1188 ISAIAH XLVII—THE DAUGHTER OF BABYLON 3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. 4 As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. 6¶I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. 7 ¶ And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. 8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: 9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. 10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. 11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. 12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. 14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. 15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee. Chapter 48 1 God, to convince the people of their foreknown obstinacy, revealed his prophecies. 9 He saveth them for his own sake. 12 He exhorteth them to obedience, because of his power and providence.16 He lamenteth their backward20 He powerfully delivereth his people out of Babylon. ness. EAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. Solomon Searches Life BY A. D. RAHN, A CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ARTIST. + "I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.”—Eccl., 2, 8. A FTER that despairing introduction, the preacher goes into details of the experiences through which he has reached it. "I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem": and first he had tried knowledge, but found that all its vastness could not satisfy his heart. So he turned to lighter things: "I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and behold, this also is vanity. "I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life." Since pleasure palled, he experimented with power, he gathered wealth, sent out armies, compelled the kings of earth to bow before him, "So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me." Next he plunged into reckless folly; but this also proved as ashes. So he writes it as his judgment that "wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness"; yet even for wisdom is there little earthly value or reward, since death comes to all. "As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise ?" |