Is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we Jehovah

been in thy sight, O LORD.

We have been with child, we have been in pain,
We have as it were brought forth wind;

We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth;
Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead men shall live,

Together with my dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust:
For thy dew is as the dew of herbs,

And the earth shall cast out the dead.
Come, my people,

Enter thou into thy chambers,

And shut thy doors about thee:

Hide thyself as it were for a little moment,

Until the indignation be overpast.

For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:
The earth also shall disclose her blood,

And shall no more cover her slain.

* In that day the LORD

With his sore and great and strong sword
Shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent,
Even leviathan that crooked serpent;

And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
In that day sing ye unto her,

A vineyard of red wine.

I the LORD do keep it ;

the

Avenger of
Iniquity

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IO

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The I will water it every moment:

Restora- Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

tion of Fury is not in me:

Israel Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle?

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I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me;

And he shall make peace with me.

10 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take

root:

Israel shall blossom and bud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.
Hath he smitten him,

15 As he smote those that smote him?

Or is he slain according to the slaughter
Of them that are slain by him?

In measure, when it shooteth forth,
Thou wilt debate with it:

20 He stayeth his rough wind

In the day of the east wind.

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged;
And this is all the fruit to take away his sin;
When he maketh all the stones of the altar
25 As chalkstones that are beaten in sunder,
The groves and images shall not stand up.
Yet the defenced city shall be desolate,

And the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness :
There shall the calf feed,

And there shall he lie down, and consume the branches Doom

thereof.

of the

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be Drunkards

broken off:

The women come, and set them on fire:

For it is a people of no understanding:

Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them,

And he that formed them will shew them no favour.

of Ephraim

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 10 LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come 15 which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

* Woe to the crown of pride,
To the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,
Which are on the head of the fat valleys
Of them that are overcome with wine!

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one,
Which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
As a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
Shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,

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The Shall be trodden under feet:

Degeneracy And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the of Judah

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fat valley,

Shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before

the summer;

Which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it

is yet in his hand he eateth it up.

In that day shall the LORD of hosts be

For a crown of glory,

10 And for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

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And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,

And for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

But they also have erred through wine,

And through strong drink are out of the way;

The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,

They are swallowed up of wine,

They are out of the way through strong drink
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness,
So that there is no place clean.

25 Whom shall he teach knowledge?

;

And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk,

And drawn from the breasts.

For precept must be upon precept,

Precept upon precept;

Line upon line, line upon line ;

Here a little, and there a little :

The

Warn

ing to

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For with stammering lips and another tongue will he Jerusalem

speak to this people.

To whom he said, This is the rest

Wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest;
And this is the refreshing:

Yet they would not hear.

But the word of the LORD was unto them
Precept upon precept,

Precept upon precept;

Line upon line, line upon line ;

Here a little, and there a little;

That they might go, and fall backward,

And be broken, and snared, and taken.

Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scorn

ful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said,

We have made a covenant with death,

And with hell are we at agreement;

When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
It shall not come unto us:

For we have made lies our refuge,

And under falsehood have we hid ourselves :
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation

A stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:

ΤΟ

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