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 will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

"I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;

Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the LORD's servant?

Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.

For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

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.

"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:'

Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live," says the LORD, "you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.

"For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.

I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

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.

Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.

Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?

"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;

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.

and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, 'Bow down, that we may walk over you;' and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over."

Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),

For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and familiar with illness; and as one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not value him.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he did not open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he did not open his mouth.

He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

For the LORD has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off," says your God.

"For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

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

For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

"Come," say they, "I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, great beyond measure."

I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not profit you.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;

We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.

So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the LORD drives.

"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says the LORD, "from henceforth and forever."

"Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

For just as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

As the livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused them to rest; so you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.

We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.

as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence.

For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

"I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. I was near to those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here I am. Here I am.' to a nation that did not call on my name.

a people who provoke me to my face continually as they sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on bricks;

Thus says the LORD, "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it:' so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.

They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

He who slaughters an ox is like one who strikes down a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog's neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig's blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:

Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."

"I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.

They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the LORD, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.

And I will also take some of them for myself as priests and Levites," says the LORD.

"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me," says the LORD, "so your seed and your name shall remain.

As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their officials, and their priests, and their prophets;

Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see. Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

"Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says the LORD.

and you shall swear, 'As the LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us. For we are ruined.

As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" says the LORD.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, "Woe is me now. For my soul faints before the murderers."

Though they say, 'As the LORD lives;' surely they swear falsely."

They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

Shouldn't I punish them for these things?" says the LORD; "and shouldn't my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.

"Shall I not punish for these things?" says the LORD. "Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Pass your hand again as a grape gatherer into the baskets."

Thus says the LORD, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." But they said, "We will not walk in it."

Hear, earth. 'Behold, I will bring disaster on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.'"

"We have heard its report; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor.

"Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes. Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us."

therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

I listened and heard, but they did not speak what is right: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

"They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me," says the LORD.

Shall I not visit them for these things?" says the LORD; "shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

Speak, 'Thus says the LORD, "The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather them."'"

that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey," as at this day.'" Then I answered, and said, "Amen, LORD."

My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.

Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.

It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, "As the LORD lives;" even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.

So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.