Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors
for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.
5Let me sing of my well-beloved,A song of my beloved touching his vineyard.My well-beloved had a vineyardIn a very fruitful hill;2And he digged it, and cleared it of stones,And planted it with the choicest vine,And built a tower in the midst of it,And also hewed out a vat therein;And he looked that it should bring forth grapes,And it brought forth wild grapes. 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.4What could have been done more to my vineyard,That I have not done in it?Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,Brought it forth wild grapes? 5And now come, I will tell youWhat I will do to my vineyard:I will take away the hedge thereof,And it shall be eaten up;I will break down the fence thereof,And it shall be trodden down;6And I will lay it waste:It shall not be pruned nor hoed,But there shall come up briers and thorns;I will also command the cloudsThat they rain no rain upon it. 7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,And the men of Judah the plant of His delight;And He looked for justice, but behold violence;For righteousness, but behold a cry. 8Woe unto them that join house to house,That lay field to field,Till there be no room, and ye be made to dwellAlone in the midst of the land!9In mine ears said the Lord of hosts:Of a truth many houses shall be desolate,Even great and fair, without inhabitant.10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,And the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah. 11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,That they may follow strong drink;That tarry late into the night,Till wine inflame them!12And the harp and the psaltery, the tabret and the pipe,And wine, are in their feasts;But they regard not the work of the Lord,Neither have they considered the operation of His hands.13Therefore My people are gone into captivity,For want of knowledge;And their honourable men are famished,And their multitude are parched with thirst.14Therefore the nether-world hath enlarged her desire,And opened her mouth without measure;And down goeth their glory, and their tumult, and their uproar,And he that rejoiceth among them.15And man is bowed down,And man is humbled,And the eyes of the lofty are humbled;
16But the Lord of hosts is exalted through justice,
And God the Holy One is sanctified through righteousness.17Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture,And the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat. 18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,And sin as it were with a cart rope,19That say: 'Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work,That we may see it;And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come,That we may know it!' 20Woe unto them that call evil good,And good evil;That change darkness into light,And light into darkness;That change bitter into sweet,And sweet into bitter! 21Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,And prudent in their own sight! 22Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine,And men of strength to mingle strong drink;23That justify the wicked for a reward,And take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!24Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble,And as the chaff is consumed in the flame,So their root shall be as rottenness,And their blossom shall go up as dust;Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,And contemned the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people,And He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them,And the hills did tremble,And their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.For all this His anger is not turned away,But His hand is stretched out still. 26And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth;And, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly;27None shall be weary nor stumble among them;None shall slumber nor sleep;Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken;28Whose arrows are sharp,And all their bows bent;Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint,And their wheels like a whirlwind;29Their roaring shall be like a lion,They shall roar like young lions, yea, they shall roar,And lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe,And there shall be none to deliver.30And they shall roar against them in that dayLike the roaring of the sea;And if one look unto the land,Behold darkness and distress,And the light is darkened in the skies thereof.
6In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2Above Him stood the seraphim; each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3And one called unto another, and said:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;The whole earth is full of His glory.
4And the posts of the door were moved at the voice of them that called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then said I:
Woe is me! for I am undone;Because I am a man of unclean lips,And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;For mine eyes have seen the King,The Lord of hosts.
6Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, with a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; 7and he touched my mouth with it, and said:
Lo, this hath touched thy lips;And thine iniquity is taken away,And thy sin expiated.
8And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
Whom shall I send,And who will go for us?
Then I said: 'Here am I; send me.' 9And He said: 'Go, and tell this people:
Hear ye indeed, but understand not;And see ye indeed, but perceive not.10Make the heart of this people fat,And make their ears heavy,And shut their eyes;Lest they, seeing with their eyes,And hearing with their ears,And understanding with their heart,Rreturn, and be healed.'
11Then said I: 'Lord, how long?' And He answered:
'Until cities be waste without inhabitant,And houses without man,And the land become utterly waste,12And the Lord have removed men far away,And the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.
13And if there be yet a tenth in it, it shall again be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the stock thereof.'
7And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it; but could not prevail against it. 2And it was told the house of David, saying: 'Aram is confederate with Ephraim.' And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind.
3Then said the Lord unto Isaiah: 'Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and 1Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers' field; 4and say unto him: Keep calm, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah. 5Because Aram hath counselled evil against thee, Ephraim also, and the son of Remaliah, saying: 6Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel; 7thus saith the Lord God:
It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.8For the head of Aram is Damascus,And the head of Damascus is Rezin;And within threescore and five yearsShall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people;9And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,And the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.If ye will not have faith, surely ye shall not be established.'
10And the Lord spoke again unto Ahaz, saying: 11'Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God: ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.' 12But Ahaz said: 'I will not ask, neither will I try the Lord.' 13And he said: 'Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name 2Immanuel. 15Curd