1 Or, with the It is done; and lamentation, say &c. 2 Or, depart from are ever prophesying, say they. Heb. Drop &c. See Amos vii. 16. parable against you, and lament 'with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove it from me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields. Therefore thou shalt 5 have none that shall cast the line by lot in the 3 Or, Prophesy congregation of the LORD. Prophesy ye not, 6 ye not, they thus they prophesy. They shall not prophesy 'to these: reproaches shall not depart. Shall 7 it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the spirit of the LORD 'straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? But 'of late my people is risen up 8 as an enemy: ye strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securely as The women of my 9 men averse from war. people ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children ye take away my glory for ever. Arise ye, and depart; for this 10 is not your rest: because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction. If a man walking in wind and falsehood do 11 lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. Or, of these things: their reproaches never cease 5 Or, O thou that art named the house of Jacob 6 • Or, impatient Heb. shortened. 7 Heb. yesterday. 8 The Sept. has, ye shall be destroyed with &c. 9 Or, in a spirit of falsehood I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; 12 I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah: as a flock in the midst of their pasture, they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is gone up before 13 them they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out thereat: and their king is passed on before them, and the LORD at the head of them. And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of 1 3 Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know judgement? who hate the a 1 good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off 3 their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people; and they flay their skin from off them, and break their bones: yea, they chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the 4 caldron. Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not answer them: yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as 5 they have wrought evil in their doings. Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even 'prepare war Heb. 6 against him: Therefore it shall be night unto sanctify. you, that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and 7 the day shall be black over them. And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips: 8 for there is no answer of God. But I truly am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and 2 Or, even the of judgement, and of might, to declare unto spirit Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that 10 abhor judgement, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us. 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. II 1 See Is. ii. 2-4. 2 Or, at the head 3 Or, instruction 4 Or, among 6 5 Or, great Or, decide concerning 7 Or, walk 1 go 2 But in the latter days it shall come to pass, 1 4 that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established 'in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it. And many nations shall and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge 3 'between many peoples, and shall 'reprove strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under + his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. For all the peoples 5 'will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble 6 her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven away, and her that I have afflicted; and 7 I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever. And thou, O tower 8 of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come; yea, the former Heb. Ophel. dominion shall come, the kingdom of the 8 Or, Eder See Gen. XXXV. 21. 9 4 daughter of Jerusalem. Now why dost thou 9 cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail? Be in pain, 10 and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, 1 like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon; there shalt thou be rescued; there shall the LORD redeem I thee from the hand of thine enemies. And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye 'see 1 Or, gaze 12 its desire upon Zion. But they know not the upon thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he hath gathered them as the 13 sheaves to the threshing-floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make 2 So the thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs ancient verbrass and thou shalt beat in pieces many Hebrew text peoples and thou shalt devote their gain unto as pointed the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of devote. the whole earth. Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2 sions. The reads, I will [Ch. iv. 14 in Heb.] [Ch. v. 1 in Heb.] 3 Or, families See Judg. vi. 15. 15 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from 3 of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he Or, from give them up, until the time that she which ancient days travaileth hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Or, with 4 Israel. And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto 5 the ends of the earth. And this man shall be our peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven 6 shepherds, and eight "principal men. And they shall 'waste the land of Assyria with the sword, 6 Or, princes among men Or, eat up herds over Or, be shep 1 Or, obelisks 2 See Ex. 4 Or, such as they have not heard and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our border. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from the LORD, as showers upon the grass; that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob 8 shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver. Let thine hand be lifted up above 9 thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off. e9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith 10 the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots and I will cut off the cities of thy 11 land, and will throw down all thy strong holds: and I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; 1 and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: and 13 I will cut off thy graven images and thy 'pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. And 14 I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy cities. And I 15 will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations 'which hearkened not. Hear ye now what the LORD saith: Arise, 1 contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the LORD'S controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done 3 6 |