THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH
THE COMING OF THE CHRIST
And there must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout will be fruitful. And upon him the spirit of God must settle down, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of mightiness, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God.
And he will not judge by any mere appearance to his eyes, nor reprove simply according to the thing heard by his ears. And with righteousness he will judge the lowly ones, and with uprightness he must give reproof on behalf of the meek ones of the earth. And he must strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips he will put the wicked one to death. And righteousness must prove to be the belt of his hips, and faithfulness the belt of his loins; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters are covering the very sea.
And it must occur on that day that there will be the root of Jesse that will be standing up as a signal for the peoples. To him even the nations will turn inquiringly, and his resting place must become glorious.
And it must occur on that day that God will again offer his hand, a second time, to aquire the remnant of his people. And he will certainly raise up a signal for the nations and gather the dispersed ones; and the scattered ones he will collect together from the four extremities of the earth. With exultation you people will be certain to draw water out of the springs of salvation. And on that day you will certainly say: "Give thanks to God, you people! Call upon his name. Make known among the peoples his dealings. Make mention that his name is put on high. Make melody to God, for he has done surpassingly. This is made known in all the earth. For the oppressor has reached his end; the despoiling has terminated; those trampling down others have been finished off the earth.
And in loving-kindness a throne will certainly be firmly established; and one must sit down upon it in trueness in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and being prompt in righteousness. We have heard of the pride of your rulers, that they are very proud; their haughtiness and their
pride - their empty talk will not be so!
Ha for the comotion of many peoples, who are boisterous as with the boisterousness of the seas! And for the noise of national groups, who make a din just like the noise of mighty waters! The national groups themselves will make a din just like the noise of many waters. And He will certainly rebuke it, and it must flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a thistle wirl before a stormwind.
The princes are indeed foolish. As regards the wise ones of their counselors, their counsel is something unreasonable. Where, then, are they - the wise men of yours - that they may now tell you and that they may know what God has counseled concerning these nations. For they will cry out to God because of the oppressors, and he will send them a savior, even a grand one, who will actually deliver them.
The treacherous dealer is dealing treacherously, and the despoiler is despoiling. All sighing due to her I have caused to cease. All your dictators themselves have fled at one time. Do not you people insist on comforting me over the despoiling of the my people. For it is the day of confusion and of downtreading and of confounding. There is the demolisher of the wall, and the cry to the mountain.
A thousand will tremble on account of the rebuke of one; on acount of the rebuke of five you will flee. For God is a God of judgment. Happy are those keeping in expectationm of him. He will without fail show you favour at the sound of your outcry; as soon as he hears it he will actually answer you. And God will certainly give you people bread in the form of distress and water in the form of oppression; and yet your Grand Instructor will no longer hide himself, and your eyes must become eyes seeing your Grand Instructor. And your own ears will hear a word behind you saying: "This is the way. Walk in it.you people," in case you people should go to the right or in case you should go to the left.
For the couch has proved too short for stretching oneself on, and the woven sheet itself is too narrow when wrapping oneself up. For God will rise up, he will be agitated, that he may do his deed _his deed is strange - and that he might work his work - his work is unusual. And now do not show yourselves scoffers, in order that your bands may not grow strong.
And God says: "For the reason that this people have come near with their mouth, and have glorified me merely with their lips, and they have remove their heart itself far away from me, and their fear towards me becomes men's commandment that is being taught, therefore here I am, the One that will act wonderfully again with this people, in a wonderful manner and with something wonderful; and the wisdom of their wise men must perish, and the very understanding of their discreet men will conceal itself."
Woe to those who are going very deep in concealing counsel from God himself, and whose deeds have occurred in a dark place, while they say: "Who is seeing us, and who is knowing of us?" The perversity of you men!
