Beginning

31 Woe to them that go down into Egypt to help, and hope in horses, and have trust on carts, for they be many, and on knights, for they be full strong; and they trust not on the Holy of Israel, and they sought not the Lord. (Woe to them who go down to Egypt for help, and hope in horses, and have trust in chariots, for they be so many, and in horsemen, for they be so strong; but they trust not in the Holy One of Israel, and they sought not the Lord.)

² Forsooth he that is wise, hath brought evil, and took not away his words; and he shall rise altogether against the house of worst men, and against the help of them that work wickedness. (For the Lord is wise, and he hath brought evil, or trouble, and did not take back his words; he shall rise up against the house of evil people, and against the help of those who work wickedness.)

³ Egypt is a man, and not God; and the horses of them be flesh, and not spirit; and the Lord shall bow down his hand, and (both) the helper shall fall down, and (also) he shall fall, to whom help is given, and (they) all shall be wasted together,

⁴ For why the Lord saith these things to me, If a lion roareth, and a whelp of a lion on his prey, when the multitude of shepherds cometh against him, he shall not dread of the voice of them, and he shall not dread of the multitude of them; so the Lord of hosts shall come down, for to fight on the mountain of Zion, and on the little hill thereof. (For the Lord saith these things to me, Like a lion, or the whelp of a lion, roareth over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds cometh against him, and he shall not fear their voice, and he shall not fear their multitude, so the Lord of hosts shall come down, to fight for Mount Zion, and for its hill, or for its summit.)

⁵ As birds flying (over their nests), so the Lord of hosts shall defend Jerusalem; he defending and delivering, passing forth and saving (he defending it, shall rescue it, and hovering over it, he shall save it).

⁶ Ye sons of Israel, be converted, as ye had gone away into depth. (Ye Israelites, turn back to me, ye who have gone so far away from me.)

⁷ Forsooth in that day a man shall cast away the idols of his silver, and the idols of his gold, which your hands made to you into sin. (For on that day everyone shall throw away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which your hands made for you to sin with.)

⁸ And Assur shall fall by sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee, not from the face of sword, and his young men shall be tributaries; (And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, but not by the sword of a man; yea, a sword, but not a man’s sword, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the face of the sword, and his young men shall be slaves, or shall be put to forced labour;)

⁹ and the strength of him shall pass from fearedfulness, and his princes fleeing shall dread. The Lord said, whose fire is in Zion, and his chimney is in Jerusalem. (and his strength shall pass away because of fearfulness, and his fleeing leaders shall have great fear. Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerusalem.)

32 Lo! the king shall reign in rightfulness, and the princes shall be sovereigns in doom. (Lo! the king shall reign with righteousness, and the leaders shall rule with justice.)

² And a man shall be, as he that is hid from [the] wind, and hideth himself from tempest; as streams of waters in thirst (like streams of water in thirst), and (like) the shadow of a stone standing far out in a desert land.

³ The eyes of seers, that is, prophets, shall not dim, and the ears of hearers shall harken diligently;

⁴ and the heart of fools shall understand knowing, and the tongue of stuttering men shall speak swiftly, and plainly.

⁵ He that is unwise shall no more be called prince, and a guileful man shall not be called the greater. (He who is unwise shall no more be called a leader, and the deceitful shall no more be called great, or honourable.)

⁶ Forsooth a fool shall speak folly things, and his heart shall do wickedness, that he perform feigning, and speak to the Lord guilefully (so that he act falsely, and speak deceitfully, even to the Lord); and he shall make void the soul of an hungry man, and shall take away drink from a thirsty man.

⁷ The vessels of a guileful man be worst; for he shall make ready thoughts to lose mild men in the word of a lie, (even) when a poor man spake doom. (The ways of the deceitful be the worst, or evil; they have thoughts to destroy the meek, or the humble, with lies, even when the poor speak justly, or rightly.)

⁸ Forsooth a prince shall think those things that be worthy to a prince, and he shall stand over dukes.

⁹ Rich women, rise ye (up), and hear my voice; daughters trusting, perceive ye with ears my speech (trusting daughters, listen to what I have to say).

¹⁰ For why after days and a year, and ye that trust shall be troubled; for why [the] vintage is ended, (the) gathering shall no more come (there shall be no more grapes to gather in).

