This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, the great
prophet, (Ecclesiasticus:48.:25,) from the greatness of his
prophetic spirit, by which he hath foretold so long before,
and in so clear a manner, the coming of Christ, the
mysteries of our redemption, the calling of the Gentiles,
and the glorious establishment, and perpetual flourishing
of the church of Christ: insomuch that he may seem to have
been rather an evangelist than a prophet. His very name is
not without mystery; for Isaias in Hebrew signifies the
salvation of the Lord, or Jesus is the Lord. He was,
according to the tradition of the Hebrews, of the blood
royal of the kings of Juda: and after a most holy life,
ended his days by a glorious martyrdom; being sawed in two,
at the command of his wicked son in law, King Manasses, for
reproving his evil ways.
Isaias Chapter 1
The prophet complains of the sins of Juda and Jerusalem,
and exhorts them to a sincere conversion.
1:1. The vision of Isaias the Son of Amos, which he saw
concerning Juda and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias,
Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda.
1:2. Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the
Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted
them: but they have despised me.
1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's
crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not
understood.
1:4. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have
forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of
Israel, they are gone away backwards.
1:5. For what shall I strike you any more, you that
increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the
whole heart is sad.
1:6. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head,
there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and
swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor
fomented with oil.
1:7. Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with
fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and
it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies.
1:8. And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in
a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as
a city that is laid waste.
1:9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been
as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha.
1:10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give
ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.
1:11. To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your
victims, saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts
of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and
lambs, and buck goats.
1:12. When you came to appear before me, who required these
things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?
1:13. Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an
abomination to me. The new moons, and the sabbaths and
other festivals I will not abide, your assemblies are
wicked.
1:14. My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities:
they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing
them.
1:15. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn
away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will
not hear: for your hands are full of blood.
1:16. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your
devices from my eyes, cease to do perversely,
1:17. Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.
1:18. And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow:
and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.
1:19. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall
eat the good things of the land.
1:20. But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath:
the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it.
1:21. How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment,
become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.
1:22. Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled
with water.
1:23. Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves:
they all love bribes, they run after rewards. They judge
not for the fatherless: and the widow's cause cometh not in
to them.
1:24. Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty
one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my
adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies.
1:25. And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean
purge away thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin.
1:26. And I will restore thy judges as they were before,
and thy counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be
called the city of the just, a faithful city.
1:27. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall
bring her back in justice.
1:28. And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners
together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be
consumed.
1:29. For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which
they have sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the
gardens which you have chosen.
1:30. When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling
off, and as a garden without water.
1:31. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and
your work as a spark: and both shall burn together, and
there shall be none to quench it.
Isaias Chapter 2
All nations shall flow to the church of Christ. The Jews
shall be rejected for their sins. Idolatry shall be
destroyed.
2:1. The word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning
Juda and Jerusalem.
2:2. And in the last days the mountain of the house of the
Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall
flow unto it.
The last days... The whole time of the new law, from the
coming of Christ till the end of the world, is called in
the scripture the last days; because no other age or time
shall come after it, but only eternity.-Ibid. On the top of
mountains, etc... This shews the perpetual visibility of
the church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of
mountains cannot be hid.
2:3. And many people shall go, and say: Come 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 his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
2:4. And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many
people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any
more to war.
2:5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the
light of the Lord.
2:6. For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob:
because they are filled as in times past, and have had
soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange
children.
2:7. Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there
is no end of their treasures.
2:8. And their land is filled with horses: and their
chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols:
they have adored the work of their own hands, which their
own fingers have made.
2:9. And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been
debased: therefore forgive them not.
2:10. Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit
from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory
of his majesty.
2:11. The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the
haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord
alone shall be exalted in that day.
2:12. Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon
every one that is proud and highminded, and upon every one
that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled.
2:13. And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus,
and upon all the oaks of Basan.
2:14. And upon all the high mountains and upon all the
elevated hills.
2:15. And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.
2:16. And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that
is fair to behold.
2:17. And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the
haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day.
2:18. And idols shall be utterly destroyed.
Idols shall be utterly destroyed... or utterly pass away.
This was verified by the establishment of Christianity. And
by this and other texts of the like nature, the wild system
of some modern sectaries is abundantly confuted, who charge
the whole Christian church with worshipping idols, for many
ages.
2:19. And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into
the caves of the earth from the face of the fear of the
Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise
up to strike the earth.
2:20. In that day a man shall cast away his idols of
silver, and his idols of gold, which he had made for
himself to adore, moles and bats.
2:21. And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into
the holes of stones from the face of the fear of the Lord,
and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to
strike the earth.
2:22. Cease ye therefore from the man, whose breath is in
his nostrils, for he is reputed high.
Isaias Chapter 3
The confusion and other evils that shall come upon the Jews
for their sins. The pride of their women shall be punished.
3:1. For behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall take away
from Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong,
the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of
water.
3:2. The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the
prophet and the cunning man, and the ancient.
3:3. The captain over fifty, and the honourable in
countenance, and the counsellor, and the architect, and the
skilful in eloquent speech.
3:4. And I will give children to be their princes, and the
effeminate shall rule over them.
3:5. And the people shall rush one upon another, and every
man against his neighbour: the child shall make a tumult
against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
3:6. For a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the
house of his father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou
our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand.
3:7. In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer,
and in my house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me
not ruler of the people.
3:8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because
their tongue, and their devices are against the Lord, to
provoke the eyes of his majesty.
3:9. The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and
they have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they
have not hid it: woe to their souls, for evils are rendered
to them.
3:10. Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat
the fruit of his doings.
3:11. Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his
hands shall be given him.
3:12. As for my people, their oppressors have stripped
them, and women have ruled over them. O my people, they
that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee, and destroy
the way of thy steps.
3:13. The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to
judge the people.
3:14. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients
of his people, and its princes: for you have devoured the
vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your house.
3:15. Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of
the poor? saith the Lord the God of hosts.
3:16. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Sion are
haughty, and have walked with stretched out necks, and
wanton glances of their eyes, and made a noise as they
walked with their feet and moved in a set pace:
3:17. The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the
daughters of Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair.
3:18. In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of
shoes, and little moons,
3:19. And chains and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets,
3:20. And bodkins, and ornaments of the legs, and tablets,
and sweet balls, and earrings,
3:21. And rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead,
3:22. And changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine
linen, and crisping pins,
3:23. And lookingglasses, and lawns, and headbands, and
fine veils.
3:24. And instead of a sweet smell there shall be stench,
and instead of a girdle, a cord, and instead of curled
hair, baldness, and instead of a stomacher, haircloth.
3:25. Thy fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and thy
valiant ones in battle.
3:26. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall
sit desolate on the ground.
Isaias Chapter 4
After an extremity of evils that shall fall upon the Jews,
a remnant shall be comforted by Christ.
4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one
man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own
apparel: only let us be called by thy name, take away our
reproach.
4:2. In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in
magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be
high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of
Israel.
The bud of the Lord... That is, Christ.
4:3. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall
be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall
be called holy, every one that is written in life in
Jerusalem.
4:4. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters
of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of
the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the
spirit of burning.
4:5. And the Lord will create upon every place of mount
Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a
smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night:
for over all the glory shall be a protection.
4:6. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the
daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from
the whirlwind, and from rain.
Isaias Chapter 5
The reprobation of the Jews is foreshewn under the parable
of a vineyard. A woe is pronounced against sinners: the
army of God shall send against them.
5:1. I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin
concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a
hill in a fruitful place.
My cousin... So the prophet calls Christ, as being of his
family and kindred, by descending from the house of David.
Ibid. On a hill, etc... Literally, in the horn, the son of
oil.
5:2. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it,
and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower
in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and
he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought
forth wild grapes.
5:3. And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of
Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard,
that I have not done to it? was it that I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild
grapes?
5:5. And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted:
I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden
down.
5:6. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned,
and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall
come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon
it.
5:7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I
looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and
do justice, and behold a cry.
5:8. Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to
field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell
in the midst of the earth?
5:9. These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts:
Unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate,
without an inhabitant.
5:10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little
measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three
bushels.
5:11. Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to
follow drunkenness, and to drink in the evening, to be
inflamed with wine.
5:12. The harp, and the lyre, and, the timbrel and the
pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord
you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.
5:13. Therefore is my people led away captive, because they
had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with
famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.
5:14. Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her
mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their
people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into
it.
5:15. And man shall be brought down, and man shall be
humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.
5:16. And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.
5:17. And the lambs shall feed according to their order,
and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into
fruitfulness.
5:18. Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
and sin as the rope of a cart.
5:19. That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come
quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the
Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it.
5:20. Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that
put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
5:21. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and
prudent in your own conceits.
5:22. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout
men at drunkenness.
5:23. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the
justice of the just from him.
5:24. Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the
stubble, and the heat of the flame consumeth it: so shall
their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust:
for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and
have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.
5:25. Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against
his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them,
and struck them: and the mountains were troubles, and their
carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For
after this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still.
5:26. And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off,
and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and
behold they shall come with speed swiftly.
5:27. There is none that shall faint, nor labour among
them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the
girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their
shoes be broken.
5:28. Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent.
The hoofs of their horses shall be like the flint, and
their wheels like the violence of a tempest.
5:29. Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar
like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the
prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall
be none to deliver it.
5:30. And they shall make a noise against them that day,
like the roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the
land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is
darkened with the mist thereof.
Isaias Chapter 6
A glorious vision, in which the prophet's lips are
cleansed: he foretelleth the obstinacy of the Jews.
6:1. In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train
filled the temple.
6:2. Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings,
and the other had six wings: with two they covered his
face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they
flew.
6:3. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy,
holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his
glory,
6:4. And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice
of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
6:5. And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the
midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen
with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.
6:6. And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand
was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the
altar.
6:7. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath
touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away,
and thy sin shall be cleansed.
6:8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall
I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I,
send me.
6:9. And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people:
Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and
know it not.
6:10. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and be converted and I heal them.
6:11. And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without
man, and the land shall be left desolate.
6:12. And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall
be multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.
6:13. And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she
shall turn, and shall be made a show as a turpentine tree,
and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall
stand therein, shall be a holy seed.
Isaias Chapter 7
The prophet assures king Achaz that the two kings his
enemies shall not take Jerusalem. A virgin shall conceive
and bear a son.
7:1. And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of
Joathan, the son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Rasin king of
Syria and Phacee the son of Romelia king of Israel, came up
to Jerusalem, to fight against it: but they could not
prevail over it.
7:2. And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath
rested upon Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart
of his people, as the trees of the woods are moved with the
wind.
7:3. And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz,
thou and Jasub thy son that is left, to the conduit of the
upper pool in the way of the fuller's field.
7:4. And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear
not, and let not thy heart be afraid of the two tails of
these firebrands, smoking with the wrath of the fury of
Rasin king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.
7:5. Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto
the evil of Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:
7:6. Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it
away to us, and make the son of Tabeel king in the midst
thereof.
7:7. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this
shall not be.
7:8. But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of
Damascus is Rasin: and within threescore and five years,
Ephraim shall cease to be a people:
7:9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of
Samaria is the son of Romelia. If you will not believe, you
shall not continue.
7:10. And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:
7:11. Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the
depth of hell, or unto the height above.
7:12. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt
the Lord.
7:13. And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is
it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you
are grievous to my God also?
7:14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name
shall be called Emmanuel.
7:15. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to
refuse the evil, and to choose the good.
7:16. For before the child know to refuse the evil and to
choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be
forsaken of the face of her two kings.
7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people,
and upon the house of thy father, days that have not come
since the time of the separation of Ephraim from Juda with
the king of the Assyrians.
7:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord
shall hiss for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of
the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of
Assyria.
7:19. And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in
the torrents of the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks,
and upon all places set with shrubs, and in all hollow
places.
7:20. In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is
hired by them that are beyond the river, by the king of the
Assyrians, the head and the hairs of the feet, and the
whole beard.
7:21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man
shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep.
7:22. And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter:
for butter and honey shall every one eat that shall be left
in the midst of the land.
7:23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every
place where there were a thousand vines, at a thousand
pieces of silver, shall become thorns and briers.
7:24. With arrows and with bows they shall go in thither:
for briers and thorns shall be in all the land.
7:25. And as for the hills that shall be raked with a rake,
the fear of thorns and briers shall not come thither, but
they shall be for the ox to feed on, and the lesser cattle
to tread upon.
Isaias Chapter 8
The name of a child that is to be born: many evils shall
come upon the Jews for their sins.
8:1. And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great book, and
write in it with a man's pen. Take away the spoils with
speed, quickly take the prey.
8:2. And I took unto me faithful witnesses, Urias the
priest, and Zacharias the son of Barachias.
8:3. And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and
bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten
to take away the spoils: Make hast to take away the prey.
8:4. For before the child know to call his father and his
mother, the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria
shall be taken away before the king of the Assyrians.
8:5. And the Lord spoke to me again, saying:
8:6. Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of
Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin,
and the son of Romelia:
8:7. Therefore behold the Lord will bring upon them the
waters of the river strong and many, the king of the
Assyrians, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all
his channels, and shall overflow all his banks.
8:8. And shall pass through Juda, overflowing, and going
over shall reach even to the neck. And the stretching out
of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy, land, O
Emmanuel.
8:9. Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be
overcome, and give ear, all ye lands afar off: strengthen
yourselves, and be overcome, gird yourselves, and be
overcome.
8:10. Take counsel together, and it shall be defeated:
speak a word, and it shall not be done: because God is with
us.
8:11. For thus saith the Lord to me: As he hath taught me,
with a strong arm, that I should not walk in the way of
this people, saying:
8:12. Say ye not: A conspiracy: for all that this people
speaketh, is a conspiracy: neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid.
8:13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be
your fear, and let him be your dread.
8:14. And he shall be a sanctification to you. But for a
stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to the two
houses of Israel, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
8:15. And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and
shall be broken in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken.
8:16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my
disciples.
8:17. And I will wait for the Lord, who hath hid his face
from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
8:18. Behold I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me
for a sign, and for a wonder in Israel from the Lord of
hosts, who dwelleth in mount Sion.
8:19. And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and
of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not
the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?
Seek of pythons... That is, people pretending to tell
future things by a prophesying spirit.-Ibid. Should not the
people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?...
Here is signified, that it is to God we should pray to be
directed, and not to seek of the dead, (that is, of
fortune-tellers dead in sin,) for the health of the living.
8:20. To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they
speak not according to this word, they shall not have the
morning light.
8:21. And they shall pass by it, they shall fall, and be
hungry: and when they shall be hungry, they will be angry,
and curse their king, and their God, and look upwards.
8:22. And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble
and darkness, weakness and distress, and a mist following
them, and they cannot fly away from their distress.
Isaias Chapter 9
What joy shall come after afflictions by the birth and
kingdom of Christ; which shall flourish for ever. Judgments
upon Israel for their sins.
9:1. At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of
Nephtali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of
the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles
was heavily loaded.
9:2. The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great
light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of
death, light is risen.
9:3. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not
increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee, as they
that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after
taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.
9:4. For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their
shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast
overcome, as in the day of Madian.
9:5. For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and
garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for
the fire.
