the house of Isra'el; they will come together from the lands in the north to the land I gave your ancestors as their heritage.


text:
'''I thought that I would like to put you among the sons [with inheritance rights] and give you a pleasant land, the best heritage of all the nations. I thought that you would call me 'My father' and never stop following me.


text:
But like a faithless woman who betrays her husband, you, house of Isra'el, have betrayed me,' says ADONAI.''


text:
A sound is heard on the heights, the house of Isra'el crying, pleading for mercy, because they have perverted their way and forgotten ADONAI their God.


text:
'Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.' 'Here we are, we are coming to you, for you are ADONAI our God.


text:
Indeed the hills have proved a delusion, likewise the orgies on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Isra'el is in ADONAI our God.


text:
But from our youth the shameful thing [idolatry] has devoured the fruit of our ancestors' work, their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.


text:
Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against ADONAI our God, both we and our ancestors, from our youth until today; we have not paid attention to the voice of ADONAI our God.'


text:
'Isra'el, if you will return,' says ADONAI, 'yes, return to me; and if you will banish your abominations from my presence without wandering astray again;


text:
and if you will swear, 'As ADONAI lives,' in truth, justice and righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves by him, and in him will they glory.'


text:
For here is what ADONAI says to the people of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim: 'Break up your ground that hasn't been plowed, and do not sow among thorns.'


text:
'People of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim, circumcise yourselves for ADONAI, remove the foreskins of your heart! Otherwise my fury will lash out like fire, burning so hot that no one can quench it, because of how evil your actions are.


text:
'Announce in Y'hudah, proclaim in Yerushalayim; say: 'Blow the shofar in the land!' Shout the message aloud: 'Assemble! Let us go to the fortified cities!'


text:
Set up a signal toward Tziyon, head for cover without delay. For I will bring disaster from the north, yes, dire destruction.


text:
A lion has risen from his lair, a destroyer of nations has set out, left his own place to ruin your land, to demolish and depopulate your cities.'


text:
So wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament and wail, for ADONAI's fierce anger has not turned away from us.


text:
'When that day comes,' says ADONAI, 'the king's heart will fail him, likewise the princes'; the cohanim will be appalled and the prophets stupefied.'


text:
Then I said, 'Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! Surely you have sadly deceived this people and Yerushalayim by saying, 'You will have peace,' when the sword is at our very throats!'


text:
'At that time it will be said of this people and of Yerushalayim: 'A scorching wind from the desert heights is sweeping down on my people.' It is not coming to winnow or cleanse;


text:
Here he comes, like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind, his horses faster than eagles! Woe to us, we are doomed!


text:
Wash the evil from your heart, Yerushalayim, so that you can be saved. How long will you harbor within yourselves your evil thoughts?


text:
'Report it to the nations, proclaim about Yerushalayim: '[Enemies] are coming from a distant country, watching and shouting their war cry against the cities of Y'hudah.'


text:
'Your own ways and your actions have brought these things on yourselves. This is your wickedness, so bitter! It has reached your very heart.'


text:
My guts! My guts! I'm writhing in pain! My heart! It beats wildly - I can't stay still! - because I have heard the shofar sound; it's the call to war.


text:
The news is disaster after disaster! All the land is ruined! My tents are suddenly destroyed, my tent curtains in an instant.


text:
'It is because my people are foolish - they do not know me; they are stupid children, without understanding, wise when doing evil; but they don't know how to do good.'


text:
I looked, and the fertile fields were a desert, all the land's cities were razed to the ground at the presence of ADONAI, before his burning anger.


text:
For here is what ADONAI says: 'The whole land will be desolate (although I will not destroy it completely).


text:
Because of this, the land will mourn and the sky above be black; for I have spoken, I have decided, I will not change my mind, I will not turn back.'


text:
At the noise of the horsemen and archers, the entire city flees - some plunge into thickets; others climb rocks; all cities are deserted; no one lives there.


text:
And you, who are doomed to be plundered, what do you mean by putting on crimson, decking yourselves with jewels and gold, enlarging your eyes with eye make-up? You beautify yourself in vain - your lovers despise you, they seek your life!


text:
For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor, in anguish giving birth to her first child. It is the sound of the daughter of Tziyon gasping for breath as she spreads her hands: 'Woe to me! Everything in me is so weary before the killers.'


text:
'Roam the streets of Yerushalayim look around, observe and ask in its open spaces: if you can find anyone (if there is anyone!) who acts with justice and seeks the truth, I will pardon her.


text:
ADONAI, your eyes look for truth. You struck them, but they weren't affected; you [nearly] destroyed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than rock, refusing to repent.


text:
My reaction was, 'These must be the poor, the foolish, not knowing the way of ADONAI or the rulings of their God.


text:
I will go to the prominent men, and I will speak to them; for they know the way of ADONAI and the rulings of their God.' But these had completely broken the yoke and torn the harness off.


text:
This is why a forest lion kills them, why a desert wolf can plunder them, why a leopard guards their cities - all who leave are torn to pieces - because their crimes are many, their backslidings keep increasing.


text:
'Why should I forgive you? Your people have abandoned me and sworn by non-gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery, thronging to the brothels.


text:
They have become like well-fed horses, lusty stallions, each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.


text:
Go through her rows [of vines], and destroy them (but don't destroy them completely): strip away her branches, they do not belong to ADONAI.


text:
They have denied ADONAI, they have said, 'He won't do anything, calamity will not strike us, we will see neither sword nor famine.


text:
The prophets are merely wind, they do not have the word; the things that they are predicting will happen only to them.'


text:
Therefore ADONAI Elohei-Tzva'ot says: 'Because you people speak this way, I will make my words fire in your mouth, [Yirmeyahu,] and this people wood; so that it will devour them.


text:
I will bring on you, house of Isra'el, a distant nation,' says ADONAI, 'an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know - you will not understand what they are saying.


text:
They will eat up your harvest and your bread, they will eat up your sons and your daughters, they will eat up your flocks and your herds, they will eat up your vines and your fig trees; with the sword they will beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust.


text:
And when your people ask, 'Why has ADONAI our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: 'Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'


text:
Don't you fear me? - says ADONAI. Won't you tremble at my presence? I made the shore the limit for the sea; by eternal decree it cannot pass. Its waves may toss, but to no avail; although they roar, they cannot cross it.


text:
They don't say to themselves, 'Let's fear ADONAI our God, who gives the fall and spring rains in season, who reserves us the weeks assigned for harvest.'


text:
'For among my people there are wicked men, who, like fowlers, lie in wait and set traps to catch their fellow human beings.


text:
sleek and bloated; they excel in acts of wickedness but do not plead on behalf of the orphan, thus enabling his cause to succeed; nor do they judge in favor of the poor.


text:
The prophets prophesy lies, the cohanim obey the prophets, and my people love it that way. But what will you do at the end of it all?


text:
'Head for cover, people of Binyamin, get out of Yerushalayim! Blow the shofar in T'koa, light the beacon on Beit-Hakerem. For disaster threatens from the north, with great destruction.


text:
Shepherds advance on her with their flocks; all around her they pitch their tents, each grazing his own plot of pasture.


text:
'Prepare for war against her! Get up! Let's attack at noon!' 'Woe to us! for the day is waning, evening shadows are lengthening.'


text:
For ADONAI-Tzva'ot says this: 'Cut down her trees, and raise a siege-ramp against Yerushalayim! This is the city to be punished; in her there is nothing but oppression.


text:
Just as a cistern keeps its water fresh, so she keeps her wickedness fresh! Violence and destruction are heard within her, always before me sickness and wounds.


text:
Accept correction, Yerushalayim, or I will be estranged from you and turn you into a desolate waste, a land without inhabitants.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'They will glean the remnant of Isra'el as thoroughly as in a vineyard - one last time, like a grape-picker, pass your hand over the vines.'


text:
To whom should I speak? Whom should I warn? Who will listen to me? Their ears are dull, they can't pay attention. For them the word of ADONAI has become unattractive, an object of scorn.


text:
This is why I am full of ADONAI's fury; I am weary of holding it back. 'Pour it out on the children in the street and on the groups of young men gathered; for husbands and wives will be taken together, seniors as well as the very old.


text:
Their homes will be turned over to others, their fields together with their wives. Yes, I will stretch out my hand against those who are living in the land,' says ADONAI.


text:
'For from the least to the greatest of them, all are greedy for gains; prophets and cohanim alike, they all practice fraud


text:
they dress the wound of my people, but only superficially, saying, 'There is perfect shalom,' when there is no shalom.


text:
'They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all; they don't know how to blush. Therefore when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble,' says ADONAI.


