Selections from the principal Old Testament prophets to exemplify points made in William Irwin’s essay on “God” in Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man and other sources.

Amos (Judah, mid-8^th)

Chapter 1:1 Amos (Mid-8^th

1The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years^* before the earthquake.

Judgement on Israel’s Neighbours

²And he said:
The Lord roars from Zion,
   and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
   and the top of Carmel dries up.

³Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Damascus,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they have threshed Gilead
   with threshing-sledges of iron.
⁴So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael,
   and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
⁵I will break the gate-bars of Damascus,
   and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who holds the sceptre from Beth-eden;
   and the people of Aram shall go into exile to Kir,

says the Lord.

⁶Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Gaza,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they carried into exile entire communities,
   to hand them over to Edom.
⁷So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,
   fire that shall devour its strongholds.
⁸I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,
   and the one who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon;
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
   and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,

says the Lord God.

⁹Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Tyre,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they delivered entire communities over to Edom,
   and did not remember the covenant of kinship.
¹⁰So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre,
   fire that shall devour its strongholds.

¹¹Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Edom,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because he pursued his brother with the sword
   and cast off all pity;
he maintained his anger perpetually,^*
   and kept his wrath^* for ever.
¹²So I will send a fire on Teman,
   and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.

¹³Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the Ammonites,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead
   in order to enlarge their territory.
¹⁴So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah,
   fire that shall devour its strongholds,
with shouting on the day of battle,
   with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;
¹⁵then their king shall go into exile,
   he and his officials together, says the Lord.

Chapter 2:1 Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Moab,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because he burned to lime
   the bones of the king of Edom.
²So I will send a fire on Moab,
   and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
   amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;
³I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
   and will kill all its officials with him,

says the Lord.

Judgement on Judah

⁴Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Judah,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
   and have not kept his statutes,
but they have been led astray by the same lies
   after which their ancestors walked.
⁵So I will send a fire on Judah,
   and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

Judgement on Israel

⁶Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they sell the righteous for silver,
   and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
   and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
   so that my holy name is profaned;
⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar
   on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
   wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
   whose height was like the height of cedars,
   and who was as strong as oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above,
   and his roots beneath.
¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
   and led you for forty years in the wilderness,
   to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹And I raised up some of your children to be prophets
   and some of your youths to be nazirites.^*
   Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?

says the Lord.

¹²But you made the nazirites^* drink wine,
   and commanded the prophets,
   saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

¹³So, I will press you down in your place,
   just as a cart presses down
   when it is full of sheaves.^*
14Flight shall perish from the swift,
   and the strong shall not retain their strength,
   nor shall the mighty save their lives;
¹⁵those who handle the bow shall not stand,
   and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves,
   nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;
¹⁶and those who are stout of heart among the mighty
   shall flee away naked on that day, says the Lord.

Israel’s Guilt and Punishment

Chapter 3:1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
²You only have I known
   of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
   for all your iniquities.

³Do two walk together
   unless they have made an appointment?
⁴Does a lion roar in the forest,
   when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den,
   if it has caught nothing?
⁵Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,
   when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
   when it has taken nothing?
⁶Is a trumpet blown in a city,
   and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster befall a city,
   unless the Lord has done it?
⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing,
   without revealing his secret
   to his servants the prophets.
⁸The lion has roared;
   who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
   who can but prophesy?

⁹Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod,
   and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, ‘Assemble yourselves on Mount^* Samaria,
   and see what great tumults are within it,
   and what oppressions are in its midst.’
¹⁰They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
   those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.
¹¹Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
An adversary shall surround the land,
   and strip you of your defence;
   and your strongholds shall be plundered.

12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part^* of a bed.

¹³Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,
   says the Lord God, the God of hosts:
¹⁴On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,
   I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
   and fall to the ground.
¹⁵I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house;
   and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses^* shall come to an end, says the Lord.

Hosea (Northern Kingdom, mid-8^th)

Hosea

Chapter 1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel.

^{The Family of Hosea}

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’ ³So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴ And the Lord said to him, ‘Name him Jezreel;^* for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.’

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Name her Lo-ruhamah,^* for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. ⁷But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.’