9:6. For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us,
and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father
of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
9:7. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no
end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and
upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with
judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever:
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
9:8. The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted
upon Israel.
9:9. And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the
inhabitants of Samaria that say in the pride and
haughtiness of their heart:
9:10. The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with
square stones: they have cut down the sycamores, but we
will change them for cedars.
9:11. And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over
him, and shall bring on his enemies in a crowd:
9:12. The Syrians from the east, and, the Philistines from
the west: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For
all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand
is stretched out still.
9:13. And the people are not returned to him who hath
struck them, and have not sought after the Lord of hosts.
9:14. And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and
the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back,
in one day.
9:15. The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the
prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
9:16. And they that call this people blessed, shall cause
them to err: and they that are called blessed, shall be
thrown down, headlong.
9:17. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young
men: neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and
widows: for every one is a hypocrite and wicked, and every
mouth hath spoken folly. For all this his indignation is
not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
9:18. For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour
the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of
the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on
high.
9:19. By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is
troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no
man shall spare his brother.
9:20. And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be
hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be
filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm:
Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together
shall be against Juda.
9:21. After all these things his indignation is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaias Chapter 10
Woe to the makers of wicked laws. The Assyrian shall be a
rod for punishing Israel: but for their pride they shall be
destroyed: and a remnant of Israel saved.
10:1. Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they
write, write injustice:
10:2. To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to
the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be
their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.
10:3. What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the
calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for
help? and where will ye leave your glory?
10:4. That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall
with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still.
10:5. Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of
my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.
10:6. I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will
give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take
away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread
them down like the mire of the streets.
10:7. But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not
think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut
off nations not a few.
10:8. For he shall say:
10:9. Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as
Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10:10. As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so
also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.
10:11. Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her
idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
10:12. And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall
have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in
Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the
king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his
eyes.
10:13. For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I
have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I
have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the
spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down
them that sat on high.
10:14. And my hand hath found the strength of the people as
a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I
gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the
wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.
10:15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth
with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom
it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him
that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but
wood.
10:16. Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts,
shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory
shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a
fire.
10:17. And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the
Holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers
shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.
10:18. And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful
hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh,
and he shall run away through fear.
10:19. And they that remain of the trees of his forest
shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a
child shall write them down.
10:20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house
of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them:
but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel,
in truth.
10:21. The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say,
of Jacob, to the mighty God.
10:22. For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of
the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the
consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.
A remnant of them shall be converted... This was partly
verified in the children of Israel who remained after the
devastations of the Assyrians, in the time of king
Ezechias: and partly in the conversion of a remnant of the
Jews to the faithful of Christ.-Ibid. The consumption
abridged, etc... That is, the number of them cut short, and
reduced to few, shall flourish in abundance of justice.
10:23. For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption,
and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.
10:24. Therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: O
my people that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the
Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall
lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.
10:25. For yet a little and a very little while, and my
indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their
wickedness.
10:26. And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge
against him, according to the slaughter of Madian in the
rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift
it up in the way of Egypt.
10:27. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his
burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his
yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the
presence of the oil.
At the presence of the oil... That is, by the sweet unction
of divine mercy.
10:28. He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron:
at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.
Into Aiath, etc... Here the prophet describes the march of
the Assyrians under Sennacherib; and the terror they should
carry with them; and how they should suddenly be destroyed.
10:29. They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama
was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.
10:30. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim, attend, O
Laisa, poor Anathoth.
10:31. Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take
courage.
10:32. It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall
shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of
Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.
10:33. Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the
earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall
be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.
10:34. And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down
with iron, and Libanus with its high ones shall fall.
Isaias Chapter 11
Of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, to which all nations
shall repair.
11:1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of
Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
11:2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the
spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of
counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of
godliness.
11:3. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of
the Lord, He shall not judge according to the sight of the
eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.
11:4. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall
reprove with equity the meek of the earth: and he shall
strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
11:5. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and
faith the girdle of his reins.
11:6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the
sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead
them.
11:7. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones
shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox.
11:8. And the sucking child shall play on other hole of the
asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the
den of the basilisk.
11:9. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my
holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge
of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea.
11:10. In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an
ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and
his sepulchre shall be glorious.
11:11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord
shall set his hand the second time to possess the remnant
of his people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, and
from Egypt, and from Phetros, and from Ethiopia, and from
Elam, and from Sennaar, and from Emath, and from the
islands of the sea.
11:12. And he shall set up a standard unto the nations, and
shall assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather
together the dispersed of Juda from the four quarters of
the earth.
11:13. And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the
enemies of Juda shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Juda,
and Juda shall not fight against Ephraim.
11:14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the
Philistines by the sea, they together shall spoil the
children of the east: Edom, till Moab shall be under the
rule of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall be
obedient.
11:15. And the Lord shall lay waste the tongue of the sea
of Egypt, and shall lift up his hand over the river in the
strength of his spirit: and he shall strike it in the seven
streams, so that men may pass through it in their shoes.
11:16. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of my
people, which shall be left from the Assyrians: as there
was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land
of Egypt.
Isaias Chapter 12
A canticle of thanksgiving for the benefits of Christ.
12:1. And thou shalt say in that day: I will give thanks to
thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me: thy wrath is
turned away, and thou hast comforted me.
12:2. Behold, God is my saviour, I will deal confidently,
and will not fear: because the Lord is my strength, and my
praise, and he is become my salvation.
12:3. Thou shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour's
fountains:
12:4. And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord,
and call upon his name: make his works known among the
people: remember that his name is high.
12:5. Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done great things:
shew this forth in all the earth.
12:6. Rejoice, and praise, O thou habitation of Sion: for
great is he that is in the midst of thee, the Holy One of
Israel.
Isaias Chapter 13
The desolation of Babylon.
13:1. The burden of Babylon which Isaias the son of Amos
saw.
The burden of Babylon... That is, a prophecy against
Babylon.
13:2. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the
voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the
gates.
13:3. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called
my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
13:4. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were
of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations
gathered together: the Lord of hosts hath given charge to
the troops of war.
13:5. To them that come from a country afar off, from the
end of heaven: the Lord and the instruments of his wrath,
to destroy the whole land.
13:6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall
come as a destruction from the Lord.
13:7. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart
of man shall melt,
13:8. And shall be broken. Gripings and pains, shall take
hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour.
Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour, their
countenances shall be as faces burnt.
13:9. Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day,
and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the
land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
13:10. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall
not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his
rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.
13:11. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against
the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of
infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the
mighty.
13:12. A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man
than the finest of gold.
13:13. For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth
shall be moved out of her place, for the indignation of the
Lord of hosts, and for the day of his fierce wrath.
13:14. And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a
sheep: and there shall be none to gather them together:
every man shall turn to his own people, and every one shall
flee to his own land.
13:15. Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and
every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the
sword.
13:16. Their inhabitants shall be dashed in pieces before
their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives
shall be ravished.
13:17. Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who
shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:
13:18. But with their arrows they shall kill the children,
and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and
their eye shall not spare their sons.
13:19. And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the
famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
13:20. It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall
not be founded unto generation and generation: neither
shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall
shepherds rest there.
13:21. But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses
shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell
there, and the hairy ones shall dance there:
13:22. And owls shall answer one another there, in the
houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
Isaias Chapter 14
The restoration of Israel after their captivity. The
parable or song insulting over the king of Babylon. A
prophecy against the Philistines.
14:1. Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be
prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will
yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon
their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with
them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.
14:2. And the people shall take them, and bring them into
their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in
the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they
shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall
subdue their oppressors.
14:3. And it shall come to pass in that day, that when God
shall give thee rest from thy labour, and from thy
vexation, and from the hard bondage, wherewith thou didst
serve before,
14:4. Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of
Babylon, and shalt say: How is the oppressor come to
nothing, the tribute hath ceased?
14:5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod
of the rulers,
14:6. That struck the people in wrath with an incurable
wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted
in a cruel manner.
14:7. The whole earth is quiet and still, it is glad and
hath rejoiced.
14:8. The fir trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the
cedars of Libanus, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath
none come up to cut us down.
14:9. Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy
coming, it stirred up the giants for thee. All the princes
of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the
princes of nations.
14:10. All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art
wounded as well as we, thou art become like unto us.
14:11. Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is
fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and
worms shall be thy covering.
14:12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst
rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that
didst wound the nations?
O Lucifer... O day star. All this, according to the letter,
is spoken of the king of Babylon. It may also be applied, in
a spiritual sense, to Lucifer the prince of devils, who was
created a bright angel, but fell by pride and rebellion
against God.
14:13. And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I
will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of
the north.
14:14. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will
be like the most High.
14:15. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the
depth of the pit.
14:16. They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee,
and behold thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth,
that shook kingdoms,
14:17. That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the
cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his
prisoners?
14:18. All the kings of the nations have all of them slept
in glory, every one in his own house.
14:19. But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an
unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that
were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of
the pit, as a rotten carcass.
14:20. Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in
burial: for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain
thy people: the seed of the wicked shall not be named for
ever.
14:21. Prepare his children for slaughter for the iniquity
of their fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the
land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
14:22. And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of
hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the
remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.
14:23. And I will make it a possession for the ericius and
pools of waters, and I will sweep it and wear it out with a
besom, saith the Lord of hosts.
14:24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I
have thought, so shall it be: and as I have purposed,
14:25. So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the
Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under
foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his
burden shall be taken off their shoulder.
14:26. This is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all
the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon
all nations.
14:27. For the Lord of hosts hath decreed, and who can
disannul it? and his hand is stretched out: and who shall
turn it away?
14:28. In the year that king Achaz died, was this burden:
14:29. Rejoice not thou, whole Philistia, that the rod of
him that struck thee is broken in pieces: for out of the
root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and his
seed shall swallow the bird.
14:30. And the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the
poor shall rest with confidence: and I will make thy root
perish with famine, and I will kill thy remnant.
14:31. Howl, O gate; cry, O city: all Philistia is thrown
down: for a smoke shall come from the north, and there is
none that shall escape his troop.
14:32. And what shall be answered to the messengers of the
nations? That the Lord hath founded Sion, and the poor of
his people shall hope in him.
Isaias Chapter 15
A prophecy of the desolation of the Moabites.
15:1. The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab
is laid waste, it is silent: because the wall of Moab is
destroyed in the night, it is silent.
15:2. The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places to
mourn over Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: on all
their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be
shaven.
15:3. In their streets they are girded with sackcloth: on
the tops of their houses, and in their streets all shall
howl and come down weeping.
15:4. Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard
even to Jasa. For this shall the well appointed men of Moab
howl, his soul shall howl to itself.
15:5. My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall
flee unto Segor a heifer of three years old: for by the
ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping: and in the way of
Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of destruction.
15:6. For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the
grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the
greenness is perished.
15:7. According to the greatness of their work, is their
visitation also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the
willows.
Torrent of the willows... That is, as some say, the waters
of Babylon: others render it, a valley of the Arabians.
15:8. For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab:
the howling thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim
the cry thereof.
15:9. For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I
will bring more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall
flee of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
Isaias Chapter 16
The prophet prayeth for Christ's coming. The affliction of
the Moabites for their pride.
16:1. Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth,
from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of
Sion.
16:2. And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing
away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall
the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon.
16:3. Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as
the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray
not them that wander about.
16:4. My fugitives shall dwell with thee: O Moab, be thou a
covert to them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust
is at an end, the wretch is consumed: he hath failed, that
trod the earth under foot.
16:5. And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one
shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David,
judging and seeking judgment and quickly rendering that
which is just.
16:6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding
proud: his pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation is
more than his strength.
16:7. Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall
howl: to them that rejoice upon the brick walls, tell ye
their stripes.
16:8. For the suburbs of Hesebon are desolate, and the
lords of the nations have destroyed the vineyard of Sabama:
the branches thereof have reached even to Jazer: they have
wandered in the wilderness, the branches thereof are left,
they are gone over the sea.
16:9. Therefore I will lament with the weeping of Jazer the
vineyard of Sabama: I will water thee with my tears, O
Hesebon, and Eleale: for the voice of the treaders hath
rushed in upon thy vintage, and upon thy harvest.
16:10. And gladness and joy shall be taken away from
Carmel, and there shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the
vineyards. He shall not tread out wine in the press that
was wont to tread it out: the voice of the treaders I have
taken away.
Carmel... This name is often taken to signify a fair and
fruitful hill or field, such as mount Carmel is.
16:11. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for
Moab, and my inward parts for the brick wall.
16:12. And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab
is wearied on his high places, that he shall go in to his
sanctuaries to pray, and shall not prevail.
16:13. This is the word, that the Lord spoke to Moab from
that time:
16:14. And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three
years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall
be taken away for all the multitude of the people, and it
shall be left small and feeble, not many.
Isaias Chapter 17
Judgments upon Damascus and Samaria. The overthrow of the
Assyrians.
17:1. The burden of Damascus. Behold Damascus shall cease
to be a city, and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones.
17:2. The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and
they shall rest there, and there shall be none to make them
afraid.
17:3. And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus: and the remnant of Syria shall be as the
glory of the children of Israel: saith the Lord of hosts.
17:4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory
of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh
shall grow lean.
17:5. And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest
that which remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of
corn: and it shall be as he that seeketh ears in the vale
of Raphaim.
17:6. And the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it,
shall be as one cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the
olive tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough, or
four or five upon the top of the tree, saith the Lord the
God of Israel.
17:7. In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker,
and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.
17:8. And he shall not look to the altars which his hands
made; and he shall not have respect to the things that his
fingers wrought, such as groves and temples.
17:9. In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as
the ploughs, and the corn that were left before the face of
the children of Israel, and thou shalt be desolate.
That were left... Viz., by the Chanaanites, when the
children of Israel came into their land.
17:10. Because thou hast forgotten God thy saviour, and
hast not remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou
plant good plants, and shalt sow strange seed.
17:11. In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape,
and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is
taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee
much.
17:12. Woe to the multitude of many people, like the
multitude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds,
like the noise of many waters.
The multitude, etc... This and all that follows to the end
of the chapter, relates to the Assyrian army under
Sennacherib.
17:13. Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters
overflowing, but he shall rebuke him, and he shall flee far
off: and he shall be carried away as the dust of the
mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a
tempest.
17:14. In the time of the evening, behold there shall be
trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this
is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of
them that spoiled us.
Isaias Chapter 18
A woe to the Ethiopians, who fed Israel with vain hopes,
their future conversion.
18:1. Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond
the rivers of Ethiopia,
18:2. That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels
of bulrushes upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a
nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after
which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden
underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
Angels... Or messengers.
18:3. All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the
earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains,
you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet.
18:4. For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest,
and consider in my place, as the noon light is clear, and
as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.
18:5. For before the harvest it was all flourishing, and it
shall bud without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof
shall be cut off with pruning hooks: and what is left shall
be cut away and shaken out.
18:6. And they shall be left together to the birds of the
mountains, and the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall
be upon them all the summer, and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them.
18:7. At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of
hosts, from a people rent and torn in pieces: from a
terrible people, after which there hath been no other: from
a nation expecting, expecting and trodden under foot, whose
land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of
the Lord of hosts, to mount Sion.
Isaias Chapter 19
The punishment of Egypt: their call to the church.
