The Hebrew Prophets

"What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was.

Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life

though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back.

"Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.

The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness.

ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI."

Then Yesha'yahu said, "Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover."

Hizkiyahu asked, "What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house of ADONAI?"

M'rodakh-Bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Bavel, heard that Hizkiyahu had been ill and had recovered, so he sent a letter and a gift to him.

Hizkiyahu was pleased with the gifts and showed the messengers all of the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also all of the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury - there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.

Then Yesha'yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from?" Hizkiyahu answered, "They came to me from a distant country, Bavel."

Yesha'yahu asked, "What have they seen in your palace?" "They have seen everything in my palace," said Hizkiyahu. "There isn't a thing among my treasures that I haven't shown them."

Yesha'yahu said to Hizkiyahu, "Hear what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says:

'The day will come when everything in your palace, along with everything your ancestors stored up until today, will be carried off to Bavel. Nothing will be left,' says ADONAI.

'They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel."

Hizkiyahu said to Yesha'yahu, "The word of ADONAI which you have just told me is good"; because he thought, "At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime."

"Comfort and keep comforting my people," says your God.

"Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her that she has completed her time of service, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received at the hand of ADONAI double for all her sins."

A voice cries out: "Clear a road through the desert for ADONAI! Level a highway in the 'Aravah for our God!

Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill lowered, the bumpy places made level and the crags become a plain.

Then the glory of ADONAI will be revealed; all humankind together will see it, for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken."

A voice says, "Proclaim!" And I answer, "What should I proclaim?" "All humanity is merely grass, all its kindness like wildflowers:

the grass dries up, the flower fades, when a wind from ADONAI blows on it. Surely the people are grass!

The grass dries up, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever."

You who bring good news to Tziyon, get yourself up on a high mountain; you who bring good news to Yerushalayim, cry out at the top of your voice! Don't be afraid to shout out loud! Say to the cities of Y'hudah, "Here is your God!