17:11. In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee much.
17:12. Woe to the mult.i.tude of many people, like the mult.i.tude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters.
The mult.i.tude, etc... This and all that follows to the end of the chapter, relates to the a.s.syrian army under Sennacherib.
17:13. Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing, but he shall rebuke him, and he shall flee far off: and he shall be carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a tempest.
17:14. In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us.
Isaias Chapter 18
A woe to the Ethiopians, who fed Israel with vain hopes, their future conversion.
18:1. Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
18:2. That sendeth amba.s.sadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
Angels... Or messengers.
18:3. All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet.
18:4. For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest, and consider in my place, as the noon light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.
18:5. For before the harvest it was all flourishing, and it shall bud without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof shall be cut off with pruning hooks: and what is left shall be cut away and shaken out.
18:6. And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall be upon them all the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
18:7. At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts, from a people rent and torn in pieces: from a terrible people, after which there hath been no other: from a nation expecting, expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to mount Sion.
Isaias Chapter 19
The punishment of Egypt: their call to the church.
19:1. The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof.
19:2. And I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians: and they shall fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
19:3. And the spirit of Egypt shall be broken in the bowels thereof, and I will cast down their counsel: and they shall consult their idols, and their diviners, and their wizards, and soothsayers.
19:4. And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord the G.o.d of hosts.
19:5. And the water of the sea shall be dried up, and the river shall be wasted and dry.
19:6. And the rivers shall fail: the streams of the banks shall be diminished, and be dried up. The reed and the bulrush shall wither away.
19:7. The channel of the river shall be laid bare from its fountain, and every thing sown by the water shall be dried up, it shall wither away, and shall be no more.
19:8. The fishers also shall mourn, and all that cast a hook into the river shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish away.
19:9. They shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving fine linen.
19:10. And its watery places shall be dry, all they shall mourn that made pools to take fishes.
19:11. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the wise counsellors of Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will you say to Pharao: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
19:12. Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and shew what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
19:13. The princes of Tanis are become fools, the princes of Memphis are gone astray, they have deceived Egypt, the stay of the people thereof.
19:14. The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the spirit of giddiness: and they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunken man staggereth and vomiteth.
19:15. And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head or tail, him that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.
19:16. In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and they shall be amazed, and afraid, because of the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move over it.
19:17. And the land of Juda shall be a terror to Egypt: everyone that shall remember it shall tremble because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined concerning it.
19:18. In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of the sun.
19:19. In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof:
19:20. It shall be for a sign, and for a testimony to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and he shall send them a Saviour and a defender to deliver them.
19:21. And the Lord shall be known by Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship him with sacrifices and offerings: and they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.
19:22. And the Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge, and shall heal it, and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be pacified towards them, and heal them.
19:23. In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the a.s.syrians, and the a.s.syrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the a.s.syrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the a.s.syrian.
19:24. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the a.s.syrian: a blessing in the midst of the land,
19:25. Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to the a.s.syrian: but Israel is my inheritance.
Isaias Chapter 20
The ignominious captivity of the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians.
20:1. In the year that Tharthan entered into Azotus, when Sargon the king of the a.s.syrians had sent him, and he had fought against Azotus, and had taken it:
20:2. At that same time the Lord spoke by the hand of Isaias the son of Amos, saying Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, and went naked, and barefoot.
20:3. And the Lord said: As my servant Isaias hath walked, naked and barefoot, it shall be a sign and a wonder of three years upon Egypt, and upon Ethiopia,
20:4. So shall the king of the a.s.syrians lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their b.u.t.tocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt.
20:5. And they shall be afraid, and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope, and of Egypt their glory.
20:6. And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day: Lo this was our hope, to whom we fled for help, to deliver us from the face of the king of the a.s.syrians: and how shall we be able to escape?