¹¹ Ye rich women, be astonied; ye that trust, be troubled (Ye rich women, be astonished; ye who be so trusting, be troubled); unclothe ye you, and be ye ashamed; gird your loins;

¹² wail ye on breasts, on the desirable country(side), on the plenteous vinery. (beat ye your breasts, and wail ye, for the desirable land, and for the plentiful vines.)

¹³ Thorns and briars shall ascend on the earth of my people; how much more on all the houses of joy of the city making full out joy? (Thorns and briars shall grow on the land of my people, and how much more in all the houses of joy, in the city making full out joy?)

¹⁴ For why the house is left, the multitude of the city is forsaken; darknesses and groping be made on [the] dens, till into without end. The joy of wild asses is the pasture of flocks; (For the palace is left empty, and all the city is deserted; darkness and groping be made on the glens forever. The place of joy for the wild donkeys is now the pasture for flocks;)

¹⁵ till the spirit be shed out on us from on high, and the desert shall be into Carmel, and Carmel shall be areckoned into a forest. (until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness shall be turned into a plentiful land, and the plentiful land shall reckoned as a forest.)

¹⁶ And doom shall dwell in wilderness, and rightfulness shall sit in Carmel; (And justice, or judgement, shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness shall be in the plentiful land;)

¹⁷ and the work of rightfulness shall be peace, and the tilth of rightfulness shall be stillness and secureness, till into without end. (and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the fruit, or the harvest, of righteousness shall be peace and security forever.)

¹⁸ And my people shall sit in the fairness of peace, and in the tabernacles of trust, and in rich rest.

¹⁹ But hail shall be in the coming down of the forest, and by lowness the city shall be made low (and the city shall be made low in a low place).

²⁰ Blessed be ye, that sow on all waters, and send in the foot of an ox and of an ass. (Blessed be ye, who sow by all the waters, yea, send in there the foot of an ox and the foot of a donkey.)

33 Woe to thee, that robbest; whether and thou shalt not be robbed? and that despisest, whether and thou shalt not be despised? (Woe to thee, who robbest; shalt thou not be robbed? and who despisest, shalt thou not be despised?) When thou hast ended robbing, thou shalt be robbed; and when thou made weary ceasest to despise, thou shalt be despised.

² Lord, have thou mercy on us, for we abided thee; be thou our arm in the morrowtide, and our health in the time of tribulation. (Lord, have thou mercy on us, for we have waited for thee; be thou our protection in the morning, and our deliverance, or our salvation, in the time of tribulation.)

³ Peoples fled from the voice of the angel; heathen men be scattered of thine enhancing. (The peoples shall flee from the roar of thy thunder; the heathen shall be scattered at thy exalting, or at thy lifting up.)

⁴ And your spoils shall be gathered together, as a bruchus, that is, (the) fruit of locusts, is gathered together, as when ditches be full thereof. (And their spoils shall be gathered up, like the gathering of the bruchi, that is, the fruit of the locusts, when the ditches be full of them.)

⁵ The Lord is magnified, for he dwelled on high, he filled Zion with doom and rightfulness (he filled Zion with justice, or judgement, and righteousness).

⁶ And faith shall be in thy times; the riches of health is wisdom and knowing; the dread of the Lord, that is the treasure of him. (And faith shall be in thy times; wisdom and knowledge be the riches of salvation, or of deliverance; the fear of the Lord is thy treasure.)

⁷ Lo! the seers withoutforth shall cry, [the] angels of peace shall weep bitterly. (Lo! the brave shall cry outside, or aloud, the messengers of peace shall weep bitterly.)

⁸ [The] Ways be destroyed, a goer by the path ceased; the covenant is made void, he casted down [the] cities, he areckoned not men.

⁹ The land mourned, and was sick; the Lebanon was shamed, and was foul; and Sharon is made as desert, and Bashan is shaken, and Carmel. (The land mourned, and was sick; Lebanon was shamed, and defiled; and Sharon is made a desert, or a wilderness, and Bashan, and Carmel, be shaken bare.)

¹⁰ Now I shall rise (up), saith the Lord, now I shall be enhanced (now I shall be exalted), and now I shall be raised up.

¹¹ Ye shall conceive heat, ye shall bring forth stubble; your spirit, as fire, shall devour you. (Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble; your spirit, like a fire, shall devour you.)

¹² And peoples shall be as ashes of the burning; thorns gathered together shall be burnt in fire. (And the peoples, or the nations, shall be like the ashes from burning; yea, like thorns gathered together that be burned in the fire.)

¹³ Ye that be far (Ye who be far away), hear what things I have done; and, ye neighbours, know my strength.

