Part 487 (1/2)
42:14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and swallow up at once.
42:15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their gra.s.s to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools.
42:16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them.
42:17. They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our G.o.d.
42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may see.
42:19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind, but the servant of the Lord?
42:20. Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?
42:21. And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and exalt it.
42:22. But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore.
42:23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend and hearken for times to come?
42:24. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law.
42:25. And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and a strong battle, and hath burnt him round about, and he knew not: and set him on fire, and he understood not.
Isaias Chapter 43
G.o.d comforts his church, promising to protect her for ever: he expostulates with the Jews for their ingrat.i.tude.
43:1. And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine.
43:2. When thou shalt pa.s.s through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee:
43:3. For I am the Lord thy G.o.d, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia and Saba for thee.
43:4. Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.
43:5. Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.
43:6. I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south: Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
43:7. And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, and made him.
43:8. Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes: that are deaf, and have ears.
43:9. All the nations are a.s.sembled together, and the tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say: It is truth.
43:10. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me, and understand that I myself am. Before me there was no G.o.d formed, and after me there shall be none.
43:11. I am, I am the Lord: and there is no saviour besides me.
43:12. I have declared, and have saved. I have made it heard, and there was no strange one among you. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am G.o.d.