The WORD OF ELOHIM, Gabriel Bible

The HEBREW BIBLE is divided into 3 parts: The Torah (Law), the Prophets, and the Writings. This online Hebrew Bible is also divided into 3 parts because the file is now too big to load and work properly.

JOSHUA 1

Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24

Word of Elohim INDEX

1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of Yehovah, Yehovah spoke to Joshua [Yehoshua] the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, and said, 2 Moses My servant is dead, so get up, and go over this Jordan, you, and all these people, to the land that I will give to them, even to the Israelites. 3 I’ve given you every place that the sole of your foot will tread on, as I told Moses. 4 From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. That will be your border. 5 No one will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. I’ll be with you just like I was with Moses. I won’t fail you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, because you’ll cause these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to the entire Torah that Moses My servant commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you can have good success wherever you go. 8 This book of the Torah won’t depart from your mouth, but you’ll meditate on it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to everything that is written there, because then you’ll make your way prosperous, and then you’ll be quite successful. 9 Haven’t I commanded you to be strong very courageous? Don’t be afraid, or dismayed, because Yehovah your Elohim is with you wherever you go.

JOSHUA 2

1 Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Acacia Grove as scouts, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went to the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, “Men, Israelites, came in here tonight to scout out the land!” 3 The king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, because they’ve come to scout out all the land.” 4 The woman took the two men and hid them, and she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from.” 5 Then about the time the gate was shut, when it was dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly, because you’ll overtake them. 6 But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, that she had laid in order on the roof. 7 The men pursued them all the way to the fords of Jordan, and as soon as those who pursued them had left, they shut the gate. 8 Before they had laid down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and she told the men, “I know that Yehovah has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 We have heard how Yehovah dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, who you completely destroyed.” 11 As soon as we had heard about it, the ‘morale’ of the people suffered a meltdown, there was no spirit remaining in any of them, because of you, because of Yehovah your Elohim. He is Elohim in Heaven above, and on earth beneath. 12 So please swear to me by Yehovah, since I’ve dealt kindly with you, that you’ll also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a true token, 13 and that you’ll save my father’s life, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and everything they have, and save our lives from death. 14 The men told her, “Our life for yours, if you don’t talk about this business of ours, and it will be, when Yehovah gives us the land, that we’ll deal kindly and truly with you.”

JOSHUA 3

1 Joshua got up early in the morning, and he and all the Israelites left Acacia Grove and went to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over. 2 Then after three days, the officers went thru the camp, 3 and they commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of Yehovah your Elohim and the priests and the Levites carrying it, you must break camp and follow them. 4 You must keep a space between you and them of about 2,000 cubits in length. Don’t come near them to find out which way to go, because you haven’t passed this way before.” 5 Joshua told to the people, “Dedicate yourselves, because tomorrow Yehovah will do amazing things among you.” 6 Joshua said to the priests, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and cross over ahead of the people.” So they picked up the ark of the covenant and left ahead of them. 7 Yehovah told Joshua, “Today I’ll begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they’ll know that I’m with you, just like I was with Moses. 8 Order the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, go and stand in the river.’”

JOSHUA 4

1 Then after the entire nation had completely crossed over the Jordan, Yehovah spoke to Joshua: 2 “Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place, where you’ll lodge tonight.” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, who he had selected of the Israelites, out of every tribe a man. 5 Joshua told them, “Pass over before the ark of Yehovah your Elohim into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 that this will be a marker for you, so that in the future when your children ask, “What do these stones mean to you?” 7 Then you can tell them, ‘Because the water of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yehovah. When it passed over the Jordan, the water of the Jordan was cut off. These stones will serve as a memorial to the Israelites forever.’” 8 The Israelites did what Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Yehovah spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to today.

JOSHUA 5

1 Then when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how that Yehovah had dried up the water of the Jordan from before the Israelites, until we had passed over, the ‘morale’ of the people suffered a meltdown, they were totally dispirited by the Israelites.

[1] This is exactly what the Messenger of Yehovah (Yeshua (Jesus) told Moses.

JOSHUA 6

1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out, and no one came in. 2 Yehovah told Joshua, “I’ve given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the warriors of valor! 3 All your men of war will march around the city, going around the city once. You’ll do this for six days. 4 Seven priests will carry seven Jubilee shofars [1] before the ark. On the seventh day, you’ll march around the city seven times, and the priests will blow the shofars. 5 When they make a long blast with the Jubilee horns [U] and when you hear the sound of the shofars, then all the people will shout with a loud shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the men will rush straight ahead into the city.”

[1] It is highly unlikely that any version of the Bible you have is honest here. They omit the word ‘Jubilee’ here for the same reason that they add ‘Jubilee’ to Leviticus 25:9!

JOSHUA 7

1 But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the contraband things, because Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the contraband things. So Yehovah’s anger burned against the Israelites.

JOSHUA 8

1 Yehovah told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and get up and go to Ai. Look, I’ve handed over to you the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land. 2 You’ll do to Ai and her king what you did to Jericho and her king, except that you’ll take its spoil and its livestock for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.” 3 So Joshua got up, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the warriors of valor, and sent them out during the night. 4 He commanded told them, “You must lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but you should all remain ready. 5 I, and all the people who are with me will approach the city. Then, when they come out against us, as before, we’ll flee before them. 6 They’ll come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city, because they’ll say, ‘They’re fleeing before us, like the first time.’ So we’ll flee before them, 7 then you’ll get up from the ambush, and take possession of the city, because Yehovah your Elohim will hand it over to you. 8 Then once you’ve seized on the city, you’ll set the city on fire. You’ll do this according to the Word of Yehovah. I’ve commanded you! 9 Joshua sent them out, and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua stayed among the people that night.

JOSHUA 9

1 Then when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and along the entire sea shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard about it 2 they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

JOSHUA 10

1 Now it happened when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had completely destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them, 2 that they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty. 3 So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon: 4 “Come up to me, and help me, and let’s strike Gibeon, because it has made peace with Joshua and with the Israelites.” 5 So the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their armies, and camped against Gibeon, and made war against it.

JOSHUA 11

1 Then when Jabin king of Hazor heard about it, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, 2 and to the kings who were on the north, in the hill country, in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west, 3 to the Canaanites on the east and on the west, and the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 They went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, like the sand on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. 5 All these kings met together, and they came and camped together at the water of Merom, to fight with Israel. 6 Yehovah told Joshua" Don’t be afraid of them, because tomorrow at this time, I’ll deliver them up all slain before Israel. You’ll hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. 7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the water of Merom suddenly, and descended on them. 8 Yehovah delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth Maim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward. They struck them until they left no one remaining. 9 Joshua did to them as Yehovah told him. He hamstrung their horses and burnt their chariots with fire.

JOSHUA 12

1 Now these are the kings of the land who the Israelites struck, taking possession of their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward, 2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the middle of the valley, and half of Gilead, all the way to the Jabbok river, the border of the ‘land’ of Ammon, 3 and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward to the sea of the Arabah, as far as the Salt Sea, eastward all the way to Beth Jeshimoth, and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah, 4 and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, 5 and ruled in Mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and thruout Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon. 6 Moses the servant of Yehovah and the Israelites struck them. Moses the servant of Yehovah gave it as a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

JOSHUA 13

1 Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yehovah told himYou are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed. 2 This is the land that still remains, the entire region of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites, 3 from the Shihor, that is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, that is counted as Canaanite, the five masters of the Philistines, the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, also the Avvim, 4 on the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites, 5 and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gawd under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath, 6 all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians. I will drive them out from before the Israelites, only allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I’ve commanded you. 7 So divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 8 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received the inheritance that Moses had given them, beyond the Jordan eastward, just as Moses the servant of Yehovah gave them, 9 from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and the entire plain of Medeba to Dibon, 10 and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the ‘land’ of Ammon, 11 and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah, 12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim), because Moses attacked these, and drove them out. 13 But the Israelites didn’t drive out the Geshurites, or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath live in the middle of Israel to today. 14 But he didn’t give an inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The zebakim of Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, just as he told him.

JOSHUA 14

1 These are the inheritances that the Israelites took in the land of Canaan, that Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the Israelites, distributed to them, 2 by the lot of their inheritance, as Yehovah commanded by Moses, because the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe. 3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan, but he gave no inheritance to the Levites among them. 4 The children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they gave no portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to live in, with their suburbs for their livestock and for their property. 5 The Israelites did as Yehovah commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

JOSHUA 15

1 The lot for the tribe of the descendants of Judah according to their clans was to the border of Edom, even to the wilderness of Zin southward, at the uttermost part of the south. 2 Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward, 3 and it went out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up by the south of Kadesh Barnea, and passed along by Hezron, went up to Addar, and turned about to Karka, 4 and it passed along to Azmon, went out at the brook of Egypt, and the border ended at the sea. This will be your southern border. 5 The eastern border was the Salt Sea, at the end of the Jordan. The border of the northern quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan. 6 The border went up to Beth Hoglah, and passed along north of Beth Arabah, and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. 7 The border went up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, facing Gilgal, that is over against the ascent of Adummim, that is on the southern side of the river. The border passed along to the water of En Shemesh, and ended at En Rogel. 8 The border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite southward (the same is Jerusalem), and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, that is at the farthest part of the valley of Rephaim northward. 9 The border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of the water of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron, and the border extended to Baalah (the same is Kiriath Jearim), 10 and the border turned about from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, and passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (the same is Chesalon), and went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed along by Timnah, 11 and the border went out to the side of Ekron northward, and the border extended to Shikkeron, and passed along to Mount Baalah, and went out at Jabneel, and the goings out of the border were at the sea. 12 The west border was to the shore of the great sea. This is the border of the descendants of Judah according to their families.

JOSHUA 16

1 The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the water of Jericho on the east, including the wilderness, going up from Jericho thru the hill country to Bethel. 2 It went from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth, 3 and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, all to Gezer, and ended at the sea.

JOSHUA 17

1 This was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh, because he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, so he had Gilead and Bashan. 2 So this was for the rest of the descendants of Manasseh according to their families, for the children of Abiezer, because the children of Helek, because the children of Asriel, because the children of Shechem, because the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida, these were the male descendants of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families. 3 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters, and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 4 They came before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, “Yehovah commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.” So according to the commandment of Yehovah he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father. 5 Ten parts fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, that is beyond the Jordan, 6 because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons. The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh.

JOSHUA 18

1 The whole community of the Israelites gathered together in Shiloh, and set up the kadosh Tent there. The land was subdued before them.

JOSHUA 19

1 The second lot came out for Simeon, even for the tribe of the descendants of Simeon according to their families. Their inheritance was in the middle of the inheritance of the descendants of Judah. 2 They had for their inheritance Beersheba (or Sheba), Moladah, 3 Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem, 4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah, 5 Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah, 6 Beth Lebaoth, and Sharuhen, thirteen cities with their villages, 7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan, four cities with their villages, 8 and all the villages that were around these cities to Baalath Beer, Ramah of the South. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the descendants of Simeon according to their families. 9 Out of the part of the descendants of Judah was the inheritance of the descendants of Simeon, because the portion of the descendants of Judah was too much for them. So the descendants of Simeon had their inheritance in the middle of their inheritance.

JOSHUA 20

1 Yehovah spoke to Joshua: 2 “Speak to the Israelites, saying: Assign the cities of refuge, that I had Moses tell you about, 3 that a person who accidentally or unintentionally kills someone can flee to. They’ll be a refuge for anyone from the avenger of blood. 4 He’ll flee to one of those cities, and stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and announce his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They’ll take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he can live among them. 5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, then they won’t surrender the person who accidentally killed someone into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and without premeditation. 6 He’ll live in that city until he stands before the assembly for judgment, and until the death of the high priest presiding in those days. Then that person will return.”

JOSHUA 21

1 Then the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of fathers’ houses of the tribes of the Israelites. 2 They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “Yehovah commanded Moses to give us cities to live in, with their suburbs for our livestock. 3 The Israelites gave the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of Yehovah, these cities with their suburbs.”

JOSHUA 22

1 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 He told them, “You have done everything that Moses the servant of Yehovah commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. 3 You haven’t abandoned your brothers these many days, down to today, but have been careful to obey the commands of Yehovah your Elohim. 4 Now Yehovah your Elohim has given rest to your brothers, as He told them. So now return to your tents, to the land of your possession, that Moses the servant of Yehovah gave you, beyond the Jordan. 5 But be very careful to obey the commandments and the Torah that Moses the servant of Yehovah commanded you, to love Yehovah your Elohim, to walk in all His ways, to obey His Commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your mind and with all your life.” 6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away, and they went to their tents. 7 Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given inheritance in Bashan, but to the other half gave Joshua among their brothers beyond the Jordan westward. When Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them, 8 and told them: “Return with much wealth to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

JOSHUA 23

1 After many days, when Yehovah had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and told them, “I’m old and well advanced in years. 3 You’ve seen everything that Yehovah your Elohim has done to all these nations because of you, because it’s Yehovah your Elohim who has fought for you. 4 Look, I’ve allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I’ve cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 5 Yehovah your Elohim will thrust them out from before you, and drive them out of your sight. You’ll possess their land, just as Yehovah your Elohim told you.

JOSHUA 24

1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before Elohim. 2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel says: Your ancestors lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 3 I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him thruout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau, and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5 ‘I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. 6 I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued after your ancestors with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 When they cried out to Yehovah, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness many days. 8 ‘I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, got up and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, 10 but I wouldn’t listen to Balaam, so he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand. 11 You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I delivered them into your hand. 12 I sent the hornet before you, that drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, not with your sword, nor with your bow. 13 I gave you a land whereon you hadn’t labored, and cities that you didn’t build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant. 14 So fear Yehovah, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, in Egypt, and serve Yehovah.