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask about the ancient paths, 'Which one is the good way?' Take it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not take it.'


text:
I appointed sentinels to direct them: 'Listen for the sound of the shofar.' But they said, 'We will not listen.'


text:
Hear, oh earth! I am going to bring disaster on this people; it is the consequence of their own way of thinking; for they pay no attention to my words; and as for my Torah, they reject it.


text:
What do I care about incense from Sh'va or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are unacceptable, your sacrifices don't please me.'


text:
Therefore thus says ADONAI: 'I will put obstacles in the way of this people that they will stumble over fathers and sons, neighbors and friends, all will perish together.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'A people is coming from the land of the north, a great nation will be aroused from the ends of the earth.


text:
They will take hold of bow and spear; they are cruel; they have no compassion: their noise as they ride on horses is like the roaring sea; and they are equipped for battle against you, daughter of Tziyon.


text:
'We have heard the news, and our hands fall limp; anguish has seized us, pain like a mother's in childbirth.''


text:
Don't go into the countryside, don't walk out on the road; for the sword of the enemy is spreading terror in every direction.


text:
Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, roll in ashes, mourn as if for an only son, wail most bitterly; for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.


text:
All of them are total rebels, spreading slanderous gossip; they are bronze and iron, [inferior metals,] all of them corrupt.


text:
The bellows blast away; and though the lead is consumed by the fire, in vain has the smelter refined, for the wicked have not been separated.


text:
'Stand at the gate of the house of ADONAI and proclaim this word: 'Listen to the word of ADONAI, all you from Y'hudah who enter these gates to worship ADONAI!


text:
Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Improve your ways and actions, and I will let you stay in this place.


text:
Don't rely on that deceitful slogan, 'The temple of ADONAI, the temple of ADONAI - these [buildings] are the temple of ADONAI.'


text:
No, but if you really improve your ways and actions; if you really administer justice between people;


text:
if you stop oppressing foreigners, orphans and widows; if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place; and if you stop following other gods, to your own harm;


text:
First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba'al and go after other gods that you haven't known.


text:
Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, 'We are saved' - so that you can go on doing these abominations!


text:
Do you regard this house, which bears my name, as a cave for bandits? I can see for myself what's going on,' says ADONAI.


text:
'Go to the place in Shiloh that used to be mine, that used to bear my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Isra'el.


text:
I spoke to you again and again, but you wouldn't listen. I called you, but you wouldn't answer. Now,' says ADONAI, 'because you have done all these things,


text:
I will do to the house that bears my name, on which you rely, and to the place I gave you and your ancestors, what I did to Shiloh;


text:
and I will drive you out of my presence, just as I drove out all your kinsmen, all the descendants of Efrayim.''


text:
'So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry, pray or intercede on their behalf with me; because I won't listen to you.


text:
The children gather the wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and, just to provoke me, they pour out drink offerings to other gods!


text:
Therefore, here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on men, animals, trees in the fields and produce growing from the ground; and it will burn without being quenched.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: 'You may as well eat the meat of your burnt offerings along with that of your sacrifices.


text:
For I didn't speak to your ancestors or give them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.


text:
Rather, what I did order them was this: 'Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.'


text:
But they neither listened nor paid attention, but lived according to their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, thus going backward and not forward.


text:
You have done this from the day your ancestors came out of Egypt until today. Even though I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them time after time,


text:
they would not listen or pay attention to me, but stiffened their necks; they did worse than their ancestors.


text:
So tell them all this; but they won't listen to you; likewise, call to them; but they won't answer you.


text:
Therefore, say to them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of ADONAI their God. They won't take correction; faithfulness has perished; it has vanished from their mouths.


text:
Cut off your hair, and throw it away, take up a lament on the bare hills, for ADONAI has rejected and abandoned the generation that rouses his anger.'


text:
'For the people of Y'hudah have done what is evil from my perspective,' says ADONAI; 'they have set up their detestable things in the house which bears my name, to defile it.


text:
They have built the high places of Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, something I never ordered; in fact, such a thing never even entered my mind!


text:
Therefore, the days are coming,' says ADONAI, 'when it will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter - they will put the dead in Tofet, because there will be no space left [anywhere else].


text:
The corpses of this people will become food for the birds in the air and the wild animals; no one will frighten them away.


text:
Then in the cities of Y'hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride; because the land will be reduced to ruins.


text:
'At that time,' says ADONAI, '[these enemies] will remove the bones of the kings of Y'hudah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the cohanim, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim from their graves.


text:
They will spread them out, exposed to the sun, the moon and the entire army of heaven, whom they loved, served, walked after, sought after and worshipped. The bones will not be collected or reburied but will be left lying on the ground like dung.


text:
All the survivors of this evil family who remain wherever I have driven them will prefer death to life,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.


text:
'You are to tell them that ADONAI says: 'If a person falls, doesn't he get up again? If someone goes astray, doesn't he turn back?


text:
Why do these people keep backsliding? Why is their backsliding so persistent? They cling to deceit and refuse to return!


text:
I listened attentively but they spoke nothing right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done!' Each runs off in his own direction, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.


text:
Storks in the sky know their seasons; doves, swallows and cranes their migration times; but my people do not know the rulings of ADONAI!


text:
''How can you say, 'We are wise; ADONAI's Torah is with us,' when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has turned it into falsehood?


text:
The wise are put to shame, alarmed, entrapped. They have rejected the word of ADONAI, so what wisdom do they have?


text:
''Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who take them over; for from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gains; prophets and cohanim alike all practice fraud


text:
they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, but only superficially, saying, 'There is perfect shalom,' when there is no shalom.


text:
They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all, they don't know how to blush. So when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble,' says ADONAI.


text:
''I will put an end to them,' says ADONAI. 'There are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree; the leaf has withered; and what I have given them will pass from their possession.''


text:
'Why are we sitting still? Assemble! Let's enter the fortified cities and meet our doom there! For ADONAI our God has doomed us; he has given us bitter water to drink, because we have sinned against ADONAI.


text:
When we look for peace, nothing good comes; when we seek a time of healing, instead there is terror.'


text:
From Dan can be heard the snorting of his horses; when his stallions neigh, the whole land trembles. For they come devouring the land and all in it, the city and those who dwell there.


text:
'Yes, now I am sending snakes among you, vipers that no one can charm, and they will bite you,' says ADONAI.


text:
Listen to my people's cry of distress out of a distant land: 'Is ADONAI no longer in Tziyon? Is her king no longer there?' 'Why do they provoke me with their idols and their futile foreign gods?'


text:
The daughter of my people is broken, and it's tearing me to pieces; everything looks dark to me, horror seizes me.


text:
Has Gil'ad exhausted its healing resin? Is no physician there? If there is, then why is the daughter of my people so slow to recover her health?


text:
I wish I were out in the desert, in some travelers' lodge then I could get away from my people and distance myself from them! 'Indeed they are all adulterers, a band of traitors is what they are.


text:
They bend their tongues, their 'bow' of falsehood, and hold sway in the land, but not for truth. For they go from evil to evil, and me they do not know,' says ADONAI.


text:
Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping.


text:
Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning.


text:
'Therefore,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, 'I will refine them and test them. What else can I do with the daughter of my people?


text:
Their tongues are sharpened arrows; with their mouths they speak deceit - they say nice words to their neighbors, while inwardly plotting against them.


text:
Should I not punish them for these things?' asks ADONAI. 'Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?'


text:
I weep and wail for the mountains and lament over the desert pastures, because they have been burned up; no one passes through; they no longer hear the sound of cattle; the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone.


text:
'I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, turn it into a lair for jackals, and make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, with no one living there.'


text:
Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of ADONAI spoken, so that he can proclaim it? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?


text:
ADONAI answers: 'Because they abandoned my Torah, which I set before them, and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly,


text:
therefore,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: 'I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.


text:
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have wiped them out.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'Mark this, then summon the mourning women, so that they will come; send for those who are best [at mourning], so that they will come:


text:
'Have them hurry and wail for us, so our eyes will be wet from crying, and our eyelids gush with tears.'


text:
For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon: 'We are utterly ruined, we are completely ashamed, because we have left the land, and our homes have been torn down!''


text:
You women, hear the word of ADONAI! Let your ears receive the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail, have each teach her friend how to lament:


text:
'Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, it has cut down children in the streets and young people in the public places.'


text:
Say: 'Here is what ADONAI says: 'The corpses of people are scattered like dung in an open field, like sheaves left behind by the reaper with no one to gather them.''


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'The wise man should not boast of his wisdom, the powerful should not boast of his power, the wealthy should not boast of his wealth;


text:
instead, let the boaster boast about this: that he understands and knows me - that I am ADONAI, practicing grace, justice and righteousness in the land; for in these things I take pleasure,' says ADONAI.


text:
'The days are coming,' says ADONAI, 'when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision -


text:
Egypt, Y'hudah, Edom, the people of 'Amon and Mo'av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]: 'For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised, all the house of Isra'el have uncircumcised hearts.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'Don't learn the way of the Goyim, don't be frightened by astrological signs, even if the Goyim are afraid of them;


text:
for the customs of the peoples are nothing. They cut down a tree in the forest; a craftsman works it with his axe;


text:
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, it cannot speak. It has to be carried, because it cannot walk. Do not be afraid of it it can do nothing bad; likewise it is unable to do anything good!'


text:
Who would not fear you, king of the nations? For it is your due! - since among all the wise of the nations and among all their royalty, there is no one like you.


text:
Silver is beaten into plates, then imported from Tarshish. Gold from Ufaz is worked by a craftsman and shaped by the hands of a goldsmith. They are clothed in blue and purple, all the work of skillful men.


text:
But ADONAI, God, is the true God, the living God, the everlasting king. At his anger, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his fury.


text:
'This is what you must say to them: 'The gods that did not make heaven and earth will perish from earth and from under heaven.''


text:
God made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom spread out the sky by his understanding.


text:
When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar, he raises clouds from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash in the rain and brings the wind out from his storehouses.


text:
At this, everyone is proved stupid, ignorant, every goldsmith put to shame by his idol! The figures he casts are a fraud; there is no breath in them;


text:
Ya'akov's portion is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things. Isra'el is the tribe he claims as his heritage; ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name.