¹⁴ Sinners be all-broken in Zion, trembling wielded (the) hypocrites; who of you may dwell with fire devouring? who of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? (The sinners in Zion be all-broken, fear and trembling held the hypocrites; who of you can live with devouring fire? who of you can live with everlasting burning?)

¹⁵ He that goeth in rightfulnesses, and speaketh truth; he that casteth away (the) avarice of false challenge, and shaketh away his hands from all gift(s), (or bribes); he that stoppeth his ears, that he hear not (of) blood, and closeth his eyes, that he see not evil.

¹⁶ This man shall dwell in high things, the strongholds of stones be the highness of him; bread is given to him, his waters be faithful. (This man shall live in the heights, yea, the strongholds of stones be his high places of safety; bread is given to him, his water never faileth, that is, it is always plentiful.)

¹⁷ They shall see the king in (all) his fairness; the eyes of him shall behold the land from [a]far.

¹⁸ Eliakim, thine heart shall bethink dread; where is the lettered man? Where is he that weigheth the words of the law? where is the teacher of little children? (Thy heart shall remember what thou feared, and thou shalt ask, Now where is he who counted? where is he who weighed? yea, where is he who counted out the treasures?)

¹⁹ Thou shalt not see a people unwise, a people of deep word, so that thou mayest not understand the fair speaking of his tongue, in which people is no wisdom. (Thou shalt no longer see a fierce people, a people of deep words, those whom thou cannot understand the strange speaking of their tongues, in which people there is no wisdom.)

²⁰ Behold thou Zion, the city of your solemnity (Behold thou Zion, the city of our solemn, or our sacred, feasts); thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich city, a tabernacle that may not be borne over, neither the nails thereof shall be taken away without end; and all the cords thereof shall not be broken.

²¹ For only the worshipful doer, our Lord God, is there; the place of floods is strands full large and open (a place of very large rivers and wide streams); the ship of rowers shall not enter by it, neither a great ship shall pass over (to) it.

²² For why the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he shall save us.

²³ Thy ropes be slacked, but those shall not avail; thy mast shall be so, that thou may not alarge a sign. Then the spoils of many preys shall be parted, crooked men shall ravish (the) raven. (Thy ropes be slackened, and so they cannot hold thy masts firm, and thou shalt not be able to spread the sails. Then the spoils of many preys shall be divided, and even the lame shall share in the taking.)

²⁴ And a neighbour shall say, I was not sick; (and for) the people that dwelleth in that Jerusalem, wickedness shall be taken away from it. (And no one there shall say, I am sick; and for the people who liveth in that Jerusalem, their wickednesses, that is, their sins, shall be taken away.)

34 Nigh, ye heathen men, to hear; ye peoples, perceive; the earth, and the fullness thereof, the world, and all burgeoning thereof, hear ye. (Come near, or come close, ye heathen, to listen; ye peoples, understand; let the earth, and its fullness, the world, and all its burgeoning, listen.)

² For why [the] indignation of the Lord is on all folks, and strong vengeance on all the chivalry of them; he killed them, and gave them into slaying. (For the anger of the Lord is against all the nations, and his strong vengeance is against all their cavalry, or all their armies; he killed them, and gave them unto destruction.)

³ The slain men of them shall be cast forth, and stink shall ascend of the carrions of them; [the] hills shall flow of the blood of them. (Their dead shall be thrown forth, and the stink shall go up from their corpses; the hills shall flow with their blood.)

⁴ And all the chivalry of (the) heavens shall fail, and (the) heavens shall be folded together as a book, and all the knighthood of those shall float down, as the leaf of a vinery and of a fig tree falleth down. (And all the host of heaven shall fail, and the heavens shall be folded up like a book, and all their host shall float down like the leaf of a vine, and like the fig of a fig tree, that falleth down.)

⁵ For my sword is filled in heaven; lo! it shall come down on Idumea, and on the people of my slaying, to doom. (For my sword is made ready in heaven; lo! it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people whom I will kill, for their doom/in judgement.)

⁶ The sword of the Lord is filled of blood, it is made fat of the inner fatness of the blood of lambs and of bucks of goats, of the blood of rams full of marrow (The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, and it is made fat with inner fatness, yea, with the blood of lambs and of goat bucks, and with the fat from the kidneys of rams); for why the slain sacrifice of the Lord is in Bozrah, and great slaying is in the land of Edom.

