Isaiah 3-5

Isaiah 3

¹For, lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is turning aside from Jerusalem, And from Judah, stay and staff, Every stay of bread, and every stay of water.

²Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, And diviner and elder,

³Head of fifty, and accepted of faces, And counsellor, and the wise of artificers, And the intelligent of charmers.

⁴And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them.

⁵And the people hath exacted -- man upon man, Even a man on his neighbour, Enlarge themselves do the youths against the aged, And the lightly esteemed against the honoured.

⁶When one layeth hold on his brother, Of the house of his father, by the garment, ‘Come, a ruler thou art to us, And this ruin is under thy hand.'

⁷He lifteth up, in that day, saying: ‘I am not a binder up, And in my house is neither bread nor garment, Ye do not make me a ruler of the people.'

⁸For stumbled hath Jerusalem, and Judah hath fallen, For their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, To provoke the eyes of His glory.

⁹The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Wo to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil.

¹⁰Say ye to the righteous, that it is good, Because the fruit of their doings they eat.

¹¹Wo to the wicked -- evil, Because the deed of his hand is done to him.

¹²My people -- its exactors are sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people -- thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up.

¹³Jehovah hath stood up to plead, And He is standing to judge the peoples.

¹⁴Jehovah into judgment doth enter With elders of His people, and its heads: ‘And ye, ye have consumed the vineyard, Plunder of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What -- to you? ye bruise My people, And the faces of the poor ye grind.' An affirmation of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, And Jehovah saith:

¹⁶‘Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving with the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling,

¹⁷The Lord also hath scabbed The crown of the head of daughters of Zion, And Jehovah their simplicity exposeth.

¹⁸In that day doth the Lord turn aside The beauty of the tinkling ornaments, And of the embroidered works, And of the round tires like moons,

¹⁹Of the drops, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,

²⁰Of the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, And of the bands, And of the perfume boxes, and the amulets,

²¹Of the seals, and of the nose-rings,

²²Of the costly apparel, and of the mantles, And of the coverings, and of the purses,

²³Of the mirrors, and of the linen garments, And of the hoods, and of the vails,

²⁴And it hath been, instead of spice is muck, And instead of a girdle, a rope, And instead of curled work, baldness, And instead of a stomacher a girdle of sackcloth.

²⁵For instead of glory, thy men by sword do fall, And thy might in battle.

²⁶And lamented and mourned have her openings, Yea, she hath been emptied, on the earth she sitteth!

Isaiah 4

¹And taken hold have seven women on one man, In that day, saying, ‘Our own bread we do eat, And our own raiment we put on, Only, let thy name be called over us, Remove thou our reproach.'

²In that day is the Shoot of Jehovah for desire and for honour, And the fruit of the earth For excellence and for beauty to the escaped of Israel.

³And it hath been, he who is left in Zion, And he who is remaining in Jerusalem, ‘Holy' is said of him, Of every one who is written for life in Jerusalem.

⁴If the Lord hath washed away The filth of daughters of Zion, And the blood of Jerusalem purgeth from her midst, By the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

⁵Then hath Jehovah prepared Over every fixed place of Mount Zion, And over her convocations, A cloud by day, and smoke, And the shining of a flaming fire by night, That, over all honour a safe-guard,

⁶And a covering may be, For a shadow by day from drought, And for a refuge, and for a hiding place, From inundation and from rain!

Isaiah 5

¹Let me sing, I pray you, for my beloved, A song of my beloved as to his vineyard: My beloved hath a vineyard in a fruitful hill,

²And he fenceth it, and casteth out its stones, And planteth it with a choice vine, And buildeth a tower in its midst, And also a wine press hath hewn out in it, And he waiteth for the yielding of grapes, And it yieldeth bad ones!

³And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

⁴What -- to do still to my vineyard, That I have not done in it! Wherefore, I waited to the yielding of grapes, And it yieldeth bad ones!

⁵And now, pray, let me cause you to know, That which I am doing to my vineyard, To turn aside its hedge, And it hath been for consumption, To break down its wall, And it hath been for a treading-place.

⁶And I make it a waste, It is not pruned, nor arranged, And gone up have brier and thorn, And on the thick clouds I lay a charge, From raining upon it rain.

⁷Because the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts Is the house of Israel, And the man of Judah His pleasant plant, And He waiteth for judgment, and lo, oppression, For righteousness, and lo, a cry.

⁸Wo to those joining house to house, Field to field they bring near, till there is no place, And ye have been settled by yourselves In the midst of the land!

⁹By the weapons of Jehovah of Hosts Do not many houses a desolation become? Great and good without inhabitant!

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.

¹¹Wo to those rising early in the morning, Strong drink they pursue! Tarrying in twilight, wine inflameth them!

¹²And harp, and psaltery, tabret, and pipe, And wine, have been their banquets, And the work of Jehovah they behold not, Yea, the work of His hands they have not seen.

¹³Therefore my people removed without knowledge, And its honourable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up of thirst.

¹⁴Therefore hath Sheol enlarged herself, And hath opened her mouth without limit. And gone down hath its honour, and its multitude, And its noise, and its exulting one -- into her.

¹⁵And bowed down is the low, and humbled the high, And the eyes of the haughty become low,

¹⁶And Jehovah of Hosts is high in judgment, And the Holy God sanctified in righteousness,

¹⁷And fed have lambs according to their leading, And waste places of the fat ones Do sojourners consume.

¹⁸Wo to those drawing out iniquity with cords of vanity, And as with thick ropes of the cart -- sin.

¹⁹Who are saying, ‘Let Him hurry, Let Him hasten His work, that we may see, And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel Draw near and come, and we know.'

²⁰Wo to those saying to evil ‘good,' And to good ‘evil,' Putting darkness for light, and light for darkness, Putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

²¹Wo to the wise in their own eyes, And -- before their own faces -- intelligent!

²²Wo to the mighty to drink wine, And men of strength to mingle strong drink.

²³Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire devoureth stubble, And flaming hay falleth, Their root is as muck, And their flower as dust goeth up. Because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of Hosts, And the saying of the Holy One of Israel despised.

²⁵Therefore hath the anger of Jehovah burned among His people, And He stretcheth out His hand against it, And smiteth it, and the mountains tremble, And their carcase is as filth in the midst of the out-places. With all this His anger did not turn back, And still His hand is stretched out!

²⁶And He lifted up an ensign to nations afar off, And hissed to it from the end of the earth, And lo, with haste, swift it cometh.

²⁷There is none weary, nor stumbling in it, It doth not slumber, nor sleep, Nor opened hath been the girdle of its loins, Nor drawn away the latchet of its sandals.

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane!

²⁹Its roaring is like a lioness, It roareth like young lions, And it howleth, and seizeth prey, And carrieth away safely, and there is none delivering.

³⁰And it howleth against it in that day as the howling of a sea, And it hath looked attentively to the land, And lo, darkness -- distress, And light hath been darkened by its abundance!