a strutting rooster or he-goat, and a king [whose] army [is] with him.

The words of Lemuel, [the] king--an oracle that his mother taught him:

Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those {in bitter distress}.

She does him good, but not harm all the days of her life.

For who can eat [and drink], and who can enjoy [life] apart from him?

For to the person who [is] good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give [it] to [him who is] pleasing to him. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

I know everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it, for God so acts that humans might stand in awe before him.

For if one falls, his companion may help him up. But pity the one who falls and there is {no one} to help him up.

{Although an assailant may overpower one person, two may withstand him}. A threefold cord {is not easily broken}!

There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him. Yet the later generation will not rejoice in him, for this also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

The sleep of the laborer [is] pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the wealth of the rich man does not allow him to rest.

That wealth was lost in a bad venture. Although he has borne a child, {he has nothing to leave to him}.

Just as he came from his mother's womb naked, {he will depart} just as he came; he will take nothing with him for his toil.

Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and {to enjoy} all [the fruit of] the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him--for this [is] his lot.

This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him {to enjoy them}, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in [the fruit of] his toil.

God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it--instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This [is] vanity--indeed, it [is] a grievous ill!

Even if a man fathers a hundred [children] and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his heart is not satisfied with {his prosperity} and {he does not receive a proper burial}, I deem the stillborn better than him.

He has neither seen nor known the sun, yet he has more rest than him.

Whatever is--it was already determined, {what will be--it has already been decided}. As for man, he cannot argue against what is more powerful than him.

Since the word of the king [is] supreme, no one can say to him, "What are you doing?"

For there is a [proper] time and right [procedure] for every matter, even though the trouble of man [weighs] heavy upon him.

So I recommend enjoyment. For there [is] nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall, a snake will bite him.

For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many-- all that is coming [is] vanity!

{My beloved belongs to me and I belong to him}; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

On my bed in the night, I sought him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

{Scarcely had I passed} by them when I found him whom my {heart} loves. I held him and I would not let him go until I brought him to the house of my mother, into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.

Come out and look, {O maidens of Zion}, at {King Solomon}, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the joy of his heart!

Awake, O north wind! Come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden! Let its fragrances waft forth! Let my beloved come to his garden, let him eat his choice fruit!

My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost yearned for him.

I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? [Tell him] that I am {lovesick}!

Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned that we may seek him with you?

And it shall happen in the future of the days the mountain of the house of Yahweh [shall] be established; it will be among the highest of the mountains, and it shall be raised from [the] hills. All [of] the nations shall travel to him;

Woe to the wicked! [It is] bad! For what is done [by] his hands will be done to him.

those who say, "Let him make haste; let him hurry his work so that we may see it and let it draw near and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come so that we may know [it]!"

Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe and remove [the] justice of [the] innocent from him.

None [is] weary, and none among him stumbles; none slumbers and none sleeps. And no loincloth on his waist is opened, and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.

And he will roar over him on that day like [the] roaring of [the] sea, and [if] one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress! And [the] light grows dark with its clouds.

Seraphs [were] standing above him. {Each had six wings}: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

And you must say to him, 'Take heed and be quiet! You must not fear, and your heart must not be faint because of these two stumps of smoldering firebrands, {because of the fierce anger of} Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

And I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will await him.

So Yahweh strengthened {the adversaries of Rezin} against him, and he provoked his enemies--

I send him against a godless nation, and I command him against the people of my wrath, to capture spoil and to carry off plunder, and to make them a trampling place, like [the] clay of [the] streets.

And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him, as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb; and his staff [will be] over the sea, and he will lift him up {as he did in Egypt}.

And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him-- a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.

to break Assyria in my land, and I will trample him down on my mountains; and he shall remove his yoke from them, and he shall remove his burden from his shoulders."

And Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out; its soul quivers for him.

[The] nations roar like [the] roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of [the] mountains before [the] wind and like tumbleweed before [the] storm.

An oracle of Egypt: Look! Yahweh [is] riding on a swift cloud and [is] coming [to] Egypt. And the idols of Egypt will tremble in front of him, and the heart of Egypt melts in his inner parts.

And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt, everyone [to] whom one mentions it will be afraid in himself because of the plan of Yahweh of hosts that he [is] planning against him.

In [the] year {the commander-in-chief came} to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and he took it,

'What {business do you have} here, and who {do you have} here, that you have cut a grave cutting here for yourself, carving his grave [on] the height, a dwelling place for him in the rock?

and I will clothe him [with] your tunic, and I will bind your sash firmly about him, and I will put your authority into his hand, and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

And I will drive him in [like] a peg into a secure place, and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.

And they will hang all of the heaviness of his father's house on him, the offspring and the offshoot, all of the small vessels, from the {bowls to the jars}.

And one will say, on that day, "Look! This [is] our God! We have waited for him and he saved us! This [is] Yahweh; we waited for him! Let us be glad, and let us rejoice in his salvation."