⁷ And unicorns shall go down with them, and bulls with them that be mighty (And wild oxen shall go down with them, and bulls with other mighty beasts); the land of them shall be filled with blood, and the earth of them with [the] inner fatness of fat beasts;

⁸ for it is a day of vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding of the doom of Zion. (for it is a day of the vengeance of the Lord, a year of yielding the justice, or the judgement, of Zion.)

⁹ And the strands thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the earth thereof into brimstone; and the land thereof shall be into burning pitch, night and day. (And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone; yea, its land shall become burning pitch, day and night.)

¹⁰ It shall not be quenched without end, the smoke thereof shall go up from generation into generation, and it shall be desolate into worlds of worlds; none shall pass thereby.

¹¹ And (an) onocrotalus, and an urchin, shall wield it; and a capret, and a crow shall dwell therein; and a measure shall be stretched forth thereon, that it be driven (in)to nought, and an hanging plummet into desolation.

¹² The noble men thereof shall not be there; rather they shall call the king into help, and all the princes thereof shall be into nought. (They shall call for its noble men to rule the kingdom, but no one shall be there; and all its leaders shall come to nothing.)

¹³ And thorns and nettles shall grow in the houses thereof, and a teasel in the strongholds thereof; and it shall be the couch of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

¹⁴ And fiends, and wonderful beasts, like men in the higher part, and like asses in the nether part, and an hairy, shall meet; one shall cry to another. Lamia shall lie there, and find rest there to herself; (And fiends, and wonderful beasts, like men in the higher part, and like donkeys in the lower part, and hairy all over, shall meet; and one shall cry to the other. The lamia shall lie down there, and shall find rest there for herself;)

¹⁵ there an urchin had ditches, and nourished out whelps (there a hedge-hog had dens, and nourished whelps), and digged about, and fostered in the shadow thereof; there kites were gathered together, one to another.

¹⁶ Seek ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read ye; one of those things failed not, one sought not (in vain for) another; for he commanded that thing, that goeth forth of my mouth, and his spirit, he gathered them together. (Seek ye diligently in the Book of the Lord, and read ye; not one of them shall fail, not one shall seek in vain for another; for he hath commanded it with his mouth, and with his breath, he hath brought them together.)

¹⁷ And he sent to them (the) heritage (And he gave them their inheritance), and his hand parted it in measure; till into without end they shall wield that land, in generation and into generation they shall dwell therein.

35 The forsaken Judah and (the place) without (a) way shall be glad, and [the] wilderness shall make full out joy, and shall flower as a lily (The deserted Judah and the place without a way shall be happy, and the desert shall rejoice, and shall flower like a lily.)

² It burgeoning shall burgeon, and it glad and praising shall make full out joy. The glory of Lebanon is given to it, the fairness of Carmel and of Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the fairness of our God.

³ Comfort ye [the] clumsid hands (Strengthen ye the benumbed hands), and make ye strong [the] feeble knees.

⁴ Say ye, Men of little comfort, be ye comforted, and do not ye dread; lo! our God shall bring the vengeance of yielding, God himself shall come, and shall save us. (Say ye, People of little courage, be ye strengthened, and do not ye fear; lo! our God shall bring the vengeance of punishment, or of retribution, God himself shall come, and shall save us.)

⁵ Then the eyes of blind men shall be opened, and the ears of deaf men shall be open(ed). (Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened.)

⁶ Then a crooked man shall skip as an hart, and the tongue of dumb men shall be opened (Then the lame shall skip like a hart, and the tongues of the dumb shall be loosened, or shall be freed); for why waters be broken out in (the) desert, and streams in (the) wilderness.

⁷ And that that was dry, is made into a pond, and the thirsty is made into wells of waters. [The] Greenness of [the] reed, and of [the] spire shall grow in [the] dens, in which dwelled dragons before (where jackals lived before).

⁸ And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called an holy way, (and) he that is defouled shall not pass thereby; and this shall be a straight way to you, so that fools err not thereby (but this shall be a strait, or a narrow, way for you, and fools shall not go astray there).

⁹ A lion shall not be there, and an evil beast shall not ascend thereby, neither shall be found there. And they shall go, that be delivered (But they who be rescued, shall go there);

¹⁰ and (those) again-bought of the Lord; and they shall be converted, and shall come into Zion with praising (and those bought back, or redeemed, by the Lord, shall return, and shall come into Zion with praising); and everlasting gladness shall be on the head(s) of them; they shall have joy and gladness, and sorrow and wailing shall flee away.