Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, That hideth his face from the house of Jacob, And I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me Are for signs and for wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: Should not a people seek unto their God? To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, It is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; And they shall be driven to darkness. NEVERTHELESS the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, Beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, The rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. The Lord sent a word into Jacob, And all the people shall know, Even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: The sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, And join his enemies together; The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; But his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, Neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, Branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; And the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; And they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, Neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: For every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, For all this his anger is not turned away, For wickedness burneth as the fire: It shall devour the briers and thorns, And they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, And the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; And he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm : But his hand is stretched out still. WOE unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, And that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, And to take away the right from the poor of my people, That widows may be their prey, And that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, And in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, And they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, But his hand is stretched out still. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, And the staff in their hand is mine indignation. And against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, To take the spoil, and to take the prey, And to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, Neither doth his heart think so; But it is in his heart to destroy |