For as at mount Perazim rise doth Jehovah, As at the valley in Gibeon He is troubled, To do His work -- strange is His work, And to do His deed -- strange is His deed.'

The whole day plougheth the ploughman to sow? He openeth and harroweth his ground!

Bread -corn is beaten small, For not for ever doth he sorely thresh it, Nor crushed it hath a wheel of his cart, Nor do his hoofs beat it small.

Woe to Ariel, Ariel, The city of the encampment of David! Add year to year, let festivals go round.

And I have sent distress to Ariel, And it hath been lamentation and mourning, And it hath been to me as Ariel.

And the vision of the whole is to you, As words of the sealed book, That they give unto one knowing books, Saying, 'Read this, we pray thee,' And he hath said, 'I am not able, for it is sealed;'

And the book is given to him who hath not known books, Saying, 'Read this, we pray thee,' And he hath said, 'I have not known books.'

Therefore, lo, I am adding to do wonderfully with this people, A wonder, and a marvel, And perished hath the wisdom of its wise ones, And the understanding of its intelligent ones hideth itself.'

Woe to those going deep from Jehovah to hide counsel, And whose works have been in darkness. And they say, 'Who is seeing us? And who is knowing us?'

Is it not yet a very little, And turned hath Lebanon to a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned?

And heard in that day have the deaf the words of a book, And out of thick darkness, and out of darkness, The eyes of the blind do see.

Causing men to sin in word, And for a reprover in the gate lay a snare, And turn aside into emptiness the righteous.

Woe to apostate sons, The affirmation of Jehovah! To do counsel, and not from Me, And to spread out a covering, and not of My spirit, So as to add sin to sin.

Who are walking to go down to Egypt, And My mouth have not asked, To be strong in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt.

And the strength of Pharaoh Hath been to you for shame, And the trust in the shadow of Egypt confusion,

Yea, Egyptians are vanity, and in vain do help, Therefore I have cried concerning this: 'Their strength is to sit still.'

No, go in, write it on a tablet with them, And on a book engrave it, And it is for a latter day, for a witness unto the age,

That a rebellious people is this, sons -- liars, Sons not willing to hear the law of Jehovah.

Who have said to seers, 'Ye do not see,' And to prophets, 'Ye do not prophesy to us Straightforward things, Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits,

Turn aside from the way, decline from the path, Cause to cease from before us the Holy One of Israel.'

Therefore is this iniquity to you as a breach falling, Swelled out in a wall set on high, Whose destruction suddenly, at an instant cometh.

And He hath broken it As the breaking of the potters' bottle, Beaten down -- He doth not spare, Nor is there found, in its beating down, A potsherd to take fire from the burning, And to draw out waters from a ditch.

And therefore doth wait Jehovah to favour you, And therefore He is exalted to pity you, For a God of judgment is Jehovah, O the blessedness of all waiting for Him.

And the Lord hath given to you bread of adversity, And water of oppression. And thy directors remove no more, And thine eyes have seen thy directors,

And thine ear heareth a word behind thee, Saying, 'This is the way, go ye in it,' When ye turn to the right, And when ye turn to the left.

And ye have defiled the covering of Thy graven images of silver, And the ephod of thy molten image of gold, Thou scatterest them as a sickening thing, 'Go out,' thou sayest to it.

And He hath given rain for thy seed, With which thou dost sow the ground, And bread, the increase of the ground, And it hath been fat and plenteous, Enjoy do thy cattle in that day an enlarged pasture.

And the oxen and the young asses serving the ground, Fermented provender do eat, That one is winnowing with shovel and fan.

And there hath been on every high mount, And on every exalted hill, Rivulets -- streams of waters, In a day of much slaughter, in the falling of towers.

And the light of the moon hath been as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun is sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day of Jehovah's binding up the breach of His people, When the stroke of its wound He healeth.

And His breath is as an overflowing stream, Unto the neck it divideth, To sift nations with a sieve of vanity, And a bridle causing to err, Is on the jaws of the peoples.

Singing is to you as in a night sanctified for a festival, And joy of heart as he who is going with a pipe, To go in to the mountain of Jehovah, Unto the rock of Israel.

