Isaiah
9 . . . because not in dusk is she who is now in straits. The first underrated the country of Zebulun and of Naphtali, but the last made much of the sea road, the other side of the Jordan, the marchland of the nations.
2 The people that were walking in the dark have seen a great light; on those who were sitting in a country of gloom a radiance has shone. 3* You have made the jubilation great, the gladness huge; they are glad before you like gladness at harvest, as they jubilate when they divide booty, 4* because you have shivered the yoke of his load, the stick of his shoulder, his driver’s cudgel, as on the day of Midian. 5* For every shoe worn in melee, and cloak rolled in blood, shall become cinders, food of the fire. 6* For we have a child born to us, a son given to us,—and dominion rests on his shoulder, and he is named Wonder-Counselor, Divine Champion, Father Ever, Captain of Peace, 7* for ample dominion and for endless peace,—on David’s throne and over his kingdom, to settle it and brace it with justice and right henceforth forever; the jealousy of Jehovah of Armies will do this.
8* The Lord sent a word upon Jacob and it landed on Israel. 9 And the people all shouted, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, in pride and self-sufficiency, 10 “Bricks have fallen down, but we will build dressed stone; sycamores have been cut down, but we will substitute cedars”; 11 but Jehovah reared their foe aloft against them and went to spurring their enemies, 12* Syria in front and the Philistines behind, and they ate off Israel as fast as they could bite. With all this his anger has not gone back, his hand is still stretched out.
13 And the people did not go back to him who dealt them the blows, they did not resort to Jehovah of Armies; 14 and Jehovah cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-leaf and rush, in one day. 15 (An elder or influential man is the head, and a prophet who preaches untruth is the tail.) 16 And this people’s directors have become misdirectors, and the directed helpless. 17* Therefore the Lord will not be glad over its young men nor have pity for its orphans and widows; for all of it is irreligious and criminal, and every mouth talks rascality. With all this his anger has not gone back, his hand is still stretched out.
18 For foul play burned like a fire that is eating up brambles and briers and has caught to the thickets of the rocks and they go up in eddying columns of smoke. 19* By the wrath of Jehovah of Armies earth is scorched and the people are like the fuel of a fire, no one sparing the next, 20* and it slices off on the right and is hungry, and on the left and does not feel full, each eating another’s flesh, 21* Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh, both of them together against Judah. With all this his anger has not gone back, his hand is still stretched out.