So now we call the arrogant blessed: for those who work iniquity are built up, and they have tempted God and been saved. Then those who feared God spoke, each with his neighbor; and the Lord gave heed and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and think upon His name. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I act, for a special possession; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. And you shall return and shall see what is between the just and the wicked, and between him that serves God and him that serves Him not. For behold, the day shall come, burning like a furnace, and all the proud and all that work iniquity shall be stubble:
and the day that comes shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, and it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you that fear My name the Sun of righteousness shall arise, with healing in His wings; and you shall go forth and leap like calves from the herd; and you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. XIX. ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. Wash yourselves, be clean; take away the evil of your thoughts from before My eyes; cease to do perversely, learn to do good; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And come and reason with Me, says the Lord. And eight verses later: Your silver has turned to dross; your wine is mixed with water.
Your princes are companions of thieves; they all love bribes and follow after rewards; they judge not for the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come in to them. And a little after: House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. For You have cast off Your people, the house of Jacob; because they are filled as of old, and have had soothsayers like the Philistines, and have cleaved to the children of strangers. And three verses later: Their land is full of idols; they have worshiped the work of their own hands, which their fingers made. And five verses later: For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled. And a little after: The exactors of My people have plundered them, and women have ruled over them.
My people, those who call you blessed, they themselves deceive you, and destroy the way of your steps. And four verses later: For you have devoured My vineyard, and the plunder of the poor is in your houses. Why do you wear down My people and grind the faces of the poor? says the Lord of hosts. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and have walked with outstretched necks and gone with wanton glances of the eyes, and clapped their hands, and walked with mincing gait upon their feet. And a little after: Woe to you that join house to house and couple field to field, even to the ends of the land: shall you dwell alone in the midst of the earth? These things are in My ears, says the Lord of hosts. And three verses later:
Woe to you that rise early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink until evening, that you may be inflamed with wine—there is harp and lyre and timbrel and pipe and wine at your feasts; but you regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the works of His hands. And seventeen verses later: Woe to you that call evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes and prudent before your own selves. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine and men of valor to mingle strong drink; who justify the wicked for bribes, and take away the justice of the just from him. And somewhat after:
Woe to those who frame unjust laws and have written decrees to oppress the poor in judgment and to do violence to the cause of the humble of My people, that widows might be their prey and that they might plunder the fatherless. And a little after: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears; but He shall judge the poor in righteousness and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His reins.
And sixty verses later: Behold, God is my Savior; I will deal confidently and will not fear, for the Lord God is my strength and my praise, and He has become my salvation. You shall draw waters with joy out of the fountains of the Savior; and you shall say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name, make known His devices among the peoples, remember that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; declare this in all the earth. Exult and praise, O habitation of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst. And forty verses later: And I will make the pride of the faithless to cease, and I will humble the arrogance of the strong. Again somewhat after: The Lord God of Israel says:
In that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall regard the Holy One of Israel; and he shall not look to the altars which his own hands have made, and shall not regard the things which his own fingers have wrought, the groves and the shrines. And somewhat after: The Lord God of hosts, He says, shall call in that day to weeping and to mourning, to baldness and to the girding of sackcloth. And behold, joy and gladness, slaying calves and killing rams, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts. Again somewhat after:
Open the gates, and let a righteous nation enter in, one that keeps the truth. The old error has departed: thou wilt keep peace, peace, because we have hoped in thee: hoping in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever. And after six verses: In the path of thy judgments, O Lord, we have waited for thee: thy name and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul. My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within my inmost being I will watch for thee early in the morning. When thou shalt have wrought thy judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness. Let us have pity on the wicked man, and he will not learn to do righteousness. In the land of the saints he hath dealt unjustly, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord. And after a little:
He that prevailed hath failed, the scoffer is brought to an end, and all they are cut down who watched to work iniquity, who caused men to sin by a word. And after ten verses: Woe, ye rebellious children, saith the Lord, in that ye would take counsel, but not of me, and would weave a web, but not by my Spirit, that ye might add sin upon sin. And a little after: Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If ye return and are quiet, ye shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall be your strength: and ye would not. And after twenty verses: Thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven images of silver, and the garment of thy molten image of gold, and thou shalt scatter them away as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. And after a little:
Return, O children of Israel, even as ye had sunk deep into apostasy. For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made unto you for a sin. Again after a little: And there shall be faithfulness in thy times: riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord, that is his treasure. And a little after: Who of you shall be able to dwell with the devouring fire? who of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh in righteousness and speaketh truth, that casteth away covetousness gained by extortion and shaketh his hands free from every bribe, that stoppeth his ears that he hear not of bloodshed, and shutteth his eyes that he see not any evil. This man shall dwell on high, the strongholds of the rocks shall be his height.
His bread is given him, and his waters are sure. And some while after: Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant: I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel; thou shalt not forget me. I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Again after a little: Remember this and be ashamed: return, ye transgressors, to the heart. Remember the former age: for I am God, and there is none beside, neither is there any like me. And some while after: Who hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? Let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God. Again after a little: Hearken unto me, ye that know what is righteous, O people, in whose heart is my law.