JUDGES 1

Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21

1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked Yehovah, “Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2 Yehovah says, “Judah will go up. I’ve delivered the land into his hand!” 3 Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into my lot, so that we can fight against the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with you into your lot.” So Simeon went with him.

JUDGES 2

1 The Messenger of Yehovah [1] came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I caused you to leave Egypt, and I’ve brought you into the land that I swore to your ancestors, and I said, “I’ll never break My covenant with you. 2 You won’t make any covenants with the inhabitants of this land, but you’ll break down their altars.” But you haven’t listened to My voice, why have you done this? 3 So I also said, ‘I won’t drive them out from before you, but they’ll be as thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you. 4 Then when the Messenger of Yehovah spoke these words to all the Israelites, that the people lifted up their voice, and cried. 5 They called the name of that place Bochim, and they made offerings there to Yehovah.

[1] Wrongly called “the Messenger (angel) of the Elohim”. In reality He is “the Word of Elohim”

JUDGES 3

1 Now these are the nations that Yehovah left, to test Israel by them, even as many of Israel as hadn’t known all the wars of Canaan, 2 only that the generations of the Israelites might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it, 3 namely, the five masters of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. 4 They were left, to test Israel by them, to determine whether they would listen to the Commandments of Yehovah, that He commanded their ancestors by Moses. 5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.

JUDGES 4

1 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of Yehovah again, when Ehud was dead. 2 Yehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the nation. 3 The Israelites cried to Yehovah, because he had nine hundred iron chariots, and for twenty years he had severely oppressed the Israelites.

JUDGES 5

1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day: 2 “Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, bless Yehovah! 3 Hear, you kings! Listen, you princes! I, even I, will sing to Yehovah. I’ll sing praise to Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel.”

JUDGES 6

1 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of Yehovah, and Yehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. 2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites made for themselves the dens in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the descendants of the east would come up against them, 4 and they camped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, no sheep, or oxen, or donkies. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents, they came in as numerous as locusts, both they and their camels were beyond counting, and they came into the land to destroy it. 6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the Israelites cried to Yehovah. 7 Then when the Israelites cried to Yehovah because of Midian, 8 Yehovah sent a prophet to the Israelites, who told them, “This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel says: I brought you out of Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage, 9 and I delivered you out of the grasp of the Egyptians, and out of the grasp of everyone who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land, 10 and I said to you, ‘I am Yehovah your Elohim, you won’t fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you haven listened to My voice.’”

JUDGES 7

1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, got up early and camped beside the spring of Harod, and the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 Yehovah told Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hand, otherwise Israel would vaunt themselves against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 So announce where the people can hear, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, should return and depart from Mount Gilead.” Twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. 4 Yehovah told Gideon, “There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I’ll test them for you there. It will be that to those I tell, “These will go with you,’ those will go with you, and of those I tell you, “Those won’t go with you,’ those won’t go. 5 So he brought the people down to the water, and Yehovah told Gideon, “Everyone who laps the water with his tongue like a dog laps, you’ll set him by himself, likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink. 6 The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth was three hundred men, but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. 7 Yehovah told Gideon, “I’ll save you by the three hundred men who lapped, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Have all the other people go, each to his own place. 8 So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets, and he sent every single man of Israel to his tent, but retained the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

JUDGES 8

1 The men of Ephraim asked him, “Why have you treated us this way, not calling us when you went to fight with Midian?” They reprimanded him sharply. 2 He told them, “What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 3 Elohim has delivered into your hand the leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated toward him, when he said that.

JUDGES 9

1 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father: 2 “Please speak in the ears of all the men of ShechemIs it better for you for all the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy people, rule over you, or for one to rule over you?” Remember that I’m your bone and your flesh. 3 His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words, and their sentiments inclined to follow Abimelech, because they said, “He is our brother. 4 They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, and with this Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone, but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, because he hid himself. 6 All the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem.

JUDGES 10

1 After AbimelechTola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar arose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

JUDGES 11

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 2 Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and told him, “You will have no inherit in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman. 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless men banded together with Jephthah, and they went out raiding with him.

JUDGES 12

1 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward, and they said to Jephthah, “Why did you pass over to fight against the ‘Ammonites’, without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire!” 2 Jephthah told them, “I and my people were at great strife with the ‘Ammonites’, and when I called you, you didn’t save me out of their hand. 3 When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the ‘Ammonites’, and Yehovah delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me?” 4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the middle of Ephraim, and in the middle of Manasseh. 5 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Then when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me go over", the men of Gilead told himAre you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6 then they told him, “Now say ‘Shibboleth,’” and he said “Sibboleth”, because he couldn’t manage to pronounce it right, then they laid hold of him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell.

JUDGES 13

1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of Yehovah, and Yehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

JUDGES 14

1 Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 He came up, and told his father and his mother, “I’ve seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines, so get her for me as wife. 3 Then his father and his mother asked him, “Isn’t there a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you wouldn’t need to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she pleases me well. 4 But his father and mother didn’t know that it was Yehovah’s doing, because he wanted an opportunity to move against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

JUDGES 15

1 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and he said, “I’ll go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you had completely hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead. 3 Samson told them, “This time I’ll be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I harm them. 4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle between every two tails. 5 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and lit her and her father on fire. 7 Samson told them, “If you behave like this, surely I’ll take vengeance on you, and after that I’ll cease. 8 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

JUDGES 16

1 Samson went to Gaza, and saw a prostitute there, and had sex with her. 2 When the Gazites heard, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night: “Wait until the morning light, then we’ll kill him. 3 Samson lay until midnight, and got up at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

JUDGES 17

1 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, that you spoke a curse over, that you spoke where I could hear, look, the silver is with me, I took it. His mother said, “Blessed be my son of Yehovah. 3 He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yehovah from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image. So I’ll restore it to you. 4 When he restored the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made an engraved image and a molten image with it, and put it in Micah’s house. 5 The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and a Kadosh One of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes.

JUDGES 18

1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe of the Danites were looking for an inheritance to live in, because to that day their inheritance hadn’t fallen to them among the tribes of Israel. 2 The descendants of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to scout out the land, and to search it, and they told them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man, the Levite, and they turned aside there, and asked him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?” 4 He told them, “This and that Micah has done for me, and he has hired me, and I’ve become his priest. 5 They told him, “Ask counsel, please, of Elohim, so that we can know whether the way that we are going will be prosperous. 6 The priest told them, “Go in peace. Yehovah is leading you on your way. 7 Then the five men left, and came to Laish, and saw that people who were there lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure, because there was no one in the land with the authority to put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man. 8 They came to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers told them, “What do you say?” 9 They said, “Get up, and let us go up against them, because we have seen the land, and we see that it’s very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be lazy, go and enter the land and take possession of it. 10 When you go, you’ll come to a secure people, and the land is large, because Elohim has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.

JUDGES 19

1 Then in those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite staying on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah. 2 His concubine practice prostitution against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there the space of four months. 3 Her husband got up and went after her, to speak kindly to her, to bring her back again, having his servant with him, and a couple of donkeys, and she brought him into her father’s house, and when the father of the young lady saw him, he celebrated to meet him. 4 His father-in-Torah, the young lady’s father, retained him, and he stayed with him for three days, so they ate and drink, and lodged there. 5 Then on the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he got up to leave, and the young lady’s father said to his son-in-Torah, “Strengthen yourself with a morsel of bread, and afterward you’ll go your way. 6 So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together, and the young lady’s father told the man, “Please be content to stay all night, and let your mind be merry. 7 The man got up to leave, but his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again. 8 He got up early in the morning on the fifth day to leave, and the young lady’s father said, “Please strengthen yourself and stay until the day declines,” and they both ate. 9 When the man got up to leave, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-Torah, the young lady’s father, told him, “Look, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night, look, the day grows to an end, lodge here, so that your mind can be merry, and tomorrow go on your way early, so that you can go home. 10 But the man wouldn’t stay that night. He got up and left, and came over against Jebus (the same is Jerusalem), and there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled, his concubine also was with him.

JUDGES 20

1 Then all the Israelites went out, and gathered together as one man, from Dan all the way to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yehovah at Mizpah. 2 The leaders of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of Elohim, four hundred thousand footmen who drew swords. 3 (Now the descendants of Benjamin heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) The Israelites said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?” 4 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 5 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house one night. They thought about killing me, and they forced my concubine, and she is dead. 6 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her thruout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, because they’ve committed lewdness and outrage in Israel. 7 Look, you Israelites, all of you, give me your advice and counsel. 8 All the people got up as one man, saying, “None of will return to our tent, or return to our house. 9 Now this is what we’ll do to Gibeah, we’ll go up against it by lot, 10 and we’ll take ten men from one hundred thruout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred from one thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get food for the people, so that they can do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the outrage that they’ve done in Israel.

JUDGES 21

1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah that, “There won’t be any of us to give his daughter to Benjamin as wives. 2 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before Elohim, and lifted up their voices, and cried bitterly. 3 They said, “Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?” 4 Then the next day that the people got up early, and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. 5 The Israelites said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up in the assembly to Yehovah?” They had made a great oath concerning the one who didn’t come up to Yehovah to Mizpah, saying, “He’ll surely be put to death. 6 The Israelites grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel today. 7 How will we provide wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yehovah that we won’t give them our daughters for wives?” 8 They said, “Who is there among the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up to Yehovah to Mizpah?” Look, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.

“1” SAMUEL 1

Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30, 31

1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite, 2 and he had two wives, the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah, and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3 This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to ze’bak[sacrifice]to Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests to Yehovah, were there. 4 When the day came that Elkanah made his offering, he gave Peninnah his wife, and all her sons and her daughters, portions, 5 but he gave Hannah a double portion, because he loved Hannah, but Yehovah had shut up her womb. 6 Her rival provoked her severely, and made her fret, because Yehovah had closed her womb. 7 As he did so year by year, when she went up to Yehovah’s Temple, so she provoked her, so that she wept, and wouldn’t eat.

1 SAMUEL 2

1 Hannah prayed, “Inwardly I exult in Yehovah! My ‘strength’ is exalted in Yehovah. My mouth ‘ridicules’ my enemies, because I rejoice in your deliverance. 2 There is no one as kadosh as Yehovah, there is no one besides You, nor is there any Rock like our Elohim.

1 SAMUEL 3

1 The child Samuel ministered to Yehovah before Eli. Word from Yehovah was rare in those days, there were no break threw visions. 2 During this time, as Eli was lying down in his place (his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he couldn’t see), 3 and the lamp of Elohim hadn’t yet gone out, and Samuel had laid down to go to sleep in the Temple of Yehovah, where the ark of Elohim was, 4 that Yehovah called to Samuel, and he said, “Here I am. 5 He ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, because you called me. He said, “I didn’t call, lie down again. He went and lay down. 6 Yehovah called once again Samuel”! Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, because you called me. He answered, “I didn’t call, my son, lie down again. 7 Now Samuel didn’t yet know Yehovah, nor had the Word of Yehovah been revealed to him yet. 8 Yehovah called Samuel a third time. He got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, because you called me. Eli perceived that Yehovah had called the child. 9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and then if He calls you, you should say, “Speak, Yehovah, because Your servant hears.” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

1 SAMUEL 4

1 The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and camped beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped in Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed in battle array against Israel, and when they joined the battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, and they killed about four thousand ‘soldiers’ on the battlefield. 3 When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yehovah struck us today before the Philistines? Let us get the ark of the covenant of Yehovah out of Shiloh to us, so that it can be with us, and save us out of the grasp of our enemies. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, and they got the ark of the covenant of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, who sits above the cherubim, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of Elohim.

1 SAMUEL 5

1 Now the Philistines had taken the ark of Elohim, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 The Philistines took the ark of Elohim, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next day, they saw that Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yehovah. So they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4 When they got up early on the next day morning, look, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yehovah again, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands lay cut off on the threshold, only the stump of Dagon was left intact. 5 So neither the priests of Dagon, or anyone who comes into Dagon’s house, treads on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to today.

1 SAMUEL 6

1 The ark of Yehovah was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. 2 The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, and asked them, “What should we do with the ark of Yehovah? Tell us how to return it to its place. 3 They said, “If you send the ark of the Elohim of Israel back, don’t send it back empty, by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering, then you’ll be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand isn’t removed from you. 4 Then they said, “What should the guilt offering be that we’ll return to Him?” They said, “Five golden hemorrhoids, and five golden mice, according to the number of the masters of the Philistines, because one plague was on you all, and on your masters. 5 You must make images of your hemorrhoids, and images of your mice that ravage the land, and pay honor to the Elohim of Israel. Perhaps He’ll lift His hand from you and your gods and your land. 6 Why are you as unreasonable as the Egyptians and as unreasonable as Pharaoh? After he had severely punished them, didn’t they allow the people to go on their way? 7 Now prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows that have never worn a yoke, and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them, 8 and take the ark of Yehovah, and put it on the cart, and put the golden items beside it that you are returning to Him for a guilt offering, in a chest by its side, and send it on its way. 9 Look, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us, but if not, then we’ll know that it’s not His hand that struck us, that it was a random happening we experienced.

1 SAMUEL 7

1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and got the ark of Yehovah, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and commissioned Eleazar his son to have charge of the ark of Yehovah.

1 SAMUEL 8

1 Then when Samuel was old, he made his sons over Israel. 2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. 3 His sons didn’t ‘live’ the way he did. They grappled for dishonest gain, and took bribes, and perverted justice.