⁸ When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹Then the Lord said, ‘Name him Lo-ammi,^* for you are not my people and I am not your God.’^*

^{The Restoration of Israel}

^10 *Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’ ¹¹The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of^* the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Chapter 2:1 ^*Say to your brother,^* Ammi,^* and to your sister,^* Ruhamah.^*

Israel’s Infidelity, Punishment, and Redemption

²Plead with your mother, plead—
   for she is not my wife,
   and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
   and her adultery from between her breasts,
³or I will strip her naked
   and expose her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
   and turn her into a parched land,
   and kill her with thirst.
⁴Upon her children also I will have no pity,
   because they are children of whoredom.
⁵For their mother has played the whore;
   she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers;
   they give me my bread and my water,
   my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶Therefore I will hedge her^* way with thorns;
   and I will build a wall against her,
   so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷She shall pursue her lovers,
   but not overtake them;
and she shall seek them,
   but shall not find them.
Then she shall say, ‘I will go
   and return to my first husband,
   for it was better with me then than now.’
⁸She did not know
   that it was I who gave her
   the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her silver
   and gold that they used for Baal.
⁹Therefore I will take back
   my grain in its time,
   and my wine in its season;
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
   which were to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰Now I will uncover her shame
   in the sight of her lovers,
   and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
¹¹I will put an end to all her mirth,
   her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths,
   and all her appointed festivals.
¹²I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
   of which she said,
‘These are my pay,
   which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
   and the wild animals shall devour them.
¹³I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals,
   when she offered incense to them
and decked herself with her ring and jewellery,
   and went after her lovers,
   and forgot me, says the Lord.

¹⁴Therefore, I will now persuade her,
   and bring her into the wilderness,
   and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵From there I will give her her vineyards,
   and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
   as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
¹⁶On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’, and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal’.^{* 17}For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. ¹⁸I will make for you^* a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish^* the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. ¹⁹And I will take you for my wife for ever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. ²⁰I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.
²¹On that day I will answer, says the Lord,
   I will answer the heavens
   and they shall answer the earth;
²²and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
   and they shall answer Jezreel;^*
23   and I will sow him^* for myself in the land.
And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah,^*
   and I will say to Lo-ammi,^* ‘You are my people’;
   and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’

* * * * *

Chapter 5:1 Hear this, O priests!
   Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
   For the judgement pertains to you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
   and a net spread upon Tabor,
²and a pit dug deep in Shittim;^*
   but I will punish all of them.

³I know Ephraim,
   and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
   Israel is defiled.
⁴Their deeds do not permit them
   to return to their God.
For the spirit of whoredom is within them,
   and they do not know the Lord.

⁵Israel’s pride testifies against him;
   Ephraim^* stumbles in his guilt;
   Judah also stumbles with them.
⁶With their flocks and herds they shall go
   to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
   he has withdrawn from them.
⁷They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
   for they have borne illegitimate children.
   Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.

11 As the morning passes, so has the king of Israel passed away. Because Israel was a child, and I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt. 2 As they called them, they went away from before their face: they offered victims to Baalim, and sacrificed to idols. 3 And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms: and they knew not that I healed them. 4 I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be to them as one that takes off the yoke on their jaws: and I put his meat to him that he might eat. 5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king: because they would not be converted. 6 The sword has begun in his cities, and it shall consume his chosen men, and shall devour their heads. 7 And my people shall long for my return: but a yoke shall be put upon them together, which shall not be taken off. 8 How shall I deal with you, O Ephraim, shall I protect you, O Israel? How shall I make you as Adama, shall I set you as Seboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentance is stirred up. 9 I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: because I am God, and not man: the holy one in the midst of you, and I will not enter into the city. 10 They shall walk after the Lord, he shall roar as a lion: because he shall roar, and the children of the sea shall fear. 11 And they shall fly away like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their own houses, says the Lord.

Isaiah (Judah, later-8^th)

Chapter 1:1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

²Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;
   for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
   but they have rebelled against me.
³The ox knows its owner,
   and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
   my people do not understand.

⁴Ah, sinful nation,
   people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
   children who deal corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
   who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
   who are utterly estranged!

⁵Why do you seek further beatings?
   Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
   and the whole heart faint.
⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head,
   there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
   and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained, or bound up,
   or softened with oil.

⁷Your country lies desolate,
   your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
   aliens devour your land;
   it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
⁸And daughter Zion is left
   like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
   like a besieged city.
⁹If the Lord of hosts
   had not left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom,
   and become like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord,
   you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
   you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
   and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
   or of lambs, or of goats.

¹²When you come to appear before me,^*
   who asked this from your hand?
   Trample my courts no more;
¹³bringing offerings is futile;
   incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
   I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed festivals
   my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
   I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵When you stretch out your hands,
   I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
   I will not listen;
   your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
   remove the evil of your doings
   from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
¹⁷   learn to do good;
seek justice,
   rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
   plead for the widow.