And caused to be heard hath Jehovah The honour of His voice, And the coming down of His arm He doth shew with the raging of anger, And the flame of a consuming fire, Scattering, and inundation, and hailstone.

And every passage of the settled staff, That Jehovah causeth to rest on him, Hath been with tabrets, and with harps, And in battles of shaking he hath fought with it.

Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, And on horses lean, And trust on chariots, because many, And on horsemen, because very strong, And have not looked on the Holy One of Israel, And Jehovah have not sought.

For thus said Jehovah unto me: 'As growl doth the lion and the young lion over his prey, Called against whom is a multitude of shepherds, From their voice he is not affrighted, And from their noise he is not humbled; So come down doth Jehovah of Hosts To war on mount Zion, and on her height.

As birds flying, so doth Jehovah of Hosts Cover over Jerusalem, covering and delivering, Passing over, and causing to escape.'

Turn back to Him from whom sons of Israel Have deepened apostasy.

For in that day despise doth each His idols of silver, and his idols of gold, That your hands made to you -- a sin.

And to his rock from fear he passeth on, And affrighted by the ensign have been his princes -- an affirmation of Jehovah, Who hath a light in Zion, And who hath a furnace in Jerusalem!

Lo, for righteousness doth a king reign, As to princes, for judgment they rule.

And not dazzled are the eyes of beholders, And the ears of hearers do attend.

And the heart of those hastened Understandeth to know, And the tongue of stammerers hasteth to speak clearly.

A fool is no more called 'noble,' And to a miser it is not said, 'rich;'

For a fool speaketh folly, And his heart doth iniquity, to do profanity, And to speak concerning Jehovah error, To empty the soul of the hungry, Yea, drink of the thirsty he causeth to lack.

And the miser -- his instruments are evil, He hath counselled wicked devices, To corrupt the poor with lying sayings, Even when the needy speaketh justly.

Women, easy ones, rise, hear my voice, Daughters, confident ones, give ear to my saying,

And gathered hath been your spoil, A gathering of the caterpillar, As a running to and fro of locusts is he running on it.

Lo, 'Their Ariel,' they have cried without, Messengers of peace do weep bitterly.

Now, do I arise, saith Jehovah, Now I am exalted, now I am lifted up.

A king in his beauty, see do thine eyes, They see a land afar off.

The strong people thou seest not, A people deeper of lip than to be understood, Of a scorned tongue, there is no understanding.

Come near, ye nations, to hear, And ye peoples, give attention, Hear doth the earth and its fulness, The world, and all its productions.

For wrath is to Jehovah against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He hath devoted them to destruction, He hath given them to slaughter.

And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood.

And consumed have been all the host of the heavens, And rolled together as a book have been the heavens, And all their hosts do fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig-tree.

A sword is to Jehovah -- it hath been full of blood, It hath been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and he-goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For a sacrifice is to Jehovah in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

(For a day of vengeance is to Jehovah, A year of recompences for Zion's strife,)

And turned have been her streams to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land hath become burning pitch.

By night and by day she is not quenched, To the age go up doth her smoke, From generation to generation she is waste, For ever and ever, none is passing into her.

And possess her do pelican and hedge-hog, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He hath stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness.

To the kingdom her freemen they call, But there are none there, And all her princes are at an end.

And He hath cast for them a lot, And His hand hath apportioned it to them by line, Unto the age they possess it, To all generations they dwell in it!

Flourishing it doth flourish, and rejoice, Yea, with joy and singing, The honour of Lebanon hath been given to it, The beauty of Carmel and Sharon, They -- they see the honour of Jehovah, The majesty of our God.

Say to the hastened of heart, 'Be strong, Fear not, lo, your God; vengeance cometh, The recompence of God, He Himself doth come and save you.'

And a highway hath been there, and a way, And the 'way of holiness' is called to it, Not pass over it doth the unclean, And He Himself is by them, Whoso is going in the way -- even fools err not.

And it cometh to pass, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, come up hath Sennacherib king of Asshur against all the fenced cities of Judah, and seizeth them.