text:
for here is what ADONAI says: 'At this time I am slinging away the inhabitants of the land; I will distress them, so that they will feel it.'


text:
Woe to me because of my wound! My injury is incurable! I used to say, 'It's only an illness, and I can bear it.'


text:
But now my tent is ruined, all its cords are severed; my children have left me and are no more; there is no one to set up my tent again, no one to raise its curtains.


text:
The shepherds have become stupid, they have not consulted ADONAI. This is why they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.


text:
Listen! A noise! It's coming closer! A great uproar from the land to the north, to make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, a place for jackals to live.


text:
ADONAI, I know that the way of humans is not in their control, humans are not able to direct their steps as they walk.


text:
Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, also on the families that do not call on your name. For they have consumed Ya'akov - consumed him and finished him off, and laid waste to his home.


text:
'Listen to the words of this covenant; then speak to the people of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim;


text:
tell them that ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'A curse on anyone who does not pay attention to the words of this covenant,


text:
which I enjoined on your ancestors at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of that iron-smelter. I said, 'Listen to my voice, and carry out all my orders; then you will be my people, and I will be your God;


text:
so that I can fulfill the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.''' Then I responded, 'Amen, ADONAI.'


text:
ADONAI said to me, 'Proclaim all these words in the cities of Y'hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim: 'Listen to the words of this covenant, and obey them.


text:
For I solemnly warned your ancestors at the time when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; and until this day I have frequently warned them, 'Listen to my voice!'


text:
But they have not listened or paid attention; instead, each one has lived according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart. For this reason I have brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I ordered them to obey, but which they did not obey.''


text:
Then ADONAI said to me, 'The men of Y'hudah and the people living in Yerushalayim have formed a conspiracy.


text:
They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah have broken my covenant which I made with their ancestors.'


text:
Therefore ADONAI says, 'I am going to bring on them a disaster which they will not be able to escape; and even if they cry to me, I will not listen to them.


text:
Then the cities of Y'hudah and the people living in Yerushalayim will go and cry to the gods to whom they are making offerings; but they will not save them at all in their time of trouble.


text:
For you have as many gods, Y'hudah, as you have towns; and you have erected as many altars for sacrificing to that shameful thing, Ba'al, as there are streets in Yerushalayim.


text:
'So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry or pray on their behalf, because I won't listen to them when they cry to me because of their troubles.


text:
What right does my beloved have to be in my house, when she has behaved so shamelessly with so many? Offerings of consecrated meat can no longer help, because it is when you are doing evil that you are happy.'


text:
ADONAI once called you an olive tree, beautiful, full of leaves and good fruit. Now with the roar of a violent storm, he has set it on fire; and its branches will be consumed.


text:
For ADONAI-Tzva'ot, who planted you, has decreed evil for you. 'It is because of the evil which the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah did to themselves, provoking me with their offerings of incense to Ba'al.'


text:
But I was like a tame lamb led to be slaughtered; I did not know that they were plotting schemes against me - 'Let's destroy the tree with its fruit, we'll cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be forgotten.'


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot, righteous judge, tester of motives and thoughts, I have committed my cause to you; so let me see your vengeance on them.


text:
Therefore, here is what ADONAI says concerning the men from 'Anatot who seek your life and who tell you, 'Stop prophesying in the name of ADONAI, or we will kill you ourselves' -


text:
this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine.


text:
None of them will remain, for I will bring disaster on the men from 'Anatot when the year comes for them to be punished.'


text:
ADONAI, although you would be in the right if I were to dispute with you, nevertheless I want to discuss some points of justice with you: Why do the wicked prosper? Why do the treacherous all thrive?


text:
You planted them, and they took root; they grow, and they bear fruit. You are near in their mouths, though far from their hearts.


text:
But, ADONAI, you know me and see me; you test my devotion to you; drag them away like sheep to be slaughtered, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.


text:
How long must the land mourn and the grass in all the fields wither? The wild animals and birds are consumed because of the wickedness of those who live there; for they say, 'He will not see how we end up.'


text:
If racing men on foot exhausts you, how will you compete against horses? You may feel secure in a land at peace, but how will you do in the Yarden's thick brush?


text:
For even your own brothers and your father's family are betraying you; they are in full cry after you. Despite all their nice speech, don't believe them.


text:
'I have abandoned my house, I have rejected my heritage, I have given my heart's beloved over to the hands of her foes.


text:
For me, my heritage has become like a lion in the forest - she roared out against me; so now I hate her.


text:
For me, my heritage is like a speckled bird of prey - other birds of prey surround her and attack her. Go, gather all the wild animals, and bring them to devour her.


text:
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled my plot of land, they have turned my desirable property into a desert waste.


text:
Yes, they have made it a waste; wasted, it mourns to me; the whole land is wasted, because nobody really cares.'


text:
On all the desert's bare hills plunderers have come; yes, the sword of ADONAI devours the land from one end to the other; nothing alive is safe.


text:
They sowed wheat and reaped thorns, they wore themselves out and gained nothing. So be ashamed of your [tiny] harvest, the result of ADONAI's fierce anger.


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'As for all my evil neighbors who encroach on the heritage I gave to my people Isra'el as their possession, I will uproot them from their own land, and I will uproot Y'hudah from among them.


text:
Then, after I have uprooted them, I will take pity on them again and bring them back, each one to his inheritance, each one to his own land.


text:
Then, if they will carefully learn my people's ways, swearing by my name, 'As ADONAI lives,' just as they taught my people to swear by Ba'al, they will be built up among my people.


text:
ADONAI said to me, 'Go, buy yourself a linen loincloth, and wrap it around your body; but don't soften it in water.'


text:
'Take the loincloth you bought and are wearing, get up, go to Parah, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.'


text:
A long time afterwards, ADONAI said to me, 'Get up, go to Parah, and recover the loincloth I ordered you to hide there.'


text:
So I went to Parah and dug up the loincloth; but when I took it from the place where I had hidden it, I saw that it was ruined and useless for anything.


text:
'Here is what ADONAI says: 'This is how I will ruin what makes Y'hudah so proud and Yerushalayim so very proud:


text:
I will ruin this evil people, who refuse to hear my words and live according to their own stubborn inclinations, who go after other gods to serve and worship them. They will be like this loincloth, which is useless for anything.


text:
For just as a loincloth clings to a man's body, I made the whole house of Isra'el and the whole house of Y'hudah cling to me,' says ADONAI, 'so that they could be my people, building me a name and becoming for me a source of praise and honor. But they would not listen.


text:
So you are to tell them, 'This is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'Every bottle is filled with wine.'' Then when they ask you, 'Don't we already know that every bottle is filled with wine?'


text:
you are to answer them, 'This is what ADONAI says: 'I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land - including the kings sitting on the throne of David, the cohanim, the prophets and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim - with drunkenness.


text:
Then I will smash them one against another, even fathers and sons together,' says ADONAI 'I will show neither pity nor compassion, but I will destroy them relentlessly.''''


text:
Give glory to ADONAI your God before the darkness falls, before your feet stumble on the mountains in the twilight, and, while you are seeking light, he turns it into deathlike shadows and makes it completely dark.


text:
But if you will not hear this warning, I will weep secretly because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, streaming with tears, because ADONAI's flock is carried away captive.


text:
Tell the king and the queen mother, 'Come down from your thrones, for your magnificent crowns are falling from your heads.'


text:
The cities of the Negev are besieged, and no one can relieve them; all of Y'hudah is carried into exile, completely swept into exile.


text:
Raise your eyes, and you will see them coming from the north. Where is the flock once entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride?


text:
When he sets over you as rulers those you trained to be allies, what will you say? Won't pains seize you like those of a woman in labor?


text:
And if you ask yourself, 'Why have these things happened to me?' it is because of your many sins that your skirts are pulled up and you have been violated.


text:
Can an Ethiopian change his skin? or a leopard its spots? If they can, then you can do good, who are so accustomed to doing evil.


text:
This is what you get,' says ADONAI, 'the portion I measure out to you, because you have forgotten me and trusted in the lie.


text:
On the hills and in the fields, I have seen your abominations - your adulteries, your lustful neighings your shameless prostitution. Woe to you, Yerushalayim! You refuse to be purified! Won't you ever allow it?'


text:
'Y'hudah is mourning, her gates are languishing; they sit on the ground in gloom; Yerushalayim sends up a cry of anguish.


text:
Her nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water, so they return with empty jars. Ashamed and dismayed, they cover their heads.


text:
Because of the ground, which is cracked, since it has not rained in the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.


text:
The wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals; their eyes grow dim from trying to spot any vegetation.'


text:
Although our crimes witness against us, take action, ADONAI, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.


text:
You, hope of Isra'el, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night?


text:
Why should you be like a man in shock, like a champion unable to save? You, ADONAI, are right here with us; we bear your name - don't leave us!


text:
Here is what ADONAI says to this people: 'They so love to wander, they don't restrain their feet; so ADONAI does not want them. Now he will remember their crimes, and he will punish their sins.'


text:
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; when they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with war, famine and disease.'


text:
Then I said, 'ADONAI, God! The prophets are telling them, 'You won't see war, and you won't have famine; but I will give you secure peace in this place.''


text:
ADONAI replied, 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn't send them, order them or speak to them. They are prophesying false visions to you, worthless divinations, the delusions of their own minds.


text:
Therefore,' ADONAI says, 'concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, yet they say, 'There will be neither war nor famine in this land' - it will be war and famine that will destroy those prophets.