1 SAMUEL 9

1 Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a mighty man of valor. 2 He had a son whose name was Saul, an impressive young man, and there wasn’t a better person among the Israelites than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. 3 The donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. Kish said to Saul his son, “Take one of the servants with you, and get up and find the donkeys. 4 He traveled thru the hill country of Ephraim, and thru the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them, then they went thru the land of Shaalim, and they weren’t there, and he passed thru the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them. 5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, we should return, otherwise my father will stop caring about the donkeys, and be worried about us. 6 He told him, “Look, there is a man of Elohim in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. Everything that he says always comes to pass. Now let’s go there. Maybe he can tell us which way to go.” 7 Then Saul said to his servant, “But if we go, what will we bring the man? The bread is spent in our vessels, and there isn’t a present to bring to the man of Elohim. What do we have?” 8 The servant answered Saul again, “Look, I have in my hand a fourth of a silver shekel. I’ll give that to the man of Elohim, to tell us the way. 9 (In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to inquire of Elohim, he would say, “Come, let’s go to the seer,” for he who is now called a prophet was previously called a Seer.) 10 Then Saul said to his servant, “Well spoken. Come, let’s go. So they went to the city where the man of Elohim was.

1 SAMUEL 10

1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, “Hasnt Yehovah anointed you to be leader over His inheritance? 2 When you’ve left from me today, then you’ll find two men by Rachel’s tomb, along the border of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they’ll tell you, “The donkeys that you were looking for have been found, and look, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys, and is worried about you, and asking, ‘What will I do for my son?’” 3 Then you’ll go on from there, and come to the oak of Tabor, and three men going up to worship Elohim in Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a wineskin full of wine. 4 They’ll greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, so that you will accept from their hand. 5 After that you’ll come to the hill of Elohim, where the garrison of the Philistines is, and then, when you come into the city, you’ll meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp, before them, and they’ll be prophesying, 6 and the spirit of Yehovah, she will come on you strongly, and you’ll prophesy with them, and you will be changed into a different person. 7 After these signs take place, do what you need to do, because Elohim is with you. 8 You’ll go down ahead of me to Gilgal, and I’ll come down to you to zebak, and to make fellowship offerings. You must wait seven days, until I come to you, and show you what to do.

1 SAMUEL 11

1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and camped against Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we’ll serve you. On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring shame on all Israel.” 2 Nahash the Ammonite told them, “On this condition I’ll make a treaty with you, I gouge out all your right eyes, so as to bring reproach on all Israel.” 3 The elders of Jabesh told him, “Give us seven days, so that we can send messengers to all the borders of Israel, and then, if there is no one to save us, we’ll come out to you.

1 SAMUEL 12

1 Samuel said to all Israel, “Look, I’ve listened to what you’ve said regarding everything you told me, and have made a king over you. 2 Now, look, the king walks before you, and I’m old and gray-headed. My sons are with you, and I’ve walked before you from my youth to today. 3 Here I am. Testify against me before Yehovah and before His anointed king. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Who have I defrauded? Who have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes? I’ll restore it to you.” 4 They said, “You have not defrauded us, or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from anyone’s hand. 5 He told them, “Yehovah is witness against you, and His anointed is witness today, that you haven’t found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is a witness.”

1 SAMUEL 13

1 Saul was thirty years old when he began to reign, and when he had reigned over Israel forty two years,

1 SAMUEL 14

1 One day Jonathan the son of Saul told his young armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to the Philistines’ garrison on the other side.“ But he didn’t tell his father. 2 Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree in Migron, and about six hundred men were with him, 3 including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Yehovah in Shiloh. Ahijah was wearing an ephod. No one realized that Jonathan was gone. 4 Between the passes that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine garrison, there was a ‘steep’ cliff on the one side, and a steep cliff on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5 The one cliff rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. 6 Jonathan told the young man who carried his armor, “Come on, and let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It can be that Yehovah will work for us, because there is no restraint on Yehovah to save by many or by few. 7 His armor bearer told him, “Do whatever you have in mind. Turn and, look, I’m with you whatever you have in mind.” 8 Then Jonathan said, “Look, we’ll go over to the men, and we’ll reveal ourselves to them. 9 If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you!’ Then we’ll stand still in our place, and won’t go up to them. 10 But if they say this, ‘Come up to us!’ Then we’ll go up, because Yehovah has delivered them into our hands. This will be the sign to us.” 11 Both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, and the Philistines said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves!” 12 The men of the garrison told Jonathan and his armor bearer, “Come up to us, and we’ll show you something!” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up after me, because Yehovah has delivered them into the hand of Israel.” 13 Jonathan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed them after him. 14 The first slaughter that Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. 15 There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people, the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked, so there was an exceeding great trembling.

1 SAMUEL 15

1 SAMUEL said to Saul, “Yehovah sent me to anoint you to be king over His people, over Israel. So listen to the voice of the words of Yehovah. 2 This is what Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King said: I’ve marked what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him along the way, when he came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek, and completely destroy everything that they have, and don’t spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. 4 Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.

1 SAMUEL 16

1 Yehovah asked Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I’ve rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I’ll send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I’ve provided a king for Myself among his sons.” 2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he’ll kill me.” Yehovah says, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I’ve come to make azebak to Yehovah.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the zebak, and I’ll show you what to do. You must anoint for Me the one who I designate to you.” 4 Samuel did what Yehovah said, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 He said, “Peaceably, I’ve come to make a zebak to Yehovah. Dedicate yourselves, and come with me for the offering.” He dedicated Jesse and his sons, and called them to the zebak.

1 SAMUEL 17

1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together for battle, and they gathered at Socoh, that belongs to Judah, and camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. 2 Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and camped in the valley of Elah, and formed in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them. 4 A mighty champion from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath came out. He was six cubits and a span tall. 5 He had a brass helmet on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail, and the weight of his coat was five thousand shekels of brass. 6 He had brass shin armor on his legs, and a brass javelin between his shoulders. 7 The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield bearer went before him. 8 He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and told them, “Why have you come out set in battle array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me, and kill me, then we will be your servants, but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then you’ll be our servants, and serve us.” 10 The Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel today! Give me a man so that we can fight together!” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

1 SAMUEL 18

1 Then when he was finished speaking to Saul, Jonathan was bonded in spirit with David, and Jonathan loved him as he loved himself. 2 Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go to his father’s house any more. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, as well as his clothing, even his sword, and his bow, and to his sash.

1 SAMUEL 19

1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, really liked David. 2 So Jonathan told David, “Saul my father wants to kill you. So be on your guard tomorrow morning. Find a hiding place, and stay hidden. 3 I’ll go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I’ll talk with my father about you, and if I see anything, I’ll tell you.” 4 Jonathan said good things about David to Saul his father, and told him, “The king shouldn’t sin against his servant, against David, because he hasn’t sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you, 5 for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yehovah worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and celebrated. So why would you sin against innocent blood, and kill David for no reason?” 6 Saul listened to what Jonathan said, and Saul swore, “As Yehovah lives, he won’t be assassinated.” 7 Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.

1 SAMUEL 20

1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and asked Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my wickedness? What is my sin before your father, that he is trying to take my life?” 2 He told him, “Far from it, you won’t die. Look, my father does nothing either great or small, without telling me about it, so why would my father hide this from me? It’s not so.” 3 David swore furthermore, and said, “Your father is well aware that I’ve found favor in your eyes, and he says: Don’t let Jonathan know this, otherwise he will be grieved. As surely as Yehovah lives, and as you live, there is but a step between me and death.” 4 Then Jonathan told David, “Whatever you want, I’ll do it for you.” 5 David said to Jonathan, “Look, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king, but let me go, so that I can hide myself in the field to the third day at evening. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me so that he could run to Bethlehem his city, because it’s the yearly zebak there for all the family.’ 7 If he says: ‘It is well,’ your servant will have peace, but if he is angry, then know that evil is determined by him. 8 So deal kindly with your servant, because you’ve brought your servant into a covenant of Yehovah with you, but if there is wickedness in me, kill me yourself, because why should you bring me to your father?” 9 Jonathan said, “Far be it from you, because if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn’t I tell you that?” 10 Then said David to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if perhaps your father answers you harshly?” 11 Jonathan told David, “Come, let’s go out into the field.” They both went out into the field.

1 SAMUEL 21

1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and asked him, “Why are you alone, with no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me a business, and has told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the business I’m sending you on, and what I’ve commanded you, or what I’ve appointed the young men to in such and such a place.’ 3 So what is under your hand? Put five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.” 4 The priest answered David, “There is no common bread under my hand, but there is kadosh bread, if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest, “Truly, women have been kept from us for about three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were kadosh, tho it was but a common journey. How much more then today will their vessels be kadosh?” 6 So the priest gave him kadosh bread, because there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Yehovah, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yehovah, and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of Saul’s herdsmen. 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Isn’t there a spear or sword here under your hand? For I’ve neither brought my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, who you killed in the valley of Elah is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take that, take it, because there is no other except that here.” David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

1 SAMUEL 22

1 David so left there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him, and he became captain over them, and there were with him about four hundred men. 3 David went there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he told the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what Elohim will do for me.” 4 He brought them before the king of Moab, and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold. 5 The prophet Gawd said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah.” Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

1 SAMUEL 23

1 David was told, ”Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors. 2 So David inquired of Yehovah, saying, “Will I go and strike these Philistines?” Yehovah told David, “Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah.” 3 David’s men told him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah, how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” 4 Then David inquired of Yehovah yet again. Yehovah replied, and said, “Get up, go down to Keilah, because I’ll deliver the Philistines into your hand.” 5 David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. 6 Then when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

1 SAMUEL 24

1 Then when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Look, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. 3 He came to the sheep pens by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were abiding in the innermost parts of the cave. 4 The men of David told him, “Look, the day of that Yehovah told you, ‘I’ll deliver your enemy into your hand, and you’ll do to him as it will seem good to you!’” Then David got up, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe secretly. 5 Then afterward, David’s conscience was struck, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. 6 He said to his men, “Yehovah forbid that I should do this thing to my master, Yehovah’s anointed, to put forth my hand against him, since he is Yehovah’s anointed.”

1 SAMUEL 25

1 SAMUEL died, and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David got up, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

1 SAMUEL 26

1 The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, that is before the desert?” 2 Then Saul got up, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3 Saul camped in the hill of Hachilah, that is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4 David so sent out spies, and understood that Saul had certainly come. 5 David got up, and came to the place where Saul had camped, and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army, and Saul lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were camped around him. 6 Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?” Abishai said, “I’ll go down with you.” 7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and, look, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the people lay around him. 8 Then said Abishai to David, “Elohim has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. So please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I won’t strike him the second time.” 9 David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him, because who can put forth his hand against Yehovah’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 10 David said, “As Yehovah lives, Yehovah will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he’ll go down into battle and perish. 11 Yehovah forbid that I should put forth my hand against Yehovah’s anointed, but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, nor did any awake, because they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yehovah was fallen on them.

1 SAMUEL 27

1 David said to himself, “I’ll now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.” 2 David got up, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 4 It was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him.

1 SAMUEL 28

1 Then in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you’ll go out with me in the army, you and your men.” 2 David said to Achish, “So you’ll know what your servant will do.” Achish said to David, “So I will make you my bodyguard for ever.” Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had put away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.

1 SAMUEL 29

1 Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, and the Israelites camped by the spring that is in Jezreel. 2 The masters of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands, and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish. 3 Then said the leaders of the Philistines, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish told the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I’ve found no fault in him since he fell away to today?” 4 But the leaders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the leaders of the Philistines told him, “Make the man return, so that he may go back to his place where you’ve appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, otherwise in the battle he become an adversary to us. With what should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men? 5 Is not this David, of who they sang one to another in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?’” 6 Then Achish called David, and told him, “As Yehovah lives, you’ve been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight, because I haven’t found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to today. But, the masters don’t favor you. 7 So now return, and go in peace, so that you not displease the masters of the Philistines.” 8 David asked Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant so long as I’ve been before you to today, so that I can’t go and fight against the enemies of my master the king?” 9 Achish answered David, “I know that you are good in my sight, like a Messenger of Elohim. But the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He won’t go up with us to the battle.’ 10 So now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your master who have come with you, and as soon as you are up early in the morning, and have light, depart. 11 So David got up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. The Philistines went up to Jezreel.

1 SAMUEL 30

1 Then when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and all who were there, both small and great. They didn’t kill any, but carried them off, and went their way. 3 When David and his men came to the city, look, it was set on fire, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 David was greatly distressed, because the people spoke of stoning him, because the life of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters, but David strengthened himself in Yehovah his Elohim. 7 David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, ”Please bring me here the ephod. Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 David inquired of Yehovah, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, will I overtake them?” He replied, “Pursue, because you’ll surely overtake them, and will without fail recover all.”

1 SAMUEL 31

1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines followed hard on Saul and on his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3 The battle went sore against Saul, and the archers overtook him, and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers. 4 Then said Saul to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me thru with it, otherwise these uncircumcised come and thrust me thru, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer Wouldn’t, because he was terrified. So Saul took his sword, and fell on it. 5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him. 6 So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together. 7 When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.

“2” SAMUEL 1

Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. 1st and 2nd Samuel were originally one book.

1 Then after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had lived two days in Ziklag, 2 it happened on the third day, that look, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head, and so it was, when he came to David, he fell to the ground, and did obeisance. 3 David told him, “Where do you come from?” He told him, “I’ve escaped out of the camp of Israel.” 4 David told him, “How did it go? Please tell me.” He answered, “The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.” 5 David told the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?” 6 The young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, look, Saul was leaning on his spear, and look, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him. 7 When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 8 “He asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I replied, ‘I’m an Amalekite.’ 9 “He told me, ‘Stand, please, beside me, and kill me, because anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.’ 10 So I stood beside him, and killed him, because I was sure that he couldn’t live after that he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my master. 11 Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them, and likewise all the men who were with him. 12 They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yehovah, and for the nation of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword.

2 SAMUEL 2

1 Then after this, that David inquired of Yehovah, saying, “Will I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” Yehovah told him Go up. David said, “Where will I go up?” He said, “To Hebron.” 2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 3 David brought up his men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron.