For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down under him as {a heap of straw is trampled down} in {waters of} a dung heap.

For look! Yahweh [is] about to come out from his place to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth against him, and the earth will disclose her blood and will no longer cover her slain.

Does he strike him {as he struck down those who struck him}? Or is he killed {as those who killed him were killed}?

{When its branches are dry}, they are broken; women [are] coming [and] setting light to it. For it [is] not a people of understanding; therefore his maker will not have compassion on him, and his creator will not show him favor.

And his God instructs him about the prescription; he teaches him.

Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious [to] you, and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy, for Yahweh [is] a God of justice; blessed [are] all those who wait for him.

For Yahweh said this to me: "As which lion growls and young lion over its prey when {a full group} of shepherds is called against him, it is not terrified by their voice, and to their noise it does not respond, so Yahweh of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.

And Assyria shall fall by a sword not [of] a man, and a sword not [of] a human shall devour him; and he shall flee from [the] sword, and his young men shall be [put] to forced labor.

Ah, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed! And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him! When you {cease} destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop dealing treacherously, one will deal treacherously with you.

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who {was in charge of the palace}, came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.

Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [if] a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such [is] Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him.

But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, "You must not answer him."

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who [was] over the {palace}, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder, came to Hezekiah [with] torn garments and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day [is] a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to [the] cervical opening, and there is no strength to give birth.

Look! I [am] about to {put} a spirit in him {so that} he shall hear a rumor and he shall return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land." '"

"You shall say this to Hezekiah, king of Judah: '[Do] not let your God in whom you trust in him deceive you by saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

this [is] the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion; she shakes [her] head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.

And this happened: he [was] bowing in worship [in] the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword. And they themselves escaped [to] the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son reigned as king in his place.

In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Order your house, for you [are] about to die, and you shall not recover.'"

And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?" And Hezekiah {answered}, "They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon."

Look! The Lord Yahweh comes with {strength}, and his arm rules for him. Look! His reward [is] with him, and his recompense {in his presence}.

Who has measured up the spirit of Yahweh or informed him [as] {his counselor}?

With whom has he consulted, that he enlightened him and taught him [the] path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and made [the] way of understanding known to him?

All the nations [are] like nothing before him; they are counted by him as nothing and emptiness.

And to whom will you liken God? And to what likeness will you compare him?

Who has roused salvation from the east, summoned him to his foot, gives nations {in his presence}, and subjugates kings? He makes [them] like the dust [with] his sword, like scattered stubble [with] his bow.

Look! [here is] my servant; I hold him, my chosen one, [in whom] my soul delights. I have {put} my spirit on him; he will bring justice forth to the nations.

Sing a new song to Yahweh; praise him from the end of the earth, you who go down [to] the sea and that which fills it, [the] coastlands and their inhabitants.

So he poured [the] wrath [of] his anger upon him and [the] strength of war. And it set him afire all around, but he did not understand; and it burned him, but he did not take [it] to heart.

And who [is] like me? Let him proclaim [it]! And let him declare it and set it in order for me {since I established an eternal people} and things that are to come, and let them tell them [the things] that are coming.

Cutting down cedars for himself, he {chooses} a holm tree and an oak, and he lets it grow strong for him among [the] trees of [the] forest. He plants a cedar, and [the] rain makes [it] grow.

And he makes the remainder of it into a god! He bows down to his idol, and he bows in worship and prays to him, and he says, "Save me, for you [are] my god!"

[He] feeds [on] ashes; a {deceived mind} misleads him. And he cannot save {himself}, and he cannot say, "Is [this] not an illusion in my right hand?"

Thus says Yahweh to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subjugate nations before him, and I uncover [the] loins of kings to open doors before him, and [the] gates shall not be shut:

I myself have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his paths smooth. He himself shall build my city, and he shall set my exiles free, not for price or a gift," says Yahweh of hosts.

Thus says Yahweh: "The acquisition of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabeans, tall men, shall pass over to you; they shall be yours, and they shall walk behind you. They shall pass over in chains, and they shall bow down to you; they will pray to you: 'Surely God [is] with you, and there is no [other]. Besides [him] [there is] no God.'"

'Only in Yahweh,' one shall say to me, '[are] righteousness and strength.' He shall come to him, and all those who were angry with him shall be ashamed.

Those who lavish gold from [the] purse and weigh out silver in the balance scales; hire {a goldsmith} and he makes him a god; they bow down, indeed they bow in worship.

They carry it on [their] shoulder; they support it and they set it [in] its place, and it stands in position. It cannot be removed from its place; even [when] he cries out to it, it does not answer. It does not save him from his trouble.

Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them declared these [things]? Yahweh loves him; he shall perform his wish against Babylon and his arm [against] {the Chaldeans}.

I, I myself, I have spoken! Indeed, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will be successful [in] his way.