Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors
in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. 28Woe 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 fat valley of them that are smitten down with wine!2Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one,As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,As a storm of mighty waters overflowing,That casteth down to the earth with violence.3The crown of pride of the drunkards of EphraimShall be trodden under foot;4And the fading flower of his glorious beauty,Which is on the head of the fat valley,Shall be as the first-ripe fig before the summer,Which when one looketh upon it,While it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. 5In that day shall the Lord of hosts beFor a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty,Unto the residue of His people;6And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,And for strength to them that turn back the battle at the gate. 7But these also reel through wine,And stagger through strong drink;The priest and the prophet reel through strong drink,They are confused because of wine,They stagger because of strong drink;They reel in vision, they totter in judgment.8For all tables are full of filthy vomit,And no place is clean. 9Whom shall one teach knowledge?And whom shall one make to understand the message?Them that are weaned from the milk,Them that are drawn from the breasts?10For it is precept by precept, precept by precept,Line by line, line by line;Here a little, there a little.11For with stammering lips and with a strange tongueShall it be spoken to this people;12To whom it was said: 'This is the rest,Give ye rest to the weary;And this is the refreshing';Yet they would not hear.13And so the word of the Lord is unto themPrecept by precept, precept by precept,Line by line, line by line;Here a little, there a little;That they may go, and fall backward, and be broken,And snared, and taken. 14Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scoffers,The ballad-mongers of this people which is in Jerusalem:15Because ye have said: 'We have made a covenant with death,And with the nether-world are we at agreement;When the scouring scourge shall pass through,It shall not come unto us;For we have made lies our refuge,And in falsehood have we hid ourselves';16Therefore thus saith the Lord God:Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,A tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation;He that believeth shall not make haste.17And I will make justice the line,And righteousness the plummet;And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,And the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,And your agreement with the nether-world shall not stand;When the scouring scourge shall pass through,Then ye shall be trodden down by it.19As often as it passeth through, it shall take you;For morning by morning shall it pass through,By day and by night;And it shall be sheer terror to understand the message.20For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself;And the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up.21For the Lord will rise up as in mount Perazim,He will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon;That He may do His work, strange is His work,And bring to pass His act, strange is His act.22Now therefore be ye not scoffers,Lest your bands be made strong;For an extermination wholly determined have I heard from the Lord, the God of hosts,Upon the whole land. 23Give ye ear, and hear my voice;Attend, and hear my speech.24Is the plowman never done with plowing to sow,With the opening and harrowing of his ground?25When he hath made plain the face thereof,Doth he not cast abroad the black cummin, and scatter the cummin,And put in the wheat in rows and the barley in the appointed placeAnd the spelt in the border thereof?26For He doth instruct him aright;His God doth teach him.27For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing-sledge,Neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin;But the black cummin is beaten out with a staff,And the cummin with a rod.28Is bread corn crushed?Nay, he will not ever be threshing it;And though the roller of his wagon and its sharp edges move noisily,He doth not crush it.29This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts:Wonderful is His counsel, and great His wisdom.29Ah, 6Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!Add ye year to year,Let the feasts come round!2Then will I distress Ariel,And there shall be mourning and moaning;And she shall be unto Me as a hearth of God.3And I will encamp against thee round about,And will lay siege against thee with a mound,And I will raise siege works against thee.4And brought down thou shalt speak out of the ground,And thy speech shall be low out of the dust;And thy voice shall be as of a ghost out of the ground,And thy speech shall chirp out of the dust.5But the multitude of thy foes shall be like small dust,And the multitude of the terrible ones as chaff that passeth away;Yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly—6There shall be a visitation from the Lord of hostsWith thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise,With whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.7And the multitude of all the nations that war against Ariel,Even all that war against her, and the bulwarks about her, and they that distress her,Shall be as a dream, a vision of the night.8And it shall be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth,But he awaketh, and his soul is empty;Or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh,But he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite—So shall the multitude of all the nations be,That fight against mount Zion. 9Stupefy yourselves, and be stupid!Blind yourselves, and be blind!Ye that are drunken, but not with wine,That stagger, but not with strong drink.10For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,And hath closed your eyes;The prophets, and your heads, the seers, hath He covered.
11And the vision of all this is become unto you as the words of a writing that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying: 'Read this, I pray thee'; and he saith: 'I cannot, for it is sealed'; 12and the writing is delivered to him that is not learned, saying: 'Read this, I pray thee'; and he saith: 'I am not learned.'
13And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near,And with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me,But have removed their heart far from Me,And their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;14Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvellous work among this people,Even a marvellous work and a wonder;And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,And the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid. 15Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord,And their works are in the dark,And they say: 'Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?'16O your perversity!Shall the potter be esteemed as clay;That the thing made should say of him that made it: 'He made me not';Or the thing framed say of him that framed it: 'He hath no understanding?'17Is it not yet a very little while,And Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,And the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?18And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of a book,And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.19The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,And the neediest among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20For the terrible one is brought to nought,And the scorner ceaseth,And all they that watch for iniquity are cut off;21That make a man an offender by words,And lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate,And turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
22Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
Jacob shall not now be ashamed,Neither shall his face now wax pale;23When he seeth his children, the work of My hands, in the midst of him,That they sanctify My name;Yea, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,And shall stand in awe of the God of Israel.24They also that err in spirit shall come to understanding,And they that murmur shall learn instruction. 30Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,That take counsel, but not of Me;And that form projects, but not of My spirit,That they may add sin to sin;2That walk to go down into Egypt,And have not asked at My mouth;To take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh,And to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt!3Therefore shall the stronghold of Pharaoh turn to your shame,And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your confusion.4For his princes are at Zoan,And his ambassadors are come to Hanes.5They shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit them,That are not a help nor profit,But a shame, and also a reproach.
6The burden of the beasts of the South.
Through the land of trouble and anguish,From whence come the lioness and the lion,The viper and flying serpent,They carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses,And their treasures