2 SAMUEL 3

1 Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the dynasty of David, and David grew stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

2 SAMUEL 4

1 When Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. 2 Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, had two men who were captains of bands, the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the descendants of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin, 3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have lived as foreigners there until today). 4 Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled, and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 5 The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, as he took his rest at noon. 6 They came there into the middle of the house, as tho they would have fetched wheat, and they struck him in the body, and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they struck him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8 They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and told the kingLook, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! Yehovah has avenged my master the king today of Saul, and of his seed.

2 SAMUEL 5

1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, “Look, we’re your bone and your flesh. 2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. Yehovah told you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you’ll be leader over Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yehovah, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

2 SAMUEL 6

1 David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 David got up, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale Judah, to bring up from there the ark of Elohim, that is called by the Name, even the name of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King who sits above the cherubim. 3 They set the ark of Elohim on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. 4 They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, that was in the hill, with the ark of Elohim, and Ahio went before the ark. 5 David and all the nation of Israel played before Yehovah with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and with harps, and with stringed instruments, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals. 6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of Elohim, and took hold of it, because the cattle stumbled. 7 The anger of Yehovah was kindled against Uzzah, and Elohim struck him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of Elohim. 8 David was displeased, because Yehovah had broken forth on Uzzah, and he called that place Perez Uzzah, to today. 9 David was afraid of Yehovah that day, and he said, “How will the ark of Yehovah come to me?” 10 So David wouldn’t move the ark of Yehovah to be with him in the city of David, but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of Yehovah remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and Yehovah blessed Obed-Edom, and all his house.

2 SAMUEL 7

1 Then when the king lived in his house, and Yehovah had given him rest from all his enemies all around, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I live in a house of cedar, but the ark of Elohim dwells within curtains.” 3 Nathan told the king, “Go and do everything that you have in mind, because Yehovah is with you.” 4 But that same night the Word of Yehovah came to Nathan and said: 5 “Go and tell My servant David, ‘This is what Yehovah says: Are you the one who will build a house for Me to live in? 6 I haven’t lived in a house since the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until now. ‘Instead’ I've moved around in a tent that served as My tabernacle. 7 Wherever I’ve walked with all the people of Israel, did I ever say a word to any of the tribes of Israel who I commanded to be shepherds of My people Israel, “Why haven’t you built Me a cedar house?”

2 SAMUEL 8

1 After this it happened that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them, and David took the bridle of the mother city out of the grasp of the Philistines. 2 He struck Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground, and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. The Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute. 3 David struck also Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his dominion at the River. 4 David took from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen, and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots. 5 When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men. 6 Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. Yehovah gave victory to David wherever he went. 7 David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 From Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, king David took exceeding much brass.

2 SAMUEL 9

1 David said, “Is there yet any who is left of the house of Saul, so that I can show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 There was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David, and the king told him, “Are you Ziba?” He said, “Your servant is he.” 3 The king said, “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, so that I can show the kindness of Elohim to him?” Ziba told the king, “Jonathan has yet a son, who is lame of his feet.” 4 The king told him, “Where is he?” Ziba told the kingLook, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar. 5 Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar. 6 Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face, and did obeisance. David said, “Mephibosheth.” He answered, “Look, your servant!” 7 David told him, “Don’t be afraid of him, because I’ll surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your father. You’ll eat bread at my table continually.” 8 He did obeisance, and asked, “What is your servant, so that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?”

2 SAMUEL 10

1 Then after this, that the king of the ‘Ammonites’ died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place. 2 David said, “I’ll show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent by his servants to comfort him concerning his father. David’s servants came into the land of the ‘Ammonites’. 3 But the leaders of the ‘Ammonites’ said to Hanun their master, “Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Hasn’t David sent his servants to you to search the city, and to scout it out, and to overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their clothing in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. 5 When they told it to David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, “Wait at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return.”

2 SAMUEL 11

1 Then, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the ‘Ammonites’, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Then at evening, that David got up from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look on. 3 David send and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent messengers, and took her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her (because she was purified from her impurities), and she returned to her house.

2 SAMUEL 12

1 Yehovah sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and told him, “There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, that he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter. 4 A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who came to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man who came to him.”

2 SAMUEL 13

1 Then after this, Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar, and Amnon the son of David loved her. 2 Amnon was so troubled that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar, because she was a virgin, and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her. 3 But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, and Jonadab was a very subtle man. 4 He asked him, “Why, son of the king, are you so sad every day? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon told him, “I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.” 5 Jonadab told him, “Lay down on your bed, and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to see you, tell him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, so that I can see it, and eat it from her hand.’” 6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon asked the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I can eat from her hand.” 7 Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, “Go now to your brother Amnon’s house, and prepare food for him.” 8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house, and while he was lying down. She took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes. 9 She took the pan, and poured them out before him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, “Have all the men leave me.” So everyone left him. 10 Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the room, so that I can eat from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes that she had made, and brought them into the room to Amnon her brother. 11 When she had brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister!” 12 She replied, “No, my brother, don’t force me! No such thing should be done in Israel. Don’t you do this folly. 13 I, where would I carry my shame? And as for you, you’ll be as one of the fools in Israel. So please speak to the king, because he won’t withhold me from you.” 14 However he wouldn’t listen to her, but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

2 SAMUEL 14

1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s thoughts were toward Absalom. 2 Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead. 3 Go in to the king, and speak like this to him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth. 4 When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, “Help, O king!” 5 The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I’m a widow, and my husband is dead. 6 Your handmaid had two sons, and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him. 7 Look, the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, ‘Deliver the one who struck his brother, so that we can kill him for the life of his brother who he killed, so as to destroy the heir also.’ So they would quench my coal that is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.” 8 The king told the woman, “Go to your house, and I’ll give a command concerning you.” 9 The woman of Tekoa told the king, “My master, O king, the wickedness be on me, and on my father’s house, and the king and his throne be guiltless.” 10 The king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he won’t touch you any more.” 11 Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yehovah your Elohim, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, otherwise they destroy my son.” He said, “As Yehovah lives, there won’t be one hair of your son fall to the earth.”

2 SAMUEL 15

1 Then after this, Absalom got a chariot and horses ready, and fifty men to run before him. 2 Absalom got up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. Then when any man had a suit that should come to the king for judgment, Absalom called to him, and asked, “What city are you from?” He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.” 3 Absalom told him, “Look, your matters are good and right, but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.” 4 Absalom said furthermore, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, every man who has any suit or cause could come to me, and I would do him justice!” 5 So when any man came near to do him obeisance, he reached out his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him. 6 This is how Absalom treated every Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the affection of the men of Israel.

2 SAMUEL 16

1 When David was a little past the top of the ascent, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. 2 The king said to Ziba, “What do you mean by these?” Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine, so that those who are faint in the wilderness can drink.” 3 The king said, “Where is your master’s son?” Ziba told the king, “He is staying in Jerusalem, because he said, ‘Today the nation of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.’” 4 Then the king said to Ziba, “Look, all that pertains to Mephibosheth is yours.” Ziba said, “I do obeisance. Let me find favor in your sight, my master, O king.” 5 When king David came to Bahurim, a man of the family of the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, and cursed still as he came. 6 He threw stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the warriors were on his right hand and on his left. 7 Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow! 8 Yehovah has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you’ve reigned! Yehovah has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Look, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!” 9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah asked the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my master the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.” 10 The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yehovah has told him, ‘Curse David,’ who then will say, ‘Why have you done so?’ 11 David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Look, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse, because Yehovah has invited him. 12 Perhaps Yehovah will look on the wrong done to me, and Yehovah will repay me good for the cursing of me today.” 13 So David and his men went by the way, and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust. 14 The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary, and he refreshed himself there.

2 SAMUEL 17

1 Ahithophel said to Absalom" Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I’ll arise and pursue David tonight. 2 I’ll come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I’ll only strike the king, 3 and I’ll bring all the people back to you. The man who you seek is as if all returned. All the people will be in peace. 4 The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. 5 Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let’s also hear what he says.” 6 When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom asked him, “Ahithophel said this. Should we do what he says? If not, speak up.” 7 Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time isn’t good.” 8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men, that they are warriors, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and won’t stay with the people. 9 He is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place! It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom!’ 10 Even he who is valiant, whose mind is like the mind of a lion, will completely melt, because all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men. 11 But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as grains of sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle personally. 12 Then we’ll come on him in some place where he’ll be found, and we’ll light on him as the dew falls on the ground, and of him and of all the men who are with him we won’t leave so much as one. 13 if he has gone into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we’ll draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.” 14 Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For Yehovah had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yehovah might bring evil on Absalom.”

2 SAMUEL 18

1 David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. 2 David sent the people out, a third of them under the hand of Joab, and a third of them under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third of them under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king told the people, “I’ll surely go out with you myself.” 3 But the people said, “You won’t go out, because if we flee away, they won’t care for us, nor if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. So now it’s better that you are ready to help us out of the city.” 4 The king told them, “I’ll do what seems best to you.” The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. 5 The king commanded Joab and Abishai and IttaiDeal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

2 SAMUEL 19

1 Joab was told, “The king is crying and mourning for Absalom”! 2 The victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, because the people heard that day, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3 The people snuck into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. 4 The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!” 5 Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “You have shamed the faces of all your servants who have saved your life today, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines, 6 in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. Because you’ve announced today, that leaders and servants are nothing to you. Today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died today, then it would have pleased you well. 7 So Get up, go out, and speak to comfort your servants, because I swear by Yehovah, if you don’t go out, not a man will stay with you tonight. That would be worse for you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now.”

2 SAMUEL 20

1 There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite, and he blew the shofar, and announced, “We have no portion in David, nor have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!” 2 So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri, but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3 David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines, who he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood. 4 Then said the king to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be present here.” 5 So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he stayed longer than the set time that he had appointed him. 6 David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your master’s servants, and pursue him, otherwise he’ll get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.” 7 Joab’s men went out after him, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the warriors, and they left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri.

2 SAMUEL 21

1 There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and David sought the presence of Yehovah. Yehovah said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.” 2 The king called the Gibeonites, and told them (now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but the remnant of the Amorites, and the Israelites had sworn to them, and Saul tried to kill them in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah), 3 and David told the Gibeonites, “What will I do for you? And with what will I make atonement, so that you can bless the inheritance of Yehovah?” 4 The Gibeonites told him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” He said, “Whatever you say, that’s what we’ll do for you.” 5 They told the king, “The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, so that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6 let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we’ll hang them up to Yehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yehovah.” The king said, “I’ll give them.” 7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yehovah’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, who she carried to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, who she carried to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yehovah, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

2 SAMUEL 22

1 David sang the words of this song to Yehovah on the day Yehovah rescued him from the ‘grasp’ of all his enemies, including Saul’s. 2 He said, “Yehovah is my rock, my fortress, and my rescuer, 3 Elohim is my rock, in Him I’ll take refuge. He is my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, my high tower, and my refuge. You save me from violence. 4 I’ll call on Yehovah, who is worthy to be praised, I will be saved from my enemies.

2 SAMUEL 23

1 Now these are the last words of David: David the son of Jesse says: “The man who was exalted on high, the man anointed by the Elohim of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: 2 “The spirit of Yehovah spoke thru me. His word was on my tongue. 3 The Elohim of Israel has spoken. The Rock of Israel told me, ‘One who rules over men rightly, who rules in the fear of Elohim, 4 will be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs from the earth, thru clear shining after rain.’ 5 Most certainly my house isn’t so with Elohim, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in everything, and sure, because it’s all my deliverance, and all my desire, altho He doesn’t make it grow. 6 But all of the wicked will be like thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand, 7 But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They’ll be completely set on fire in their place.

2 SAMUEL 24

1 Again the anger of Yehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth thru all the tribes of Israel, from Dan all the way to Beersheba, and count the people, so that I will know the number of people.” 3 Joab told the king, “May Yehovah your Elohim add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times, and may the eyes of my master the king see it. But why would my master the king want to know this?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the ‘nation’ of Israel. 5 They passed over the Jordan, and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city in the middle of the valley of Gawd, and to Jazer, 6 then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi, and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon, 7 and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone back and forth thru all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king, and there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword in Israel, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

“1” KINGS

Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22

1 Now king David was old and advanced in years, and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t stay warm. 2 So his servants told him, “We should find our master the king a young virgin, and have her take care of the king, and cherish you, and have her lie in your ‘arms’, that our master the king can remain warm.” 3 So they looked for a beautiful young lady thruout the land of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4 The young lady was very beautiful, and she cherished the king, and took care of to him, but the king didn’t know her intimately.

1 KINGS 2

1 Now David was nearing the time when he would die, so he commanded Solomon his son, 2 I’m about ‘to return to the ground’, but you be strong and show yourself a man. 3 Obey the instruction of Yehovah your Elohim living’ by His ways, and obeying His statutes, His Commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies—everything written in the Torah of Moses, so that you will prosper in everything that you do, and wherever you turn, 4 so that Yehovah can establish His word that He spoke about me: ‘If your children are careful in their way, to live before Me in truth with all their mind and with all their life, you won’t fail to have an ‘heir’ on the throne of Israel.’ 5 “You know about what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, who he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on the sash around his waist, and in the sandals that were on his feet. 6 So do according to your wisdom, and don’t let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. 7 But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and allow them be among those who eat at your table, because they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. 8 Look, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a severe curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yehovah, ‘I won’t put you to death with the sword.’ 9 So don’t hold him guiltless, because you are a wise man, and you’ll know what you should to do to him, and you’ll bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”

1 KINGS 3

1 Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he was finished building his own house, and Yehovah’s Temple, and the wall all the way around Jerusalem. 2 But the people made offerings in the high places, because there was no Temple built for the name of Yehovah until those days. 3 Solomon loved Yehovah, walking in the statutes of his father David, but he made offerings and burned incense in the high places. 4 The king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt zebakim on that altar.