¹⁸Come now, let us argue it out,
   says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
   they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
   they shall become like wool.
¹⁹If you are willing and obedient,
   you shall eat the good of the land;
²⁰but if you refuse and rebel,
   you shall be devoured by the sword;
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The Degenerate City

²¹How the faithful city
   has become a whore!
   She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
   but now murderers!
²²Your silver has become dross,
   your wine is mixed with water.
²³Your princes are rebels
   and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
   and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan,
   and the widow’s cause does not come before them.

²⁴Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies,
   and avenge myself on my foes!
²⁵I will turn my hand against you;
   I will smelt away your dross as with lye
   and remove all your alloy.
²⁶And I will restore your judges as at the first,
   and your counsellors as at the beginning.
Afterwards you shall be called the city of righteousness,
   the faithful city.

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
   and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
²⁸But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
   and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
²⁹For you shall be ashamed of the oaks
   in which you delighted;
and you shall blush for the gardens
   that you have chosen.
³⁰For you shall be like an oak
   whose leaf withers,
   and like a garden without water.
³¹The strong shall become like tinder,
   and their work^* like a spark;
they and their work shall burn together,
   with no one to quench them.

Chapter 5:1 Let me sing for my beloved
   my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
   on a very fertile hill.
²He dug it and cleared it of stones,
   and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it,
   and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
   but it yielded wild grapes.

³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
   and people of Judah,
judge between me
   and my vineyard.
⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard
   that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
   why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵And now I will tell you
   what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
   and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
   and it shall be trampled down.
⁶I will make it a waste;
   it shall not be pruned or hoed,
   and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
   that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
   is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
   are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
   but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
   but heard a cry!

Social Injustice Denounced

⁸Ah, you who join house to house,
   who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
   and you are left to live alone
   in the midst of the land!
⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
   large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
 and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.^*

¹¹Ah, you who rise early in the morning
   in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
   to be inflamed by wine,
¹²whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
   tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
   or see the work of his hands!
¹³Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
   and their multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
   and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem^* and her multitude go down,
   her throng and all who exult in her.
¹⁵People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
   and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
 and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
¹⁷Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
   fatlings and kids^* shall feed among the ruins.

Jeremiah (Judah, late 7^th, early 6^th)

Chapter 3:6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore there? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me’; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. ⁸She^* saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretence, says the Lord.

11 Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and say:
Return, faithless Israel,

says the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
   for I am merciful,

says the Lord;
I will not be angry for ever.
¹³Only acknowledge your guilt,
   that you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
and scattered your favours among strangers under every green tree,
   and have not obeyed my voice,

says the Lord.
¹⁴Return, O faithless children,

says the Lord,
   for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
   and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵ I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made.

¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your ancestors for a heritage.

¹⁹I thought
   how I would set you among my children,
and give you a pleasant land,
   the most beautiful heritage of all the nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
   and would not turn from following me.
²⁰Instead, as a faithless wife leaves her husband,
   so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel,

says the Lord.

²¹A voice on the bare heights^* is heard,
   the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children,
because they have perverted their way,
   they have forgotten the Lord their God:
²²Return, O faithless children,
   I will heal your faithlessness.

‘Here we come to you;
   for you are the Lord our God.
²³Truly the hills are^* a delusion,
   the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
   is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴ ‘But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our ancestors had laboured, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonour cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.’

Chapter 4:1 If you return, O Israel,

says the Lord,
   if you return to me,
if you remove your abominations from my presence,
   and do not waver,
²and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives!’
in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,
then nations shall be blessed^* by him,
   and by him they shall boast.

³ For thus says the Lord to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
Break up your fallow ground,
   and do not sow among thorns.
⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
   remove the foreskin of your hearts,
   O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire,
   and burn with no one to quench it,
   because of the evil of your doings.

^{Invasion and Desolation of Judah Threatened}

⁵ Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the trumpet through the land;
   shout aloud^* and say,
‘Gather together, and let us go
   into the fortified cities!’
⁶Raise a standard towards Zion,
   flee for safety, do not delay,
for I am bringing evil from the north,
   and a great destruction.
⁷A lion has gone up from its thicket,
   a destroyer of nations has set out;
   he has gone out from his place
to make your land a waste;
   your cities will be ruins
   without inhabitant.
⁸Because of this put on sackcloth,
   lament and wail:
‘The fierce anger of the Lord
   has not turned away from us.’

⁹On that day, says the Lord,

courage shall fail the king and the officials;

the priests shall be appalled

and the prophets astounded.

¹⁰Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God,

how utterly you have deceived this people and Jerusalem,

saying, “It shall be well with you”,

even while the sword is at the throat!’

¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem:

A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights^*

in the desert towards my poor people,

not to winnow or cleanse—

¹²a wind too strong for that.

Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.
¹³Look! He comes up like clouds,
   his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles—
   woe to us, for we are ruined!
¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash your heart clean of wickedness
   so that you may be saved.
How long shall your evil schemes
   lodge within you?
¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan
   and proclaims disaster from Mount Ephraim.
¹⁶Tell the nations, ‘Here they are!’
   Proclaim against Jerusalem,
‘Besiegers come from a distant land;
   they shout against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷They have closed in around her like watchers of a field,
   because she has rebelled against me,

says the Lord.
¹⁸Your ways and your doings
   have brought this upon you.
This is your doom; how bitter it is!
   It has reached your very heart.’

Sorrow for a Doomed Nation

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
   Oh, the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
   I cannot keep silent;
for I^* hear the sound of the trumpet,
   the alarm of war.
²⁰Disaster overtakes disaster,
   the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
   my curtains in a moment.
²¹How long must I see the standard,
   and hear the sound of the trumpet?
²²‘For my people are foolish,
   they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
   they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
   but do not know how to do good.’

²³I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
   and to the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
   and all the hills moved to and fro.
²⁵I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
   and all the birds of the air had fled.
²⁶I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
   and all its cities were laid in ruins
   before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

²⁷ For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
²⁸Because of this the earth shall mourn,
   and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
   I have not relented nor will I turn back.

²⁹At the noise of horseman and archer
   every town takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
   all the towns are forsaken,
   and no one lives in them.
³⁰And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in crimson,
   that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,
   that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
   Your lovers despise you;
   they seek your life.
³¹For I heard a cry as of a woman in labour,
   anguish as of one bringing forth her first child,
the cry of daughter Zion gasping for breath,
   stretching out her hands,
‘Woe is me! I am fainting before killers!’

Chapter 31:31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Second or Deutero-Isaiah, Chapters 40-55 (Exilic, mid-6^th)

Chapter 44:1 But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!

²Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you in the womb and will help you: Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring.

⁴They shall spring up like a green tamarisk, like willows by flowing streams.

⁵This one will say, “I am the Lord’s,” another will be called by the name of Jacob, yet another will write on the hand, “The Lord’s,” and adopt the name of Israel.

⁶Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

⁷Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be.

⁸Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.

⁹All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to shame. ¹⁰Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good? ¹¹Look, all its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans too are merely human. Let them all assemble, let them stand up; they shall be terrified, they shall all be put to shame. ¹²The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals, shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint. ¹³The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine. ¹⁴He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm, I can feel the fire!” ¹⁷The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!” ¹⁸They do not know, nor do they comprehend; for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand. ¹⁹No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” ²⁰He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”

²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. ²²I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. ²³Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel. ²⁴Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth; ²⁵who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; ²⁶who confirms the word of his servant, and fulfills the prediction of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be inhabited,” and of the cities of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt, and I will raise up their ruins”; ²⁷who says to the deep, “Be dry— I will dry up your rivers”; ²⁸who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out all my purpose”; and who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”

Ezekiel (Exilic, early 6^th)

Ezekiel

The Vision of the Chariot

Chapter 1:1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. ²On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), ³the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was on him there.

4 As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually, and in the middle of the fire, something like gleaming amber. ⁵In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. ⁶Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. ⁷Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. ⁸Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: ⁹their wings touched one another; each of them moved straight ahead, without turning as they moved. ¹⁰As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle; ¹¹such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. ¹²Each moved straight ahead; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. ¹³In the middle of^* the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright, and lightning issued from the fire. ¹⁴The living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.^{* 16}As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl; and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel. ¹⁷When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved. ¹⁸Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all round. ¹⁹When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. ²⁰Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²² Over the heads of the living creatures there was something like a dome, shining like crystal,^* spread out above their heads. ²³Under the dome their wings were stretched out straight, one towards another; and each of the creatures had two wings covering its body. ²⁴When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of mighty waters, like the thunder of the Almighty,^* a sound of tumult like the sound of an army; when they stopped, they let down their wings. ²⁵And there came a voice from above the dome over their heads; when they stopped, they let down their wings.

²⁶ And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire;^* and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form. ²⁷Upwards from what appeared like the loins I saw something like gleaming amber, something that looked like fire enclosed all round; and downwards from what looked like the loins I saw something that looked like fire, and there was a splendour all round. ²⁸Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendour all round. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.

The Vision of the Scroll

Chapter 2:1 He said to me: O mortal,^* stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. ²And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. ³He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation^* of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. ⁴The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ⁵Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. ⁶And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. ⁷You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.

⁸ But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. ⁹I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. ¹⁰He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.