Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.

Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor." That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?' Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock."

Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?

Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabitant the earth.

It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

The LORD, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.

You will keep him in peace, in peace whose thoughts are fixed on you, because he trusts in you.

Yes, in the path of your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.

With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

You have increased the nation, O LORD. You have increased the nation. You are glorified. You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?

Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.

When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine.

They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.

For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"

For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

Pause and wonder. Blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the LORD, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?"

For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off?

For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

Therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the LORD.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

Rise up, you women who are at ease. Hear my voice. You careless daughters, give ear to my speech.

Tremble, you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you careless ones. Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who set free the foot of the ox and the donkey.

At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man.

The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.

Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might."

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

"LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Now therefore, LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, even you only."

'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says the LORD.

The grass withers, the flower fades, because the LORD's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'

Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

"Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

"Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, 'You are our gods' will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.

You see many things, but do not observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't listen.

But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey, and no one delivers; and a spoil, and no one says, 'Restore them.'

But now thus says the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: "Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

"You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.

I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses," says the LORD, "and I am God.

who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick):

Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.

Do not fear, neither be afraid. Haven't I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I do not know any other Rock."

Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god."

Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

Woe to him who strives with his Maker, a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth. Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, 'What are you making?' or your work, 'He has no hands?'

Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands.

Most certainly you are a God who hid yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.'"

They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.

I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.' I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary.

declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;

Listen to me, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness:

"Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no other besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:'

You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.

"Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness

Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;

They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you did not hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

and he said to me, "You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified."

saying to those who are bound, 'Come out.'; to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' "They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

"I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;

I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, 'You are my people.'"

Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

"Now therefore, what do I do here," says the LORD, "seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock," says the LORD, "and my name continually all the day is blasphemed among the Gentiles.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."

But he was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

"Sing, barren, you who did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than of her that has a husband," says the LORD.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," says the LORD.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.