19:1. The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon
a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt, and the idols of
Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of
Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof.
19:2. And I will set the Egyptians to fight against the
Egyptians: and they shall fight brother against brother,
and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom
against kingdom.
19:3. And the spirit of Egypt shall be broken in the bowels
thereof, and I will cast down their counsel: and they shall
consult their idols, and their diviners, and their wizards,
and soothsayers.
19:4. And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel
masters, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the
Lord the God of hosts.
19:5. And the water of the sea shall be dried up, and the
river shall be wasted and dry.
19:6. And the rivers shall fail: the streams of the banks
shall be diminished, and be dried up. The reed and the
bulrush shall wither away.
19:7. The channel of the river shall be laid bare from its
fountain, and every thing sown by the water shall be dried
up, it shall wither away, and shall be no more.
19:8. The fishers also shall mourn, and all that cast a
hook into the river shall lament, and they that spread nets
upon the waters shall languish away.
19:9. They shall be confounded that wrought in flax,
combing and weaving fine linen.
19:10. And its watery places shall be dry, all they shall
mourn that made pools to take fishes.
19:11. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the wise
counsellors of Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will
you say to Pharao: I am the son of the wise, the son of
ancient kings?
19:12. Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and
shew what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
19:13. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the princes
of Memphis are gone astray, they have deceived Egypt, the
stay of the people thereof.
19:14. The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the
spirit of giddiness: and they have caused Egypt to err in
all its works, as a drunken man staggereth and vomiteth.
19:15. And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head
or tail, him that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.
19:16. In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and they
shall be amazed, and afraid, because of the moving of the
hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move over it.
19:17. And the land of Juda shall be a terror to Egypt:
everyone that shall remember it shall tremble because of
the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined
concerning it.
19:18. In that day there shall be five cities in the land
of Egypt, speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by
the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of the sun.
19:19. In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in
the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord
at the borders thereof:
19:20. It shall be for a sign, and for a testimony to the
Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to
the Lord because of the oppressor, and he shall send them a
Saviour and a defender to deliver them.
19:21. And the Lord shall be known by Egypt, and the
Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall
worship him with sacrifices and offerings: and they shall
make vows to the Lord, and perform them.
19:22. And the Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge, and
shall heal it, and they shall return to the Lord, and he
shall be pacified towards them, and heal them.
19:23. In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the
Assyrians, and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the
Egyptian to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve
the Assyrian.
19:24. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian
and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land,
19:25. Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying:
Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to
the Assyrian: but Israel is my inheritance.
Isaias Chapter 20
The ignominious captivity of the Egyptians, and the
Ethiopians.
20:1. In the year that Tharthan entered into Azotus, when
Sargon the king of the Assyrians had sent him, and he had
fought against Azotus, and had taken it:
20:2. At that same time the Lord spoke by the hand of
Isaias the son of Amos, saying Go, and loose the sackcloth
from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet.
And he did so, and went naked, and barefoot.
20:3. And the Lord said: As my servant Isaias hath walked,
naked and barefoot, it shall be a sign and a wonder of
three years upon Egypt, and upon Ethiopia,
20:4. So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the
prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young
and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered
to the shame of Egypt.
20:5. And they shall be afraid, and ashamed of Ethiopia
their hope, and of Egypt their glory.
20:6. And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that
day: Lo this was our hope, to whom we fled for help, to
deliver us from the face of the king of the Assyrians: and
how shall we be able to escape?
Isaias Chapter 21
The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians: a
prophecy against the Edomites and the Arabians.
21:1. The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds
come from the south, it cometh from the desert from a
terrible land.
The desert of the sea... So Babylon is here called, because
from a city as full of people as the sea is with water, it
was become a desert.
21:2. A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful
dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth.
Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the
mourning thereof to cease.
O Elam... That is, O Persia.
21:3. Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath
taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I
fell down at the hearing of it, I was troubled at the
seeing of it.
21:4. My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my
beloved is become a wonder to me.
21:5. Prepare the table, behold in the watchtower them that
eat and drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield.
21:6. For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a
watchman: and whatsoever he shall see, let him tell.
21:7. And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon
an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them
diligently with much heed.
A rider upon an ass, etc... These two riders are the kings
of the Persians and Medes.
21:8. And a lion cried out: I am upon the watchtower of the
Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward,
standing whole nights.
And a lion cried out... That is, I Isaias seeing the
approaching ruin of Babylon, have cried out as a lion
roaring.
21:9. Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot
with two horsemen, and he answered, and said: Babylon is
fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are
broken unto the ground.
21:10. O my thrashing, and the children of my floor, that
which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
I have declared unto you.
21:11. The burden of Duma calleth to me out of Seir:
Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?
Duma... That is, Idumea, or Edom.
21:12. The watchman said: The morning cometh, also the
night: if you seek, seek: return, come.
21:13. The burden in Arabia. In the forest at evening you
shall sleep, in the paths of Dedanim.
21:14. Meeting the thirsty bring him water, you that
inhabit the land of the south, meet with bread him that
fleeth.
21:15. For they are fled from before the swords, from the
sword that hung over them, from the bent bow, from the face
of a grievous battle.
21:16. For thus saith the Lord to me: Within a year,
according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of
Cedar shall be taken away.
Cedar... Arabia.
21:17. And the residue of the number of strong archers of
the children of Cedar shall be diminished: for the Lord the
God of Israel hath spoken it.
Isaias Chapter 22
The prophet laments the devastation of Juda. He foretells
the deprivation of Sobna, and the substitution of Eliacim,
a figure of Christ.
22:1. The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee
also, that thou too art wholly gone up to the housetops?
The valley of vision... Jerusalem. The temple of Jerusalem
was built upon mount Moria, or the mountain of vision. But
the city is here called the valley of vision; either
because it was lower than the temple, or because of the low
condition to which it was to be reduced.
22:2. Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy
slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.
22:3. All the princes are fled together, and are bound
hard: all that were found, are bound together, they are
fled far off.
22:4. Therefore have I said: Depart from me, I will weep
bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of
the daughter of my people.
22:5. For it is a day of slaughter and of treading down,
and of weeping to the Lord the God of hosts in the valley
of vision, searching the wall, and magnificent upon the
mountain.
22:6. And Elam took the quiver, the chariot of the
horseman, and the shield was taken down from the wall.
22:7. And thy choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and
the horsemen shall place themselves in the gate.
22:8. And the covering of Juda shall be discovered, and
thou shalt see in that day the armoury of the house of the
forest.
22:9. And you shall see the breaches of the city of David,
that they are many: and you have gathered together the
waters of the lower pool,
22:10. And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and
broken down houses to fortify the wall.
22:11. And you made a ditch between the two walls for the
water of the old pool: and you have not looked up to the
maker thereof, nor regarded him even at a distance, that
wrought it long ago.
22:12. And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall
call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to
girding with sackcloth:
22:13. And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and
slaying rams, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat
and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
22:14. And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in
my ears: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you
till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts.
22:15. Thus saith the Lord God of hosts: Go, get thee in to
him that dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobna who is over
the temple: and thou shalt say to him:
22:16. What dost thou here, or as if thou wert somebody
here? for thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, thou
hast hewed out a monument carefully in a high place, a
dwelling for thyself in a rock.
22:17. Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away,
as a cock is carried away, and he will lift thee up as a
garment.
22:18. He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation, he
will toss thee like a ball into a large and spacious
country: there shalt thou die, and there shall the chariot
of thy glory be, the shame of the house of thy Lord.
22:19. And I will drive thee out from thy station, and
depose thee from thy ministry.
22:20. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will
call my servant Eliacim the son of Helcias,
22:21. And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will
strengthen him with thy girdle, and will give thy power
into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.
22:22. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon
his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and
he shall shut, and none shall open.
22:23. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and
he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his
father.
22:24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his
father's house, divers kinds of vessels, every little
vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument
of music.
22:25. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg
be removed, that was fastened in the sure place: and it
shall be broken and shall fall: and that which hung
thereon, shall perish, because the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaias Chapter 23
The destruction of Tyre. It shall be repaired again after
seventy years.
23:1. The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of the sea, for
the house is destroyed, from whence they were wont to come:
from the land of Cethim it is revealed to them.
23:2. Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the
merchants of Sidon passing over the sea, have filled thee.
23:3. The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of
the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the
nations.
23:4. Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even
the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour,
nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished up young
men, nor brought up virgins.
23:5. When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry
when they shall hear of Tyre:
23:6. Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the
island.
23:7. Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in
her antiquity? her feet shall carry her afar off to
sojourn.
23:8. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was
formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her
traders the nobles of the earth?
23:9. The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the
pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious
ones of the earth.
23:10. Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea,
thou hast a girdle no more.
23:11. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he troubled
kingdoms: the Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to
destroy the strong ones thereof.
23:12. And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin
daughter of Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over
to Cethim, there also thou shalt have no rest.
23:13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such
a people, the Assyrians founded it: they have led away the
strong ones thereof into captivity, they have destroyed the
houses thereof, they have, brought it to ruin.
23:14. Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is
laid waste.
23:15. And it shall come to pass in that day that thou, O
Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the
days of one king: but after seventy years, there shall be
unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.
23:16. Take a harp, go about the city, harlot that hast
been forgotten: sing well, sing many a song, that thou
mayst be remembered.
23:17. And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that
the Lord will visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to
her traffic: and she shall commit fornication again with
all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
23:18. And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified
to the Lord: they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up:
for her merchandise shall be for them that shall dwell
before the Lord, that they may eat unto fulness, and be
clothed for a continuance.
Sanctified to the Lord... This alludes to the conversion of
the Gentiles.
Isaias Chapter 24
The judgments of God upon all the sinners of the world. A
remnant shall joyfully praise him.
24:1. Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall
strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter
abroad the inhabitants thereof.
24:2. And it shall be as with the people, so with the
priest: and as with the servant so with his master: as with
the handmaid, so with her mistress: as with the buyer, so
with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower:
as with him that calleth for his money, so with him that
oweth.
24:3. With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it
shall be utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this
word.
24:4. The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened:
the world faded away, the height of the people of the earth
is weakened.
24:5. And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof:
because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed
the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.
24:6. Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell
therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left.
24:7. The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished
away, all the merry have sighed.
24:8. The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them
that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent.
24:9. They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink
shall be bitter to them that drink it.
24:10. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is
shut up, no man cometh in.
24:11. There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all
mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away.
24:12. Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall
oppress the gates.
24:13. For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in
the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain,
should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the
vintage is ended.
24:14. These shall lift up their voice, and shall give
praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a
joyful noise from the sea.
24:15. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the
name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
24:16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises,
the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself,
my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have
prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors
they have prevaricated.
24:17. Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O
thou inhabitant of the earth.
24:18. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee
from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he
that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in
the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and
the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.
24:19. With breaking shall the earth be broken, with
crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall
the earth be moved.
24:20. With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken
man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the
iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall,
and not rise again.
24:21. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord
shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the
kings of the earth, on the earth.
The host of heaven on high... The stars, which in many
places of the Scripture are so called. Some commentators
explain that these words here signify the demons of the
air.
24:22. And they shall be gathered together as in the
gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be
shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be
visited.
24:23. And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be
ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion,
and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of
his ancients.
Isaias Chapter 25
A canticle of thanksgiving for God's judgments and
benefits.
25:1. O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt O thee, and
give glory to thy name: for thou hast done wonderful
things, thy designs of old faithful, amen.
25:2. For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong
city to ruin, the house of strangers, to be no city, and to
be no more built up for ever.
25:3. Therefore shall a strong people praise thee, the city
of mighty nations shall fear thee.
25:4. Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a
strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the
whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the blast of the
mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall.
25:5. Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as
heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud,
thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away.
25:6. And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in
this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of
fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees.
25:7. And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the
bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he
began over all nations.
25:8. He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the
Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the
reproach of his people he shall take away from off the
whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
25:9. And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God,
we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the
Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice
and be joyful in his salvation.
25:10. For the hand of the Lord shall rest in this
mountain: and Moab shall be trodden down under him, as
straw is broken in pieces with the wain.
Moab... That is, the reprobate, whose eternal punishment,
from which they can no way escape, is described under these
figures.
25:11. And he shall stretch forth his hands under him, as
he that swimmeth stretcheth forth his hands to swim: and he
shall bring down his glory with the dashing of his hands.
25:12. And the bulwarks of thy high walls shall fall, and be
brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to
the dust.
Isaias Chapter 26
A canticle of thanks for the deliverance of God's people.
26:1. In that day shall this canticle be sung in the land
of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall
and a bulwark shall be set therein.
26:2. Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that
keepeth the truth, enter in.
26:3. The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace:
peace, because we have hoped in thee.
26:4. You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord
God mighty for ever.
26:5. For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the
high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to
the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust.
26:6. The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.
26:7. The way of the just is right, the path of the just is
right to walk in.
26:8. And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have
patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance
are the desire of the soul.
26:9. My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with
my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to
thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the
inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.
26:10. Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not
learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done
wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
26:11. Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see:
let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire
devour thy enemies.
26:12. Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought
all our works for us.
26:13. O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had
dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.
26:14. Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise
again: therefore hast visited and destroyed them, and hast
destroyed all their memory.
26:15. Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord,
thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou
glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far
off.
26:16. Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in
the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.
26:17. As a woman with child, when she draweth near the
time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her
pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.
26:18. We have conceived, and been as it were in labour,
and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation
on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have
not fallen.
26:19. Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again:
awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy
dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants
thou shalt pull down into ruin.
26:20. Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy
doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until
the indignation pass away.
26:21. For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to
visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against
him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall
cover her slain no more.
Shall cover her slain no more... This is said with relation
to the martyrs, and their happy resurrection.
Isaias Chapter 27
The punishment of the oppressors of God's people. The
Lord's favour to his church.
27:1. In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and
strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and
leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale
that is in the sea.
Leviathan... That is, the devil, the great enemy of the
people of God. He is called the bar serpent from his
strength, and the crooked serpent from his wiles; and the
whale of the sea, from the tyranny he exercises in the sea
of this world. He was spiritually slain by the death of
Christ, when his power was destroyed.
27:2. In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of
pure wine.
The vineyard, etc... The church of Christ.
27:3. I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it
drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.
I will suddenly give it drink... Or, as the Hebrew may also
be rendered, I will continually water it.
27:4. There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a
thorn and a brier in battle: shall I march against it,
shall, I set it on fire together?
No indignation in me, etc... Viz., against the church: nor
shall I become as a thorn or brier in its regard; or march
against it, or set it on fire: but it shall always take
fast hold of me, and keep an everlasting peace with me.
27:5. Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it
make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?
27:6. When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall
blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world
with seed.
When they shall rush in, etc... Some understand this of the
enemies of the true Israel, that shall invade it in vain.
Others of the spiritual invasion made by the apostles of
Christ.
27:7. Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him
that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that
were slain by him?
Hath he struck him, etc... Hath God punished the carnal
persecuting Jews, in proportion to their doings against
Christ and his saints?
27:8. In measure against measure, when it shall be cast
off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe
spirit in the day of heat.
When it shall be cast off, etc... When the synagogue shall
be cast off, thou shalt judge it in measure, and in
proportion to its crimes.-Ibid. He hath meditated, etc...
