Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they are many: and in horsemen, because they are very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.

But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity.

Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together.

For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion roareth, and the lion’s whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof.

As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving.

Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin.

And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he shall flee not at the face of the sword, and his young men shall be tributaries.

And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Behold a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.

And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land.

The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently.

And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily and plain.

The fool shall no more be called prince: neither shall the deceitful be called great:

For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and speak to the Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and take away drink from the thirsty.

The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he hath framed devices to destroy the meek, with lying words, when the poor man speaketh judgment.

But the prince will devise such things as are worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.

Rise up, ye rich women, and hear my voice: ye confident daughters, give ear to my speech.

For after days and a year, you that are confident shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the gathering shall come no more.

Be astonished, ye rich women, be troubled, ye confident ones: strip you, and be confounded, gird your loins.

Mourn for your breasts, for the delightful country, for the fruitful vineyard.

Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced?

For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever. A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks.

Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall be as a charmel, and charmel shall be counted for a forest.

And judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and justice shall sit in charmel.

And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness, and security for ever.

And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest.

But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be made very low.

Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass.

Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thyself also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied thou shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised.

O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble.

At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations are scattered.

And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.

The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgment and justice.

And there shall be faith in thy times: riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

Behold they that see shall cry without, the angels of peace shall weep bitterly.

The ways are made desolate, no one passeth by the road, the covenant is made void, he hath rejected the cities, he hath not regarded the men.

The land hath mourned, and languished: Libanus is confounded, and become foul, and Saron is become as a desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken.

Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself.

You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath as fire shall devour you.

And the people shall be as ashes after a fire, as a bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire.

Hear, you that are far off, what I have done, and you that are near know my strength.

The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil.

He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure.

His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall see the land far off.

Thy heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned? where is he that pondereth the words of the law? where is the teacher of little ones?

The shameless people thou shalt not see, the people of profound speech: so that thou canst not understand the eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom.

Look upon Sion the city of our solemnity: thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

Because only there our Lord is magnificent: a place of rivers, very broad and spacious streams: no ship with oars shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass through it.

For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.

Thy tacklings are loosed, and they shall be of no strength: thy mast shall be in such condition, that thou shalt not be able to spread the flag. Then shall the spoils of much prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil.

Neither shall he that is near, say: I am feeble. The people that dwell therein, shall have their iniquity taken away from them.

Come near, ye Gentiles, and hear, and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and every thing that cometh forth of it.

For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath killed them, and delivered them to slaughter.

Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their carcasses shall rise a stink: the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

And all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, and from the fig tree.

For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment.

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with the blood of lambs and buck goats, with the blood of rams full of marrow: for there is a victim of the Lord in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones.

For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion.

And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Night and day it shall not be quenched, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a plummet, unto desolation.

The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall be nothing.

And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself.

There hath the ericius had its hole, and brought up its young ones, and hath dug round about, and cherished them in the shadow thereof: thither are the kites gathered together one to another.

Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought for the other: for that which proceedeth out of my mouth, he hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation they shall dwell therein.

The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily.

It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God.

Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees.

Say to the fainthearted: Take courage, and fear not: behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God himself will come and will save you.

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.

And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.

And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein.

No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered.

And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them.

And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller’s field.

And there went out to him Eliacim the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder.

And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence wherein thou trustest?

Or with what counsel or strength dost thou prepare for war? on whom dost thou trust, that thou art revolted from me?

Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

But if thou wilt answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar?

And now deliver thyself up to my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able on thy part to find riders for them.

And how wilt thou stand against the face of the judge of one place, of the least of my master’s servants? But if thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen:

And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it.

And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe said to Rabsaces: Speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue: for we understand it: speak not to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people, that are upon the wall.

And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?

Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians.

Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.

And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

Do not hearken to Ezechias: for thus said the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the water of his cistern,

Till I come and take you away to a land, like to your own, a land of corn and of wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

Where is the god of Emath and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

And they held their peace, and answered him not a word. For the king had commanded, saying: Answer him not.

And Eliacim the son of Helcias, that was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder, went in to Ezechias with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.