The Hebrew Prophets

Swifter than leopards have been its horses, And sharper than evening wolves, And increased have its horsemen, Even its horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hasting to consume.

Wholly for violence it doth come in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And it doth gather as the sand a captivity.

And at kings it doth scoff, And princes are a laughter to it, At every fenced place it doth laugh, And it heapeth up dust, and captureth it.

Then passed on hath the spirit, Yea, he doth transgress, And doth ascribe this his power to his god.

Art not Thou of old, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O Jehovah, For judgment Thou hast appointed it, And, O Rock, for reproof Thou hast founded it.

Purer of eyes than to behold evil, To look on perverseness Thou art not able, Why dost Thou behold the treacherous? Thou keepest silent when the wicked Doth swallow the more righteous than he,

And Thou makest man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing--none ruling over him.

Each of them with a hook he hath brought up, He doth catch it in his net, and gathereth it in his drag, Therefore he doth joy and rejoice.

Therefore he doth sacrifice to his net, And doth make perfume to his drag, For by them is his portion fertile, and his food fat.

Doth he therefore empty his net, And continually to slay nations spare not?

On my charge I stand, and I station myself on a bulwark, and I watch to see what He doth speak against me, and what I do reply to my reproof.

And Jehovah answereth me and saith: `Write a vision, and explain on the tables, That he may run who is reading it.

For yet the vision is for a season, And it breatheth for the end, and doth not lie, If it tarry, wait for it, For surely it cometh, it is not late.

Lo, a presumptuous one! Not upright is his soul within him, And the righteous by his stedfastness liveth.

And also, because the wine is treacherous, A man is haughty, and remaineth not at home, Who hath enlarged as sheol his soul, And is as death that is not satisfied, And doth gather unto itself all the nations, And doth assemble unto itself all the peoples,

Do not these--all of them--against him a simile taken up, And a moral of acute sayings for him, And say, Woe to him who is multiplying what is not his? Till when also is he multiplying to himself heavy pledges?

Do not thy usurers instantly rise up, And those shaking thee awake up, And thou hast been for a spoil to them?

Because thou hast spoiled many nations, Spoil thee do all the remnant of the peoples, Because of man's blood, and of violence to the land, To the city, and to all dwelling in it.

Woe to him who is gaining evil gain for his house, To set on high his nest, To be delivered from the hand of evil,

Thou hast counselled a shameful thing to thy house, To cut off many peoples, and sinful is thy soul.

For a stone from the wall doth cry out, And a holdfast from the wood answereth it.

Woe to him who is building a city by blood, And establishing a city by iniquity.

Lo, is it not from Jehovah of Hosts And peoples are fatigued for fire, And nations for vanity are weary?

For full is the earth of the knowledge of the honour of Jehovah, As waters cover the bottom of a sea.

Woe to him who is giving drink to his neighbour, Pouring out thy bottle, and also making drunk, In order to look on their nakedness.