1 KINGS 4

1 King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 These were the leaders who he had, Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest, 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder, 4 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests, 5 and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers, and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, and the king’s friend, 6 and Ahishar was over the household, and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

1 KINGS 5

1 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father, for Hiram was ever a lover of David. 2 Solomon sent to Hiram: 3 “You know how that David my father couldn’t build a house for the name of Yehovah his Elohim for the wars that were about him on every side, until Yehovah put them under the soles of his feet. 4 But now Yehovah my Elohim has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary, nor evil occurrence. 5 Look, I purpose to build a house for the name of Yehovah my Elohim, as Yehovah spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, who I’ll set on your throne in your room, he’ll build the house for my name.’ 6 So command that they cut me cedar trees out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants, and I’ll give you wages for your servants according to everything that you’ll say. Because you know that there isn’t among us any who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

1 KINGS 6

1 Then in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, that is the second month, that he began to build Yehovah’s Temple. 2 The house that king Solomon built for Yehovah, its length was sixty cubits, and its width twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 3 The porch before the Temple of the house, twenty cubits was its length, according to the width of the house, and ten cubits was its width before the house. 4 The house he made windows of fixed lattice work. 5 Against the wall of the house he built stories all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the Temple and of the Kadosh Place [not oracle], and he made side chambers all around. 6 The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad, because on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house. 7 The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. 8 The door for the middle side chambers was in the right side of the house, and they went up by winding stairs into the middle story, and out of the middle into the third. 9 So he built the house, and finished it, and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high, and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

1 KINGS 7

1 Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. 2 He built the house of the forest of Lebanon, its length was one hundred cubits, and its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. 3 It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five beams, that were on the pillars, fifteen in a row. 4 There were beams in three rows, and window was over against window in three ranks. 5 All the doors and posts were made square with beams, and window was over against window in three ranks. 6 He made the porch of pillars, its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits, and a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them. 7 He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment, and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. 8 His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch.

1 KINGS 8

1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the Israelites, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yehovah out of the city of David, that is Zion. 2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the Feast, in the month Ethanim, that is the seventh month. 3 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 4 They brought up the ark of Yehovah, and the Congregational Tent, and all the kadosh vessels that were in the Tent, even these did the priests and the Levites bring up. 5 King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, giving offerings sheep and cattle, that couldn’t be counted nor numbered for multitude. 6 The priests brought Yehovah’s ark of the covenant to the most Kadosh Place, into the innermost room of the Temple, under the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above. 8 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Kadosh Place before the Kadosh Place, but they were not seen outside, and there they are to today. 9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, when Yehovah made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10 It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the Kadosh Place, that the cloud filled Yehovah’s Temple, 11 so that the priests couldn’t stand to minister by reason of the cloud, because the splendor of Yehovah filled Yehovah’s ‘temple.’

1 KINGS 9

1 Then when Solomon had finished building Yehovah’s Temple, and the king’s house, and everything Solomon desired, everything he wanted to do to do, 2 Yehovah appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him in Gibeon. 3 Yehovah told him, "I’ve heard your prayer and your supplication that you made before Me. I’ve made this Temple that you’ve built kadosh, to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My sentiments will be there perpetually. 4 As for you, if you walk before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of mind, and in uprightness, to do according to everything that I’ve commanded you, and obey My statutes and My ordinances, 5 then I’ll establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just like I promised David your father, ‘You won’t fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn away from following Me, you or your children, and don’t obey My Commandments and My statutes that I’ve set before you, and you go and serve other gods, and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel out of the land that I’ve given them, and this Temple, and I will throw what I’ve made kadosh for My name out of My sight, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among the nations. 8 Even tho this Temple is very high, everyone who passes by will be astonished, and hiss, and they say, “Why has Yehovah done this to this land, and to this Temple?” 9 They’ll answer, “Because they forsook Yehovah their Elohim, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and clung to other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. So Yehovah has brought all this evil on them.”

1 KINGS 10

1 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yehovah, she came to test him with difficult questions. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels carrying spices, and very much gold and precious stones, and when she came to Solomon, she talked with him about everything that was on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all of her questions, there was nothing hidden from the king that he didn’t tell her. 4 Once the queen of Sheba had witnessed all the wisdom of Solomon, and the Temple that he had built, 5 and the food on his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their clothing, and his cup bearers, and the ascent that went up to Yehovah’s Temple, she was breathless. 6 She told the king, “It was true what I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom. 7 However I didn’t believe what I heard until I came, and saw it with my own eyes. I wasn’t told the half of it! Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame that I heard. 8 Your men are happy and your servants are happy as they stand continually before you and hear your wisdom. 9 Blessed is Yehovah your Elohim, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel. Because Yehovah loved Israel forever, so he made you king, to do justice and rightways.”

1 KINGS 11

1 Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite women, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, 2 from the nations that Yehovah told the Israelites, “You won’t go among them, nor will they come among you, because surely they’ll turn your minds away after their gods.” Solomon joined to these in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his mind away. 4 Then when Solomon was old, his wives turned his mind away toward other gods, and his mind wasn’t perfect with Yehovah his Elohim, as had been the mind of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of Yehovah, and didn’t go fully after Yehovah, as his father David had.

1 KINGS 12

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, since all Israel came to Shechem to make him king. 2 Then when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about it (because he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt, 3 and they sent for him), and Jeroboam and the entire assembly of Israel came, and told Rehoboam, 4 Your father made our yoke grievous, so make the severe service of your father, and his heavy yoke that he put on us, lighter, and we’ll serve you. 5 He told them, “Leave me for three days, then come back.” So the people left.

1 KINGS 13

1 A man of Elohim came out of Judah by the Word of Yehovah to Beth El, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. 2 He cried out ‘condemning’ the altar by the Word of Yehovah, “Altar, altar! This is what Yehovah says: A son named Josiah will be born to the dynasty of David. On you he’ll burn the priests of the high places as offerings, those who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.” 3 He gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that Yehovah has spoken, Look, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.” 4 Then when the king heard what the man of Elohim said, as he cried out ‘condemning’ the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam reached out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” His hand, that he put out against him, dried up, so that he couldn’t draw it back again to himself. 5 The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of Elohim had given by the Word of Yehovah. 6 The king answered the man of Elohim, “Now entreat the favor of Yehovah your Elohim, and pray for me, that my hand can be restored me again.” The man of Elohim entreated Yehovah, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. 7 The king told the man of Elohim, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.” 8 The man of Elohim told the king, “Even if you gave me half of your house, I wouldn’t go in with you, nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the Word of Yehovah, saying, ‘You will eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.’” 10 So he went another way, and didn’t return by the way that he came to Bethel.

1 KINGS 14

1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. 2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Go to Shiloh. There is Ahijah the prophet, who spoke concerning me that I should be king over these people! 3 Take with you ten loaves, and cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He’ll tell you what will become of the child.” 4 Jeroboam’s wife did so, and got up, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah couldn’t see, because his eyes were set by reason of his age. 5 Yehovah told Ahijah, “The wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of you concerning her son, because he is sick! So and thus you’ll tell her, because it will be, when she comes in, she’ll pretend to be another woman.” 6 It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, “Come in, you wife of Jeroboam! Why do you pretend to be another? Because I’m sent to you with heavy news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel says: Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader over my people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the dynasty of David, and gave it you, and yet you haven’t been as my servant David, who kept My Commandments, and who followed Me with all his being, to do only what was right in My eyes, 9 but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made yourself other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have throw me behind your back. 10 “‘I’ll bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will completely sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it’s all gone. 11 He who dies of Jeroboam in the city will the dogs eat, and he who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the sky, for Yehovah has spoken it. 12 Arise so, and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him, and bury him, because he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. 14 Yehovah will raise him up a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is day! What? Even now. 15 Yehovah will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he’ll root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they’ve made their Asherim, provoking Yehovah to anger. 16 He’ll give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, that he has sinned, and with that he has made Israel to sin. 17 Jeroboam’s wife got up, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 All Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the Word of Yehovah, that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

1 KINGS 15

1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat began Abijam to reign over Judah. 2 Three years reigned he in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 3 He walked in all the sins of his father, that he had done before him, and his mind wasn’t perfect with Yehovah his Elohim, as the mind of David his father. 4 But for David’s sake did Yehovah his Elohim give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem, 5 because David did what was right in the sight of Yehovah, and didn’t turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 6 Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

1 KINGS 16

1 The Word of Yehovah came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha: 2 “Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you leader over my people Israel, and you’ve walked in the way of Jeroboam, and made My people Israel to sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, 3 I’ll completely sweep away Baasha and his house, and I’ll make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat! 4 The dogs will eat Baasha’s descendants who die in the city, and he who dies of his in the field the birds of the sky will eat.”

1 KINGS 17

1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, lives, before who I stand, there won’t be dew or rain these years, but according to my word.”

1 KINGS 18

1 Then after many days, the Word of Yehovah came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I’ll send rain on the earth.” 2 Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. 3 Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yehovah greatly, 4 because when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yehovah, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) 5 Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go thru the land to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we can find grass and save the horses and mules lives, so that we don’t lose all the animals.” 6 So they divided the land between them to pass thruout it, Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

1 KINGS 19

1 Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel send a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!” 3 When he saw that, he got up, and fled for his life, and came to Beersheba, that belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yehovah, take away my life, because I’m no better than my ancestors.” 5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree, but then a Messenger touched him, and told him" Get up and eat!” 6 He looked up and saw that there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and laid down again. 7 The Messenger of Yehovah came a second time, and touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 He got up, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the Mount of Elohim.

1 KINGS 20

1 Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered his entire army together, and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots, and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. 2 He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and told him, "So says Ben Hadad, 3 ‘Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives as well as your children, even the best, are mine. 4 The king of Israel answered, “It is according to your saying, my master, O king. I’m yours, and everything that I have.” 5 The messengers came again, and said, “Ben Hadad sends this essage: ‘You will deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children, 6 but I’ll send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they’ll search your house, and the houses of your servants, and then whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they’ll put it in their hand, and take it away.’”

1 KINGS 21

1 Then after these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, that was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab told Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I can have it for an herb garden, because it’s near my house, and I’ll give you a better vineyard than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I’ll give you its worth in silver. 3 Naboth said to Ahab, “May Yehovah forbid me from giving the inheritance of my ancestors to you!” 4 Ahab went home sullen and angry because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had told him, because he had said, “I won’t give you the inheritance of my ancestors. He laid down on his bed, and turned away his face, and wouldn’t eat any bread. 5 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and asked, “Why is your spirit so sad that you aren’t eating any bread?” 6 He told her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and told him, “Give me your vineyard for silver, or else, if it pleases you, I’ll give you another vineyard for it.’ He answered, “I won’t give you my vineyard. 7 Jezebel his wife told him, “Don’t yo govern the kingdom of Israel? Get up, and eat bread, and let your mind be merry. I’ll give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

1 KINGS 22

1 They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. 2 Then in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel said to his servants, “You know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, but we’re still not doing anything to take it out of the king of Syria’s grasp?” 4 He said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat told the king of Israel, “I’m as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

“2” KINGS 1

Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25. 1st and 2nd Kings are really one book!

1 Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. 2 Ahaziah fell down thru the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick. So he sent messengers, and told them, “Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I’ll recover of this sickness.” 3 But the Messenger of Yehovah told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no Elohim in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? 4 This is what Yehovah says: You won’t come down from the bed where you’ve gone up, but will surely die.’” Elijah departed.

2 KINGS 2

1 Then when Yehovah would take up Elijah by a tornado into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Please wait here, because Yehovah has sent me as far as Bethel.” Elisha said, “As Yehovah lives, and as your life lives, I won’t leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 The sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and told him, “Do you know that Yehovah will take away your master from your head today?” He said, “Yes, I know it, hold your peace.” 4 Elijah told him, “Elisha, please wait here, because Yehovah has sent me to Jericho. He said, ‘As Yehovah lives, and as your life lives, I won’t leave you.’” So they came to Jericho. 5 The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and told him, “Do you know that Yehovah will take away your master from your head today?” He answered, “Yes, I know it. Hold your peace.” 6 Elijah told him, “Please wait here, because Yehovah has sent me to the Jordan.” He said, “As Yehovah lives, and as your life lives, I won’t leave you.” They both went on. 7 Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood opposite them at a distance, and they both stood by the Jordan.

2 KINGS 3

1 Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. 2 He did evil in the sight of Yehovah, but not like his father, and like his mother, because he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3 But he cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in that he caused Israel to sin, he didn’t depart from it.

2 KINGS 4

1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yehovah. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.” 2 Elisha said to her, “What will I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don’t borrow just a few. 4 You’ll go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers, and you’ll set aside what is full.” 5 So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons, they brought the containers to her, and she poured out. 6 Then when the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container. The oil stopped flowing.” 7 Then she came and told the man of Elohim. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest.”

2 KINGS 5

1 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yehovah had given victory to Syria, he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a person with an infectious skin disease. 2 The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his infectious skin disease.” 4 Someone went in, and told his master, “The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this.” 5 The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I’ll send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel that said “When this letter has come to you, I’ve already sent Naaman my servant to you, so that you can heal him of his infectious skin disease.” 7 Then when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I Elohim, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his infectious skin disease? But consider, please, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”

2 KINGS 6

1 The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we live before you is too small for us. 2 Let us go, please, to the Jordan, and every man a beam from there, and let us make us a place there, where we can live.” He answered, “Go!” 3 One said, “Please be pleased to go with your servants.” He answered, “I’ll go.” 4 So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. 5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” 6 The man of Elohim asked, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. 7 He said, “Take it.” So he put out his hand and took it.

2 KINGS 7

1 Elisha said, “Hear the Word of Yehovah. This is what Yehovah say: Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” 2 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of Elohim, and said, “If Yehovah made windows in heaven, could this happen?” He said, “You’ll see it with your eyes, but won’t eat it!”