God hath designed severe punishments in the day of his
wrath.
27:9. Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house
of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the
sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made
all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in
pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.
Of the house of Jacob... Viz., of such of them as shall be
converted.
27:10. For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful
city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness:
there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and
shall consume its branches.
The strong city... Jerusalem.
27:11. Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women
shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people,
therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and
he that formed it, shall not spare it.
27:12. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord
will strike from the channel of the river even to the
torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by
one, O ye children of Israel.
27:13. And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise
shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were
lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they
that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall
adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.
A great trumpet... The preaching of the gospel for the
conversion of the Jews.
Isaias Chapter 28
The punishment of the Israelites, for their pride,
intemperance, and contempt of religion. Christ the
cornerstone.
28:1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of
Ephraim, and to the fading flower the glory his joy, who
were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine.
Ephraim... That is, the kingdom of the ten tribes.-Ibid.
The head of the fat valley... Samaria, situate on a hill,
having under it a most fertile valley.
28:2. Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of
hail: a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many
waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land.
28:3. The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall
be trodden under feet.
28:4. And the fading tower the glory of his joy, who is on
the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before
the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall
behold, as soon he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up.
28:5. In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of
glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people:
28:6. And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in
judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle
to the gate.
28:7. But these also have been ignorant through wine, and
through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet
have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed
up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they
have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of
judgment.
These also... The kingdom of Juda.
28:8. For all the tables were full of vomit and filth, so
that there was no more place.
28:9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make
to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the
milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.
28:10. For command, command again; command, command again;
expect, expect again; a little there, a little there.
Command, command again, etc... This is said in the person
of the Jews, resisting the repeated commands of God, and
still putting him off.
28:11. For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue
he will speak to this people.
28:12. To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary,
and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear.
28:13. And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command,
command again; command, command again; expect, expect
again; a little there, a little there: that they may go,
and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
28:14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful
men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem.
28:15. For you have said: We have entered into a league
with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come
upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by
falsehood we are protected.
28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay
a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner
stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that
believeth, let him not hasten.
A stone in the foundations... Viz., Christ.-Ibid. Let him
not hasten, etc... Let him expect his coming with patience.
28:17. And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in
measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and
waters shall overflow its protection.
28:18. And your league with death shall be abolished, and
your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the
overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down
by it.
28:19. Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you
away: because in the morning early it shall pass through,
in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make
you understand what you hear.
28:20. For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall
out, and a short covering cannot cover both.
The bed is straitened, etc... It is too narrow to hold two:
God will have the bed of our heart all to himself.
28:21. For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of
divisions: he shall be angry as in the valley which is in
Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he
may perform his work, his work is strange to him.
As in the mountain, etc... As the Lord fought against the
Philistines in Baal Pharasim, 2 Kings 5., and against the
Chanaanites, in the valley of Gabaon, Jos. 10.
28:22. And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait.
For I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption
and a cutting short upon all the earth.
28:23. Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my
speech.
28:24. Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow, shall
he open and harrow his ground?
28:25. Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface
thereof, sow gith, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in
order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds?
28:26. For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will
teach him.
28:27. For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither
shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall
be beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a staff.
28:28. But breadcorn shall be broken small: but the
thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the
cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.
28:29. This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts,
to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.
This also, etc... Such also is the proceeding of the Lord
with his land, and the divers seeds he throws therein.
Isaias Chapter 29
God's heavy judgments upon Jerusalem, for their obstinacy:
with a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles.
29:1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took:
year is added to year. the solemnities are at an end.
Ariel... This word signifies, the lion of God, and here is
taken for the strong city of Jerusalem.
29:2. And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be
in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel.
29:3. And I will make a circle round about thee, and I will
cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to
besiege thee.
29:4. Thou shalt be brought down, thou shall speak out of
the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground:
and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the
python, and out of the earth thy speech shall mutter.
29:5. And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be
like small dust: and as ashes passing away, the multitude
of them that have prevailed against thee.
29:6. And it shall be at an instant suddenly. A visitation
shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with
earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and
tempest; and with the flame of devouring fire.
29:7. And the multitude of all nations that have fought
against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night,
and all that have fought, and besieged and prevailed
against it.
29:8. And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but
when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is
thirsty dreameth, and drinketh and after he is awake, is
yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be
the multitude of all the Gentiles, that have fought against
mount Sion.
29:9. Be astonished, and wonder, waver, and stagger: be
drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with
drunkenness.
29:10. For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a
deep sleep, he will shut up your eyes, he will cover your
prophets and princes, that see visions.
29:11. And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words
of a book that is sealed which when they shall deliver to
one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he
shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.
29:12. And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no
letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall
answer: I know no letters.
29:13. And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw
near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me,
but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me
with the commandment and doctrines of men:
29:14. Therefore behold I will proceed to cause an
admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful
miracle: for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and
the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
29:15. Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your
counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and
they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?
29:16. This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay
should think against the potter, and the work should say to
the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed
should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest
not.
29:17. Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall
be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a
forest?
Charmel... This word signifies a fruitful field.
29:18. And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the
book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the
blind shall see.
29:19. And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord,
and the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
29:20. For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is
consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for
iniquity:
29:21. That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that
reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the
just.
29:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob,
he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be
confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed:
29:23. But when he shall see his children, the work of my
hands in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they
shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the
God of Israel:
29:24. And they that erred in spirit, shall know
understanding, and they that murmured, shall learn the law.
Isaias Chapter 30
The people are blamed for their confidence in Egypt. God's
mercies towards his church. The punishment of sinners.
30:1. Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that
you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a
web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin:
30:2. Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at
my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharao, and
trusting in the shadow of Egypt.
30:3. And the strength of Pharao shall be to your
confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt to
your shame.
30:4. For thy princes were in Tanis, and thy messengers
came even to Hanes.
30:5. They were all confounded at a people that could not
profit them: they were no help, nor to any profit, but to
confusion and to reproach.
30:6. The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of
trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness, and the
lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, they carry their
riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures
upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not be
able to profit them.
30:7. For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose:
therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only,
sit still.
30:8. Now therefore go in and write for them upon box, and
note it diligently in a book, and it shall be in the latter
days for a testimony for ever.
30:9. For it is a people that provoketh to wrath, and lying
children that will not hear the law of God.
30:10. Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that
behold: Behold not for us those things that are right:
speak unto us pleasant things, see errors for us.
30:11. Take away from me the way, turn away the path from
me, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us.
30:12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because
you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression
and tumult, and have leaned upon it:
30:13. Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach
that falleth, and is found wanting in a high wall, for the
destruction thereof shall come on a sudden, when it is not
looked for.
30:14. And it shall be broken small, as the potter's vessel
is broken all to pieces with mighty breaking, and there
shall not a sherd be found of the pieces thereof, wherein a
little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a little
water be drawn out of the pit.
30:15. For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel:
If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence
and in hope shall your strength be. And you would not:
30:16. But have said: No, but we will flee to horses:
therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift
ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue
after you.
30:17. A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for
fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast
of ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a
hill.
30:18. Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on
you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because
the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that
wait for him.
30:19. For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem:
weeping thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on
thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he
will answer thee.
30:20. And the Lord will give you spare bread, and short
water: and will not cause thy teacher to flee away from
thee any more, and thy eyes shall see thy teacher.
30:21. And thy ears shall hear the word of one admonishing
thee behind thy back: This is the way, walk ye in it: and
go not aside neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
30:22. And thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven
things of silver, and the garment of thy molten things of
gold, and shalt cast them away as the uncleanness of a
menstruous woman. Thou shalt say to it: Get thee hence.
30:23. And rain shall be given to thy seed, wheresoever
thou shalt sow in the land: and the bread of the corn of
the land shall be most plentiful, and fat. The lamb in that
day shall feed at large in thy possession:
30:24. And thy oxen, and the ass colts that till the
ground, shall eat mingled provender as it was winnowed in
the floor.
30:25. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and
upon every elevated hill rivers of running waters in the
day of the slaughter of many, when the tower shall fall.
30:26. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of
the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as
the light of seven days: in the day when the Lord shall
bind up the wound of his people, and shall heal the stroke
of their wound.
30:27. Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, his
wrath burneth, and is heavy to bear: his lips are filled
with indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire.
30:28. His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the
midst of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and
the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.
30:29. You shall have a song as in the night of the
sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as where one goeth
with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the
Mighty One of Israel.
30:30. And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be
heard, and shall shew the terror of his arm, in the
threatening of wrath, and the flame of devouring fire: he
shall crush to pieces with whirlwind, and hailstones.
30:31. For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear
being struck with the rod.
30:32. And the passage of the rod shall be strongly
grounded, which the Lord shall make to rest upon him with
timbrels and harps, and in great battles he shall overthrow
them.
30:33. For Topheth is prepared from yesterday, prepared by
the king, deep, and wide. The nourishment thereof is fire
and much wood: the breath of the Lord as a torrent of
brimstone kindling it.
Topheth... It is the same as Gehenna, and is taken for
hell.
Isaias Chapter 31
The folly of trusting to Egypt, and forgetting God. He will
fight for his people against the Assyrians.
31:1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting
in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots,
because they are many: and in horsemen, because they are
very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of
Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.
31:2. But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and
hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the
house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work
iniquity.
31:3. Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh,
and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and
the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall,
and they shall all be confounded together.
31:4. For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion
roareth, and the lions whelp upon his prey, and when a
multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not
fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so
shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion,
and upon the hill thereof.
31:5. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect
Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and
saving.
31:6. Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of
Israel.
31:7. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of
silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made
for you to sin.
31:8. And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a
man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he
shall flee not at the face of the sword, and his young men
shall be tributaries.
31:9. And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his
princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it,
whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Isaias Chapter 32
The blessings of the reign of Christ. The desolation of the
Jews, and prosperity of the church of Christ.
32:1. Behold a king shall reign in justice, and princes
shall rule in judgment.
32:2. And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind,
and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in
drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a
desert land.
32:3. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the
ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently.
32:4. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge,
and the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily and plain.
32:5. The fool shall no more be called prince: neither
shall the deceitful be called great:
32:6. For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart
will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and speak to the
Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry,
and take away drink from the thirsty.
32:7. The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he
hath framed devices to destroy the meek, with lying words,
when the poor man speaketh judgment.
32:8. But the prince will devise such things as are worthy
of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.
32:9. Rise up, ye rich women, and hear my voice: ye
confident daughters, give ear to my speech.
32:10. For after days and a year, you that are confident
shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the
gathering shall come no more.
32:11. Be astonished, ye rich women, be troubled, ye
confident ones: strip you, and be confounded, gird your
loins.
32:12. Mourn for your breasts, for the delightful country,
for the fruitful vineyard.
32:13. Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers
come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the
city that rejoiced?
32:14. For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city
is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for
ever. A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks.
32:15. Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and
the desert shall be as a charmel, and charmel shall be
counted for a forest.
32:16. An judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and
justice shall sit in charmel.
32:17. And the work of justice shall be peace, and the
service of justice quietness, and security for ever.
32:18. And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and
in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest.
32:19. But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and
the city shall be made very low.
32:20. Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending
thither the foot of the ox and the ass.
Isaias Chapter 33
God's revenge against the enemies of his church. The
happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem.
33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself
also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thyself
also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of
spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied thou
shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised.
That spoilest, etc... This is particularly directed to
Sennacherib.
33:2. O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for
thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in
the time of trouble.
33:3. At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the
lifting up thyself the nations are scattered.
33:4. And your spoils shall be gathered together as the
locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.
33:5. The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he
hath filled Sion with judgment and justice.
33:6. And there shall be faith in thy times: riches of
salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is
his treasure.
33:7. Behold they that see shall cry without, the angels of
peace shall weep bitterly.
The angels of peace... The messengers or deputies sent to
negotiate a peace.
33:8. The ways are made desolate, no one passeth by the
road, the covenant is made void, he hath rejected the
cities, he hath not regarded the men.
33:9. The land hath mourned, and languished: Libanus is
confounded, and become foul, and Saron is become as a
desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken.
33:10. Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be
exalted, now will I lift up myself.
33:11. You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth
stubble: your breath as fire shall devour you.
33:12. And the people shall be as ashes after a fire, as a
bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire.
33:13. Hear, you that are far off, what I have done, and
you that are near know my strength.
33:14. The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath
seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with
devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting
burnings?
33:15. He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth,
that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his
hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear
blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil.
33:16. He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks
shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are
sure.
33:17. His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they
shall see the land far off.
33:18. Thy heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned?
where is he that pondered the words of the law? where is
the teacher of little ones?
33:19. The shameless people thou shalt not see, the people
of profound speech: so that thou canst not understand the
eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom.
33:20. Look upon Sion the city of our solemnity: thy eyes
shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that
cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken
away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be
broken.
33:21. Because only there our Lord is magnificent: a place
of rivers, very broad and spacious streams: no ship with
oars shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass
through it.
Of rivers... He speaks of the rivers of endless joys that
flow from the throne of God to water the heavenly
Jerusalem, where no enemy's ship can come, etc.
33:22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king: he will save us.
33:23. Thy tacklings are loosed, and they shall be of no
strength: thy mast shall be in such condition, that thou
shalt not be able to spread the flag. Then shall the spoils
of much prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil.
Thy tacklings... He speaks of the enemies of the church,
under the allegory of a ship that is disabled.
33:24. Neither shall he that is near, say: I am feeble. The
people that dwell therein, shall have their iniquity taken
away from them.
Isaias Chapter 34
The general judgment of the wicked.
34:1. Come near, ye Gentiles, and hear, and hearken, ye
people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the
world, and every thing that cometh forth of it.
34:2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations,
and his fury upon all their armies: he hath killed them,
and delivered them to slaughter.
34:3. Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their
carcasses shall rise a stink: the mountains shall be melted
with their blood.
34:4. And all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and
the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all
their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the
vine, and from the fig tree.
And all the host of the heavens... That is, the sun, moon,
and stars.
34:5. For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall
come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter
unto judgment.
Idumea... Under the name of Idumea, or Edom a people that
were enemies of the Jews, are here understood the wicked in
general, the enemies of God and his church.
34:6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is
made thick with the blood of lambs and buck goats, with the
blood of rams full of marrow: for there is a victim of the
Lord in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
34:7. And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the
bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with
blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones.
The unicorns... That is, the great and mighty.
34:8. For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the
year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion.
The year of recompenses, etc... When the persecutors of
Sion, that is, of the church, shall receive their reward.
34:9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch,
and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof
shall become burning pitch.
34:10. Night and day it shall not be quenched, the smoke
thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation
it shall lie waste, none shall pass through it for ever and
ever.
34:11. The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the
ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be
stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a
plummet, unto desolation.
34:12. The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall
call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall
be nothing.
34:13. And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses,
and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be
the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.
34:14. And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy
ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia
lain down, and found rest for herself.
34:15. There hath the ericius had its hole, and brought up
its young ones, and hath dug round about, and cherished
them in the shadow thereof: thither are the kites gathered
together one to another.
34:16. Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and
read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought for
the other: for that which proceedeth out of my mouth, he
hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
34:17. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath
divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever,
from generation to generation they shall dwell therein.