And the king of Asshur sendeth Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, unto the king Hezekiah, with a heavy force, and he standeth by the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field,

Lo, thou hast trusted on the staff of this broken reed -- on Egypt -- which a man leaneth on, and it hath gone into his hand, and pierced it -- so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all those trusting on him.

'And dost thou say unto me, Unto Jehovah our God we have trusted? is it not He, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath turned aside, and saith to Judah and to Jerusalem, Before this altar ye do bow yourselves?

'And now, negotiate, I pray thee, with my lord the king of Asshur, and I give to thee two thousand horses, if thou art able to put for thee riders on them.

And now, without Jehovah have I come up against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said unto me, Go up unto this land, and thou hast destroyed it.'

And Eliakim saith -- and Shebna and Joah -- unto Rabshakeh, 'Speak, we pray thee, unto thy servants in Aramaean, for we are understanding; and do not speak unto us in Jewish, in the ears of the people who are on the wall.'

And Rabshakeh saith, 'Unto thy lord, and unto thee, hath my lord sent me to speak these words? is it not for the men -- those sitting on the wall to eat their own dung and to drink their own water with you?'

Thus said the king, Let not Hezekiah lift you up, for he is not able to deliver you;

'Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus said the king of Asshur, Make ye with me a blessing, and come out unto me, and eat ye each of his vine, and each of his fig-tree, and drink ye each the waters of his own well,

And they keep silent, and have not answered him a word, for a command of the king is, saying, 'Do not answer him.'

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who is over the house, cometh in, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the remembrancer, unto Hezekiah with rent garments, and they declare to him the words of Rabshakeh.

And it cometh to pass, at the king Hezekiah's hearing, that he rendeth his garments, and covereth himself with sackcloth, and entereth the house of Jehovah,

and they say unto him, 'Thus said Hezekiah, A day of distress, and rebuke, and despising, is this day; for come have sons unto the birth, and power there is not to bear.

'It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear the words of Rabshakeh with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.'

and Isaiah saith unto them, 'Thus do ye say unto your lord, Thus said Jehovah, Be not afraid because of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have reviled Me.

Lo, I am giving in him a spirit, and he hath heard a report, and hath turned back unto his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.'

And he heareth concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, 'He hath come out to fight with thee;' and he heareth, and sendeth messengers unto Hezekiah, saying,

'Thus do ye speak unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God lift thee up in whom thou art trusting, saying, Jerusalem is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur.

Lo, thou hast heard that which the kings of Asshur have done to all the lands -- to devote them -- and thou art delivered!

And Hezekiah taketh the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and readeth them, and Hezekiah goeth up to the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spreadeth it before Jehovah.

Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubs, Thou art God Himself -- Thyself alone -- to all kingdoms of the earth, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth.

Incline, O Jehovah, Thine ear, and hear; open, O Jehovah, Thine eyes and see; and hear Thou all the words of Sennacherib that he hath sent to reproach the living God.

so as to put their gods into fire -- for they are no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone -- and they destroy them.

And now, Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, and all kingdoms of the earth do know that Thou art Jehovah, Thyself alone.'

By the hand of thy servants Thou hast reviled the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of hills, The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the high place of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel.

Hast thou not heard from afar? -- it I did, From days of old -- that I formed it. Now, I have brought it in, And it is to make desolate, Ruinous heaps -- fenced cities,

Because of thy anger towards Me, And thy noise -- it came up into Mine ears, I have put My hook in thy nose, And My bridle in thy lips, And I have caused thee to turn back In the way in which thou camest.

-- And this to thee is the sign, Food of the year is self-sown grain, And in the second year the spontaneous growth, And in the third year, sow ye and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

And it hath continued -- the escaped Of the house of Judah that hath been left -- To take root beneath, And it hath made fruit upward.

And I have covered over this city, To save it, for Mine own sake, And for the sake of David My servant.'

And it cometh to pass, he is bowing himself in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons have smitten him with the sword, and they have escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-Haddon his son reigneth in his stead.

In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come in unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, and saith unto him, 'Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.'

Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, 'I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,