Part 485 (1/2)

38:15. What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

38:16. O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.

38:17. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

38:18. For h.e.l.l shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.

38:19. The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make the truth known to the children.

38:20. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

38:21. Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.

38:22. And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

Isaias Chapter 39

Ezechias shews all his treasures to the amba.s.sadors of Babylon: upon which Isaias foretells the Babylonish captivity.

39:1. At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered.

39:2. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not.

39:3. Then Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon.

39:4. And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures.

39:5. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.

39:6. Behold the days shall come that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall not any thing be left, saith the Lord.

39:7. And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

39:8. And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which he hath spoken, is good. And he said: Only let peace and truth be in my days.

Isaias Chapter 40

The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins. G.o.d's almighty power and majesty.

40:1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your G.o.d.

40:2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

40:3. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our G.o.d.

40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.

40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

40:6. The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is gra.s.s, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.