Strengthen ye the feeble hands confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of fearful heart: "Be strong! Fear not! Lo! Your God is coming with vengeance-your God with recompence. He is coming! He will save you !" Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened: deaf ears shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as an hart: the tongue of the dumb shall sing :— "In the wilderness waters are breaking out-streams in the desert! The mirage has become a pool-the thirsty land springs of water! The place where jackals lay is grass, with reeds and rushes." An highway shall be there—a way called, "The Way of Holiness." The unclean! They shall not pass over it! God shall be for those who walk in the way the simple shall not err therein. No lion shall be there; no ravenous beast shall go thereon. But the released shall walk there; thence the ransomed of the Lord shall return. They shall come to Zion with songs-with everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness: sorrow and sighing (Ch. xxxv. 1-10.) shall flee away. The Coming King. His Character (720 BC.). There shall come forth a Shoot out of the stem of Jesse; A Branch shall grow out of his roots; And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, The spirit of wisdom, and understanding, the spirit of counsel, and might. The spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord : And shall make him delight in the fear of the Lord. Faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The Felicity of the New Kingdom. (Ch. xi. I-5.) The wolf shall dwell with the lamb-the leopard shall lie down with the kid, The calf, the lion's cub, and the fatling together—a little child shall lead them, The cow, and the bear shall feed-their young ones lying down together, The lion shall eat straw, like the ox, The suckling shall play on the viper's hole-the child shall put his hand on the adder's den. In all My Holy Mountain-they shall not hurt nor destroy. As the waters cover the sea, the land shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. (Ch. xi. 6-9.) The Glory of David's House in a Reunited Israel. And in that day it shall come to pass that the root of Jesse shall stand for an ensign to the peoples: to it shall the nations seek, and his resting-place shall be glorious. Yea, it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall for the second time set His Hand to restore the remnant of His people-even those that are left from Assyria, and from Egypt (both from Pathros and from Cush), and from Elam and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. "The envy of Ephraim shall depart: Judah's adversaries shall be cut off, Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim." And they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west: they shall spoil those of the east together they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea : and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the River, and He shall smite it into seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. Then there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria, like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. The coming King again described. (Ch. xi. ro-16.) Behold! A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice; and a great man shall be as an hidingplace from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great Rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those that see shall not be closed, and the ears of those that hear shall hearken: the heart also of the rash shall perceive distinctly, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. The foolish person shall be no more called noble, nor the churlish person said to be bountiful: for the foolish person speaketh folly, and his heart planneth iniquity, practising hypocrisy, and uttering error against the Lord, making empty the soul of the hungry, and causing the drink of the thirsty to fail. The purposes also of the churl are evil. He deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right; but the noblehearted deviseth noble things, and in noble things shall he continue. (Ch. xxxii. 1-8.) The Song of the Restored People. And in that day thou shalt say :— I will praise Thee, O Lord! Thou wast angry with me! But Thine anger is turned away. Thou comfortedst me! Lo! God is my salvation: I will trust and not fear. Jah the Lord is my strength and song. He is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say : Give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His Name! Declare His doings among the people: tell that His Name is exalted! Sing unto the Lord: for He hath done excellent things— This make known in all the earth. Cry aloud and shout, thou that inhabitest Zion! For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee! (Ch. xii. 1-6.) PART XIV. PROPHECIES DEALING WITH A GREAT DIVINE A dark Outlook on approaching Judgment. Behold! The Lord maketh the land empty! He maketh it waste! He turneth it upside down! He scattereth abroad its inhabitants ! And it shall be-as with the people, so with the priest: As with the servant, so with his master: as with the maid, so with her mistress: As with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower : As with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied! It shall be utterly spoiled! For the Lord hath spoken-even this word. The land shall mourn, it shall fade away! The world shall languish and fade! The rulers of the people of the land do languish ! The land is defiled by the people thereof! They have transgressed the laws ! They have changed the ordinances-broken the everlasting covenant! Therefore hath the curse devoured the land—its people are desolate ! |