And in that day the deaf ones will certainly hear the words of the book, and out of the gloom and out of the darkness even the eyes of the blind ones will see. And the meek ones will certainly increase their rejoicing in God himself, and even the poor ones of mankind will be joyful in the Holy One, because the tyrant must reach his end, and the bragger must come to his finish, and all those keeping alert to do harm must be cut off, those bringing a man into sin by his word, and those who lay bait even for the one reproving in the gate, and those who push aside the righteous one with empty arguments. And those who are erring in their spirit will actually get to know understanding, and even those who are grumbling will learn instruction."
Now come, write it upon a tablet with them, and inscribe it even in a book, that it may serve for a future day, for a witness to time indefinite. And the eyes of those seeing will not be pasted together, and the very ears of those hearing will pay attention. And the heart itself of those who are overhasty will consider knowledge, and even the tongue of the stammerers will be quick in speaking clear things. The senseless one will no longer be called generous; and as for the unprincipled man, he will not be said to be noble; because the senseless one himself will speak mere senselessness, and his very heart will work at what is hurtful, to work at apostasy and to speak against God what is wayward, to cause the soul of the hungry one to go empty, and he causes even the thirsty one to go with out drink itself. As for the unprincipled man, his instruments are bad; he himself has given counsel for acts of loose conduct, to wreck the afflicted ones with false sayings, even when someone poor speaks what is right.
A king in his handsomeness is what your eyes will behold; they will see a land far away. Your own heart will coment in low tones on a frightful thing: "Where is the one counting the towers?"
At your arising nations have been dispersed. God will certainly be put on high, for he is residing in the height. He must fill Zion with justice and righteousness. And the trustworthiness of your times must prove to be a wealth of salvations - wisdom and knowledge, which is his treasure.
Come up close, you nations, to hear; and you national groups, pay attention. Let the earth and that which fills it listen. For God has indignation against all the nations. He must devote them to destruction; he must give them to the slaughter; and the mountains must melt because of their blood. And the heavens must be rolled up, just like a book scroll. Surely the people are green grass. The green grass has dried up, the
blossom has withered; but as for the word of God, it will last to time indefinite. And they will all shrivel away, just as the leafage shrivels off the vine and like a shriveled fig off the fig tree.
At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened, and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped. At that time the lame one will climb up just like a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.
Have you not heard? From remote times it is what I will do. From bygone days I have even formed it. Now I will bring it in.
Comfort, comfort my people, says the God of you men. Speak to the heart. Listen! Someone is calling out in the wilderness: "Clear up the way of God, you people! Make the highway for our God through the desert plain straight. Let every valley be raised up, and every mountain and hill be made low. And the uneven ground must become level land, and the rugged ground a valley plain. And the glory of God will certainly be revealed, and all flesh must see it together, for the very mouth of God has spoken it." Look! The Sovereign Lord God himself will come even as a strong one, and his arm will be ruling for him.
Look! The nations are as a drop in a bucket; and as a film of dust on the scales they have been accounted. Look! He lifts the islands themselves as mere fine dust. All the nations are as something nonexistent in front of him; as nothing and an unreality they have been accounted to him.
Do you people not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the outset? Have you not applied understanding from the foundations of the earth? There is One that is dwelling above the circle of the earth, the One who is reducing high officials to nothing, who has made the very judges of the earth as a mere unreality.
Who has roused up someone from the sunrise? Who proceeded in righteousness to call him to His feet, to give before him the nations, and to make him go subduing even kings? Who kept giving them like dust to his sword. Who kept pursuing them, kept peacefully passing along on his feet over the path by which he did not proceed to come? Who has been active and has done this, calling out to the generations from the start? "I, God, the First One; and with the last ones I am the same."
Look! I have made you a threshing instrument having double-edged teeth. You will tread down the mountains and crush them; and the hills you will make just like the chaff. You will winnow them, and a wind itself will carry them away, and a windstorm itself will drive them different ways.
The afflicted ones and the poor ones are seeking for water, but there is none. Because of thirst their very tongue has become dry. I shall make the wilderness into a reedy pool of water, and the waterless land into sources of water; in order that people may see and have insight at the same time, that the very hand of God has done this, the Holy One has himself created it."