Isaias Chapter 35
The joyful flourishing of Christ's kingdom: in his church
shall be a holy and secure way.
35:1. The land that was desolate and impassable shall be
glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish
like the lily.
35:2. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice
with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it:
the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory
of the Lord, and the beauty of our God.
35:3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak
knees.
35:4. Say to the fainthearted: Take courage, and fear not:
behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God
himself will come and will save you.
35:5. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
35:6. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the
tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out
in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.
35:7. And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and
the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where
dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed
and the bulrush.
35:8. And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be
called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it,
and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools
shall not err therein.
35:9. No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous
beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk
there that shall be delivered.
35:10. And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall
come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be
upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
Isaias Chapter 36
Sennacherib invades Juda: his blasphemies.
36:1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king
Ezechias, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up
against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them.
36:2. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from
Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias with a great army,
and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of
the fuller's field.
36:3. And there went out to him Eliacim the son of Helcias,
who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the
son of Asaph the recorder.
36:4. And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith
the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this
confidence wherein thou trustest?
36:5. Or with what counsel or strength dost thou prepare
for war? on whom dost thou trust, that thou art revolted
from me?
36:6. Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed,
upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his
hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king of Egypt to all that
trust in him.
36:7. But if thou wilt answer me: We trust in the Lord our
God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias
hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and Jerusalem: You
shall worship before this altar?
36:8. And now deliver thyself up to my lord the king of the
Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and
thou wilt not be able on thy part to find riders for them.
36:9. And how wilt thou stand against the face of the judge
of one place, of the least of my master's servants? But if
thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen:
36:10. And am I now come up without the Lord against this
land to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up against this
land, and destroy it.
36:11. And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe said to Rabsaces:
Speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue: for we
understand it: speak not to us in the Jews' language in the
hearing of the people, that are upon the wall.
36:12. And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to
thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not
rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat
their own dung, and drink their urine with you?
36:13. Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice
in the Jews' language, and said: Hear the words of the
great king, the king of the Assyrians.
36:14. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you,
for he shall not be able to deliver you.
36:15. And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord,
saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city
shall not be given into the hands of the king of the
Assyrians.
36:16. Do not hearken to Ezechias: for thus said the king
of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your
advantage, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his
vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one
the water of his cistern,
36:17. Till I come and take you away to a land, like to
your own, a land of corn and of wine, a land of bread and
vineyards.
36:18. Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord
will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations
delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the
Assyrians?
36:19. Where is the god of Emath and of Arphad? where is
the god of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of
my hand?
36:20. Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that
hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord
may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
36:21. And they held their peace, and answered him not a
word. For the king had commanded, saying: Answer him not.
36:22. And Eliacim the son of Helcias, that was over the
house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the
recorder, went in to Ezechias with their garments rent, and
told him the words of Rabsaces.
Isaias Chapter 37
Ezechias, his mourning and prayer. God's promise of
protection. The Assyrian army is destroyed. Sennacherib is
slain.
37:1. And it came to pass, when king Ezechias had heard it,
that he rent his garments and covered himself with
sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
37:2. And he sent Eliacim who was over the house, and Sobna
the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with
sackcloth, to Isaias the son of Amos the prophet.
37:3. And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day
is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy:
for the children are come to the birth, and there is not
strength to bring forth.
37:4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of
Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath
sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with
words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up
by prayer for the remnant that is left.
37:5. And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaias.
37:6. And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your
master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words
that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king
of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
37:7. Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall
hear a message, and shall return to his own country, and I
will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.
37:8. And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the
Assyrians besieging Lobna. For he had heard that he was
departed from Lachis.
37:9. And he heard say about Tharaca the king of Ethiopia:
He is come forth to fight against thee. And when he heard
it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:
37:10. Thus shall you speak to Ezechias the king of Juda,
saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou
trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the
hands of the king of the Assyrians.
37:11. Behold thou hast heard all that the kings of the
Assyrians have done to all countries which they have
destroyed, and canst thou be delivered?
37:12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my
fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and
the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar?
37:13. Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad,
and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava?
37:14. And Ezechias took the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the
Lord, and Ezechias spread it before the Lord.
37:15. And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying:
37:16. Lord of hosts, God of Israel who sitteth upon the
cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of
the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth.
37:17. Incline, O Lord, thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord,
thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib,
which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God.
37:18. For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians
have laid waste lands, and their countries.
37:19. And they have cast their gods into the fire, for
they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood
and stone: and they broke them in pieces.
37:20. And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand:
and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only
art the Lord.
37:21. And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying:
Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: For the prayer thou
hast made to me concerning Sennacherib the king of the
Assyrians:
37:22. This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him:
The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and
laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath
wagged the head after thee.
37:23. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou
blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,
and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of
Israel.
37:24. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the
Lord: and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I
have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of
Libanus: and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its
choice fir trees, and will enter to the top of its height,
to the forest of its Carmel.
Carmel... See these figurative expressions explained in the
annotations on the nineteenth chapter of the fourth book of
Kings.
37:25. I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up
with the sole of my foot, all the rivers shut up in banks.
37:26. Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old?
from the days of old I have formed it: and now I have
brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills
fighting together, and fenced cities should be destroyed.
37:27. The inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they
trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass
of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the
grass of the housetops, which withered before it was ripe.
37:28. I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy
coming in, and thy rage against me.
37:29. When thou wast mad against me, thy pride came up to
my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit
between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by
which thou camest.
37:30. But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the
things that spring of themselves, and in the second year
eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and plant
vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
37:31. And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda,
and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear
fruit upward:
37:32. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and
salvation from mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this.
37:33. Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of
the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot
an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast
a trench about it.
37:34. By the way that he came, he shall return, and into
this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.
37:35. And I will protect this city, and will save it for
my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.
37:36. And the angel of the Lord went out and slew in the
camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand.
And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all
dead corpses.
37:37. And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out
and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive.
37:38. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the
temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his
sons slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land
of Ararat, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
Isaias Chapter 38
Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by
prayer a prolongation of his life: in confirmation of which
the sun goes back. The canticle of Ezechias.
38:1. In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and
Isaias the son of Amos the prophet cane unto him, and said
to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for
thou shalt die, and not live.
38:2. And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and
prayed to the Lord,
38:3. And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have
walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and
have done that which is good in thy sight. And Ezechias
wept with great weeping.
38:4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:
38:5. Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God
of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have
seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen
years:
38:6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand
of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
38:7. And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that
the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:
38:8. Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by
which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the
sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by
the degrees by which it was gone down.
38:9. The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had
been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
38:10. I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the
gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.
Hell... Sheol, or Hades, the region of the dead.
38:11. I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of
the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant
of rest.
38:12. My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away
from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a
weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: from
morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
38:13. I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken
all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an
end of me.
38:14. I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like
a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer
violence, answer thou for me.
38:15. What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me,
whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all
my years in the bitterness of my soul.
38:16. O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my
spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me,
and make me to live.
38:17. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but
thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou
hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
38:18. For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall
death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the
pit, look for thy truth.
38:19. The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee,
as I do this day: the father shall make the truth known to
the children.
38:20. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the
days of our life in the house of the Lord.
38:21. Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump
of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that
he should be healed.
38:22. And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I
shall go up to the house of the Lord?
Isaias Chapter 39
Ezechias shews all his treasures to the ambassadors of
Babylon: upon which Isaias foretells the Babylonish
captivity.
39:1. At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan
king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for
he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered.
39:2. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed
them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the
silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of
the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his
furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures.
There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion
that Ezechias shewed them not.
39:3. Then Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and
said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they
to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to
me, from Babylon.
39:4. And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias
said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there
was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my
treasures.
39:5. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the
Lord of hosts.
39:6. Behold the days shall come that all that is in thy
house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until
this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall
not any thing be left, saith the Lord.
39:7. And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom
thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be
eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
39:8. And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord,
which he hath spoken, is good. And he said: Only let peace
and truth be in my days.
Isaias Chapter 40
The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the
coming of Christ to forgive their sins. God's almighty
power and majesty.
40:1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your
God.
40:2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her:
for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven:
she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all
her sins.
40:3. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths
of our God.
40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and
hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become
straight, and the rough ways plain.
40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken.
40:6. The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall
I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as
the flower of the field.
40:7. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen,
because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed
the people is grass:
40:8. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but
the word of our Lord endureth for ever.
40:9. Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest
good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou
that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear
not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:
40:10. Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and
his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his
work is before him.
40:11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall
gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them
up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are
with young.
40:12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his
hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath
poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and
weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a
balance?
40:13. Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who
hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him?
40:14. With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed
him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him
knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?
40:15. Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and
are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the
islands are as a little dust.
40:16. And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the
beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
40:17. All nations are before him as if they had no being
at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.
40:18. To whom then have you likened God? or what image
will you make for him?
40:19. Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the
goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with
plates of silver?
40:20. He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot:
the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that
may not be moved.
40:21. Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not
been told you from the beginning? have you not understood
the foundations of the earth?
40:22. It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth,
and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that
stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them
out as a tent to dwell in.
40:23. He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to
nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.
40:24. And surely their stock was neither planted, nor
sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon
them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take
them away as stubble.
40:25. And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal,
saith the Holy One?
40:26. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created
these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and
calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his
might, and strength, and power, not one of them was
missing.
40:27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My
way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over
from my God?
40:28. Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord
is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the
earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any
searching out of his wisdom.
40:29. It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and
increaseth force and might to them that are not.
40:30. You shall faint, and labour, and young men shall
fall by infirmity.
40:31. But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their
strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run
and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaias Chapter 41
The reign of the just one: the vanity of idols.
41:1. Let the islands keep silence before me, and the
nations take new strength: let them come near, and then
speak, let us come near to judgment together.
41:2. Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath
called him to follow him? he shall give the nations in his
sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as
the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind, to
his bow.
41:3. He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, no path
shall appear after his feet.
41:4. Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the
generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first
and the last.
41:5. The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth
were astonished, they drew near, and came.
41:6. Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall say to
his brother: Be of good courage.
41:7. The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged
him that forged at that time, saying: It is ready for
soldering: and he strengthened it with nails, that it
should not be moved.
41:8. But thou Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have
chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend:
41:9. In whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth,
and from the remote parts thereof have called thee, and
said to thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and
have not cast thee away.
41:10. Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I
am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee,
and the right hand of my just one hath upheld thee.
41:11. Behold all that fight against thee shall be
confounded and ashamed, they shall be as nothing, and the
men shall perish that strive against thee.
41:12. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men
that resist thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing
consumed the men that war against thee.
41:13. For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the
hand, and say to thee: Fear not, I have helped thee.
41:14. Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of
Israel: I have helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy
Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.
41:15. I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth
like a saw: thou shalt thrash the mountains, and break them
in pieces: and shalt make the hills as chaff.
41:16. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them
away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt
rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt
be joyful.
41:17. The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there
are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the
Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake
them.
41:18. I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains
in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into
pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of
waters.
41:19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the
thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in
the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree
together:
The thorn... In Hebrew, the shitta, or setim, a tree
resembling the white thorn.
41:20. That they may see and know, and consider, and
understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done
this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
41:21. Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither,
if you have any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob.
41:22. Let them come, and tell us all things that are to
come: tell us the former things what they were: and we will
set our heart upon them and shall know the latter end of
them, and tell us the things that are to come.
41:23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we
shall know that ye are gods. Do ye also good or evil, if
you can: and let us speak, and see together.
41:24. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that
which hath no being: he that hath chosen you is an
abomination.
41:25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall
come from the rising of the sun: he shall call upon my
name, and he shall make princes to be as dirt, and as the
potter treading clay.
41:26. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may
know: and from time of old, that we may say: Thou art just.
There is none that sheweth, nor that foretelleth, nor that
heareth your words.
41:27. The first shall say to Sion: Behold they are here,
and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist.
41:28. And I saw, and there was no one even among them to
consult, or who, when I asked, could answer a word.
41:29. Behold they are all in the wrong, and their works
are vain: their idols are wind and vanity.
Isaias Chapter 42
The office of Christ. The preaching of the gospel to the
Gentiles. The blindness and reprobation of the Jews.
42:1. Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my
soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
My servant... Christ, who according to his humanity, is the
servant of God.
42:2. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither
shall his voice be heard abroad.
42:3. The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax
he shall not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto
truth.
42:4. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set
judgment in the earth, and the islands shall wait for his
law.
42:5. Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and
stretched them out: that established the earth, and the
things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the
people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon.
42:6. I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee
by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a
covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles:
42:7. That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and
bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit
in darkness out of the prison house.
42:8. I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory
to another, nor my praise to graven things.
42:9. The things that were first, behold they are come: and
new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I will
make you hear them.
42:10. Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from
the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all
that are therein: ye islands, and ye inhabitants of them.
42:11. Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted:
Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give
praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains.
Petra... A city that gives name to Arabia Petraea.
42:12. They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare
his praise in the islands.
42:13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of
war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall
prevail against his enemies.
42:14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I
have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I
will destroy, and swallow up at once.
42:15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will
make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into
islands, and will dry up the standing pools.
42:16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they
know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I
will make them walk: I will make darkness light before
them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done
to them, and have not forsaken them.
42:17. They are turned back: let them be greatly
confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a
molten thing: You are our god.
42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may
see.
42:19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to
whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that
is sold? or who is blind, but the servant of the Lord?
42:20. Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe
them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?
42:21. And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to
magnify the law, and exalt it.
42:22. But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they
are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the
houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none
to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith:
Restore.
42:23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this,
that will attend and hearken for times to come?
42:24. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to
robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have
sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they have
not hearkened to his law.
42:25. And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of
his fury, and a strong battle, and hath burnt him round
about, and he knew not: and set him on fire, and he
understood not.
Isaias Chapter 43
God comforts his church, promising to protect her for ever:
he expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude.
43:1. And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O
Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have
redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine.
43:2. When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be
with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou
shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the
flames shall not burn in thee:
43:3. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia
and Saba for thee.
43:4. Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art
glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee,
and people for thy life.
43:5. Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed
from the east, and gather thee from the west.
43:6. I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south:
Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters
from the ends of the earth.
43:7. And every one that calleth upon my name, I have
created him for my glory. I have formed him, and made him.
43:8. Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes:
that are deaf, and have ears.
43:9. All the nations are assembled together, and the
tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and
shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth
their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say:
It is truth.
43:10. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant
whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me, and
understand that I myself am. Before me there was no God
formed, and after me there shall be none.
43:11. I am, I am the Lord: and there is no saviour besides
me.
43:12. I have declared, and have saved. I have made it
heard, and there was no strange one among you. You are my
witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God.
43:13. And from the beginning I am the same, and there is
none that can deliver out of my hind: I will work, and who
shall turn it away?
43:14. Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought
down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their
ships.
43:15. I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel,
your King.
43:16. Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and
a path in the mighty waters.
43:17. Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the
army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and
they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are
extinct.
43:18. Remember not former things, and look not on things
of old.
43:19. Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring
forth, verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
43:20. The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons
and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the
wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my
people, to my chosen.
43:21. This people have I formed for myself, they shall
shew forth my praise.
