The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the horn is blown, hear ye.

For thus hath the LORD said unto me: I will hold Me still, and I will look on in My dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the bud becometh a ripening grape, He will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the shoots will He take away and lop off.

They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people tall and of glossy skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh unto Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.

And I will spur Egypt against Egypt; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and everyone against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it; and I will make void the counsel thereof; and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers, and to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.

And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be drained dry,

And the rivers shall become foul; the streams of Egypt shall be minished and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither.

The mosses by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile, shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

The fishers also shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Moreover they that work in combed flax, and they that weave cotton, shall be ashamed.

And her foundations shall be crushed, all they that make dams shall be grieved in soul.

The princes of Zoan are utter fools; the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh are a senseless counsel; how can ye say unto Pharaoh: 'I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings'?

Where are they, then, thy wise men? And let them tell thee now; and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt.

The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, that are the corner-stone of her tribes.

The LORD hath mingled within her a spirit of dizziness; and they have caused Egypt to stagger in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

In that day shall Egypt be like unto women; and it shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He shaketh over it.

And the land of Judah shall become a terror unto Egypt, whensoever one maketh mention thereof to it; it shall be afraid, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts, which He purposeth against it.

In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.

In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.

And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and He will send them a saviour, and a defender, who will deliver them.

And the LORD shall make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and shall perform it.

And the LORD will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto the LORD, and He will be entreated of them, and will heal them.

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians.

In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;

for that the LORD of hosts hath blessed him, saying: 'Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.'

In the year that Tartan came into Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;

at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying: 'Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put thy shoe from off thy foot.' And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

And the LORD said: 'Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot to be for three years a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,

so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

And the inhabitant of this coast-land shall say in that day: Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?'

The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, it cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.

A grievous vision is declared unto me: 'The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam! besiege, O Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.'

Therefore are my loins filled with convulsion; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bent so that I cannot hear; I am affrighted so that I cannot see.

My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me; the twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.

They prepare the table, they light the lamps, they eat, they drink — 'Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.'

For thus hath the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth!

And when he seeth a troop, horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.

And he cried as a lion: 'Upon the watch-tower, O Lord, I stand continually in the daytime, and I am set in my ward all the nights.'

And, behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen by pairs. And he spoke and said: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.'

O thou my threshing, and the winnowing of my floor, that which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir: 'Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'

The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'

The burden upon Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites.

Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water! The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his bread.

For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.

For thus hath the Lord said unto me: 'Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail;

and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished; for the LORD, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.'

The burden concerning the Valley of Vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops,

Thou that art full of uproar, a tumultuous city, a joyous town? Thy slain are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.

All thy rulers are fled together, without the bow they are bound; all that are found of thee are bound together, they are fled afar off.

Therefore said I: 'Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; strain not to comfort me, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.'

For it is a day of trouble, and of trampling, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, in the Valley of Vision; Kir shouting, and Shoa at the mount.

And Elam bore the quiver, with troops of men, even horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

And it came to pass, when thy choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate,

And the covering of Judah was laid bare, that thou didst look in that day to the armour in the house of the forest.

And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

And ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye broke down the houses to fortify the wall;

ye made also a basin between the two walls for the water of the old pool — but ye looked not unto Him that had done this, neither had ye respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago.

And in that day did the Lord, the GOD of hosts, call to weeping, and to lamentation, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth;

And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine — 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die!'

And the LORD of hosts revealed Himself in mine ears: Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated by you till ye die, saith the Lord, the GOD of hosts.

Thus saith the Lord, the GOD of hosts: Go, get thee unto this steward, even unto Shebna, who is over the house:

What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out here a sepulchre, thou that hewest thee out a sepulchre on high, and gravest a habitation for thyself in the rock?

Behold, the LORD will hurl thee up and down with a man's throw; yea, He will wind thee round and round;

He will violently roll and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the lord's house.

And I will thrust thee from thy post, and from thy station shalt thou be pulled down.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;

And I will clothe him with thy robe, and bind him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of honour to his father's house.

And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons.

In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the peg that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the LORD hath spoken it.

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in; from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.

Be still, ye inhabitants of the coast-land; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: 'I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I reared young men, nor brought up virgins.'

When the report cometh to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast-land.

Is this your joyous city, whose feet in antiquity, in ancient days, carried her afar off to sojourn?

Who hath devised this against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

The LORD of hosts hath devised it, to pollute the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

Overflow thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish! there is no girdle any more.

He hath stretched out His hand over the sea, He hath shaken the kingdoms; the LORD hath given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the strongholds thereof;

And He said: 'Thou shalt no more rejoice.' O thou oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon, arise, pass over to Kittim; even there shalt thou have no rest.

Behold, the land of the Chaldeans — this is the people that was not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen — they set up their towers, they overthrew the palaces thereof; it is made a ruin.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years it shall fare with Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot long forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will remember Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall have commerce with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

And her gain and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD; it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her gain shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat their fill, and for stately clothing.

Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

The earth shall be utterly emptied, and clean despoiled; for the LORD hath spoken this word.

The earth fainteth and fadeth away, the world faileth and fadeth away, the lofty people of the earth do fail.