text:
And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Yerushalayim because of the famine and war, with no one to bury them - them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters - because I will pour their own wickedness out upon them.


text:
You are to give them this message: 'Let my eyes stream with tears night and day, unceasingly, because the virgin daughter of my people has been severely broken; she has been dealt a crushing blow.


text:
If I go out in the field, I see those slain with the sword. If I enter the city, I see the victims of famine. Meanwhile, prophets and cohanim ply their trade in the land, knowing nothing.''


text:
Have you rejected Y'hudah completely? Is Tziyon loathsome to you? Why have you struck us irreparably? We looked for peace, but to no avail; for a time of healing, but instead found terror!


text:
We confess our rebellion, ADONAI, also the crimes of our ancestors; yes, we have sinned against you.


text:
For your name's sake, do not spurn us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us; do not break it.


text:
Among the nations' idols, can any make it rain? Can the skies, of themselves, send showers? Aren't you the one, ADONAI, our God? Don't we look to you? For you do all these things.


text:
Then ADONAI said to me, 'Even if Moshe and Sh'mu'el were standing in front of me, my heart would not turn toward this people! Drive them out of my sight, get them out of here!


text:
And when they ask you where they should go, tell them that this is what ADONAI says: 'Those destined for death - to death! Those destined for the sword - to the sword! Those destined for famine - to famine! Those destined for captivity - to captivity!'


text:
'I will assign them four kinds [of scourges],' says ADONAI, 'the sword to kill, dogs to drag away, birds in the air and wild animals to devour and destroy.


text:
I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of M'nasheh the son of Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah, because of what he did in Yerushalayim.


text:
'Who will take pity on you, Yerushalayim? Who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?


text:
You have rejected me,' says ADONAI. 'You are heading backward. So I am stretching out my hand against you; tired of sparing you, I am destroying you.


text:
With a winnowing fork I am scattering them to the wind at the gates of the land; I am bereaving them, destroying my people, because they will not return from their ways.


text:
Their widows increase in number more than the sand of the seas; At midday I am bringing the destroyer on the mothers of young men, causing anguish and terror suddenly to fall upon her.


text:
The mother of seven sons grows faint, panting in despair; her sun has gone down while it's still daytime; she is left disgraced and bewildered. And the rest of them I will give to the sword, to their enemies,' says ADONAI.


text:
Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth, a man who is the object of strife and controversy throughout the land! I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me.


text:
ADONAI said, 'I promise to release you for good, I promise to make your enemies appeal to you when calamity and trouble come.


text:
I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder, and you will not be paid for them, because of all your sins throughout your territory;


text:
and I will make you pass together with your enemies into a land you do not know. For my anger has become a blazing fire, and it will flare up against you.'


text:
ADONAI, you know. Remember me, think of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Because you are patient, don't banish me; know that for your sake I suffer insults.


text:
When I found your words, I devoured them; your words made me glad, they gave me joy; because, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, you had me bear your name.


text:
I have never kept company with merrymakers, I could not celebrate; with your hand on me I sat by myself, for you filled me with indignation.


text:
Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be for me like a deceptive vadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?


text:
This is ADONAI's answer: 'If you return - if I bring you back you will stand before me. If you separate the precious from the base, you will be my spokesman. It will then be they who turn to you, not you who turn to them.


text:
Toward this people I will make you a fortified wall of bronze they will fight against you but not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and rescue you,' says ADONAI.


text:
For this is what ADONAI says concerning the sons and daughters born here, as well as their mothers who gave birth to them and their fathers who conceived them in this land:


text:
'They will die terrible deaths without being mourned or buried; they will be left on the ground like dung. They will die by the sword and by famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds in the air and the wild animals.'


text:
'For here is what ADONAI says: 'Do not enter any house where there is mourning; don't lament them, and don't grieve for them; for I have removed my shalom from this people, as well as my grace and compassion,' says ADONAI.


text:
'Great and small alike will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not lament them; nor will they cut their flesh or shave their heads for them.


text:
No one will prepare a meal for those in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; and no one will give them a cup to drink, to console them for their father or mother.'


text:
And you are not to go into any house where there is celebrating to sit with them, eating and drinking.


text:
For here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'In this place, while you are still alive, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bridegroom and bride.'


text:
'When you tell this people all that I have said, and they ask you, 'Why has ADONAI decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity, what is our sin, that we have committed against ADONAI our God?'


text:
then you are to say to them, 'It is because your ancestors abandoned me, says ADONAI, and went after other gods, serving and worshipping them, but abandoned me and did not keep my Torah.


text:
And you have done worse than your ancestors, for - look! - each of you lives according to the stubbornness of his own evilheart, so that you don't listen to me.


text:
Therefore I am thrusting you out of this land into a land you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; and there you will serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'


text:
''Therefore,' says ADONAI, 'the day will come when people will no longer swear, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,'


text:
but, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land to the north and out of all the countries where he drove them'; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their ancestors.


text:
''Look,' says ADONAI, 'I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish for them. Afterwards, I will send for many hunters; and they will hunt them from every mountain and hill and out of caves in the rocks.


text:
First, I will pay them back double for their crimes and sins; because they have defiled the land which is mine; they have filled my heritage with the corpses of their horrors and abominations.''


text:
ADONAI, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, saying, 'Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, futile idols, completely useless.'


text:
'Therefore, I will make them know, once and for all, I will make them know my power and my might. Then they will know that my name is ADONAI.


text:
'Y'hudah's sin is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of your altars.


text:
As they remember their children, so they remember their altars and their sacred poles by the green trees on the high hills.


text:
My mountain in the field, your wealth and all your treasures will be plundered; because of the sin of your high places throughout your territory.


text:
You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know. For you have kindled my fiery anger, and it will burn forever.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'A curse on the person who trusts in humans, who relies on merely human strength, whose heart turns away from ADONAI.


text:
He will be like a tamarisk in the 'Aravah - when relief comes, it is unaffected; for it lives in the sun-baked desert, in salty, uninhabited land.


text:
He will be like a tree planted near water; it spreads out its roots by the river; it does not notice when heat comes; and its foliage is luxuriant; it is not anxious in a year of drought but keeps on yielding fruit.


text:
I, ADONAI, search the heart; I test inner motivations; in order to give to everyone what his actions and conduct deserve.'


text:
A partridge hatches eggs it did not lay; like this are those who get rich unjustly: in the prime of life their wealth will desert them; in the end they will prove to be fools.


text:
Hope of Isra'el, ADONAI! All who abandon you will be ashamed, those who leave you will be inscribed in the dust, because they have abandoned ADONAI, the source of living water.


text:
As for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows you; you know I didn't want this fatal day; what came from my lips has been clear to you.


text:
Let my persecutors be ashamed, not me; let them be terrified, not me. Bring on them the day of disaster, destroy them with double destruction.


text:
Then ADONAI said this to me: 'Go, and stand at the People's Gate, where the kings of Y'hudah go in and out, and at all the gates of Yerushalayim;


text:
and say to them: 'Kings of Y'hudah, all Y'hudah and all living in Yerushalayim who enter through these gates, hear the word of ADONAI!


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'If you value your lives, don't carry anything on Shabbat or bring it in through the gates of Yerushalayim;


text:
don't carry anything out of your houses on Shabbat; and don't do any work. Instead, make Shabbat a holy day. I ordered your ancestors to do this,


text:
but they neither listened nor paid attention; rather, they stiffened their necks, so that they wouldn't have to hear or receive instruction.


text:
However, if you will pay careful heed to me,' says ADONAI 'and carry nothing through the gates of this city on Shabbat, but instead make Shabbat a day which is holy and not for doing work;


text:
then kings and princes occupying the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses. They, their princes, the people of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim will enter; and this city will be inhabited forever.


text:
They will come from the cities of Y'hudah, from the places surrounding Yerushalayim, from the land of Binyamin, from the Sh'felah, from the hills and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, frankincense and thanksgiving sacrifices to the house of ADONAI.


text:
But if you will not obey me and make Shabbat a holy day and not carry loads through the gates of Yerushalayim on Shabbat, then I will set its gates on fire; it will burn up the palaces of Yerushalayim and not be quenched.'''


text:
Whenever a pot he made came out imperfect, the potter took the clay and made another pot with it, in whatever shape suited him.


text:
'House of Isra'el, can't I deal with you as the potter deals with his clay? - says ADONAI. Look! You, house of Isra'el, are the same in my hand as the clay in the potter's hand.


text:
but if that nation turns from their evil, which prompted me to speak against it, then I relent concerning the disaster I had planned to inflict on it.


text:
but if it behaves wickedly from my perspective and doesn't listen to what I say, then I change my mind and don't do the good I said I would do that would have helped it.


text:
'So now, tell the people of Y'hudah and those living in Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: 'I am designing disaster for you, working out my plan against you. Turn, each of you, from his evil ways; improve your conduct and actions.'


text:
'But they will answer, 'It's hopeless! We will stick to our own plans; each of us will stubbornly follow his own evil desires!'


text:
'Therefore, ADONAI says this: 'Ask among the nations who has heard anything like this. The virgin Isra'el has done a most horrible thing.


text:
Does the snow of the L'vanon disappear from the mountain crags? Do the cold waters of foreign lands ever run dry?


text:
No, but my people have forgotten me and offer incense to nothings. This causes them to stumble as they walk the ancient paths; they leave the highway to walk on side-trails.