2 KINGS 8

1 Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Get up, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can, because Yehovah has called for a famine. It will also come on the land for seven years.” 2 The woman got up, and did according to the word of the man of Elohim. She went with her household, and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3 Then at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines. Then she went out to cry to the king for her house and for her land. 4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of Elohim, saying, “Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 Then, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, that look, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, who Elisha restored to life.” 6 When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to her a certain officer, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.”

2 KINGS 9

1 Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and told him, “Gird up your waist, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner room. 3 Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what Yehovah says: I’ve anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door, flee, and don’t wait.’”

2 KINGS 10

1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up the sons of Ahab: 2 “Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor. 3 Select the best and fittest of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.” 4 But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Look, the two kings didn’t stand before him! How then will we stand?” 5 He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We won’t make any man king. You do what is good in your eyes.” 6 Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you’ll listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.” Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.

2 KINGS 11

1 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she got up and destroyed all the seed royal. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber, and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he wasn’t slain, 3 He was with her hid in Yehovah’s Temple six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.

2 KINGS 12

1 In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Yehovah all his days that Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 However the high places were not taken away, the people still made offerings and burnt incense in the high places.

2 KINGS 13

1 In the twenty third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. 2 He did evil in the sight of Yehovah, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in that he made Israel to sin, he didn’t depart from it. 3 The anger of Yehovah was kindled against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually. 4 Jehoahaz begged Yehovah, and Yehovah listened to him, because he saw the oppression of Israel, and how the king of Syria oppressed them. 5 (Yehovah gave Israel a liberator, so they went out from under the hand of the Syrians, and the Israelites lived in their tents as before. 6 But they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, in that he made Israel to sin, but walked there, and also left the Asherah in Samaria.) 7 He didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people save fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen, because the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing.

2 KINGS 14

1 In the second year of Joash the son of Joahaz king of Israel Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the sight of Yehovah, but not like David his father, he did according to everything that Joash his father had done. 4 However the high places were not taken away, the people still offered zebakim and burnt incense in the high places.

2 KINGS 15

1 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. 2 He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 3 He did what was right in the sight of Yehovah, according to everything that his father Amaziah had done. 4 However the high places were not taken away, the people still made offerings and burnt incense in the high places. 5 Yehovah struck the king, so that he was a person with an infectious skin disease to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house. Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

2 KINGS 16

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and he didn’t do what was right in the sight of Yehovah his Elohim, like David his father. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass thru the fire, according to the loathsome behaviors of the nations, who Yehovah had thrown out from before the Israelites. 4 He made offerings and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

2 KINGS 17

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the sight of Yehovah, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Shalmaneser King of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute. 4 The King of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, because he had sent messengers to the king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the King of Assyria, as he had been doing annually, so the King of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5 Then the King of Assyria came up thruout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and laid siege against it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the King of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

2 KINGS 18

1 Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the sight of Yehovah, according to everything that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah, and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because to those days the Israelites did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. 6 He joined with Yehovah, he didn’t depart from following him, but kept His Commandments, that Yehovah commanded Moses. 7 Yehovah was with him, wherever he went out he prospered, and he rebelled against the King of Assyria, and didn’t serve him. 8 He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

2 KINGS 19

1 Then when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yehovah’s Temple. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of reprimand, and of rejection, because the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It can be that Yehovah your Elohim will hear all the words of the field commander, who the King of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living Elohim, and will reprimand the words that Yehovah your Elohim has heard. So lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah told them, “So you’ll tell your master, “This is what Yehovah says: Don’t be afraid of the words that you’ve heard, with that the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Look, I’ll put a spirit in him, and he’ll hear news, and will return to his own land. I’ll cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”

2 KINGS 20

1 In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and told him, “This is what Yehovah says: Set your house in order, because you’ll die, and not live.” 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yehovah: 3 “Remember now, Yehovah, I beg you, how I’ve ‘lived’ before you in faith and sincerity, and have done what is good in Your sight.” Hezekiah cried bitterly. 4 Then, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of the city, that the Word of Yehovah came to him: 5 “Return, and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘This is what Yehovah says: the Elohim of David your father: I’ve heard your prayer. I’ve seen your tears. I’ll heal you! In three days, you must go up to Yehovah’s Temple. 6 I’ll add fifteen years to your life. I’ll deliver you and this city out of the grasp of the King of Assyria. I’ll defend this city for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.” 7 Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yehovah will heal me, and that I’ll go up to Yehovah’s Temple in three days?” 9 Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from Yehovah, that Yehovah will do what He has said. Should the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” 10 Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.” 11 Isaiah the prophet cried to Yehovah, and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, so it went down on Ahaz’s dial.

2 KINGS 21

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did evil in the sight of Yehovah, after the loathsome behavior of the nations who Yehovah threw out before the Israelites. 3 He built again the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the army of the heavens, and served them. 4 He built altars in Yehovah’s Temple, where Yehovah said, “I’ll put My name in Jerusalem.” 5 He built altars for all the army of the heavens in the two courts of Yehovah’s Temple. 6 He made his son to pass thru the fire, and practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards, he worked much evil in the sight of Yehovah, to provoke him to anger. 7 He set the engraved image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of that Yehovah told David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, that I’ve chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I’ll put My name forever, 8 nor will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave their fathers, if only they’ll observe to do according to everything that I’ve commanded them, and according to all the Torah that My servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they didn’t listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do what is evil more than did the nations who Yehovah destroyed before the Israelites.

2 KINGS 22

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 He did what was right in the sight of Yehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and didn’t turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

2 KINGS 23

1 The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to Yehovah’s Temple, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great, and he read ‘so that they could hear’ all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in Yehovah’s Temple. 3 The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Yehovah, to walk after Yehovah, and to obey His Commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his mind, and all his life, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book, and all the people took a stand for the covenant.

2 KINGS 24

1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years, then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 Yehovah sent against him bands of Chaldeans, and bands of Syrians, and bands of Moabites, and bands of ‘Ammonites’, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the Word of Yehovah, that He spoke by His servants the prophets. 3 Surely at the commandment of Yehovah this came on Judah, to remove them out of His sight, because the sins of Manasseh, according to everything that he did, 4 and because of the innocent blood that he shed, since he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yehovah wouldn’t pardon it.

2 KINGS 25

1 Then in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, 0n the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and laid seige against it, and they built forts against it around it. 2 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city, that there was no bread for the people of the land. 4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled one night by the way of the gate between the two walls that was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it), and the king went by the way of the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 6 Then they took the king, and exiled him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. 7 They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

ISAIAH 1

Chapters 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66

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

2 Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, because Yehovah has spoken, “I’ve nourished and brought up my children, and they’ve rebelled against My Word*. 3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib, but Israel doesn’t know, My people don’t understand.

4 “Oye sinful nation, a people loaded with wickedness, descendants of the wicked, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yehovah. They have despised the Kadosh One of Israel. They are estranged and backward. 5 Why should you be beaten any more, so that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole mindset faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been cleansed, or bandaged, or soothed with oil. 7 Your cities are set on fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it’s desolate, overthrown by strangers. 8 The maiden Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.” 9 Unless Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the Word of Yehovah, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the Torah of our Elohim, you people of Gomorrah! 11 Yehovah asks, “What are the multitude of your zebakim to Me?” I’ve had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or lambs, or male goats. 12 When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to Me, new moons, Sabbaths, and public assemblies, I can’t bear with evil assemblies. 14 My Word* hates YOUR New Moons and YOUR appointed feasts. They’ve become a burden to Me. I’m tired of enduring them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide My eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I won’t listen because your hands are covered with blood. 16 Wash yourselves. Become clean. Remove your evil behaviors from the presence of My Word*. Stop being evil.”

17 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.

18 Come now, let’s reason together, says Yehovah, “Tho your sins are like scarlet, they’ll be as white as snow. Tho they are crimson red, they’ll look like wool. 19 If you submit your wills and obey Me, you’ll eat the best of the land; 20 but if you refuse to obey My Word* and rebel, you’ll be devoured by the sword.” The Word* of Yehovah has spoken.

21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice, rightways lodged in her, but now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. 23 Your leaders are rebels, the cohorts of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and demands kickbacks. They don’t defend orphans, and pay no attention to the widow’s pleas. 24 So the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, the Mighty One of Israel, says, “Oye, I’ll get relief from My adversaries, and avenge Myself of My enemies, 25 and I’ll turn My hand on you, and thoroly purge your dross, and take away all your tin. 26 I’ll restore your judges as before, and your counselors like in the beginning. Afterward you’ll be called ‘The city of rightways, a faithful town.’” 27 Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her converts with rightways. 28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners will be together, and those who forsake Yehovah will be consumed.

29 They’ll be ashamed of the oaks they so desired, and you’ll be ashamed of the gardens you chose. 30 You’ll be like an oak whose leaf fades, and like a garden without water. 31 The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They’ll both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

ISAIAH 2

1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In the future, at the end of the ‘age’, the mountain of Yehovah’s Temple will be established on the tip top of the mountains, and will be borne above the hills, and all nations will beam [or flow] into it. 3 People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yehovah, to the ‘descendants’ of Jacob’s Elohim. He’ll teach us His path to life, and we’ll ‘live’ His way.” The Torah will go out from Zion, and the Word of Yehovah from Jerusalem. 4 He’ll govern the nations, and ‘settle the feuds’ of many nations, and they’ll beat their swords into harrows, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations won’t raise swords against other nations, nor will they learn how to wage war any more. 5 Come, ‘descendants’ of Jacob, let’s ‘live’ in the light of Yehovah.

6 You’ve forsaken Your people, the ‘descendants’ of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the descendants of foreigners. 7 Their land is full of silver and gold, there is no end of their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, there is no end of their chariots. 8 Their land is also full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, things their own fingers have made.

9 Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled, so don’t forgive them. 10 Hide among the rocks, or hide in the debris, from the terror of Yehovah, and from the splendor of His majesty. 11 The arrogant looks of man will be humbled. Proud men will be brought down, and Yehovah alone will be exalted in that day. 12 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will have a Day of Reckoning for everyone who is arrogant and proud, their pompous pride will become humiliation” 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and exalted, for all the oaks of Bashan, 14 against all the high mountains, against all the lofty hills, 15 against every high tower, and every fortified wall, 16 against all the ships of Tarshish, and against every pleasant craft. 17 The pride of man will be humbled, and the arrogance of men will be brought low, and Yehovah alone will be exalted in that day. 18 The idols will completely vanish. 19 Men will go into rock caves and into the holes in the ground, for dread of Yehovah, and the splendor of His majesty, when He determines to terrify the earth. 20 When that day comes, people will throw their silver idols and their golden idols that they made for themselves to worship to the moles and to the bats,. 21 They’ll escape to caverns in the rocks, and crevices in cliffs, from the dread of Yehovah, and from the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to terrify the earth. 22 Stop trusting people, their breath of life depends on their nose. What good are they?

ISAIAH 3

1 Look, the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water. 2 He will take thir mighty men, the men of war, the judges, the prophets, the diviners, the elders, 3 the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter. 4 “I’ll have boys to be their leaders, and children will rule over them.” 5 The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. Children will behave proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. 6 Indeed a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, and say, “You have clothing, you be our ruler, this ruin should be under your ‘control’”. 7 When that day comes he’ll cry out, “I won’t be a healer, because in my house there is no bread or clothing. You won’t make me ruler of the people.” 8 Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against Yehovah, to provoke the eyes of His splendor. 9 The look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Oye, their lives! They have dealt disaster on themselves. 10 Tell the righteous “Good”! They’ll eat the fruit of their deeds. 11 Oye, the wicked! Too bad for them, because they’ll be compensated for what they have done.

12 “As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.” 13 Yehovah stands up to contend, and stands to judge the people. 14 Yehovah will enter judgment with the elders of his people, and their leaders, “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The spoil of the poor is in your houses.” 15 “What do you mean by crushing My people, and grinding the face of the poor?” Asks the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King.

16 Yehovah said, “Because the maidens of Zion are arrogant, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet.” 17 Yehovah brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and Yehovah will make their scalps bald. 18 When that day comes Yehovah will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings, the bracelets, the veils, 20 the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms, 21 the signet rings, the nose rings, 22 the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses, 23 the hand mirrors, the fine linen clothing, the tiaras, and the shawls. 24 Then instead of sweet spices, there’ll be rottenness, instead of a belt, a rope, instead of well set hair, baldness, instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty.

25 Your men will fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. 26 Her gates will lament and mourn, and she’ll be desolate and sit on the ground.

ISAIAH 4

1 Seven women will grab a man in that day, and say, “We’ll eat our own bread, and cloth ourselves. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our shame.”

2 When that day arrives, Yehovah’s branch will be beautiful and splendid, and the ‘harvest’ of the land will be the beauty and splendor of the refugees of Israel. 3 Then anyone left alive in Zion, anyone who is left behind in Jerusalem will be called kadosh, everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem, 4 when Yehovah has washed away the filth of the maidens of Zion, and rinsed the bloodstains from Jerusalem, by a spirit of justice, and a spirit that sets ablaze! 5 Yehovah will create ABOVE the entire site of Mount Zion and ABOVE her assemblies a cloud during the day and smoke, and a bright flaming fire during the night; because ABOVE all the splendor there will be a place of shelter. 6 There will be a sukkah [tabernacle] to provide shade [literally shadow] in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and shelter from storms and rain.

ISAIAH 5

1 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up, cleared it of stones, planted it with the choicest vines, built a tower in the middle, and carved out a winepress. He thought it would yield good grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I haven’t already done? When I thought it would yield good grapes, it yielded wild grapes. 5 Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do to my vineyard. I’ll remove its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I’ll break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. 6 I’ll lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I’ll also command the clouds not to rain on it. 7 The vineyard of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is the nation of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but only saw oppression, for rightways, and saw a cry of distress.

