but not perceive! Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and turn away their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be turned back to Me, and be healed."" Then I said: "Ah Lord! For how long?" And He answered, "Until the cities be wasted, and without inhabitant! Until the houses be without man, the land utterly desolate ! But in it shall be a tenth-again it shall be eaten. When cut down, their stock remaineth in them: So the holy seed shall be the stock thereof." (Isa. ch. vi. 1-13.) PART III. THE EARLIER PREACHING OF ISAIAH, IN JOTHAM's Reign, AND AHAZ'S FIRST YEAR (742-736 B.C.). An Address to his Nation. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah, and Jerusalem. The Text from Prophecy. And it shall come to pass, in the latter days—— The mountain of the Lord's House shall be established, at the head of the mountains It shall be exalted above the hills: all nations flow unto it. Many peoples shall go and say, Come ye! Let us go up To the mountain of the Lord-to the House of the God of Jacob! He will teach us His ways: in His paths we will walk. For out of Zion goeth teaching: the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge among the nations: many peoples He shall chide. To plow-shares shall they beat their swords: to pruning hooks their spears. Nation 'gainst nation lifts not sword: and war they learn no more! The Exhortation. O house of Jacob! Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord! For Thou hast forsaken Thy people, the House of Jacob! They are replenished from the East, and are sorcerers like the Philistines, and they delight themselves in the children of foreigners. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures: their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end to their chariots. Their land also is full of idols! They worship the work of their own hand-that which their own fingers have made! The common man boweth down before them, and the great man prostrateth himself. Therefore forgive them-thou shalt not! Oh! enter into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day! For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. That day shall be upon all B the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up: and upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall: and upon all the Tarshish-ships, and upon all places of amusement. Then the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day! (Ch. ii. 1-17.) Fate of Idolatry. The idols also He shall utterly destroy: and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, as they go into the caves of the rocks, and on to the clefts of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth! (Ch. ii. 17-21.) The Vanity of Trust in Man. Oh! cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils! Wherein is he to be counted upon? For, behold! the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water: the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder: the captain of fifty, and the honoured man, and the counsellor, and the clever artizan, and the eloquent And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them! And the people shall be oppressed every one by another, and every one by his neighbour. The child shall behave himself proudly against his elder, and the base against the honourable. A man shall lay hold upon his brother, of the house of his father, saying, "Thou hast clothing! be thou our protector, and let this wreck be under thy care." Then shall he solemnly declare, "I will not be a binder up: for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a protector of the people." (Ch. ii. 22; iii. 1-7.) A Lamentation. Jerusalem is ruined! Judah is fallen! Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The appearance of their countenance doth witness against them they openly show their sin, even as Sodom did they hide it not. Alas for their souls! They do evil unto themselves. Say of the just, that it is well with them; for they shall enjoy the fruit of their doings. Alas for the wicked! It is ill with them; for they have the fruit of their own hands. O my people! Children are their oppressors! Women rule over them! O my people! Thy leaders lead thee wrong, and they destroy the way thy feet should take ! The Lord standeth up to plead! He standeth to judge His tribes! The Lord entereth into controversy with the elders of His people, and the princes thereof. For thus saith the Lord God of Hosts, "Ye have eaten up the vineyard! The spoil of the poor is in your houses! What mean ye that ye beat My people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor ?" (Ch. iii. 7-15.) Complaint against Luxury in Dress. This also the Lord hath said. Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk with : stretched-out necks, and with wanton eyes, tripping and mincing as they go, and tinkling with their anklets: therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will put them to shame. In that day the Lord will take away the splendour of their anklets, and their networks, and their forehead ornaments: the earrings, and the bracelets, and the ruffles : the tiaras, and the stepping chains, and the girdles, and the smelling bottles, and the amulets: the finger-rings, and the nose-rings the festival-robes, and the mantles and the shawls, and the satchels: the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils. And it shall come to pass that instead of a sweet fragrance, there shall be a mouldy smell, and instead of a girdle, a rope: and instead of well-dressed hair, baldness: and instead of a mantle, a covering of sackcloth and instead of beauty, branding. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty men in the war. Yea, her gates shall lament and mourn: and desolate shall she sit upon the ground. And in that day shall seven women take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name that so our reproach may be taken away." (Ch. iii. 16-iv. 1.) Seven Woes upon Seven Sins. The first woe: Land-Covetousness.-Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no more room, and ye are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land! In mine ears the Lord of Hosts saith: "Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair ones, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vine |