text:
Thus they make their land an object of horror and ongoing ridicule. Passers-by shake their heads, appalled, every one.


text:
Like a strong east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will see their back, not their face, on their day of disaster.''


text:
Then they said, 'Let's develop a plan for dealing with Yirmeyahu. Torah won't be lost from the cohanim, or counsel from the wise, or words from the prophets. So come, let's destroy him with slander; and meanwhile, we won't pay attention to anything he says.'


text:
Is good to be repaid with evil? For they have dug a pit [to trap] me. Remember how I stood before you and spoke well of them, in order to turn your anger away from them?


text:
Therefore, hand their sons over to famine, hurl them into the power of the sword, let their wives be made childless and widows, let their husbands be slain by disease, let their young men be slain by the sword in battle,


text:
let screams be heard from their houses when you bring raiders on them without warning. For they have dug a pit to catch me and have laid snares for my feet.


text:
Nevertheless, ADONAI, you know all their plans against me to stop me. Do not forgive their crime, do not blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be made to stumble before you; deal with them when you are angry.


text:
ADONAI then said, 'Go; buy a clay jar from the potter; take some of the people's leaders and some of the leading cohanim;


text:
and go out into the Ben-Hinnom Valley, by the entry to the Potsherd Gate. There you are to proclaim the words I am about to tell you.


text:
Say: 'Hear the word of ADONAI, kings of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim! This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I am about to bring disaster on this place that will make the ears of whoever hears about it ring.


text:
This is because they have abandoned me and alienated this place. In it they have offered to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors have known, nor the kings of Y'hudah. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people.


text:
They have built the high places of Ba'al, in order to burn up their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al - something I never ordered or said; it never even entered my mind.


text:
'''Therefore the time is coming,' says ADONAI, 'when this place will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter.


text:
I will nullify the plans of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim in this place. I will have them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hand of those seeking their lives, and I will give their corpses as food for the birds in the air and the wild animals.


text:
I will make this city an object of horror and ridicule; everyone passing by will be horrified and will ridicule it because of all its wounds.


text:
I will cause them to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters; everyone will be eating the flesh of his friends during the siege, because of the shortage imposed on them by their enemies and those set on killing them.''


text:
and say to them, 'ADONAI-Tzva'ot says that this is how I will break this people and this city, just as one smashes a potter's vessel beyond the possibility of repair. The dead will be buried in Tofet, because there will be no space left for burial [anywhere else].


text:
That is what I will do to this place,' says ADONAI 'and to its inhabitants; I will make it like Tofet.


text:
The houses of Yerushalayim and those of the kings of Y'hudah will be defiled like this place Tofet - yes, all the houses on whose roofs they have offered to all the stars in heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.''


text:
Then Yirmeyahu returned from Tofet, where ADONAI had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of ADONAI's house and said to all the people,


text:
'This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I am bringing on this city and all its surrounding villages all the disaster I have pronounced against it; because they have stiffened their necks and refused to pay attention to my words.''


text:
Now when the cohen Pash'chur son of Immer, chief official in the house of ADONAI, heard Yirmeyahu prophesying these things,


text:
The following morning, when Pash'chur led Yirmeyahu out of the stocks, Yirmeyahu said to him, 'ADONAI no longer calls you Pash'chur but Magor-Missaviv [terror on every side].


text:
For this is what ADONAI says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, while you watch. I will hand over all of Y'hudah to the king of Bavel, and he will carry them off captive to Bavel and put them to the sword.


text:
Moreover, I will hand over everything stored in this city, all its valuables, all its wealth, indeed all the treasures of the kings of Y'hudah, to their enemies, who will plunder them, take them and carry them to Bavel.


text:
And you, Pash'chur, along with your entire household, will go into captivity; you will go to Bavel, where you will die and be buried - you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.''


text:
You fooled me, ADONAI; I have been your dupe. You overpowered me, and you have prevailed. All day long I'm a laughingstock; everyone makes fun of me.


text:
Whenever I speak, I have to cry out; I shout, 'Violence!' and 'Destruction!' Thus the word of ADONAI becomes for me the cause of reproach and derision all day!


text:
But if I say, 'I won't think about him, I won't speak in his name any more,' then it seems as though a fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I wear myself out trying to hold it in, but I just can't do it.


text:
I have heard many whispering their plot: ''Terror in every direction'? Denounce him! Let's denounce him!' Even all my close friends are watching for me to make a false step - 'Maybe he can be tricked, then we'll get the better of him, then we'll take our revenge on him.'


text:
But ADONAI is with me like a dreaded warrior; so my persecutors will stumble, defeated, greatly ashamed because of their failure; their lasting disgrace will not be forgotten.


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot, you who test the righteous and see people's hearts and thoughts, let me see you take vengeance on them, for I have committed my cause to you.


text:
A curse on the man who brought the news to my father, 'A son has been born to you!' - thus making him very happy.


text:
Let that man be like the cities ADONAI overthrew without mercy! Let him hear cries of alarm in the morning and the sound of battle at noon,


text:
because God did not put me to death in the womb and let my mother become my grave, her womb forever filled with me.


text:
This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI when King Tzidkiyahu sent to him Pash'chur the son of Malkiyah and Tz'fanyah the son of Ma'aseiyah with this message:


text:
'Please consult ADONAI for us, because N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel is making war on us. Maybe ADONAI will perform a miracle for us and cause him to withdraw.'


text:
'This is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I will make the weapons of war that you have in your hands ineffectual in your fight against the king of Bavel and the Kasdim who are outside the walls besieging you. Instead, I will gather them inside this city;


text:
and I myself will fight against you with my hand stretched out and with a strong arm, in anger, rage and great fury.


text:
I will strike the inhabitants of this city, humans and animals alike, and they will die of a terrible plague.


text:
Afterwards,' says ADONAI 'I will hand over Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, his servants, the people, and anyone remaining alive in this city after the plague, war and famine, to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel and to their enemies, to those who seek their lives; and he will put them to the sword. He will not spare them; he will have no pity, no compassion.''


text:
'And here is what you are to tell this people: 'ADONAI says: 'Look! I am presenting you with the way of life and the way of death.


text:
Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, famine and plague. But he who leaves and surrenders to the Kasdim besieging you will stay alive; his own life will be his only 'spoils of war.'


text:
For I have determined absolutely that this city will have evil, not good,' says ADONAI. 'It is going to be handed over to the king of Bavel, and he will burn it to the ground.''


text:
house of David, this is what ADONAI says: 'Judge fairly every morning, rescue the wronged from their oppressors; or my fury will lash out like fire, burning so hot that no one can quench it, because of how evil your actions are.'


text:
ADONAI says, 'I am against you, [Yerushalayim,] situated in a valley like a rock on a plain. You who say, 'Who can come down against us? Who can enter our lairs?'


text:
I will punish you,' says ADONAI, 'as your deeds deserve. I will set its forest on fire, and it will devour everything around it.'''


text:
'King of Y'hudah occupying David's throne, hear the word of ADONAI - you, your servants and your people who enter through these gates.


text:
This is what ADONAI says: 'Do what is right and just; rescue the wronged from their oppressors; do nothing wrong or violent to the stranger, orphan or widow; don't shed innocent blood in this place.


text:
'''If you are careful to do this, then future kings occupying David's throne will enter these palace gates riding in chariots and on horses - he, his servants and his people.


text:
But if you will not pay attention to these words, then I swear by myself,' says ADONAI, 'that this palace will become a ruin.''


text:
'For here is what ADONAI says concerning the palace of the king of Y'hudah: 'You are like Gil'ad to me, like the peak of the L'vanon; yet I will turn you into a desert, uninhabited cities.


text:
I will designate men to destroy you, each one with his weapons; they will chop down your choice cedars and throw them in the fire.'


text:
'Many nations will pass by this city, and they will say to one another, 'Why has ADONAI done such a thing to this great city?'


text:
The answer will be, 'Because they abandoned the covenant of ADONAI their God and worshipped other gods, serving them.''


text:
Do not weep for [the king] who has died, do not mourn for him [Yoshiyahu]. But weep for him who departs [to Egypt], for he will never return or see his native land again.


text:
For this is what ADONAI says about Shalum the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, who succeeded Yoshiyahu his father as king: 'He has left this place, never to return;


text:
'Woe to him who builds his palace unfairly, its upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor work for free and will not give him his wages;


text:
who says, 'I will build me a spacious palace with airy upper rooms,' then makes windows and cedar panels painted with vermilion!


text:
Your cedar may be excellent, but that doesn't make you a better king. True, your father ate and drank, but he also did what was right and just, so things went well with him.


text:
He upheld the cause of the poor and the weak, so everything went well. Isn't that what knowing me is all about?' says ADONAI.


text:
'In contrast, your eyes and heart are controlled entirely by your greed, your desire for shedding innocent blood, oppressing and extorting.'


text:
Therefore here is what ADONAI says concerning Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah: 'There will be no one to mourn for him, 'Oh! My brother!' or 'Oh! My sister!' There will be no one to mourn for him, 'Oh! My master!' or 'Oh! His glory!'


text:
He will be given a donkey's 'burial' - dragged out the gates of Yerushalayim and thrown away [to rot].


text:
Climb up to the L'vanon and cry out, raise your voice in Bashan, cry out from 'Avarim, for all your lovers are broken.


text:
I spoke to you in your times of prosperity, but you said, 'I won't listen.' This has been your pattern since you were young - you pay no attention to what I say.