I have roused up someone from the north, and he will come. From the rising of the sun he will call upon my name. And he will come upon the rulers as if they were clay and just as a potter that tramples down the moist material.
Look! My servant, on whom I kept fast hold! My choosen one, whom my soul has approved! I have put my spirit in him. Justice to the nations is what he will bring forth. He will not cry out or raise his voice, and in the street he will not let his voice be heard. In trueness he will bring forth justice. He will not grow dim nor be crushed until he sets justice in the earth itself; and for his Law the islands theselves will keep waiting.
The first things - here they have come, but new things I am telling out. Before they begin to spring up, I cause you people to hear them. Like a mighty man God himself will go forth. Like a warrior he will awaken zeal. He will shout, yes, he will let out a war cry; over his enemies he will show himself mightier.
I have kept quiet for a long time. I continued silent. I kept exercising self-control. I shall devastate mountains and hills, and all their vegetation I shall dry up. And I will make the blind ones walk in a way that they have not known; in a road way that they have not known I shall cause them to tread. I shall turn a dark place before them into light, and rugged terrain into level land. These are the things that I will do for them, and I will not leave them.
I am frustrating the signs of empty talkers, and I am the One that makes diviners themselves act crazily; the One turning wise men backwards,
and the One that turns even their knowledge into foolishness; the One making the word of his servant come true, and the One that carries out completely the counsel of his own messengers, the One saying of the Lord, `He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out. You will have your foundation laid.'"
Bring forth a people blind though eyes themselves exist, and the ones deaf though they have ears. Let the nations all be collected together at one place, and let national groups be gathered together. Who is there among them that can tell this? Or can they cause us to hear even the first things? Let them furnish their witnesses, that they may be declared righteous, or let them hear and say, `It is the truth!'
Do not remember the first things, and to the former things do not turn your consideration. Look! I am doing something new. Now it will spring up. You people will know it, will you not?
This is what God has said to his anointed one, to the Lord of the earth, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, so that I may ungird even the hips of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut:
Before you I myself shall go, and the swells of the land I shall straighten out. The copper doors I shall break in pieces, and the iron bars I shall cut down. And I will give you treasures in the darkness and hidden places, in order that you may know that I am your God. I proceeded to give you a name of honor, although you did not know me.
I myself have roused up someone in righteousness, and all his ways I shall straighten out. He is the one that will build my city, and those of mine in exile he will let go, not for a price nor for bribery," God has said. `Indeed God is in union with you, and there is no one else, there is no other God.
Remember this, that you people may muster up courage. Lay it to heart, you transgressors. Remember the first things of a long time ago, that I am the Divine One and there is no other God, nor anyone like me; the One telling from the beginning the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done; the One saying, `My own counsel will stand, and everything that is my delight I shall do'; the One calling from the sunrising a bird of prey, from a distant land the man to execute my counsel. I have even spoken it; I shall also bring it in. I have also formed it, I shall also do it.
Listen to me, you ones powerful at heart, you ones far away from righteousness. I have brought near my righteousness. It is not far away, and my own salvation will not be late. And I will give the land salvation
and the nations my beauty.
Be collected together, all you people and hear. Who among them has told these things? God himself has loved him. He will do what is his delight upon the nations that are dispising his word. I_I myself have spoken. Moreover, I have called him. I have brought him in, and there will be a making of his way successful.
The first things I have told even from that time, and out of my own mouth they went forth, and I kept making them heard. Suddenly I acted, and the things proceeded to come in. Due to my knowing that you are hard and that your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is copper, I also kept telling you from that time. Before it could come in, I caused you to hear it, that you might not say, `My own idol has done them, and my own carved image and my own molten image have commanded them.' You have heard. Behold it all. As for you people, will you not tell it? I have made you hear new things from the present time, even things kept in reserve, that you have not known. At the present time they must be created, and not from that time, even things that before today you have not heard, that you may not say, `Look! I have already known them.'
