Union of he Bridegroom and the Bride in Invincible Love 1 A very flame f 2Jehovah. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, 3 He temned. 8 We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts: con What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for? 9 If she be a wall, We will build upon her 4a turret of silver: And if she be a door, We will enclose her with boards of cedar. 10 I am a wall, and my breasts like the towers thereof: Then was I in his eyes as one that found peace. 11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; 12 He let out the vineyard unto keepers; Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. 13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, The companions hearken 6 for thy voice: Cause me to hear it. 14 7 Make haste, my beloved, Upon the mountains of spices. THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 1 Perverseness of God's People. Formalism condemned The vision of Isaiah the son of | as Sodom, we should have been like Amoz, which he saw concern- unto Gomorrah. ing Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. 5 2 Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? 3 the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil. 7 Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers deyour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9 Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been 1 Or, made great and exalted See Ezek. 31. 4. 2 Or, Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt &c. 3 Or, every 4 Or, as the overthrow of strangers 10 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye 5 rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the 6 law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. 12 When ye come 7 to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? 13 Bring no more 8 vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, - 9 I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a 10 trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 learn to do well; seek justice, 11 relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 5 Or, judges 6 Or, teaching 7 Or, as otherwise read, to see my face 8 Heb. an oblation of vanity. 9 Or, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting 10 Or, cumbrance 11 Or, set right the oppressor Zion is corrupt, but yet is to be redeemed. Jehovah's Universal Reign as white as snow; though they be latter days, that the mountain of red like crimson, they shall be as Jehovah's house shall be established wool. 19 If ye be willing and obe-8 on the top of the mountains, and dient, ye shall eat the good of the shall be exalted above the hills; and land: 20 but if ye refuse and rebel, all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And ye shall be devoured with the sword; many peoples shall go and say, for the mouth of Jehovah hath Come ye, and let us go up to the spoken it. mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4 And he will judge 10 between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 21 How is the faithful city be come a harlot! she that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. 22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. 23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; 25 and I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy 3 tin; 26 and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town. 27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness. 28 But the 5 destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed the 6 oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as 7 an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. 5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. 6 For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. 7 And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. 8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. 9 And the mean man 11 is bowed down, and the great man 12 is brought low: therefore forgive them not. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty. 11 The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For 13 there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be 9 Israel's Idolatry must cease. Wanton Women denounced. brought low; 13 and upon all the in the house of his father, saying, cedars of Lebanon, that are high Thou hast clothing, be thou our and lifted up, and upon all the oaks 5 ruler, and let this ruin be under of Bashan, 14 and upon all the high thy hand; 7 in that day shall he mountains, and upon all the hills that lift up his voice, saying, I will not are lifted up, 15 and upon every lofty be a healer; for in my house is tower, and upon every fortified wall, neither bread nor clothing: ye shall 16 and upon all the ships of Tarshish, not make me ruler of the people. 8 and upon all pleasant imagery. 17 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah And the loftiness of man shall be is fallen; because their tongue and bowed down, and the haughtiness of their doings are against Jehovah, to men shall be brought low; and Jeho-provoke the eyes of his glory. vah alone shall be exalted in that day. The show of their countenance doth 18 And the idols shall utterly pass witness against them; and they deaway. 19 And men shall go into clare their sin as Sodom, they hide the caves of the rocks, and into the it not. Woe unto their soul! for holes of the earth, from before the they have done evil unto themselves. terror of Jehovah, and from the glory 10 Say ye of the righteous, that it of his majesty, when he ariseth to shall be well with him; for they shall shake mightily the earth. 20 In eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe that day men shall cast away their unto the wicked! it shall be ill with idols of silver, and their idols of him; for what his hands have done gold, which have been made for shall be done unto him. 12 As for them to worship, to the moles and my people, children are their opto the bats; 21 to go into the cav-pressors, and women rule over them. erns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. 22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? 3 For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; 2 the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; 3 the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skilful enchanter. 4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. 6 When a man shall take hold of his brother O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. 9 13 Jehovah standeth up to contend, and standeth to judge the peoples. 14 Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the vine yard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses: 15 what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. 16 Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; 17 therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the 10 cauls, and the crescents; 19 the pen Isaiah's Vision and Commission. Rezin and Pekah war against Jerusalem undone; because I am a man of un- ate with Ephraim. And his heart clean lips, and I dwell in the midst trembled, and the heart of his peoof a people of unclean lips: for mine ple, as the trees of the forest tremeyes have seen the King, Jehovah of ble with the wind. hosts. 3 6 Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin 2 forgiven. 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me. 9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, 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 turn again, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, 12 and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. 135 And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up as a terebinth, and as an oak, 7 whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof. 9 3 Then said Jehovah unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field; 4 and say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against thee, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel; 7 thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people: 9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. 10 And Jehovah spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, 12 a 13 virgin 14 shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name 15 Immanuel. 15 16 Butter and honey shall he eat, 17 when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before 11 That is, A remnant shall return. 12 Or, the 13 Or, maiden 14 Or, is with child, and beareth 15 That is, God is with us. 16 Or, Curds 17 Or, that he may know Or, till he know |