43:22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither
hast thou laboured about me, O Israel.
43:23. Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust,
nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not
caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with
incense.
43:24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money,
neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims.
But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast
wearied me with thy iniquities.
43:25. I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my
own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
43:26. Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together:
tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.
43:27. Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have
transgressed against me.
43:28. And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given
Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach.
Isaias Chapter 44
God's favour to his church. The folly of idolatry. The
people shall be delivered from captivity.
44:1. And now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I
have chosen.
44:2. Thus saith the Lord that made and formed thee, thy
helper from the womb: Fear not, O my servant Jacob, and
thou most righteous whom I have chosen.
44:3. For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground,
and streams upon the dry land: I will pour out my spirit
upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy stock.
44:4. And they shall spring up among the herbs, as willows
beside the running waters.
44:5. One shall say: I am the Lord's, and another shall
call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall
subscribe with his hand, To the Lord, and surname himself
by the name of Israel.
44:6. Thus saith the Lord the king of Israel, and his
redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the
last, and besides me there is no God.
44:7. Who is like to me? let him call and declare: and let
him set before me the order, since I appointed the ancient
people: and the things to come, and that shall be
hereafter, let them shew unto them.
44:8. Fear ye not, neither be ye troubled from that time I
have made thee to hear, and have declared: you are my
witnesses. Is there a God besides me, a maker, whom I have
not known?
44:9. The makers of idols are all of them nothing, and
their best beloved things shall not profit them. They are
their witnesses, that they do not see, nor understand, that
they may be ashamed.
44:10. Who hath formed a god, and made a graven thing that
is profitable for nothing?
44:11. Behold, all the partakers thereof shall be
confounded: for the makers are men: they shall all assemble
together, they shall stand and fear, and shall be
confounded together.
44:12. The smith hath wrought with his file, with coals,
and with hammers he hath formed it, and hath wrought with
the strength of his arm: he shall hunger and faint, he
shall drink no water, and shall be weary.
44:13. The carpenter hath stretched out his rule, he hath
formed it with a plane: he hath made it with corners, and
hath fashioned it round with the compass: and he hath made
the image of a man as it were a beautiful man dwelling in a
house.
44:14. He hath cut down cedars, taken the holm, and the oak
that stood among the trees of the forest: he hath planted
the pine tree, which the rain hath nourished.
44:15. And it hath served men for fuel: he took thereof,
and warmed himself: and he kindled it, and baked bread: but
of the rest he made a god, and adored it: he made a graven
thing, and bowed down before it.
44:16. Part of it he burnt with fire, and with part of it he
dressed his meat: he boiled pottage, and was filled, and was
warmed, and said: Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.
44:17. But the residue thereof he made a god, and a graven
thing for himself: he boweth down before it, and adoreth
it, and prayeth unto it, saying: Deliver me, for thou art
my God.
44:18. They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes
are covered that they may not see, and that they may not
understand with their heart.
44:19. They do not consider in their mind, nor know, nor
have the thought to say: I have burnt part of it in the
fire, and I have baked bread upon the coals thereof: I have
broiled flesh and have eaten, and of the residue thereof
shall I make an idol? shall I fall down before the stock of
a tree?
44:20. Part thereof is ashes: his foolish heart adoreth it,
and he will not save his soul, nor say: Perhaps there is a
lie in my right hand.
44:21. Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for thou
art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O
Israel, forget me not.
44:22. I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy
sins as a mist: return to me, for I have redeemed thee.
44:23. Give praise, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath shewn
mercy: shout with joy, ye ends of the earth: ye mountains,
resound with praise, thou, O forest, and every tree
therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall
be glorified.
44:24. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, and thy maker,
from the womb: I am the Lord, that make all things, that
alone stretch out the heavens, that established the earth,
and there is none with me.
44:25. That make void the tokens of diviners, and make the
soothsayers mad. That turn the wise backward, and that make
their knowledge foolish.
44:26. That raise up the word of my servant and perform the
counsel of my messengers, who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt
be inhabited: and to the cities of Juda: You shall be
built, and I will raise up the wastes thereof.
44:27. Who say to the deep: Be thou desolate, and I will
dry up thy rivers.
44:28. Who say to Cyrus: Thou art my shepherd, and thou
shalt perform all my pleasure. Who say to Jerusalem: Thou
shalt be built: and to the temple: Thy foundations shall be
laid.
Isaias Chapter 45
A prophecy of Cyrus, as a figure of Christ, the great
deliverer of God's people.
45:1. Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right
hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his
face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors
before him, and the gates shall not be shut.
45:2. I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones
of the earth: I will break in pieces the gates of brass,
and will burst the bars of iron.
45:3. And I will give thee hidden treasures, and the
concealed riches of secret places: that thou mayest know
that I am the Lord who call thee by thy name, the God of
Israel.
45:4. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my
elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have made a
likeness of thee, and thou hast not known me.
45:5. I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no
God besides me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me:
45:6. That they may know who are from the rising of the
sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none
besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else:
45:7. I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace,
and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.
Create evil, etc... The evils of afflictions and
punishments, but not the evil of sin.
45:8. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the
clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud
forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: I the
Lord have created him.
45:9. Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the
earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it:
What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?
45:10. Woe to him that saith to his father: Why begettest
thou? and to the woman: Why dost thou bring forth?
45:11. Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel, his
maker: Ask me of things to come, concerning my children,
and concerning the work of my hands give ye charge to me.
45:12. I made the earth: and I created man upon it: my hand
stretched forth the heavens, and I have commanded all their
host.
45:13. I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct
all his ways: he shall build my city, and let go my
captives, not for ransom, nor for presents, saith the Lord
the God of hosts.
45:14. Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the
merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature
shall come over to thee, and shall be thine: they shall
walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and
they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to
thee: only in thee is God, and there is no God besides
thee.
45:15. Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the
saviour.
45:16. They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of
errors are gone together into confusion.
45:17. Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal
salvation: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not
be ashamed for ever and ever.
45:18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens,
God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very
maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it
to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
45:19. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the
earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in
vain. I am the Lord that speak justice, that declare right
things.
45:20. Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near
together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles: they have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and
pray to a god that cannot save.
45:21. Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath
declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this
from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God
else besides me? A just God and a saviour, there is none
besides me.
45:22. Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.
45:23. I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go
out of my mouth, and shall not return:
45:24. For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every
tongue shall swear.
45:25. Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices
and empire: they shall come to him, and all that resist him
shall be confounded.
45:26. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be
justified and praised.
Isaias Chapter 46
The idols of Babylon shall be destroyed. Salvation is
promised through Christ.
46:1. Bel is broken, Nebo is destroyed: their idols are put
upon beasts and cattle, your burdens of heavy weight even
unto weariness.
46:2. They are consumed, and are broken together: they
could not save him that carried them, and they themselves
shall go into captivity.
46:3. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of
the house of Israel who are carried by my bowels, are borne
up by my womb.
46:4. Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey
hairs I will carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I
will carry and will save.
46:5. To whom have you likened me, and made me equal, and
compared me, and made me like?
46:6. You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh out
silver in the scales: and hire a goldsmith to make a god:
and they fall down and worship.
46:7. They bear him on their shoulders and carry him, and
set him in his place, and he shall stand, and shall not
stir out of his place. Yea, when they shall cry also unto
him, he shall not hear: he shall not save them from
tribulation.
46:8. Remember this, and be ashamed: return, ye
transgressors, to the heart.
46:9. Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is
no God beside, neither is there the like to me:
46:10. Who shew from the beginning the things that shall be
at last, and from ancient times the things that as yet are
not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and all my will
shall be done:
46:11. Who call a bird from the east, and from a far
country the man of my own will, and I have spoken, and will
bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it. Hear
me, O ye hardhearted, who are far from justice.
46:12. I have brought my justice near, it shall not be afar
off: and my salvation shall not tarry. I will give salvation
in Sion, and my glory in Israel.
Isaias Chapter 47
God s judgment upon Babylon.
47:1. Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the
daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called
delicate and tender.
47:2. Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame,
strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the
rivers.
47:3. Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame
shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall
resist me.
47:4. Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy
One of Israel.
47:5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O
daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called
the lady of kingdoms.
47:6. I was angry with my people, I have polluted my
inheritance, and have given them into thy hand: thou hast
shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy
yoke exceeding heavy.
47:7. And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou
hast not laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou
remembered thy latter end.
47:8. And now hear these things, thou that art delicate,
and dwellest confidently, that sayest in thy heart: I am,
and there is none else besides me: I shall not sit as a
widow, and I shall not know barrenness.
47:9. These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one
day, barrenness and widowhood. All things are come upon
thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries, and for
the great hardness of thy enchanters.
47:10. And thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and hast
said: There is none that seeth me. Thy wisdom, and, thy
knowledge, this hath deceived thee. And thou hast said in
thy heart: I am, and besides me there is no other.
47:11. Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know
the rising thereof: and calamity shall fall violently upon
thee, which thou canst not keep off: misery shall come upon
thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
47:12. Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the
multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured
from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or
if thou mayst become stronger.
47:13. Thou hast failed in the multitude of thy counsels:
let now the astrologers stand and save thee, they that
gazed at the stars, and counted the months, that from them
they might tell the things that shall come to thee.
47:14. Behold they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them,
they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the
flames: there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed,
nor fire, that they may sit thereat.
47:15. Such are all the things become to thee, in which
thou hast laboured: thy merchants from thy youth, every one
hath erred in his own way, there is none that can save
thee.
Isaias Chapter 48
He reproaches the Jews for their obstinacy: he will deliver
them out of their captivity, for his own name's sake.
48:1. Hear ye these things, O house of Jacob, you that are
called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the
waters of Juda, you who swear by the name of the Lord, and
make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in
justice.
48:2. For they are called of the holy city, and are
established upon the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is
his name.
48:3. The former things of old, I have declared, and they
went forth out of my mouth, and I have made them to be
heard: I did them suddenly and they came to pass.
48:4. For I knew that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is as
an iron sinew, and thy forehead as brass.
48:5. I foretold thee of old, before they came to pass I
told thee, lest thou shouldst say: My idols have done these
things, and my graven and molten things have commanded them.
48:6. See now all the things which thou hast heard: but
have you declared them? I have shewn thee new things from
that time, and things are kept which thou knowest not:
48:7. They are created now, and not of old: and before the
day, when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say:
Behold I knew them.
48:8. Thou hast neither heard, nor known, neither was thy
ear opened of old. For I know that transgressing thou wilt
transgress, and I have called thee a transgressor from the
womb.
48:9. For my name's sake I will remove my wrath far off:
and for my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst
perish.
48:10. Behold I have refined thee, but not as silver, I
have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty.
48:11. For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it, that
I may not be blasphemed: and I will not give my glory to
another.
48:12. Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel whom I call:
I am he, I am the first, and I am the last.
48:13. My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right
hand hath measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they
shall stand together.
48:14. Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who
among them hath declared these things? the Lord hath loved
him, he will do his pleasure in Babylon, and his arm shall
be on the Chaldeans.
48:15. I, even I have spoken and called him: I have brought
him, and his way is made prosperous.
48:16. Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not
spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before
it was done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent
me, and his spirit.
48:17. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable
things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest.
48:18. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments: thy
peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of
the sea,
48:19. And thy seed had been as the sand, and the offspring
of thy bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not
have perished, nor have been destroyed from before my face.
48:20. Come forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the
Chaldeans, declare it with the voice of joy: make this to
be heard, and speak it out even to the ends of the earth.
Say: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
48:21. They thirsted not in the desert, when he led them
out: he brought forth water out of the rock for them, and
he clove the rock, and the waters gushed out.
48:22. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.
Isaias Chapter 49
Christ shall bring the Gentiles to salvation. God's love to
his church is perpetual.
49:1. Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people from
afar. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the
bowels of my mother he hath been mindful of my name.
49:2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the
shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me
as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me.
49:3. And he said to me: Thou art my servant Israel, for in
thee will I glory.
49:4. And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my
strength without cause and in vain: therefore my judgment is
with the Lord, and my work with my God.
49:5. And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb
to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him,
and Israel will not be gathered together: and I am
glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my
strength.
49:6. And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst
be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to
convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to
be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my
salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.
49:7. Thus saith the Lord the redeemer of Israel, his Holy
One, to the soul that is despised, to the nation that is
abhorred, to the servant of rulers: Kings shall see, and
princes shall rise up, and adore for the Lord's sake,
because he is faithful, and for the Holy One of Israel, who
hath chosen thee.
49:8. Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have
heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee:
and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant
of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and
possess the inheritances that were destroyed:
49:9. That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come
forth: and to them that are in darkness: Shew yourselves.
They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in
every plain.
49:10. They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the
heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to
them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of
waters he shall give them drink.
49:11. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths
shall be exalted.
49:12. Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these
from the north and from the sea, and these from the south
country.
49:13. Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye
mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord
hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor
ones.
49:14. And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the
Lord hath forgotten me.
49:15. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have
pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet
will not I forget thee.
49:16. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls
are always before my eyes.
49:17. Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and
make thee waste shall go out of thee.
49:18. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are
gathered together, they are come to thee: I live, saith the
Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an
ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee.
49:19. For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the
land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason
of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall
be chased far away.
49:20. The children of thy barrenness shall still say in
thy ears: The place is too strait for me, make me room to
dwell in.
49:21. And thou shalt say in thy heart: Who hath begotten
these? I was barren and brought not forth, led away, and
captive: and who hath brought up these? I was destitute and
alone: and these, where were they?
49:22. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lift up my
hand to the Gentiles, and will set up my standard to the
people. And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and
carry thy daughters upon their shoulders.
49:23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens
thy nurses: they shall worship thee with their face toward
the earth, and they shall lick up the dust of thy feet. And
thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be
confounded that wait for him.
49:24. Shall the prey be taken from the strong? or can that
which was taken by the mighty, be delivered?
49:25. For thus saith the Lord: Yea verily, even the
captivity shall be taken away from the strong: and that
which was taken by the mighty, shall be delivered. But I
will judge those that have judged thee, and thy children I
will save.
49:26. And I will feed thy enemies with their own flesh:
and they shall be made drunk with their own blood, as with
new wine: and all flesh shall know, that I am the Lord that
save thee, and thy Redeemer the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaias Chapter 50
The synagogue shall be divorced for her iniquities. Christ
for her sake will endure ignominious afflictions.
50:1. Thus saith the Lord: What is this bill of the divorce
of your mother, with which I have put her away? or who is my
creditor, to whom I sold you: behold you are sold for your
iniquities, and for your wicked deeds have I put your
mother away.
50:2. Because I came, and there was not a man: I called,
and there was none that would hear. Is my hand shortened
and become little, that I cannot redeem? or is there no
strength in me to deliver? Behold at my rebuke I will make
the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry land: the
fishes shall rot for want of water, and shall die for
thirst.
50:3. I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will
make sackcloth their covering.
50:4. The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I
should know how to uphold by word him that is weary: he
wakeneth in the morning, in the morning he wakeneth my ear,
that I may hear him as a master.
50:5. The Lord God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist:
I have not gone back.
50:6. I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks
to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face
from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.
50:7. The Lord God is my helper, therefore am I not
confounded: therefore have I set my face as a most hard
rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded.
