ISAIAH
2 Ye heavens, hear, and thou earth, perceive with ears, for the Lord spake. I have nourished and I have enhanced sons; soothly they have despised me.
3 An ox knew his lord, and an ass knew the cratch of his lord; but Israel knew not me, and my people under-stood not.
4 Woe to the sinful folk, to the people heavy in wickedness, to the wayward seed, to the cursed sons; they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy of Israel, they be alienated [away] backward.
5 On what thing shall I smite you more, that increase trespassing? Each head is sick, and each heart is mourning.
6 From the sole of the foot till to the noll, health is not therein; wound, and wanness, and beating swelling that is not bound about, neither cured by medicine, neither nursed with oil.
7 Your land is forsaken, your cities be burnt by fire; aliens devour your country before you, and it shall be desolate as in the destroying of enemies.
8 And the daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, shall be forsaken as a shadowing place in a vineyard, and as an hulk in a place where gourds waxed, and as a city which is wasted.
9 If the Lord of hosts had not left seed to us, we had been as Sodom, and we had been like as Gomorrah.
10 Ye princes of men of Sodom, hear the word of the Lord; and ye people of Gomorrah, perceive with ears the law of your God.
11 Whereto offer ye to me [or What to me] the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the Lord. I am full; I would not the burnt sacrifices of wethers, and the inner fatness of fat beasts, and the blood of calves, and of lambs, and of bucks of goats.
12 When ye came before my sight, who asked of your hands these things, that ye should go in my foreyards?
13 Offer ye no more sacrifice in vain; incense is abomination to me; I shall not suffer new moon, and sabbath, and other feasts. For your companies be wicked;
14 my soul hateth your calends and your solemnities; those be dis-easeful to me, I travailed with suffering.
15 And when ye stretch forth your hands, I shall turn away mine eyes from you; and when ye multiply prayer, I shall not hear; for why your hands be full of blood.
16 Be ye washed, be ye clean; do ye away the evil of your thoughts from mine eyes; cease ye to do waywardly,
17 learn ye to do well. Seek ye doom, help ye him that is oppressed, deem ye to the fatherless and motherless child, defend ye a widow.
18 And come ye, and prove ye me, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as blood-red, those shall be made white as snow; and though they be red as vermilion, they shall be white as wool.
19 If ye will, and hear me, ye shall eat the goods of [the] earth.
20 That if ye do not, and ye stir me to wrathfulness [or wrath], sword shall devour you; for why the mouth of the Lord spake.
21 How is the faithful city full of doom made an whore? rightfulness [or rightwiseness] dwelled therein; but now men-quellers dwell therein.
22 Thy silver is turned into dross, either filth; thy wine is meddled [or mingled] with water.
23 Thy princes be unfaithful, the fellows of thieves; all love gifts, and follow yieldings, either meeds; they deem not to a fatherless child, and the cause of a widow entereth not to them.
24 For this thing, saith the Lord God of hosts, the Strong of Israel, Alas! I shall be comforted on mine enemies, and I shall be avenged of mine enemies.
25 And I shall turn mine hand to thee, and I shall seethe out thy filth to the clean, and I shall do away all thy tin.
26 And I shall restore thy judges, as they were before, and thy counsellors, as in eld [or old] time. After these things thou shalt be called the city of the rightful [or rightwise], a faithful city.
27 Zion shall be again-bought in doom, and they shall bring it again into rightfulness [or rightwiseness];
28 and God shall all-break [the] cursed men and [the] sinners together, and they that forsake the Lord, shall be wasted.
29 For they shall be ashamed of [the] idols, to which they made sacrifice; and ye shall be ashamed on the orchards, which ye choosed.
30 When ye shall be as an oak, when the leaves fall down, and as an orchard without water.
31 And your strength shall be as a dead spark of stubble, either of hards of flax, and your work shall be as a quick spark; and ever either shall be burnt together, and none shall be that shall quench.
ISAIAH 2 ->