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.
43:13. And from the beginning I am the same, and there is none that can deliver out of my hind: I will work, and who shall turn it away?
43:14. Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships.
43:15. I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
43:16. Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.
43:17. Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are extinct.
43:18. Remember not former things, and look not on things of old.
43:19. Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring forth, verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
43:20. The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen.
43:21. This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise.
43:22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither hast thou laboured about me, O Israel.
43:23. Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with incense.
43:24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities.
43:25. I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
43:26. Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.
43:27. Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
43:28. And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach.
Isaias Chapter 44
G.o.d"s favour to his church. The folly of idolatry. The people shall be delivered from captivity.
44:1. And now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.
44:2. Thus saith the Lord that made and formed thee, thy helper from the womb: Fear not, O my servant Jacob, and thou most righteous whom I have chosen.
44:3. For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land: I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy stock.
44:4. And they shall spring up among the herbs, as willows beside the running waters.
44:5. One shall say: I am the Lord"s, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand, To the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
44:6. Thus saith the Lord the king of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no G.o.d.