text:
The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced for all your wicked deeds.


text:
You who live in the L'vanon, nesting in the cedars, how gracious will you be when pains come on you like a woman in labor?


text:
'As I live,' says ADONAI, 'even if Koniyahu the son of Y'hoyakim king of Y'hudah were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off


text:
and hand you over to those who seek your life, to those you fear, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel and the Kasdim.


text:
I will hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into a country different from the one you were born in, and you will die there.


text:
Is this man Koniyahu a despised, broken pot, an instrument nobody wants? Why are they being thrown out? Why are he and his offspring thrown out into a country they do not know?


text:
This what ADONAI says: 'List this man as childless; he is a lifetime failure - none of his offspring will succeed, none will sit on David's throne or rule again in Y'hudah.'


text:
Therefore this is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: 'You have scattered my flock, driven them away and not taken care of them. So I will 'take care of' you because of your evil deeds,' says ADONAI.


text:
'I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they will be fruitful and increase their numbers.


text:
I will appoint shepherds over them who will shepherd them; then they will no longer be afraid or disgraced; and none will be missing,' says ADONAI.


text:
'The days are coming,' says ADONAI when I will raise a righteous Branch for David. He will reign as king and succeed, he will do what is just and right in the land.


text:
In his days Y'hudah will be saved, Isra'el will live in safety, and the name given to him will be ADONAI Tzidkenu [ADONAI our righteousness].


text:
'Therefore,' says ADONAI, 'the day will come when people no longer swear, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,'


text:
but, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Isra'el up from the land to the north' and from all the countries where I drove them. Then they will live in their own land.'


text:
Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones are shaking; I am like a drunk, like a man overcome by wine, because of ADONAI, because of his holy words.


text:
For the land is full of adulterers; because of a curse the land is in mourning - the desert pastures have dried up. Their course is evil, their power misused.


text:
'Therefore their way will be slippery for them; they will be driven into darkness and fall there. For I will bring disaster upon them, their year of punishment,' says ADONAI.


text:
'I have seen inappropriate conduct in the prophets of Shomron - they prophesied by Ba'al and led my people Isra'el astray.


text:
But in the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible thing - they commit adultery, live in lies, so encouraging evildoers that none returns from his sin. For me they have all become like S'dom, its inhabitants like 'Amora.'


text:
Therefore, this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says concerning the prophets: 'I will feed them bitter wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for ungodliness has spread through all the land from the prophets of Yerushalayim.'


text:
ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'Don't listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are making you act foolishly, telling you visions from their own minds and not from the mouth of ADONAI.


text:
They keep reassuring those who despise me, 'ADONAI says you will be safe and secure,' and saying to all living by their own stubborn hearts, 'Nothing bad will happen to you.'


text:
But which of them has been present at the council of ADONAI to see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to his word enough to hear it?'


text:
Look! The storm of ADONAI, bursting out in fury, a whirling storm, whirling down upon the heads of the wicked!


text:
ADONAI's anger will not abate till he fully accomplishes the purpose in his heart. In the acharit-hayamim, you will understand everything.


text:
If they have been present at my council, they should let my people hear my words and turn them from their evil way and the evil of their actions.


text:
Can anyone hide in a place so secret that I won't see him?' asks ADONAI. ADONAI says, 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?


text:
'I have heard what these prophets prophesying lies in my name are saying: 'I've had a dream! I've had a dream!'


text:
How long will this go on? Is [my word] in the hearts of prophets who are prophesying lies, who are prophesying the deceit of their own minds?


text:
With their dreams that they keep telling each other, they hope to cause my people to forget my name; just as their ancestors forgot my name when they worshipped Ba'al.


text:
'If a prophet has a dream, let him tell it as a dream. But someone who has my word should speak my word faithfully. What do chaff and wheat have in common?' asks ADONAI.


text:
'I am against those who concoct prophecies out of fake dreams,' says ADONAI. 'They tell them, and by their lies and arrogance they lead my people astray. I didn't send them, I didn't commission them, and they don't do this people any good at all,' says ADONAI.


text:
'When [someone from] this people, a prophet or a cohen asks you, 'What is the burden of ADONAI?' you are to answer them, 'What burden? I am throwing you off,' says ADONAI.


text:
As for a prophet, cohen or [someone else from] this people who speaks about 'the burden of ADONAI,' I will punish him and his household.'


text:
So, when you speak with your neighbor or brother, ask, 'What answer has ADONAI given?' or 'What has ADONAI said?'


text:
Don't use the expression, 'burden of ADONAI' any more; for every person's own word will be his burden. Must you twist the words of the living God, of ADONAI-Tzva'ot, our God?


text:
But if you talk about 'the burden of ADONAI,' then here is what ADONAI says: 'Because you use this expression, 'the burden of ADONAI,' after I have already sent you the order not to say, 'the burden of ADONAI,'


text:
I will lift you up, burden that you are, and throw you off, away from my presence - you and the city I gave you and your ancestors.


text:
It was after N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel had carried Y'khanyahu the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, along with the leaders of Y'hudah, the artisans and the skilled workers into exile from Yerushalayim and brought them to Bavel, that ADONAI gave me a vision. There, in front of the temple of ADONAI, two baskets of figs were placed.


text:
One of the baskets had in it very good figs, like those that ripen first; while the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they were inedible.


text:
Then ADONAI asked me, 'Yirmeyahu, what do you see?' I answered, 'Figs - the good figs are very good; but the bad ones are very bad, so bad they are inedible.'


text:
'Here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'I will regard the exiles from Y'hudah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Kasdim, as good, just as I do these good figs.


text:
''I will look after them for their good, I will bring them back to this land; I will build them up and not tear them down, plant them and not pull them up.


text:
I will give them a heart to know me that I am ADONAI. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with all their heart.'


text:
'But concerning the bad figs that are so bad as to be inedible, ADONAI says: 'I will make Tzidkiyahu the king of Y'hudah and his leaders resemble them, likewise the rest of Yerushalayim remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.


text:
Everywhere I drive them I will make them an object of horror, repulsive to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace, a byword, a laughingstock and a curse;


text:
and I will send sword, famine and plague among them until they have disappeared from the land I gave them and their ancestors.''


text:
This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Y'hudah in the fourth year of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah; this was also the first year of N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel.


text:
Yirmeyahu the prophet proclaimed it before all the people of Y'hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim:


text:
'For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y'hudah, until today, the word of ADONAI has come to me; and I have proclaimed it to you on numerous occasions; but you haven't listened.


text:
Moreover, ADONAI sent you all his servants the prophets - again, on numerous occasions - but you didn't listen or pay attention.


text:
The message was always: 'Every one of you, turn back from his evil way, from the evil of your actions. Then you will live in the land ADONAI gave you and your ancestors forever and ever.


text:
Don't follow other gods by serving and worshipping them. 'Don't provoke my anger with things your own hands have made; then I will do you no harm.


text:
But you wouldn't listen to me,' says ADONAI, 'so that you could provoke me with the products of your hands, to your own harm.'


text:
'Therefore, here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'Because you haven't paid attention to what I've been saying,


text:
I'm going to send for all the families of the north,' says ADONAI, 'and for my servant N'vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, and bring them against this land, against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them, making them an object of horror and ridicule, a perpetual ruin.


text:
Moreover, I will silence among them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of lamps.


text:
This entire land will become a ruin, a waste; and these nations will serve the king of Bavel for seventy years.


text:
But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Bavel and that nation for their sin,' says ADONAI, 'and I will turn the land of the Kasdim into everlasting ruins.


text:
I will inflict on that land all my words that I have decreed against it, everything written in this book, in which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations.


text:
For they too will become slaves to many nations and to powerful kings; I will pay them back according to their deeds and the work of their own hands.'


text:
'For here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to me: 'Take this cup of the wine of fury from my hand, and make all the nations where I am sending you drink it.


text:
They will drink, stagger to and fro and behave like crazy people because of the sword that I will send among them.''


text:
Yerushalayim and the cities of Y'hudah, along with their kings and leaders, to make them a ruin and an object of horror, ridicule and cursing, as it is today;


text:
and foreign; all the kings of the land of 'Utz; all the kings of the land of the P'lishtim, Ashkelon, 'Azah, 'Ekron and those remaining in Ashdod;


text:
and all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another - indeed, all the kingdoms of the world that there are on the surface of the earth. And the king of Sheshakh will drink last of all.


text:
'You are to say to them, 'Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: Drink until you're so drunk that you throw up, fall down, and never get up again, because of the sword I am sending among you!'


text:
If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, then say to them, 'Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: You must drink!


text:
For, look! - if I am bringing disaster on the city that bears my own name, do you expect to go unpunished? Yes, I will summon a sword for all the inhabitants of the earth,' says ADONAI.


text:
'As for you, [Yirmeyahu,] prophesy all these words against them; say to them, 'ADONAI is roaring from on high, raising his voice from his holy dwelling, roaring with might against his own habitation, shouting out loud, like those who tread grapes, against everyone living on earth.


text:
The sound resounds to the ends of the earth, for ADONAI is indicting the nations, about to pass judgment on all humankind; the wicked he has handed over to the sword,' says ADONAI.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'Disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a mighty tempest is being unleashed from the farthest ends of the earth.'


text:
On that day, those killed by ADONAI will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other; they will not be mourned or gathered or buried, but will lie on the ground like dung.


