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that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that 'hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. The fool shall be no more called noble, nor the cheat be said to be 6 bountiful. For the fool speaketh foolishness, and his heart worketh iniquity, to work profaneness, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he causeth the drink of the thirsty to 7 fail. The instruments also of the cheat are evil; he counselleth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh what is just. But the noble person counselleth noble things; and by noble things shall he stand.

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Rise up, ye women that are at ease, hear my voice; 10 ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech. After this year shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the after-gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women, that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make yourselves bare, but girded upon your loins; beating your breasts for the 1 pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon 14 all the houses of pleasure in the joyous city. For the palaces are forsaken; the crowd hath left the city; the [suburb] Ophel and the watch-tower shall be for dens

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5 Shall no more be called noble.] Chap. xiv. 2 had hoped for a return of the nobles to their former power; this chapter hopes for better treatment of the poor.

9 Ye women that are at ease.] The writer reviews the past, and copies the remarks which Isaiah had made, in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, about the luxury of the women.

14 The palaces are forsaken.] The review of the past now reaches to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

Ophel.]

The fortified suburb at the south-eastern corner of the city.

for ever, a pleasure for wild asses, a pasture for flocks; until the spirit be poured upon us from on high.

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Then shall the desert become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then justice shall 16 dwell in the desert, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the doings of righteousness shall be 17 peace; and the work of righteousness quietness and security for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. But hail shall hail down on the forest; 19 and the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, in places where the feet of the ox and the ass range freely.

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Woe to thee [Babylon] that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and robbest, and they did not rob thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end of robbing, they shall rob thee. ('O, Jehovah, be gracious to us; we have 2 'waited for thee; be thou their arm every morning, our 'salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of 3 'the tumult the peoples fled; at the lifting up of thyself 'the nations were scattered.') And your plunder shall be gathered like the clean gathering of the caterpillar; as the running to and fro of locusts shall they run upon it.

Jehovah is exalted; for he dwelleth on high; he hath 5 filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And wis- 6 dom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, the strength of salvation; the fear of Jehovah, that is his treasure.

Behold, their valiant ones cry for help without; the 7 messengers of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie 8 waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth. He [The Babylonian] broke the treaty, he despised the cities, he re

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15 Then shall the desert become a fruitful field.] When Babylon is overthrown. XXXIII. Woe to thee.] 8 He broke the treaty.] promises as they had made.

Babylon.

The Babylonians broke such

'garded no man.

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The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is made ashamed and withereth away; Sharon is like the Barren Valley; and Bashan and Carmel are stripped of leaves.

Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will I be ex11alted; now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble; your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

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Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye 14 that are near acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fear hath seized the ungodly, [saying,] 'Who of us shall dwell when the fire devoureth? Who 15 of us shall dwell through everlasting burnings?' He that hath walked in righteousness, and spoken uprightly; he that hath refused the gain of oppressions, that hath shaken his hands from taking bribes, that hath stopped his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and 16 shut his eyes from looking on evil; he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be castles upon rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be unfailing. 17 Thine eyes shall see a king in his beauty; they shall 18 behold the land that is very far off. Thy heart shall meditate on terror [saying] 'Where is the scribe? where

14 The sinners in Zion are afraid.] These are the Jews who had taken office under their Babylonian conquerors.

15 He that hath refused the gain of oppression.] That hath not accepted Babylonian pay. At the beginning of the Captivity, Gedaliah was assassinated by his countrymen for accepting office under Nebuchadnezzar (Jerem. xli. 2).

17 Thine eyes shall see a king.] Again the restoration of the monarchy is hoped for.

The land that is afar off] Judea. He is addressing the captives in Babylon.

18 Where is the scribe?] The Babylonian tax-gatherer will no longer be seen.

' is the weigher? where is he that counteth the towers?' Thou shalt not see the fierce people, a people of deeper 19 speech than thou canst understand; of a stammering tongue, not to be understood. Look upon Zion, the 20 city of our solemn feasts; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be taken down ; not one of its tentpins shall ever be pulled up, neither shall any of its cords be broken. For there will Jeho- 21 vah be mighty unto us, as a place of rivers, and streams with wide sides; wherein shall go no ship with oars, neither shall noble galley pass thereby. For Jehovah 22 is our judge, Jehovah is our lawgiver, Jehovah is our king; he will save us.

Thy tacklings [O Babylon] are loosed; they do not 23 hold steady the support of their yard-arm, they do rot spread the sail. Then was the prey of a great spoil divided; even the lame seized upon the prey. And the 24 dweller there shall not say, 'I am sick;' the people that abide therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

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COME NEAR, YE NATIONS, to hear; and hearken, ye peoples; let the earth hear, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all its offspring. For the indignation of 2 Jehovah is upon all the Nations, and his wrath upon all their armies; he hath devoted them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast 3 out, and their stink shall come up out of their dead bodies, and the mountains shall be watered with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved,

19 Thou shalt not see the fierce people.] The Babylonians will have left Judea.

21 Neither shall noble galley.] This word a galley comes into use after the Captivity. The older word was a ship.

23 Thy tacklings are loosed.] Babylon is compared to a ship of which the cords are out of order.

This

xxxiv. The host of heaven shall be dissolved.] is a figurative description of the great punishment which Jehovah will bring upon the nations which have oppressed the Jews.

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and the heavens shall be rolled together as a book-roll; and all their host shall wither away, as the leaf withereth from the vine, and as a withered fig from the fig5 tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse unto judgment.

The sword of Jehovah is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with fat of the kidneys of rams; for there is a sacrifice to Jehovah in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land 7 of Edom. And the buffaloes [or Egyptians] shall be cast down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls [or Syrians]; and their land shall be bathed with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

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For it is the day of Jehovah's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. And her [Babylon's] streams shall be turned into pitch, and her dust into brimstone, and the land thereof shall be10 come burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; 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.

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But the pelican and the hedgehog shall possess it; the heron also and the raven shall dwell in it; and he shall stretch out upon it the measuring-line of confu

5 It shall come down upon Edom.] The Jews were more particularly angry with the Edomites, from whom they might have hoped for help from the Babylonians. This anger is strongly expressed in Psalm cxxxvii. and Lament. iv. both written at this time.

6 Bozrah.] There was a city of that name in Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 33), and another in Moab (Jerem. xlviii. 24), unless the two were one.

The Buffaloes.] The Egyptians, so called in Numb. xxiii. 22, Psalm xxii. 21, and other places.

The Bullocks with the Bulls.] The Syrians, so called in Psalm xxii. 12.

9 Her streams.] Though Zion was the last noun used, yet we must understand Babylon as here meant.