Fear ye not the reproaches of men, neither be ye afraid of their blasphemies. For as a garment, so the moth shall eat them: and as wool, so the worm shall devour them: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness unto generations of generations. And after a little: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found: call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, for he is abundant in pardoning. And after twenty verses: Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment and do righteousness: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold upon it: keeping the sabbath that he defile it not, keeping his hands that he do no evil. And not long after: Ye that comfort yourselves among idols under every leafy tree, sacrificing little children in the torrents, under the overhanging rocks. In the smooth places of the torrent is thy portion. This is thy lot: and even to these hast thou offered a drink-offering, hast thou offered a sacrifice. Shall I not be wroth over these things? Again after a little: For day by day they seek me, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that had done righteousness and had not forsaken the judgment of its God. They ask of me the ordinances of righteousness: they desire to draw near to God. Wherefore have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded?
We have humbled our soul, and thou hast not known it. Behold, in the day of your fast your own will is found, and ye exact all your debts. Behold, ye fast for strifes and contentions, and smite with the fist wickedly. Fast not as ye have done unto this day, that your cry may be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen, that a man should for a day afflict his soul? Is it to twist his head about like a hoop, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? Loose the bonds of impiety, undo the bundles that press down. Let the crushed go free: and break asunder every burden.
Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the wandering into thy house: when thou seest one naked, clothe him, and despise not thine own flesh. And after four verses: If thou take away from the midst of thee the chain, and cease to stretch out the finger and to speak what is unprofitable: when thou pourest out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfiest the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in the darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord shall give thee rest continually. And after much: A people that provoketh me to anger before my face continually: that sacrifice in gardens, and offer upon bricks: that dwell in the tombs, and sleep in the shrines of idols. And after two verses: Who say: Depart from me, come not near me, for thou art unclean.
These shall be as smoke in my fury, a fire burning all the day. Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but I will repay and requite into their bosom your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the mountains and have reproached me upon the hills; and I will measure back their former work into their bosom. And after ten verses: But ye, saith he, that have forsaken the Lord, that have forgotten my holy mountain, that prepare a table for Fortune and pour libation upon it: I will number you for the sword, and ye shall all fall in the slaughter: because I called and ye answered not, I spoke and ye gave no heed: and ye did evil in mine eyes, and chose the things that I would not. And a little after: Thus saith the Lord:
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is this house that ye will build for me? and what is this place of my rest? All these things hath my hand made, and all these were made, saith the Lord. But to whom shall I look, save to the poor man, and him that is contrite in spirit, and that trembleth at my words? And after seven verses: I will choose their mockeries, and I will bring upon them the things that they feared: because I called and there was none that answered, I spoke and they heard not: and they did evil in mine eyes, and chose the things that I would not. Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word: your brethren that hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said: Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy. But they themselves shall be put to shame.
XX. FROM THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? And after ten verses: Ye have made mine inheritance an abomination. The priests said not: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the shepherds transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed after idols. And a little after: Can a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride the band upon her breast? But my people hath forgotten me days without number.
Why dost thou strive to show thy way good, seeking after love, thou that hast moreover taught thy ways even thy wickednesses, and in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and the innocent? I found them not in secret pits, but in all these things which I mentioned above. And thou hast said: I am without sin and innocent, and therefore let thy wrath be turned away from me! Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, in that thou hast said: I have not sinned. How exceeding vile art thou become, repeating thy ways! Of Egypt also thou shalt be confounded, as thou wast confounded of Assyria. For from her also thou shalt go forth, and thy hands shall be upon thy head, for the Lord hath rejected thy confidence. And a little after: Return, ye backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am your husband.
Again a little after: If thou wilt return, O Israel, return, saith the Lord, return unto me. If thou wilt put away thine offences from before my face, thou shalt not be moved. And thou shalt swear: The Lord liveth! in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness: and the nations shall bless him and shall praise him. And a little after: My people is foolish, it hath not known me: they are foolish children, and without understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known. And after thirty verses: Go about the streets of Jerusalem, and look and consider, and seek in her broad ways, whether ye can find a man that doeth judgment and seeketh faithfulness, and I will be merciful to it. And even if they say: The Lord liveth! and swear this falsely, O Lord, thine eyes look upon faithfulness.
Thou hast smitten them, and they grieved not: thou hast bruised them, and they refused to receive correction: they made their faces harder than a rock, they refused to return. Then I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish, not knowing the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go therefore to the great men and speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and behold, these together have all the more broken the yoke and burst the bonds. And after six verses: Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are no gods. I satisfied them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house. They became as lustful horses and stallions, every one neighing after his neighbour's wife.
Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my hand take vengeance on such a nation as this? And after forty verses: I who placed the sand for the bound of the sea, an everlasting decree that it shall not pass: and its waves shall toss, yet shall not prevail, and they shall swell, yet shall not pass over it. But this people hath become of an unbelieving and provoking heart: they have withdrawn and gone away, and have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God. And after seven verses: There are found, saith he, among my people wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men. As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great and enlarged, they are grown fat and gross, and they have exceedingly overpassed my words. They pleaded not the cause of the fatherless, and gave not judgment for the poor. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, or shall not my soul take vengeance on a nation such as this? Astonishment and wonders are wrought in the land. The prophets prophesied lies, and the priests applauded with their hands, and my people loved to have it so: what then will be done in the end thereof? And after thirty verses: To whom shall I speak? and whom shall I call to witness, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold, the word of the Lord is become to them a reproach, and they receive it not. And a little after:
Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah, ye that enter in by these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your endeavours good, and I will dwell with you in this place. Trust ye not in words of lying, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord it is. For if ye make your ways and your endeavours good, if ye execute judgment between a man and his neighbour, and do no wrong to the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt: then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from everlasting to everlasting.
Behold, ye put your trust in words of lying, which shall not profit you, to steal, to slay, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to burn incense unto Baalim, and to go after strange gods, whom ye know not. And ye came and stood before me in this house, whereupon my name is called, and said: We are delivered, in that we have done all these abominations. Is then this house, whereupon my name is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes? I, even I, I have seen it, saith the Lord.
Go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where my name dwelt at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel; and now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, and ye heard not, and I called and ye answered not: I will do unto this house, whereupon my name is called and wherein ye have confidence, and to the place which I gave to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh; and I will cast you out from my face, as I cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray thou not for this people, neither take up praise and prayer for them, nor withstand me: for I will not hear thee.
Seest thou not what these do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the fat, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour drink-offerings unto strange gods, and to provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord; do they not rather provoke themselves to the confusion of their own face? And a little after: Shall not he that falleth rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem turned away with a contentious backsliding? They have laid hold on lying and refused to return. I attended and hearkened: no one speaketh what is good, there is none that repenteth of his sin, saying: What have I done? And after nine verses:
How do ye say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Truly the lying pen of the scribes hath wrought falsehood. The wise are confounded, they are dismayed and taken: for they have rejected the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them. And a little after: Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I may forsake my people and depart from them? For they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors. And they have bent their tongue like a bow of lies, and not of truth: they have grown strong in the land, for they have gone forth from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord. Let every one beware of his neighbour, and put no trust in any brother of his:
for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully. And a man will deride his brother, and they will not speak the truth. For they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have laboured to work iniquity. Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them and try them. For what else shall I do before the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a wounding arrow, it hath spoken guile in their mouth: one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly layeth wait for him. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; or shall not my soul take vengeance on a nation such as this? And a little after: Thus saith the Lord:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, to know and to understand me, that I am the Lord, who exercise mercy and judgment and righteousness in the earth. For these things please me, saith the Lord. And after sixteen verses: Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the nations, and be not afraid of the signs of heaven which the nations fear: for the ordinances of the peoples are vain. For a workman's hand hath cut with the axe a tree out of the forest: he hath adorned it with silver and gold: he hath fastened it with nails and hammers, that it fall not apart. In the likeness of a palm-tree are they fashioned, and they shall not speak:
they must be carried, for they cannot walk. Fear them not therefore, for they can do no evil, neither is it in them to do good. There is none like unto thee, O Lord: great art thou, and great is thy name in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations? for to thee doth honour belong: and among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee. They shall all together be proved to be senseless and foolish. The doctrine of their vanity is but wood. Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman's hand. Blue and purple are their clothing, all these are the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his indignation the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not endure his threatening. Thus therefore shall ye say unto them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from among these things which are under heaven. And some while after: Thus saith the Lord: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be as the tamarisk in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall dwell in the drought in the desert, in a salt land and uninhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence. And he shall be as a tree that is transplanted by the waters, that sendeth out its roots toward the moisture: and it shall not fear when the heat cometh:
and its leaf shall be green, in the time of drought it shall not be anxious, nor shall it ever cease to bear fruit. Again some while after: Thus saith the Lord: Do judgment and righteousness, and deliver him that is oppressed by force out of the hand of the oppressor, and grieve not the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, neither oppress them unjustly, and shed no innocent blood in this place. And a little after: Woe unto the shepherds that scatter and tear the flock of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel to the shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the wickedness of your endeavours, saith the Lord. Again a little after:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you and deceive you. They speak the vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say unto them that blaspheme me: The Lord hath spoken, peace shall be unto you; and to every one that walketh in the perverseness of his own heart they have said: No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord? And after eleven verses: I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: I spoke not unto them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood in my counsel and had made my words known to my people, I would surely have turned them from their evil way and from their most wicked devices. And after two verses: I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, and say:
I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, and prophesy the deceits of their own heart, who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams, which every one telleth to his neighbour, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell the dream: and he that hath my word, let him tell my word truly. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Are not my words as fire, saith the Lord, and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.