text:
'Wail, shepherds! Cry! Wallow in the dust, you lords of the flock! For the days for your slaughter have come. I will break you in pieces, and like a prized vase you will fall.'


text:
Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wails of the lords of the flock! For ADONAI is destroying their pasture,


text:
Like a lion, he has abandoned his lair; for their land has become desolate because of the oppressor's fierce sword and because of ADONAI's fierce anger.


text:
At the beginning of the reign of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, this word came from ADONAI:


text:
'ADONAI says: 'Stand in the courtyard of ADONAI's house and speak to the people from all the cities in Y'hudah who come to worship at ADONAI's house; say everything I order you to say to them, and don't leave out a word.


text:
Maybe they will listen, and each of them turn from his evil way; then I will be able to relent from the disaster I intend to bring on them because of how evil their deeds are.


text:
So tell them that this is what ADONAI says: 'If you will not pay attention to me and live according to my Torah, which I have given you,


text:
and listen to what my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, say - I have sent them frequently, but you haven't listened -


text:
then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing for all the nations of the earth.'''


text:
The cohanim, the prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyahu speaking these words in the house of ADONAI.


text:
When Yirmeyahu had finished saying everything ADONAI had ordered him to say to all the people, the cohanim, prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, 'You will die for this!


text:
Why have you prophesied in the name of ADONAI, 'This house will become like Shiloh,' and, 'This city will become uninhabited ruins'?' The people all crowded in on Yirmeyahu in ADONAI's house.


text:
When the officials of Y'hudah heard about it, they came up from the king's palace to ADONAI's house and sat at the entrance to the New Gate of ADONAI's house.


text:
The cohanim and prophets said to the officials and all the people, 'This man deserves a death sentence, because he has prophesied against this city; you have heard it with your own ears.'


text:
Then Yirmeyahu said to the officials and all the people, 'ADONAI sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words you have heard.


text:
Therefore now, improve your ways and your doings; and listen to the voice of ADONAI your God; then ADONAI will relent from the disaster he has decreed against you.


text:
Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its inhabitants; because the fact is that ADONAI sent me to you to speak all these words, so that you could hear them.'


text:
The officials and all the people then said to the cohanim and prophets, 'This man does not deserve a death sentence, because he has spoken to us in the name of ADONAI our God.'


text:
'Back in the time of Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah, Mikhah from Moreshet was a prophet. He told all the people of Y'hudah, 'ADONAI-Tzva'ot says, 'Tziyon will be plowed under like a field, Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house like a forested height.''


text:
'Did Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah and all Y'hudah put him to death? Not at all. Rather, he feared ADONAI, and prayed for ADONAI's favor; and ADONAI relented from the disaster he had pronounced against them. So [if we put Yirmeyahu to death,] we might bring great disaster on ourselves.'


text:
On the other hand, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of ADONAI, Uriyahu the son of Sh'ma'yahu from Kiryat-Ye'arim, who prophesied against this city and against this land exactly what Yirmeyahu is saying.


text:
When Y'hoyakim the king, with all his military men and other officials, heard what he was saying, the king wanted to have him killed. On hearing of this, Uriyahu became frightened, fled and went to Egypt.


text:
They brought Uriyahu back from Egypt and took him to Y'hoyakim the king, who put him to the sword and threw his corpse into the burial-ground of the common people.


text:
But in this situation concerning Yirmeyahu, Achikam the son of Shafan used his influence to help him, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.


text:
At the beginning of the reign of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, this word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:


text:
Send [similar yokes] to the kings of Edom, of Mo'av, of the people of 'Amon, of Tzor, and of Tzidon by means of the envoys they send to Yerushalayim, and to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah.


text:
Give them this message for their masters by telling their envoys that ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says for them to tell their masters:


text:
'''I made the earth, humankind, and the animals on the earth by my great power and my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.


text:
For now, I have given over all these lands to my servant N'vukhadnetzar the king of Bavel; I have also given him the wild animals to serve him.


text:
All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until his own country gets its turn - at which time many nations and great kings will make him their slave.


text:
The nation and kingdom that refuses to serve this N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, I will punish,' says ADONAI 'with sword, famine and plague, until I have put an end to them through him.


text:
'''You, therefore, don't listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, magicians or sorcerers, when they tell you that you won't be subject to the king of Bavel;


text:
for they are prophesying lies to you that will result in your being removed far from your land, with my driving you out, so that you perish.


text:
But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel and serves him, that nation I will allow to remain on their own soil,' says ADONAI. 'They will farm it and live there.'''


text:
Then I spoke to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah in just the same way: 'Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, serve him and his people, and you will live.


text:
Why would you want to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague - which is what ADONAI has decreed for the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel?


text:
Don't listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, 'You will not serve the king of Bavel'; because they are prophesying lies to you.


text:
'For I have not sent them,' says ADONAI, 'and they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish - you and the prophets prophesying to you.''


text:
I also spoke to the cohanim and to all this people; I said, 'This is what ADONAI says: 'Don't listen to the words of the prophets prophesying to you that the articles from ADONAI's house will soon be returned from Bavel; because they are prophesying lies to you.


text:
But if they are in fact prophets, and if the word of ADONAI is with them, then let them now intercede with ADONAI-Tzva'ot that the articles still remaining in the house of ADONAI and in the palace of the king of Y'hudah will not go off to Bavel.


text:
For this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says concerning the columns, the Sea, the bases and the rest of the articles still here in this city,


text:
that N'vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel did not seize when he carried off captive Y'khanyahu the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, from Yerushalayim to Bavel, along with all the leading men of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim-


text:
yes, this is what ADONAI Shaddai, the God of Isra'el, says about the things remaining in the house of ADONAI, in the palace of the king of Y'hudah and in Yerushalayim:


text:
'They will be carried to Bavel; and there they will stay until the day I remember them, bring them back and restore them to this place,' says ADONAI.'


text:
That same year, at the beginning of the reign of Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananyah the son of 'Azur the prophet, from Giv'on, spoke to me in ADONAI's house in front of the cohanim and all the people, saying,


text:
'This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Bavel.


text:
Within two years I will restore to this place all the articles from ADONAI's house that N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel removed from this place and carried to Bavel.


text:
Also I will bring back here Y'khanyah the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, along with all those from Y'hudah who were taken captive to Bavel,' says ADONAI, 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Bavel.''


text:
Then the prophet Yirmeyahu said to the prophet Hananyah in front of the cohanim and all the people standing in ADONAI's house -


text:
the prophet Yirmeyahu said, 'Amen! May ADONAI do it! May ADONAI fulfill the words you have prophesied and bring back from Bavel to this place the articles from ADONAI's house and all the people who were carried away captive!


text:
Nevertheless, listen now to this word that I am speaking for you to hear and for all the people to hear.


text:
The prophets who were here before me and before you prophesied in times past against many countries and against great kingdoms about war, disaster and plagues.


text:
As for a prophet who prophesies peace - when the word of that prophet is fulfilled, it will be evident concerning that prophet that ADONAI indeed did send him.'


text:
Then Hananyah, in front of all the people, said, 'Thus says ADONAI: 'In just this way will I break off the yoke of N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel from the necks of all the nations within two years.'' The prophet Yirmeyahu left them;


text:
but then this word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu, after Hananyah the prophet had broken off the crossbar from the neck of the prophet Yirmeyahu:


text:
'Go and tell Hananyah that ADONAI:says, 'You have broken the crossbars of wood, but you will make in their place crossbars of iron.


text:
For here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, so that they can serve N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel; and they will serve him; and I have given him the wild animals too.'''


text:
Then the prophet Yirmeyahu said to Hananyah the prophet, 'Listen here, Hananyah! ADONAI has not sent you! You are making these people trust in a lie!


text:
Therefore, here is what ADONAI says: 'I am about to send you away from the face of the earth - this year you will die, because you have preached rebellion against ADONAI.''


text:
Following is the text of the letter Yirmeyahu the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the leaders remaining in exile, as well as to the cohanim, the prophets and all the people N'vukhadnetzar had carried off captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel.


text:
This was after Y'khanyah the king, the queen mother, the officers, the leaders of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, and the artisans and skilled workers had left Yerushalayim.


text:
The letter was entrusted to El'asah the son of Shafan and G'maryah the son of Hilkiyah; Tzidkiyah king of Y'hudah sent them to Bavel, to N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel. The letter said:


text:
'Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says to all those in exile, whom I have caused to be carried off captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel:


text:
Choose women to marry, and have sons and daughters. Choose wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage to men, so that they can have sons and daughters - increase your numbers there, don't decrease.


text:
Seek the welfare of the city to which I have caused you to go in exile, and pray to ADONAI on its behalf; for your welfare is bound up in its welfare.'


text:
For this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Don't let your prophets who are living among you and your diviners deceive you, and don't pay attention to the dreams you urge them to dream.


text:
'For here is what ADONAI says: 'After Bavel's seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place.


text:
For I know what plans I have in mind for you,' says ADONAI,'plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future.


text:
and I will let you find me,' says ADONAI. 'Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,' says ADONAI, 'and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.'


text:
But here is what ADONAI says about the king occupying David's throne and about all the people living in this city, your kinsmen who did not go into exile with you -


text:
thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'I will attack them with sword, famine and plague; I will make them like bad figs, so bad they are inedible.


text:
I will pursue them with sword, famine and plague and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth; and they will bring on themselves cursing, astonishment, ridicule and reproach among all the nations where I have driven them;


text:
because they have not paid attention to my words,' says ADONAI, 'which I sent to them through my servants the prophets. I sent them frequently, but you refused to listen,' says ADONAI.