8 Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to live alone in the middle of the land! 9 In my ears, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King says, “Surely many houses will be desolate, including great and beautiful one—unoccupied. 10 Ten acres of vineyard will yield one bath, and a homer of seed will yield an ephah.” 11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, so that they can persuing strong drink, who stay up late into the night, until wine inflames them! 12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts, but they don’t respect the work of Yehovah, nor have they considered the operation of His hands. 13 “So My people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.” 14 So Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth beyond measure, and their splendor, their multitude, their pomp, and those who celebrate among them, descend into it. 15 So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of arrogant people are humbled, 16 but Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is exalted in justice, and Elohim the Kadosh One is kadosh in rightways. 17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich. 18 Woe to those who draw wickedness with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope, 19 who say, “He should hurry, He should rush His work, so that we can see it. The counsel of the Kadosh One of Israel should approach us, so that we can understand it!” 20 Pity those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Pity to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Pity to those who drink wine valiantly, and champions at mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! 24 So like flames devour chaff, and like dry grass sinks down in the flame, that is how their roots will rot, and their blossoms will go up like dust, because they rejected the Torah of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, and spurned the Word*, the Kadosh One of Israel.

25 So Yehovah’s anger burns against his people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. All this, and His anger still isn’t turned away, but He is still reaching out His hand. 26 He’ll lift up a banner to the nations from far, and He’ll whistle for them from the extremities of the earth. Look, they’ll come speedily and swiftly. 27 None of them will be weary or stumble, none will slumber or sleep, or will the belt on their waist be untied, or the latch of their sandals be broken, 28 whose arrows are sharp, and all of their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Their roaring will be like a lioness. They’ll roar like young lions. Yes, they’ll roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.

30 They’ll roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If someone looks across the land, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.

ISAIAH 6

1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw Yehovah sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple. 2 The seraphim stood above Him. Each one had six wings. With two He covered His face., with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. 3 One called to another, and said, “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, is Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King! The whole earth is full of His splendor!” 4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the Temple was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said “Oye, I’m undone, because I’m a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, because I have seen the King, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, that he had taken with the tongs from of the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “This has touched your lips. Now your wickedness is taken away, and your sins forgiven!” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Word* of Yehovah, saying, “Who will I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell these people, ‘You certainly hear, but don’t understand, and you certainly see, but don’t perceive.’ 10 Make the mind of these people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, so they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their mind, and turn again and be healed.”

11 Then I asked, “Yehovah, how long?” He answered, “Until the cities are wasted and without inhabitants, and houses without people, and the land has become completely wasted, 12 and Yehovah has removed men far away, and there are many forsaken places in the middle of the land. 13 If there is a tenth left in it, they will also in turn be consumed, like a terebinth, and like an oak, whose stock remains when they are cut down, so the kadosh seed is its stock.”

ISAIAH 7

1 Then in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they couldn’t prevail against it. 2 When David’s family was told that the Arameans are allied with Ephraim. ‘Ahaz’ and his people were ‘deeply disturbed’ and trembling. Even the trees in the forest trembled in the wind.

3 Then Yehovah told Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. 4 Tell him, ‘Be careful, stay calm. Don’t be afraid, or allow yourselves to faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah.’ 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying 6 ‘Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king in its midst, even the son of Tabeel.’” 7 This is what the Sovereign Yehovah says: It won’t stand, nor will it happen. 8 The head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken in pieces, so that it won’t be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you won’t believe, surely you won’t be established.”

10 Yehovah spoke to Ahaz again, 11 “Ask Yehovah your Elohim for a sign of, ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask, nor will I tempt Yehovah.” 13 He said, “Listen now, family of David, isn’t it enough for you to try the patience of men, and now you’re trying the patience of my Elohim also?” 14 So Yehovah Himself will give you a sign. A virgin will conceive, and bear a Son, and He will be called Immanuel. 15 He’ll eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 But before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor will be forsaken.

17 Yehovah will bring on you and your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim left from Judah, even the King of Assyria. 18 When that day comes Yehovah will whistle for the fly in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee in the land of Assyria. 19 They’ll come, and will all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures. 20 When that day comes Yehovah will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the King of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and it will also consume the beard. 21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow, and two sheep, 22 and it will happen, that because of the abundance of milk they’ll give, he’ll eat butter. Everyone will eat butter and honey who are left in the middle of the land.

23 In that day, every place where there used to be a thousand grapevines worth a thousand shekels of silver, there will be only briers and thorns. 24 People will go there with arrows and with bows, because the entire land will be briers and thorns. 25 As for all the hills that used to be cultivated with hoes, you won’t go there any more for fear of the briers and thorns. They’ll be places for pasturing oxen and letting sheep run.

ISAIAH 8

1 Yehovah told me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz,’ 2 and I’ll take for myself faithful witnesses to testify, “Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” 3 I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant, and bore a son. Then Yehovah told me, “Call him Maher Shalal Hash Baz. 4 Before the child knows how to say, ‘My father’, and ‘My mother’, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away by the King of Assyria.”

5 The Word* of Yehovah spoke to me once again, and said, 6 “These people have refused the gently flowing water of Shiloah, and are delighted with Rezin and Remaliah’s son.” 7 That is why Yehovah is going to cause the forceful flood waters of the Euphrates River to rise, the King of Assyria and all his splendor. It will overflow all its channels, and run over all its banks. 8 It will rush into Judah. It will overflow and pass thru, it will reach up to the neck, and its outspread wings will cover the width of your land, Immanuel El. 9 Make an uproar, you people, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries, dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered! 10 Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing, say the word, and it won’t stand, because Elohim is with us. 11 For Yehovah told me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of these people. He said: 12 “Don’t say that everything these people call a conspiracy is a conspiracy. Don’t share their fears. Don’t let it terrify you.” 13 Yehovah, the ‘Warrior’ King is who you must respect as kadosh. He is the One you must fear. He is the One you must dread. 14 He [Yeshua (Jesus)] will be your Temple. But for both houses of Israel, He’ll be a Stone that causes people to trip, and a Rock to stumble over. For the inhabitants of Jerusalem He [Yeshua] [1 Peter 2:4-8] will be a trap and a snare [1]. 15 A great many will stumble over Him, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured.

16 In a time of distress, bind up [2] the Testimony and put a seal on [3] the Torah among My disciples. 17 I’ll wait for Yehovah, who hides His face from the ‘descendants’ of Jacob, and I’ll look for Him. 18 I and the children [disciples] who Yehovah has given Me are for signs and miracles in Israel from Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, who lives in Mount Zion! 19 When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with wizards who chirp and who mutter.” Shouldn’t people consult their Elohim? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

You Need the Torah AND the Testimony!

[1] This is how it reads in the oldest known Scriptures, the Aramaic Targums, “And if you won’t obey, His Word* will come among you for revenge, as a stumbling stone and as a rock of offense to both houses of the leaders of Israel, for destruction and as a snare, because they are fighting against the descendants of Judah who are living in Jerusalem.” [2] See why the Testimony was written during a time of distress. [3] Literally, “Seal. This is like a seal of approval, or like a signature on a contract.” [4] or, as the New Living Translation says: ... People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.”

ISAIAH 9

1 But there will be no more gloom for those who were in anguish. In the past, He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but in the future He’ll make the road by the sea honorable, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people walking in darkness will see a great light. The light will shine on those living in a land of deathly darkness. 3 You’ll enlarge the nation. You’ll increase their joy. They’ll celebrate before You in the festivities of the harvest, like men celebrate when they divide the spoil. 4 The yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you’ve broken as in the day of Midian. 5 All of the commotion of battle is heard with terror [1], and the clothing rolled in blood will be burned, fuel for the fire. 6 To us a Child is born. To us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty Elohim, Everlasting Father, leader of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His dominion and prosperity there will be no end, from David’s throne and over His kingdom, arranging it and maintaining it, with justice and rightways from that time on—forever. The zeal of the Word* of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will make it happen.

8 Yehovah has sent a message against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel. 9 All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of mind, 10 “The bricks have fallen, but we’ll build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we’ll replace them with cedars.” 11 So Yehovah will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and stir up his enemies, 12 The Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind, and they’ll devour Israel with an open mouth. In all this, His anger isn’t turned away, but His hand is still reaching out. 13 Yet the people have not turned to the One who struck them, nor have they sought Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King. 14 So Yehovah will cut off from Israel both head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day. 15 The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. 16 Those who lead these people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are destroyed. 17 So Yehovah won’t celebrate over their young men, and He won’t have compassion on their orphans and widows, because everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. All this His anger isn’t turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 18 Wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns, yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. 19 Thru the wrath of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, the land is burnt up, and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother. 20 One will devour on the right hand, and be hungry, and he’ll eat on the left hand, and they won’t be satisfied. Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm, 21 Manasseh is against Ephraim. Ephraim is against Manasseh, and together they are against Judah. Even after all this His anger has not subsided, and His fist is still ‘raised’.

[1] Aramaic (Syriac) Barnes footnotes.

ISAIAH 10

1 Woe to those who make unfair decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the needy of justice, and rob the poor among My people of their rights, so that widows will be their spoil, and so they can make orphans their prey! 3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation that comes from afar? To who will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? 4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Even after all of this His anger hasn’t turned away, but His hand is still reaching out.

5 “Oye Assyria, the rod of My anger, in whose hand is the staff of My fury! 6 I’ll send him against a profane nation, against the people who anger Me. I’ll give him a command to take the spoil and to take the plunder, and to tread them down like the mud in the streets. 7 But it’s not something they planned, it wasn’t something premeditated, but it’s in their nature to destroy, to put an end to many nations. 8 He says, ‘Arent all of my leaders kings? 9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?’ 10 I grasped the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and of Samaria, 11 so shouldn’t I do to Jerualem and her idols what I did to Samaria and her idols?” 12 So it will happen that, when Yehovah has performed His whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I’ll punish the fruit of the willful proud mind of the King of Assyria, and the insolence of his lofty looks. 13 He has said, “By the strength of my hand I’ve done it, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding, and I’ve removed the boundaries of the people, and robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I’ve brought down their rulers. 14 My hand has found the wealth of the people like a nest, and like someone gathers eggs that are abandoned, I gathered the entire earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or opened their mouth, or chirped.” 15 Should an axe brag against the one who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above the one who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who isn’t wood. 16 So the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors. And under His splendor a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. 17 The light of Israel will be for a fire, and His Kadosh One for a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day [1]. 18 He’ll consume the splendor of his forest, and his fruitful field, both life and body. It will be like a standard bearer who faints. 19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be few, so few a child could tally them.

20 At that time that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the ‘descendants’ of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them. They’ll lean on the Word* of Yehovah, the Kadosh One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty Elohim. 22 Tho your people Israel are like grains of sand on the seashore, only a few survivors will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with rightways. 23 For the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King, will make a full end, and that determined, in the middle of all the earth.

24 So the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King, says: My people who live in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, tho he strikes you with the rod, and lifts up his staff against you, as Egypt did. 25 Yet in a very little while the anger against you will be accomplished, and My anger will be directed to his destruction. 26 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and He’ll lift it up like He did against Egypt. 27 In that day, his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

28 He has come to Aiath. He has passed thru Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage. 29 They’ve gone over the pass. They’ve taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled. 30 Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth! 31 Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. 32 This very day he’ll halt at Nob. He shakes his fist at the mountain of the maiden Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 The Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, will lop the boughs with terror! The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. 34 He’ll cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

[1] This is how it reads in the oldest known Scriptures, the Aramaic targums, “Then Yehovah, the Light of Israel, and His Kadosh One, His Word*, strong as fire, and His word as a flame will kill and put an end to his rulers and governors in one day.”

ISAIAH 11

1 Then a shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse, and a BRANCH from his roots will take root. 2 The spirit of Yehovah, she will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yehovah. 3 He will be delighted with and in awe of Yehovah. He won’t judge by appearances, or make judgments based on hearsay. 4 He’ll judge the poor with rightways, making decisions with equality for the poor of the earth. He’ll strike the earth with the scepter of His mouth, and with a breath from His lips He’ll destroy the wicked. 5 Rightways will be the belt around His waist, and faithfulness the belt around His hips. 6 Wolves will live with lambs, and leopards will lie down with young goats. Calves, young lions and fattened calves grazing together, and a little child will lead them. 7 Cows and the bears will graze together, and their young ones will lie down together. Lions will eat straw like oxen. 8 Infants will play near cobras’ holes, and young children will put their hands into viper’s dens. 9 They won’t hurt or destroy in all My kadosh mountain, because the earth will be as filled with the knowledge of Yehovah, as the water covering the sea. 10 This is when the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a rallying banner for the nations. His resting place will be majestic.

11 When that day comes Yehovah will extend His hand a second time to recover the survivors of His people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 He’ll raise a banner ‘among’ the nations and gather the exiles of Israel, AND gather together the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and those who harass Judah will be cut down. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t show hostility toward Ephraim. 14 They’ll swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west, and together they’ll plunder the nations to the east. They’ll take possession of Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. 15 Yehovah will completely ‘dry up’ the ‘forks’ of the ‘Red’ Sea with His scorching wind. He’ll wave His hand over the Euphrates River, and split it into seven streams so that people can across in sandals. 16 There will be a highway for the survivors of His people from Assyria, like there was for Israel during the day when they came out of Egypt.