50:8. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with
me? let us stand together, who is my adversary? let him
come near to me.
50:9. Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he that
shall condemn me? Lo, they shall all be destroyed as a
garment, the moth shall eat them up.
50:10. Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that
heareth the voice of his servant, that hath walked in
darkness, and hath no light? let him hope in the name of
the Lord, and lean upon his God.
50:11. Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with
flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames
which you have kindled: this is done to you by my hand, you
shall sleep in sorrows.
Isaias Chapter 51
An exhortation to trust in Christ. He shall protect the
children of his church.
51:1. Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just,
and you that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you
are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you are dug
out.
51:2. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sara that bore
you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and
multiplied him.
51:3. The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will
comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert
as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of
the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of praise.
51:4. Hearken unto me, O my people, and give ear to me, O
my tribes: for a law shall go forth from me, and my
judgment shall rest to be a light of the nations.
51:5. My just one is near at hand, my saviour is gone
forth, and my arms shall judge the people: the islands
shall look for me, and shall patiently wait for my arm.
51:6. Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the
earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and
the earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the
inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner: but my
salvation shall be for ever, and my justice shall not fail.
51:7. Hearken to me, you that know what is just, my people
who have my law in your heart: fear ye not the reproach of
men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies.
51:8. For the worm shall eat them up as a garment: and the
moth shall consume them as wool: but my salvation shall be
for ever, and my justice from generation to generation.
51:9. Arise, arise, put on strength, O thou arm of the
Lord, arise as in the days of old, in the ancient
generations. Hast not thou struck the proud one, and
wounded the dragon?
51:10. Hast not thou dried up the sea, the water of the
mighty deep, who madest the depth of the sea a way, that
the delivered might pass over?
51:11. And now they that are redeemed by the Lord, shall
return, and shall come into Sion singing praises, and joy
everlasting shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain
joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
51:12. I myself will comfort you: who art thou, that thou
shouldst be afraid of a mortal man, and of the son of man,
who shall wither away like grass?
51:13. And thou hast forgotten the Lord thy maker, who
stretched out the heavens, and founded the earth: and thou
hast been afraid continually all the day at the presence of
his fury who afflicted thee, and had prepared himself to
destroy thee: where is now the fury of the oppressor?
51:14. He shall quickly come that is going to open unto
you, and he shall not kill unto utter destruction, neither
shall his bread fail.
51:15. But I am the Lord thy God, who trouble the sea, and
the waves thereof swell: the Lord of hosts is my name.
51:16. I have put my words in thy mouth, and have protected
thee in the shadow of my hand, that thou mightest plant the
heavens, and found the earth: and mightest say to Sion:
Thou art my people.
51:17. Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast
drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; thou
hast drunk even to the bottom of the cup of dead sleep, and
thou hast drunk even to the dregs.
51:18. There is none that can uphold her among all the
children that she hath brought forth: and there is none
that taketh her by the hand among all the children that she
hath brought up.
51:19. There are two things that have happened to thee: who
shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and
the famine, and the sword, who shall comfort thee?
51:20. Thy children are cast forth, they have slept at the
head of all the ways, and the wild ox that is snared: full
of the indignation of the Lord, of the rebuke of thy God.
51:21. Therefore hear this, thou poor little one, and thou
that art drunk but not with wine.
51:22. Thus saith thy Sovereign the Lord, and thy God, who
will fight for his people: Behold I have taken out of thy
hand the cup of dead sleep, the dregs of the cup of my
indignation, thou shalt not drink it again any more.
51:23. And I will put it in the hand of them that have
oppressed thee, and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that
we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground,
and as a way to them that went over.
Isaias Chapter 52
Under the figure of the deliverance from the Babylonish
captivity, the church is invited to rejoice for her
redemption from sin. Christ's kingdom shall be exalted.
52:1. Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the
garments of thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy
One: for henceforth the uncircumcised, and unclean shall no
more pass through thee.
52:2. Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O
Jerusalem: loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive
daughter of Sion.
52:3. For thus saith the Lord: You were sold gratis, and
you shall be redeemed, without money.
52:4. For thus saith the Lord God: My people went down into
Egypt at the beginning to sojourn there: and the Assyrian
hath oppressed them without any cause at all.
52:5. And now what have I here, saith the Lord: for my
people is taken away gratis. They that rule over them treat
them unjustly, saith the Lord, and my name is continually
blasphemed all the day long.
52:6. Therefore my people shall know my name in that day:
for I myself that spoke, behold I am here.
52:7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of
him that sheweth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that
saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign!
52:8. The voice of thy watchmen: they have lifted up their
voice, they shall praise together: for they shall see eye
to eye when the Lord shall convert Sion.
52:9. Rejoice, and give praise together, O ye deserts of
Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people: he hath
redeemed Jerusalem.
52:10. The Lord hath prepared his holy arm in the sight of
all the Gentiles: and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
52:11. Depart, depart, go ye out from thence, touch no
unclean thing: go out of the midst of her, be ye clean, you
that carry the vessels of the Lord.
52:12. For you shall not go out in a tumult, neither shall
you make haste by flight: for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will gather you together.
52:13. Behold my servant shall understand, he shall be
exalted, and extolled, and shall be exceeding high.
52:14. As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his
visage be inglorious among men, and his form among the sons
of men.
52:15. He shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut
their mouth at him: for they to whom it was not told of
him, have seen: and they that heard not, have beheld.
Isaias Chapter 53
A prophecy of the passion of Christ.
53:1. Who a hath believed our report? and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed?
53:2. And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him,
and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty
in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was
no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
53:3. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as
it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.
53:4. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our
sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as
one struck by God and afflicted.
53:5. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised
for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and by his bruises we are healed.
53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath
turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all.
53:7. He was offered because it was his own will, and he
opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer,
and he shall not open his mouth.
53:8. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment:
who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out
of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people
have I struck him.
53:9. And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the
rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity,
neither was there deceit in his mouth.
53:10. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity:
if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a
longlived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be
prosperous in his hand.
53:11. Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be
filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify
many, and he shall bear their iniquities.
53:12. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he
shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath
delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the
wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed
for the transgressors.
Isaias Chapter 54
The Gentiles, who were barren before, shall multiply in the
church of Christ: from which God's mercy shall never
depart.
54:1. Give praise, O thou barren, that bearest not: sing
forth praise, and make a joyful noise, thou that didst not
travail with child: for many are the children of the
desolate, more than of her that hath a husband, saith the
Lord.
54:2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and stretch out the
skins of thy tabernacles, spare not: lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes.
54:3. For thou shalt pass on to the right hand, and to the
left: and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall
inhabit the desolate cities.
54:4. Fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded, nor
blush: for thou shalt not be put to shame, because thou
shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt remember no
more the reproach of thy widowhood.
54:5. For he that made thee shall rule over thee, the Lord
of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth.
54:6. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and
mourning in spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth,
said thy God.
54:7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with
great mercies will I gather thee.
54:8. In a moment of indignation have I hid my face a
little while from thee, but with everlasting kindness have
I had mercy on thee, said the Lord thy Redeemer.
54:9. This thing is to me as in the days of Noe, to whom I
swore, that I would no more bring in the waters of Noe upon
the earth: so have I sworn not to be angry with thee, and
not to rebuke thee.
54:10. For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills
shall tremble; but my mercy shall not depart from thee, and
the covenant of my peace shall not be moved: said the Lord
that hath mercy on thee.
54:11. O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without all
comfort, behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will
lay thy foundations with sapphires,
54:12. And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy
gates of graven stones, and all thy borders of desirable
stones.
54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and
great shall be the peace of thy children.
54:14. And thou shalt be founded in justice: depart far
from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror,
for it shall not come near thee.
54:15. Behold, an inhabitant shall come, who was not with
me, he that was a stranger to thee before, shall be joined
to thee.
54:16. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the
coals in the fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his
work, and I have created the killer to destroy.
54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper:
and every tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou
shalt condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of
the Lord, and their justice with me, saith the Lord.
Isaias Chapter 55
God promises abundance of spiritual graces to the faithful,
that shall believe in Christ out of all nations, and
sincerely serve him.
55:1. All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that
have no money make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine
and milk without money, and without any price.
55:2. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which doth not satisfy you?
Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and
your soul shall be delighted in fatness.
55:3. Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul
shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, the faithful mercies of David.
55:4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people,
for a leader and a master to the Gentiles.
55:5. Behold thou shalt call a nation, which thou knewest
not: and the nations that knew not thee shall run to thee,
because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of
Israel, for he hath glorified thee.
55:6. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon
him, while he is near.
55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man
his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will
have mercy on him, and to our God: for he is bountiful to
forgive.
55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways
my ways, saith the Lord.
55:9. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so
are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above
your thoughts.
55:10. And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return no more thither, but soak the earth, and water
it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater:
55:11. So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my
mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall do
whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for
which I sent it.
55:12. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with
peace: the mountains and the hills shall sing praise before
you, and all the trees of the country shall clap their
hands.
55:13. Instead of the shrub, shall come up the fir tree, and
instead of the nettle, shall come up the myrtle tree: and
the Lord shall be named for an everlasting sign, that shall
not be taken away.
Isaias Chapter 56
God invites all to keep his commandments: the Gentiles that
keep them shall be the people of God: the Jewish pastors
are reproved.
56:1. Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do
justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my justice
to be revealed.
56:2. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man
that shall lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from
profaning it, that keepeth his hands from doing any evil.
56:3. And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to
the Lord, speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate
me from his people. And let not the eunuch say: Behold I am
a dry tree.
56:4. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that
shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that
please me, and shall hold fast my covenant:
56:5. I will give to them in my house, and within my walls,
a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will
give them an everlasting name which shall never perish.
56:6. And the children of the stranger that adhere to the
Lord, to worship him, and to love his name, to be his
servants: every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning
it, and that holdeth fast my covenant:
56:7. I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make
them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and
their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house
shall be called the house of prayer, for all nations.
56:8. The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel,
saith: I will still gather unto him his congregation.
56:9. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye
beasts of the forest.
56:10. His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant:
dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping
and loving dreams.
56:11. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the
shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned
aside into their own way, every one after his own gain,
from the first even to the last.
56:12. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with
drunkenness: and it shall be as to day, so also to morrow,
and much more.
Isaias Chapter 57
The infidelity of the Jews: their idolatry. Promises to
humble penitents.
57:1. The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart,
and men of mercy are taken away, because there is none that
understandeth; for the just man is taken away from before
the face of evil.
57:2. Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath
walked in his uprightness.
57:3. But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the
seed of the adulterer, and of the harlot.
57:4. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened
your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? are not you
wicked children, a false seed,
57:5. Who seek your comfort in idols under every green
tree, sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high
rocks?
57:6. In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is
thy lot: and thou hast poured out libations to them, thou
hast offered sacrifice. Shall I not be angry at these
things?
57:7. Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy
bed, and hast gone up thither to offer victims.
57:8. And behind the door, and behind the post thou hast
set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself
near me, and hast received an adulterer: thou hast enlarged
thy bed, and made a covenant with them: thou hast loved
their bed with open hand.
57:9. And thou hast adorned thyself for the king with
ointment, and hast multiplied thy perfumes. Thou hast sent
thy messengers far off, and wast debased even to hell.
57:10. Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways:
yet thou saidst not: I will rest: thou has found life of
thy hand, therefore thou hast not asked.
57:11. For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that
thou hast lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor
thought on me in thy heart? for I am silent, and as one
that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.
57:12. I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not
profit thee.
57:13. When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee,
but the wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take
them away, but he that putteth his trust in me, shall
inherit the land, and shall possess my holy mount.
57:14. And I will say: Make a way: give free passage, turn
out of the path, take away the stumblingblocks out of the
way of my people.
57:15. For thus saith the High and the Eminent that
inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in
the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite.
57:16. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be
angry unto the end: because the spirit shall go forth from
my face, and breathings I will make.
57:17. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry,
and I struck him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry:
and he went away wandering in his own heart.
57:18. I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him
back, and restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn
for him.
57:19. I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him
that is far off, and to him that is near, said the Lord,
and I healed him.
57:20. But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot
rest, and the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.
57:21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.
Isaias Chapter 58
God rejects the hypocritical fasts of the Jews: recommends
works of mercy, and sincere godliness.
58:1. Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and
shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob
their sins.
58:2. For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know
my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not
forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the
judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.
58:3. Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have
we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice?
Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and
you exact of all your debtors.
58:4. Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike
with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until
this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
58:5. Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to
afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head
about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes?
wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the
Lord?
58:6. Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose
the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let
them that are broken go free, and break asunder every
burden.
58:7. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and
the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one
naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.
58:8. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and
thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go
before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather
thee up.
58:9. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou
shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take
away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to
stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth
not.
58:10. When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and
shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise
up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.
58:11. And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and
will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones,
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a
fountain of water whose waters shall not fail.
58:12. And the places that have been desolate for ages
shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation
of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the
repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.
58:13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from
doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath
delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify
him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is
not found, to speak a word:
58:14. Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will
lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will
feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaias Chapter 59
The dreadful evil of sin is displayed, as the great
obstacle to all good from God: yet he will send a Redeemer,
and make an everlasting covenant with his church.
59:1. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it
cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.
59:2. But your iniquities have divided between you and your
God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he
should not hear.
59:3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your
fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your
tongue uttereth iniquity.
59:4. There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is
there any one that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere
nothing, and speak vanities: they have conceived labour, and
brought forth iniquity.
59:5. They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the
webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall
die: and that which is brought out, shall be hatched into a
basilisk.
59:6. Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall
they cover themselves with their works: their works are
unprofitable works, and the work of iniquity is in their
hands.
59:7. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed
innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts:
wasting and destruction are in their ways.
59:8. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no
judgment in their steps: their paths are become crooked to
them, every one that treadeth in them knoweth no peace.
59:9. Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall
not overtake us. We looked for light, and behold darkness:
brightness, and we have walked in the dark.
59:10. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we
have groped as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at
noonday as in darkness, we are in dark places, as dead men.
59:11. We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament
as mournful doves. We have looked for judgment, and there
is none: for salvation, and it is far from us.
59:12. For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and
our sins have testified against us: for our wicked doings
are with us, and have known our iniquities:
59:13. In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have
turned away so that we went not after our God, but spoke
calumny and transgression: we have conceived, and uttered
from the heart, words of falsehood.
59:14. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice
hath stood far off: because truth hath fallen down in the
street, and equity could not come in.
59:15. And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed
from evil, lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it
appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment.
59:16. And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood
astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and
his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice
supported him.
59:17. He put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of
salvation upon his head: he put on the garments of
vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak.
59:18. As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his
adversaries, and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the
like to the islands.
59:19. And they from the west, shall fear the name of the
Lord: and they from the rising of the sun, his glory when
he shall come as a violent stream, which the spirit of the
Lord driveth on:
59:20. And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them
that return from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.
59:21. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My
spirit that is in thee, and my words that I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the
mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed,
saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.
This is my covenant, etc... Note here a clear promise of
perpetual orthodoxy to the church of Christ.
Isaias Chapter 60
The light of true faith shall shine forth in the church of
Christ, and shall be spread through all nations, and
continue for all ages.