text:
'So pay attention now to the word of ADONAI, all of you in exile, whom I sent away from Yerushalayim to Bavel.


text:
Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says about Ach'av the son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyahu the son of Ma'aseiyah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: 'I will hand them over to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel, and he will put them to death before your eyes.


text:
In fact, all those exiled from Y'hudah who are in Bavel will take up this formula for cursing: 'May ADONAI make you like Tzidkiyahu and Ach'av, whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire!'


text:
because they have done vile things in Isra'el, committing adultery with their neighbors' wives and speaking words in my name, falsely, which I did not order them to say. For I am he who knows; I am witness to this,' says ADONAI.


text:
'This is a word from ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, because of the letters you sent in your own name to all the people in Yerushalayim, including Tz'fanyah the son of Ma'aseiyah the cohen and all the cohanim.


text:
Your letter said, 'ADONAI has made you cohen in place of Y'hoyada the cohen, in order to have officials in ADONAI's house who will arrest any crazy person who makes himself out to be a prophet, so that you can restrain him in stocks and collar.


text:
He even sends word to us in Bavel saying that the exile will last a long time; so build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce.'


text:
instructing him to send to all those in exile this message: 'Here is what ADONAI says about Sh'ma'yah the Nechelami: 'This Sh'ma'yah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has caused you to put your trust in a lie.


text:
Because of this,' ADONAI says, 'I will punish Sh'ma'yah the Nechelami and his offspring. He will not have a man to live among this people, and he will not see the good I am planning to do for my people,' says ADONAI, 'because he has preached rebellion against ADONAI.''''


text:
'This is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'Write all the words I have spoken to you in a scroll.


text:
For the day is coming,' says ADONAI, 'when I will reverse the exile of my people Isra'el and Y'hudah,' says ADONAI. 'I will cause them to return to the land I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it.''


text:
Ask now and see: can men give birth to children? Why, then, do I see all the men with their hands on their stomachs like women in labor, with every face turned pale?


text:
How dreadful that day will be! - there has never been one like it: a time of trouble for Ya'akov, but out of it he will be saved.


text:
'On that day,' says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, 'I will break his yoke from off your neck, I will snap your chains. Foreigners will no longer enslave him.


text:
'So don't be afraid, Ya'akov my servant,' says ADONAI, 'or be alarmed, Isra'el; for I will return you from far away and your offspring from their country of exile. Ya'akov will again be quiet, at rest; and no one will make him afraid.


text:
'For I am with you to save you,' says ADONAI, 'I will finish off all the nations where I have scattered you. However, you I will not finish off, but will discipline only as you deserve; I will not completely destroy you.'


text:
All your friends have forgotten you, they no longer seek you out. I have struck you down as an enemy would, punished as a cruel man would, because of your great wickedness, because of your many sins.


text:
Why cry that your wound and pain are past healing? I have done these things to you because of your great wickedness, because of your many sins.


text:
'But all who devour you will be devoured, all your enemies will go into exile, those who plunder you will be plundered, those who pillage you will be pillaged.


text:
For I will restore your health, I will heal you of your wounds,' says ADONAI, 'because they called you an outcast, Tziyon, with no one who cares about her.'


text:
Thus says ADONAI: 'I will return Ya'akov's captives to their tents; I will take pity on his dwellings. Cities will be rebuilt on their own tels, with palaces where they're supposed to be.


text:
From them will come thanksgiving and the sound of people celebrating. I will increase them; they will not be decreased; I will honor them; they will not be despised.


text:
Their children will be as they used to be, their community confirmed in my presence; and I will punish everyone who oppresses them.


text:
Their leader will be one of their own, their ruler will come from among them. I will cause him to come close and let him approach me; for, otherwise, who would guarantee his heart enough to approach me?' says ADONAI.


text:
Look! The storm of ADONAI, bursting out in fury, a sweeping storm, whirling down upon the heads of the wicked!


text:
ADONAI's fierce anger will not abate till he accomplishes the purpose in his heart. In the acharit-hayamim, you will understand.


text:
'When that time comes,' says ADONAI, 'I will be God of all the clans of Isra'el, and they will be my people.'


text:
Here is what ADONAI says: 'The people escaping the sword found favor in the desert I have brought Isra'el to its rest.'


text:
From a distance ADONAI appeared to me, [saying,] 'I love you with an everlasting love; this is why in my grace I draw you to me.


text:
Once again, I will build you; you will be rebuilt, virgin of Isra'el. Once again, equipped with your tambourines, you will go out and dance with the merrymakers.


text:
Once again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Shomron, and those doing the planting will have the use of its fruit.


text:
For a day will come when the watchmen on Mount Efrayim will call, 'Come, let's go up to Tziyon, to ADONAI our God.''


text:
For here is what ADONAI says: 'Sing with joy for Ya'akov! shout for the chief of the nations! Proclaim your praise, and say: 'ADONAI! You have saved your people, the remnant of Isra'el!'


text:
Look! I am bringing them from the land in the north, gathering them from the far ends of the earth; among them are the blind and lame, women with children, women in labor, all together, a vast throng returning here.


text:
They will come weeping and praying as I bring them back. I will lead them by streams of water on smooth paths, so that they won't stumble. For I am a father to Isra'el, and Efrayim is my firstborn son.'


text:
Nations, hear the word of ADONAI! Proclaim it in the coastlands far away. Say: 'He who scattered Isra'el is gathering him, guarding him like a shepherd his flock.'


text:
They will come and sing on the heights of Tziyon, streaming to the goodness of Adonai, to the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and the young of the flock and the herd. They themselves will be like a well-watered garden, never to languish again.


text:
'Then the virgin will dance for joy, young men and old men together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, comfort and gladden them after their sorrow.


text:
I will give the cohanim their fill of rich food, and my people will be satisfied with my bounty,' says ADONAI.


text:
This is what ADONAI says: 'A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and bitter weeping. It is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no longer alive.'


text:
This is what ADONAI says: 'Stop your weeping, and dry your eyes, for your work will be rewarded,' says ADONAI. 'They will return from the enemy's land;


text:
'I hear Efrayim bemoaning himself: 'You disciplined me, and I took your discipline like a young ox not used to a yoke. Let me return, and I will return, for you are ADONAI, my God.


text:
Yes, I turned away; but later I repented. When I had been made to understand, I struck my thigh in shame and remorse, bearing the weight of the disgrace acquired when I was young.'


text:
'Isn't Efrayim my very dear son, a child who delights me so? I speak about him all the time, I can't help but recall him to mind. In sum, I deeply yearn for him; I will surely show him favor,' says ADONAI.


text:
Set up road signs, erect guideposts, pay attention to the highway, the path on which you traveled. Come back, virgin Isra'el, come back to these cities of yours!


text:
How long will you hesitate, you unruly daughter? For ADONAI has created something new on earth: a woman with the strengths of a man.


text:
Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'This expression will be used again in the land of Y'hudah and its cities after I have returned their exiles: 'May ADONAI bless you, home of justice, holy mountain!'


text:
'Here, the days are coming,' says ADONAI, when I will sow the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.


text:
At that time, just as I used to watch over them with the intent to uproot, break down, overthrow, destroy and do harm; so then I will watch over them to build and plant,' says ADONAI.


text:
'When those days come they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'


text:
Rather, each will die for his own sin; every one who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.


text:
'Here, the days are coming,' says ADONAI, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra'el and with the house of Y'hudah.


text:
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,' says ADONAI.


text:
'For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra'el after those days,' says ADONAI: 'I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.


text:
No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, 'Know ADONAI'; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.'


text:
This is what ADONAI says, who gives the sun as light for the day, who ordained the laws for the moon and stars to provide light for the night, who stirs up the sea until its waves rorar -- ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name:


text:
'If these laws leave my presence,' says ADONAI, 'then the offspring of Isra'el will stop being a nation in my presence forever.' 38 'Look, the days are coming,' says ADONAI, 'when the city will be rebuilt for ADONAI from the Tower of Hanan'el to the Corner Gate.39 The measuring line will be stretched straight to Garev Hill, then turn to Go'ah.40 The whole valley of corpses and ashes, including all the fields as far as Vadi Kidron, and on to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be separated out for ADONAI; it will never be uprooted or destroyed again.' to provide light for the night, who stirs up the sea until its waves roar ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name: 36 'If these laws leave my presence,' says ADONAI, 'then the offspring of Isra'el will stop being a nation in my presence forever.'


text:
This is what ADONAI says: 'If the sky above can be measured and the foundations of the earth be fathomed, then I will reject all the offspring of Isra'el for all that they have done,' says ADONAI.


text:
This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, which was the eighteenth year of N'vukhadretzar.


text:
At that time the army of the king of Bavel was besieging Yerushalayim; and Yirmeyahu the prophet was imprisoned in the guards' quarters attached to the king of Y'hudah's palace,


text:
where Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah had imprisoned him after demanding, 'How dare you prophesy that ADONAI says, 'I will hand this city over to the king of Bavel, and he will capture it;


text:
Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah will not escape from the Kasdim but will certainly be handed over to the king of Bavel, who will address him face to face, with their eyes meeting;


text:
and he will lead Tzidkiyahu to Bavel, where he will stay until I remember him,' says ADONAI, 'and even if you fight the Kasdim, you will fail'?'