How comely upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, the one publishing peace, the one bringing good news of something better, the one publishing salvation, the one saying: "Your God has become king!"
Listen! your own watchmen have raised their voice in unison they keep crying out joyfully; for it will be eye into eye that they will see when god gathers back the nations.
Look! My servant will act with insight. He will be in high station and will certainly be elevated and exalted very much. To the extent that many have stared at him in amazement_so much was the disfigurement as respects his appearance more than that of the sons of mankind - he will likewise startle many nations. At him Kings will shut their mouth, because what had not been recounted to them they will actually see, and to what they had not heard they must turn their consideration.
Who has put faith in the thing heard by us? And as for the arm of God, to whom has it been revealed? And he will come up like a twig before one, and like a root out of waterless land. No stately form does he have, nor any splendor; and when we shall see him, there is not the appearance so that we should desire him.
He was despised and was avoided by men, a man ment for pains and having acquaintance with sickness. And there was as if the concealing of one's face from us. He was despised, and we held him as of no account. Truly our sickness were what he himself carried; and as for our pains, he bore them. But we ourselves accounted him as plagued, stricken by God and afflicted. But he was being pierced for our transgression; he was being crushed for our errors. The chastisement meant for our peace was upon him, and because of his wounds there has been a healing for us. Like sheep we have all of us wandered about; it was each to his own way that we have turned; and God himself has caused the error of all of us to meet up with that one. He was hard pressed, and yet he was letting himself be afflicted; yet he would not open his mouth. He was being brought just like a sheep to the slaughtering; and like an ewe that before her shearers has become mute, he also would not open his mouth.
Because of restraint and of judgment he was taken away; and who will concern himself even with the details of his generation? For he was severed from the land of the living ones. Because of the transgression of my people he had the stroke. And he will make his burial place even with the wicked ones, and with the rich class in his death, despite the fact that he had done no violence and there was no deception in his mouth.
But God himself took delight in crushing him; he made him sick. If you will set his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and in his hand what is the delight of God will succeed. Because of the trouble of his soul he will see, he will be satisfied. By means of his nowledge the righteous one, my servant, will bring a righteous standing to many people; and their errors he himself will bear. For that reason I shall deal him a portion among the many, and it will be with the mighty ones that he will aportion the spoil, due to the fact that he poured out his soul to the very death, and it was with the transgressors that he was counted in; and he himself carried the sin of many people, and for the transgressors he proceeded to interpose. And nations will certainly go to your light, and kings to the brightness of your shining forth.
Raise your eyes all around and see! They have all of them been collected together; they have come to you. At that time you will see and certainly become radiant, and your heart will actually quiver and expand, because to you the wealthiness of the sea
will direct itself; the very resoures of the nations will come to you_they will come. Gold and frankincense they will carry. And the praises of God they will anounce.
And foreigners will actually build your walls, and their own kings will minister to you; for in my indignation I shall have struck you, but in my goodwill I shall certainly have mercy upon you.
And your gates will actually be kept open constantly; they will not be closed even by day or by night, in order to bring to you the resources of the nations, and their kings will be taking the lead. For any nation that will not serve you will perish; and the nations themselves will without fail come to devastation.
No more will violence be heard in your land, despoiling or breakdown within your boundaries. And you will certainly call your own walls Salvation and your gates Praise. For you the sun will no more prove to be a light by day, and for brightness the moon itself will no more give you light. And God must become to you an indefinitely lasting light, and your God your beauty. No more will your sun set, nor will your moon go on the wane; for God will become for you an indefinitely lasting light, and the days of your mourning will have come to completion. And as for your people, all of them will be righteous; to time indefinite they will hold possession of the land, the sprout of my planting, the work of my hands, for me to be beautified. The little one himself will become a thousand, and the small one a mighty nation.
I myself, God, shall speed it up in its own time.