60:1. Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
60:2. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist
the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his
glory shall be seen upon thee.
60:3. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings
in the brightness of thy rising.
60:4. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are
gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall
come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy
side.
60:5. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall
wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall
be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall
come to thee.
60:6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall
come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth
praise to the Lord.
60:7. All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together
unto thee, the rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they
shall be offered upon my acceptable altar, and I will
glorify the house of my majesty.
60:8. Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to
their windows?
60:9. For, the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea
in the beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their
silver, and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord
thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath
glorified thee.
60:10. And the children of strangers shall build up thy
walls, and their kings shall minister to thee: for in my
wrath have I struck thee, and in my reconciliation have I
had mercy upon thee.
60:11. And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall
not be shut day nor night, that the strength of the
Gentiles may be brought to thee, and their kings may be
brought.
60:12. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve
thee, shall perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with
desolation.
60:13. The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir
tree, and the box tree, and the pine tree together, to
beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will glorify the
place of my feet.
60:14. And the children of them that afflict thee, shall
come bowing down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall
worship the steps of thy feet, and shall call thee the city
of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel.
60:15. Because thou wast forsaken, and hated, and there was
none that passed through thee, I will make thee to be an
everlasting glory, a joy unto generation and generation:
60:16. And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and
thou shalt be nursed with the breasts of kings: and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord thy Saviour, and thy
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
60:17. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will
bring silver: and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and
I will make thy visitation peace, and thy overseers
justice.
60:18. Iniquity shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting
nor destruction in thy borders, and salvation shall possess
thy walls, and praise thy gates.
60:19. Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by
day, neither shall the brightness of the moon enlighten
thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting
light, and thy God for thy glory.
Thou shalt no more, etc... In this latter part of the
chapter, the prophet passes from the illustrious promises
made to the church militant on earth, to the glory of the
church triumphant in heaven.
60:20. Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall
not decrease: for the Lord shall be unto thee for an
everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be
ended.
60:21. And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit
the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my
hand to glorify me.
60:22. The least shall become a thousand, and a little one
a most strong nation: I the Lord will suddenly do this
thing in its time.
Isaias Chapter 61
The office of Christ: the mission of the Apostles; the
happiness of their converts.
61:1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord
hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to
heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the
captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up.
61:2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the
day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn:
61:3. To appoint to the mourners of Sion, and to give them
a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment
of praise for the spirit of grief: and they shall be called
in it the mighty ones of justice, the planting of the Lord
to glorify him.
61:4. And they shall build the places that have been waste
from of old, and shall raise up ancient ruins, and shall
repair the desolate cities, that were destroyed for
generation and generation.
61:5. And strangers shall stand and shall feed your flocks:
and the sons of strangers shall be your husbandman, and the
dressers of your vines.
61:6. But you shall be called the priests of the Lord: to
you it shall be said: Ye ministers of our God: you shall
eat the riches of the Gentiles, and you shall pride
yourselves in their glory.
61:7. For your double confusion and shame, they shall
praise their part: therefore shall they receive double in
their land, everlasting joy shall be unto them.
61:8. For I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate
robbery in a holocaust: and I will make their work in
truth, and I will make a perpetual covenant with them.
61:9. And they shall know their seed among the Gentiles,
and their offspring in the midst of peoples: all that shall
see them, shall know them, that these are the seed which
the Lord hath blessed.
61:10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul
shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath
covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a
bride adorned with her jewels.
61:11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the
garden causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord
God make justice to spring forth, and praise before all the
nations.
Isaias Chapter 62
The prophet will not cease from preaching Christ: to whom
all nations shall be converted: and whose church shall
continue for ever.
62:1. For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for the
sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest till her just one come
forth as brightness, and her saviour be lighted as a lamp.
62:2. And the Gentiles shall see thy just one, and all
kings thy glorious one: and thou shalt be called by a new
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
62:3. And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
62:4. Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken: and thy land
shall no more be called Desolate: but thou shalt be called
My pleasure in her, and thy land inhabited. Because the
Lord hath been well pleased with thee: and thy land shall
be inhabited.
62:5. For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and
thy children shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall
rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over
thee.
62:6. Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed
watchmen all the day, and all the night, they shall never
hold their peace. You that are mindful of the Lord, hold
not your peace,
62:7. And give him no silence till he establish, and till
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
62:8. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm
of his strength: Surely I will no more give thy corn to be
meat for thy enemies: and the sons of the strangers shall
not drink thy wine, for which thou hast laboured.
62:9. For they that gather it, shall eat it, and shall
praise the Lord: and they that bring it together, shall
drink it in my holy courts.
62:10. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way
for the people, make the road plain, pick out the stones,
and lift up the standard to the people.
62:11. Behold the Lord hath made it to be heard in the ends
of the earth, tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Saviour
cometh: behold his reward is with him, and his work before
him.
62:12. And they shall call them, The holy people, the
redeemed of the Lord. But thou shalt be called: A city
sought after, and not forsaken.
Isaias Chapter 63
Christ's victory over his enemies: his mercies to his
people: their complaint.
63:1. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments
from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the
greatness of his strength. I, that speak justice, and am a
defender to save.
Edom... Edom and Bosra (a strong city of Edom) are here
taken in a mystical sense for the enemies of Christ and his
church.
63:2. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like
theirs that tread in the winepress?
63:3. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the
Gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on
them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my
wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I
have stained all my apparel.
63:4. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of
my redemption is come.
63:5. I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought,
and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved
for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me.
63:6. And I have trodden down the people in my wrath, and
have made them drunk in my indignation, and have brought
down their strength to the earth.
63:7. I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord, the
praise of the Lord for all the things that the Lord hath
bestowed upon us, and for the multitude of his good things
to the house of Israel, which he hath given them according
to his kindness, and according to the multitude of his
mercies.
63:8. And he said: Surely they are my people, children that
will not deny: so he became their saviour.
63:9. In all their affliction he was not troubled, and the
angel of his presence saved them: in his love, and in his
mercy he redeemed them, and he carried them and lifted them
up all the days of old.
63:10. But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit
of his Holy One: and he was turned to be their enemy, and
he fought against them.
63:11. And he remembered the days of old of Moses, and of
his people: Where is he that brought them up out of the
sea, with the shepherds of his flock? where is he that put
in the midst of them the spirit of his Holy One?
63:12. He that brought out Moses by the right hand, by the
arm of his majesty: that divided the waters before them, to
make himself an everlasting name.
63:13. He that led them out through the deep, as a horse in
the wilderness that stumbleth not.
63:14. As a beast that goeth down in the field, the spirit
of the Lord was their leader: so didst thou lead thy people
to make thyself a glorious name.
63:15. Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy
habitation and the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal,
and thy strength, the multitude of thy bowels, and of thy
mercies? they have held back themselves from me.
They have held back, etc... This is spoken by the prophet
in the person of the Jews at the time when, for their sins,
they were given up to their enemies.
63:16. For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known
us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art
our father, our redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.
Abraham hath not know us, etc... That is, Abraham will not
now acknowledge us for his children, by reason of our
degeneracy; but thou, O Lord, art our true father and our
redeemer, and no other can be called our parent in
comparison with thee.
63:17. Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways:
why hast thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear
thee? return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of
thy inheritance.
Made us to err, etc. Hardened our heart, etc... The meaning
is, that God in punishment of their great and manifold
crimes, and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, had
withdrawn his graces from them, and so given them up to
error and hardness of heart.
63:18. They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our
enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.
63:19. We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst
not rule over us, and when we were not called by thy name.
Isaias Chapter 64
The prophet prays for the release of his people; and for
the remission of their sins.
64:1. O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst
come down: the mountains would melt away at thy presence.
64:2. They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters
would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to
thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy
presence.
64:3. When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not
bear them: thou didst come down, and at thy presence the
mountains melted away.
64:4. From the beginning of the world they have not heard,
nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God,
besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that
wait for thee.
64:5. Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and doth justice:
in thy ways they shall remember thee: behold thou art
angry, and we have sinned: in them we have been always, and
we shall be saved.
64:6. And we are all become as one unclean, and all our
justices as the rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all
fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have
taken us away.
Our justices, etc... That is, the works by which we
pretended to make ourselves just. This is spoken
particularly of the sacrifices, sacraments, and ceremonies
of the Jews, after the death of Christ, and the
promulgation of the new law.
64:7. There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth
up, and taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity.
64:8. And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are
clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of
thy hands.
64:9. Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our
iniquity: behold, see we are all thy people.
64:10. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion
is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate.
64:11. The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where
our fathers praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our
lovely things are turned into ruins.
64:12. Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these
things, wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us
vehemently?
Isaias Chapter 65
The Gentiles shall seek and find Christ, but the Jews will
persecute him, and be rejected, only a remnant shall be
reserved. The church shall multiply, and abound with
graces.
65:1. They have sought me that before asked not for me,
they have found me that sought me not. I said: Behold me,
behold me, to a nation that did not call upon my name.
65:2. I have spread forth my hands all the day to an
unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good
after their own thoughts.
65:3. A people that continually provoke me to anger before
my face, that immolate in gardens, and sacrifice upon
bricks.
65:4. That dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in the temple of
idols: that eat swine's flesh, and profane broth is in
their vessels.
65:5. That say: Depart from me, come not near me, because
thou art unclean: these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire
burning all the day.
65:6. Behold it is written before me: I will not be silent,
but I will render and repay into their bosom.
65:7. Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers
together, saith the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the
mountains, and have reproached me upon the hills; and I will
measure back their first work in their bosom.
65:8. Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a
cluster, and it be said: Destroy it not, because it is a
blessing: so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I
may not destroy the whole.
65:9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of
Juda a possessor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit
it, and my servants shall dwell there.
65:10. And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks,
and the valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie
down in, for my people that have sought me.
65:11. And you, that have forsaken the Lord, that have
forgotten my holy mount, that set a table for fortune, and
offer libations upon it,
65:12. I will number you in the sword, and you shall all
fall by slaughter: because I called and you did not answer:
I spoke, and you did not hear: and you did evil in my eyes,
and you have chosen the things that displease me.
65:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my
servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold my
servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty.
65:14. Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be
confounded: behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness
of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall
howl for grief of spirit.
65:15. And you shall leave your name for an execration to
my elect: and the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his
servants by another name.
65:16. In which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be
blessed in God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth,
shall swear by God, amen: because the former distresses are
forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.
65:17. For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth:
and the former things shall not be in remembrance, and they
shall not come upon the heart.
65:18. But you shall be glad and rejoice for ever in these
things, which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and the people thereof joy.
65:19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my
people, and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in
her, nor the voice of crying.
65:20. There shall no more be an infant of days there, nor
an old man that shall not fill up his days: for the child
shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a
hundred years old shall be accursed.
65:21. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and
they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of them.
65:22. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they
shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a
tree, so shall be the days of my people, and the works of
their hands shall be of long continuance.
65:23. My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth
in trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the
Lord, and their posterity with them.
65:24. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I
will hear; as they are yet speaking, I will hear.
65:25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion
and the ox shall eat straw; and dust shall be the serpent's
food: they shall not hurt nor kill in all my holy mountain,
saith the Lord.
Isaias Chapter 66
More of the reprobation of the Jews, and of the call of the
Gentiles.
66:1. Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the
earth my footstool: what is this house that you will build
to me? and what is this place of my rest?
What is this house, etc... This is a prophecy that the
temple should be cast off.
66:2. My hand made all these things, and all these things
were made, saith the Lord. But to whom shall I have
respect, but to him that is poor and little, and of a
contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my words?
66:3. He that sacrificeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he
that killeth a sheep in sacrifice, as if he should brain a
dog: he that offereth an oblation, as if he should offer
swine's blood; he that remembereth incense, as if he should
bless an idol. All these things have they chosen in their
ways, and their soul is delighted in their abominations.
He that sacrificeth an ox, etc... This is a prophecy that
the sacrifices which were offered in the old law should be
abolished in the new; and that the offering of them should
be a crime.-Ibid. Remembereth incense... Viz., to offer it
in the way of a sacrifice.
66:4. Wherefore I also will choose their mockeries, and
will bring upon them the things they feared: because I
called, and there was none that would answer; I have
spoken, and they heard not; and they have done evil in my
eyes, and have chosen the things that displease me.
I will choose their mockeries... I will turn their
mockeries upon themselves; and will cause them to be mocked
by their enemies.
66:5. Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his
word: Your brethren that hate you, and cast you out for my
name's sake, have said: Let the Lord be glorified, and we
shall see in your joy: but they shall be confounded.
66:6. A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the
temple, the voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to
his enemies.
66:7. Before she was in labour, she brought forth; before
her time came to be delivered, she brought forth a man
child.
Before she was in labour, etc... This relates to the
conversion of the Gentiles, who were born, as it were, all
on a sudden to the church of God.
66:8. Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen
the like to this? shall the earth bring forth in one day?
or shall a nation be brought forth at once, because Sion
hath been in labour, and hath brought forth her children?
66:9. Shall not I that make others to bring forth children,
myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give
generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God?
66:10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all
you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that
mourn for her.
66:11. That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of
her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with
delights, from the abundance of her glory.
66:12. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon
her as it were a river of peace, and as an overflowing
torrent the glory of the Gentiles, which you shall suck;
you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees
they shall caress you.
66:13. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort
you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
66:14. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your
bones shall flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord
shall be known to his servants, and he shall be angry with
his enemies.
66:15. For behold the Lord will come with fire, and his
chariots are like a whirlwind, to render his wrath in
indignation, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
66:16. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by his sword
unto all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.
66:17. They that were sanctified, thought themselves clean
in the gardens behind the gate within, they that did eat
swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse: they
shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.
66:18. But I know their works, and their thoughts: I come
that I may gather them together with all nations and
tongues: and they shall come and shall see my glory.
66:19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of
them that shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea,
into Africa, and Lydia them that draw the bow: into Italy,
and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them that have not
heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And they shall
declare my glory to the Gentiles:
66:20. And they shall bring all your brethren out of all
nations for a gift to the Lord, upon horses, and in
chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and in coaches, to
my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as if the
children of Israel should bring an offering in a clean
vessel into the house of the Lord.
66:21. And I will take of them to be priests, and Levites,
saith the Lord.
66:22. For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I
will make to stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your
seed stand, and your name.
66:23. And there shall be month after month, and sabbath
after sabbath: and all flesh shall come to adore before my
face, saith the Lord.
66:24. And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the
men that have transgressed against me: their worm shall not
die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall
be a loathsome sight to all flesh.
The text in this file was taken with permission from Catholic Software's Douay Bible program, a complete multimedia Bible for the PC. The complete product description follows:
Douay Bible ME: A multimedia Bible. Text and footnotes are from the 1899 version of the Douay-Rheims Bible. Supports unlimited cut and paste as well as searches. It also has a concordance, topical index, and maps. These features make it powerful and easy to use. Music and color photography make it a visual and auditory feast. However, if your computer doesn't support multimedia, you can suppress these features at installation time. Available for DOS, Windows, or Windows 95. $85.00. Order from: Catholic Software, P.O. Box 1914, Murray, KY 42071. Phone: 1-502-753-8198.
