The Hebrew Prophets

Thou, Thou hast known, O Jehovah, Remember me, and inspect me, And take vengeance for me of my pursuers, In Thy long-suffering take me not away, Know--I have borne for Thee reproach.

Thy words have been found, and I eat them, And Thy word is to me for a joy, And for the rejoicing of my heart, For Thy name is called on me, O Jehovah, God of Hosts.

I have not sat in an assembly of deriders, Nor do I exult, because of thy hand, --Alone I have sat, For with indignation Thou hast filled me.

Why hath my pain been perpetual? And my wound incurable? It hath refused to be healed, Thou art surely to me as a failing stream, Waters not stedfast.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: If thou turnest back, then I bring thee back, Before Me thou dost stand, And if thou bringest out the precious from the vile, As My mouth thou art! They--they turn back unto thee, And thou dost not turn back unto them.

And I have made thee to this people For a wall--brazen--fenced, And they have fought against thee, And they do not prevail against thee, For with thee am I to save thee, And to deliver thee--an affirmation of Jehovah,

And I have delivered thee from the hand of evil doers, And I have ransomed thee From the hand of the terrible!

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

Thou dost not take to thee a wife, Nor hast thou sons and daughters in this place.

For thus said Jehovah, Of the sons and of the daughters who are born in this place, And of their mothers--those bearing them, And of their fathers--those begetting them in this land:

Of painful deaths they die, They are not lamented, nor are they buried, For dung on the face of the ground they are, And by sword and by famine are consumed, And their carcase hath been for food To the fowl of the heavens, And to the beast of the earth.

For thus said Jehovah: Do not enter the house of a mourning-feast, Nor go to lament nor bemoan for them, For I have removed My peace from this people, An affirmation of Jehovah, The kindness and the mercies.

And died have great and small in this land, They are not buried, and none lament for them, Nor doth any cut himself, nor become bald for them.

Nor do they deal out to them for mourning, To comfort him concerning the dead, Nor cause them to drink a cup of consolations For his father and for his mother.

A house of banqueting thou dost not enter, To sit with them, to eat and to drink,

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing to cease from this place, Before your eyes, and in your days, The voice of joy, and the voice of rejoicing, The voice of bridegroom and voice of bride.

And it hath come to pass when thou declarest to this people all these words, and they have said unto thee, `For what hath Jehovah spoken against us all this great evil? yea, what is our iniquity, and what our sin, that we have sinned against Jehovah our God?'

Then thou hast said unto them: Because that your fathers have forsaken Me, An affirmation of Jehovah, And go after other gods, and serve them, And they bow themselves to them, And Me have forsaken, and My law not kept,

Ye also have done evil above your fathers, And lo, ye are walking each after the stubbornness of his evil heart, So as not to hearken unto Me.

And I have cast you from off this land, On to a land that ye have not known, Ye and your fathers, And ye have served there other gods by day and by night, Where I do not give to you grace.

Therefore, lo, days are coming, An affirmation of Jehovah, And it is not said any more: `Jehovah liveth, who brought up The sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'

But, `Jehovah liveth, who brought up The sons of Israel out of the land of the north, And out of all the lands whither He drove them,' And I have brought them back to their land, That I gave to their fathers.

Lo, I am sending for many fishers, An affirmation of Jehovah, And they have fished them, And after this I send for many hunters, And they have hunted them from off every mountain, And from off every hill, and from holes of the rocks.

For Mine eyes are upon all their ways, They have not been hidden from My face, Nor hath their iniquity been concealed from before Mine eyes.

And I have recompensed a first--A second time--their iniquity and their sin, Because of their polluting My land, With the carcase of their detestable things, Yea, their abominable things have filled Mine inheritance.