ISAIAH 12

1 When that day comes you’ll say, “I’ll give thanks to You, Yehovah, because tho You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away and You comfort me. 2 Surely Elohim will save me. I’ll trust, and not be afraid, because Yah, Yehovah, is my strength and song, and He has become my deliverer”. 3 So with joy you’ll draw water out of the wells of deliverance. 4 When that day comes you’ll say, “Give thanks to Yehovah! Call on His name. Announce His doings among the people. Proclaim that His name is exalted! 5 Sing to Yehovah, because He has done excellent things! This must be known thruout the earth! 6 Cry loudly, because the Day of Yehovah is near! It will come like destruction from the Sovereign. 7 That’s why everyone’s hands will go limp, and everyone’s courage will fail. 8 They’ll be terrified. Pain and sorrows will overcome them. They’ll writhe in pain like a woman in labor. They’ll look at each other in astonishment. Their faces aflame with fear. 9 The Day of Yehovah is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy all the sinners within it. 10 The stars in the sky and their constellations will no longer shine. The SUN will be darken when it rises, and the MOON won’t reflect its light. [This event precedes the shaking of v.13, when the Day of Yehovah is “at hand”] 11 I’ll punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their wickedness. I’ll put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and humble the pride of the ruthless. 12 I’ll make people scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

ISAIAH 13

1 The prophetic message of Babylon, that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. 2 Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Raise your voice to them! Wave your hand, so that they can enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I’ve commanded My kadosh ones, yes, I’ve called My warriors for My anger, even My proudly exulting ones. 4 The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people, the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is mustering the army for the battle. 5 They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yehovah, and the weapons of His anger, to destroy the whole land. 6 Cry loudly, because the Day of Yehovah is near! It will come like destruction from the Sovereign. 7 That’s why everyone’s hands will go limp, and everyone’s courage will fail. 8 They’ll be terrified. Pain and sorrows will overcome them. They’ll writhe in pain like a woman in labor. They’ll look at each other in astonishment. Their faces aflame with fear. 9 The Day of Yehovah is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy all the sinners within it. 10 The stars in the sky and their constellations will no longer shine. The sun will be darken when it rises, and the moon won’t reflect its light.

ISAIAH 14

1 Yehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and choose Israel again, and settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and be united with Jacob’s descendants. 2 The people will take them, and bring them to their place. The nation of Israel will possess them in Yehovah’s land for servants and for handmaids. They’ll take as captives ‘the people’ who held them captive, and they’ll rule over their oppressors. 3 During this time, Yehovah will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the harsh service that you endured.

4 You’ll take up this parable against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!” 5 Yehovah has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, 6 who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in rage, with a persecution that no one restrained. 7 The whole earth is at rest, and quiet. They burst into shouts of joy. 8 Yes, the fir trees celebrate with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you were humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.” 9 Sheol [the grave; “hell”: KJV] below is excited about meeting you at your coming. It wakes up the spirits of the dead for you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises all who were kings of the nations from their thrones. 10 They will all ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?” 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, along with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out like a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. 12 How you’ve fallen from heaven, morning star [not Lucifer!], son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said to yourself, “I’ll ascend into heaven! I’ll raise my throne above the stars of Elohim! I’ll sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! 14 I’ll ascend above the heights of the clouds! I’ll make myself like the Highest One!” 15 Yet you’ll be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. 16 Anyone who sees you will stare at you. They’ll wonder about you, “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?” 18 All the kings of the nations, sleep in splendor, everyone in his own house. 19 But you are thrown away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust thru with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled under foot. 20 You won’t join them in burial, because you’ve destroyed your land. You’ve killed your people. The descendants of the wicked won’t be named forever. 21 Prepare for the slaughter of his children because of the sins of their fathers, so that they won’t rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities. 22 I’ll rise up against them, says Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King and cut off from Babylon [royal] names and posterity, sons and grandsons, says Yehovah. 23 I’ll also make it a home for the porcupines, and pools of water. I’ll sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King.

24 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King has sworn: “Surely, as I’ve thought, so it will happen, and as I’ve decided, so will it stand. 25 I’ll shatter the Assyrian in My land, and trample him under foot on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulders.” 26 This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. 27 For Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King has planned it, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”

28 This prophetic message was in the year that king Ahaz died. 29 Don’t celebrate, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken, because out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent. 30 The ‘poorest’ of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety. But I’ll destroy your root with famine, and your survivors will be killed. 31 Wail, you gates! Cry out, city! Melt in fear, O Philistia, because a dust cloud is coming from the north. There are no stragglers. Everyone is in their appointed place. 32 What should we tell the ambassadors of the nations? Tell them, Yehovah has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of His people WILL TAKE REFUGE.

ISAIAH 15

1 The prophetic message of Moab, in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing, in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing. 2 They’ve gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. All of their heads are bald. Every beard is cut off. 3 In their streets, they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, crying abundantly. 4 Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz. So the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their lives tremble within them. 5 My mind cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah, because they go up by the ascent of Luhith with crying, because in the way of Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction. 6 The waters of Nimrim will be desolate, because the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails. Nothing is green.

7 So they’ll carry away the abundance they’ve gotten, and what they’ve stored up, over the brook of the willows. 8 The cry has gone around the borders of Moab, its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim. 9 The waters of Dimon are full of blood, because I’ll bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

ISAIAH 16

1 Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the maiden Zion. 2 It will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. 3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night at high noon! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitives! 4 Allow My outcasts to live with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the presence of the destroyer. The extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land. 5 A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, looking for justice, and swift to do rightways. 6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud. He’s arrogant, proud and filled with anger. His braggings are nothing.

7 So Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You’ll mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, completely stricken. 8 The fields of Heshbon languish with the grapevines of Sibmah. The masters of the nations have broken down its choice branches, that reached even to Jazer, that wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea. 9 So I’ll cry with the crying of Jazer for the grapevines of Sibmah. I’ll water you with My tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh, for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen. 10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field, and in the vineyards there will be no singing, nor joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I’ve made the shouting stop. 11 So my mind sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres. 12 Then when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his temple to pray, that he won’t prevail.

13 This is what Yehovah said about Moab in time past. 14 But now Yehovah has said, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the splendor of Moab will be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

ISAIAH 17

1 The prophetic message of Damascus, “Look, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They’ll be for flocks that will lie down, and no one frighten them. 3 The fortress will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They’ll be as the splendor of the Israelites, says Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King. 4 “In that day the splendor of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. 5 It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when someone gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleanings will be left, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree, says Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel. 7 When that day comes, people will look to their Maker, and they will see the Kadosh One of Israel [1]. 8 They won’t look to the altars, the work of their hands, nor will they respect what their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the incense altars. 9 When that day comes, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain tops that were forsaken from before the Israelites, and it will be a desolation. 10 You’ve forgotten the Elohim of your deliverance, and have not remembered the Mighty One whose Word* was your strength. So you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. 11 In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

12 Oye, the uproar of many people, who roar like the roaring of the seas, and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he’ll reprimand them, and they’ll flee far off, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. 14 At evening, look, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

[1] This is how it reads in the oldest known Scriptures, the Aramaic targum: ... And they will hopefully see the Word, the Kadosh One of Israel with their own eyes.”

ISAIAH 18

1 Oye, land of whirring wings, beyond the rivers of Cush, 2 that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide! 3 Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, everyone who lives on the earth. When a warning banner is raised on the mountain, you’ll see it! When the shofar sounds, you’ll hear it! 4 For Yehovah told me: I’ll be still, and I’ll see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5 Before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he’ll cut off of the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he’ll cut down and take away the spreading branches. 6 They’ll be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all of the animals of the earth will winter on them.

7 At that time, a gift will be brought to Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King from a tall and smooth skinned people who are feared far and wide, a powerful and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers, to the place where Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is renouned—Mount Zion.

ISAIAH 19

1 The prophetic message of Egypt: “Look, Yehovah rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the center of Egypt will melt in its midst. 2 I’ll stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and everyone will fight against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. 3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I’ll destroy its counsel. They’ll seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. 4 I’ll give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them, says the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King. 5 The water will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. 6 The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. 7 The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all of the sown fields of the Nile, will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. 8 The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who cast nets on the water will languish. 9 Those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. 10 The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in life. 11 The leaders of Zoan are completely foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I’m the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?” 12 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them know what Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King has purposed concerning Egypt. 13 The leaders of Zoan have become fools. The leaders of Memphis are deceived. They’ve caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes. 14 Yehovah has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her, and they’ve caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. 15 There won’t be any work for Egypt, that head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.

16 When that day comes the Egyptians will be like women. They’ll tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, that He shakes over them. 17 The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to who mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, that He determines against it. 18 When that day comes, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King. One will be called “The city of destruction”. 19 When that day comes, there will be an altar to Yehovah in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yehovah at its border. 20 It will be for a sign and for a witness to Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King in the land of Egypt, because they’ll cry to Yehovah because of oppressors, and He’ll send them a Liberator [The Son] and a Defender, and He’ll deliver them. 21 Yehovah will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yehovah in that day. Yes, they’ll worship with offerings and ze’bakim [sacrifices], and make a vow to Yehovah, and perform it. 22 Yehovah will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They’ll return to Yehovah, and He’ll be entreated by them, and heal them. 23 When that day comes there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will travel to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 When that day comes, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the earth, 25 because Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King has blessed them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

ISAIAH 20

1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the King of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at that time Yehovah had Isaiah the son of Amoz say, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from your waist, and remove your sandals from your feet. He did so, walking naked and barefoot.” 3 Yehovah said, “As My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, 4 so the King of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks exposed, to the shame of Egypt. 5 They’ll be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their splendor. 6 The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘This is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the King of Assyria. Now how will we escape?’”

ISAIAH 21

1 The prophetic message of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep thru, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. 2 A severe vision is announced to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam, attack! I’ve stopped all of Media’s sighing. 3 So my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I’m in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed I can’t see. 4 My mind flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. 5 They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! 6 For Yehovah told me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him announce what he sees.” 7 When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he’ll listen diligently with great attentiveness. 8 He cried like a lion, “Yehovah, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. 9 Look, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all of the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground. 10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” What I’ve heard from Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, the Elohim of Israel, I’ve announced to you.

11 The prophetic message of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, how much longer is the night? Watchman, how much longer is the night?” 12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you’ll inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

13 The prophetic message on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you’ll lodge, you caravans of Dedanites. 14 They brought water to the one who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. 15 They fled away from the swords, from drawn swords, from bent bows, from the heat of battle.

16 For Yehovah told me: Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will fail, 17 and the residue of the number of the archers, the warriors of the children of Kedar, will be few, because Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, has spoken it.

ISAIAH 22

1 The prophetic message of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you’ve all gone up to the housetops? 2 You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain aren’t slain with the sword, nor are they dead in battle. 3 All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. 4 So I said, “Look away from me. I’ll cry bi tterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5 It’s a day of confusion, and of treading down, and perplexity, from the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains. 6 Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. 7 Then so that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. 8 He took away the covering of Judah, and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. 9 You saw the breaches of the city of David, so that they were many, and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to the one who had done this, nor did you’ve respect for the one who purposed it long ago. 12 When that day comes, the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King, called to crying, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth, 13 and look, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we’ll die.” 14 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King revealed Himself in my ears, “Surely your wickedness won’t be forgiven until you die, says the Sovereign, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King.

15 This is what the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, to Shebna, who is over the house, and ask, 16 ‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, so that you’ve dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” 17 Look, Yehovah will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he’ll grasp you firmly. 18 He’ll surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. You’ll die where the chariots of your splendor will be, you shame of your master’s house. 19 I’ll thrust you from your office. You’ll be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day that I’ll call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I’ll clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I’ll commit your government into his hand, and he’ll be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the tribe of Judah. 22 I’ll lay the key of the dynasty of David on his shoulder. He’ll open, and no one will shut. He’ll shut, and no one will open. 23 I’ll fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He’ll be for a throne of honor to his father’s family. 24 They’ll hang on him all the honor of his father’s family, the descendants and offspring, and every small utensil, from the cups to all the jars. 25 When that day comes, says Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yehovah has spoken it.

ISAIAH 23

1 The revelation [not oracle] concerning Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish! Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Kittim [1] reports have come to them. 2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants from Sidon, whose seafarers are overflowing with merchandise. 3 On ‘the Mediterranean’ the grain of the Nile came as her revenue. She was the marketplace for the nations. 4 Be ashamed, Sidon, because the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I haven’t travailed, or brought forth children], nor have I nourished young men, or brought up virgins.” 5 When the report comes to Egypt, they’ll be in anguish at the report of Tyre. 6 Pass over to Tarshish! Cry loudly, you inhabitants of the coast! 7 Is this your blissful city founded in antiquity, whose ‘voyagers’ carried her to colonize distant lands? 8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose importers are among the honored people on earth. 9 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King has planned it, to humiliate the arrogant beauties and to humble all the renowned of the earth. 10 Pass thru your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no longer anything restraining. 11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yehovah has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds. 12 He said, “You will celebrate no more, you oppressed virgin maiden of Sidon.” Get up, pass over to Kittim. Even there you’ll have no rest. 13 Look, the land of the Chaldeans. Their nation didn’t exist until the Assyrians founded it for those who live in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. 14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish, because your stronghold is laid waste!

15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. At the end of seventy years, Tyre’s destiny is as in the song of the prostitute: 16 “Take a harp, go around the city, you forgotten prostitute. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, so that you will be remembered.” 17 Then when the seventy years have passed, Yehovah will revive [Barnes] Tyre, and she’ll return to her hire as a prostitute with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her profits will be set apart for Yehovah. It won’t be stored or hoarded. Her merchandise will be for those who live in the presence of Yehovah, an abundance of food and fine clothing.

[1] In Genesis 10, Kittim is listed as a son of Javan, the son of Japheth, likely representing the Japanese.

ISAIAH 24

1 Yehovah is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it, distort its surface and scatter its inhabitants! 2 It will be the same for priest as with other people, servants like masters, mistresses like maids, buyers like sellers, lenders like borrowers, creditors like debtors. 3 The earth will be completely emptied and completely spoiled, because Yehovah has spoken this ‘message’. 4 The earth mourns and withers. The world decays and fades away. The exalted people of the earth will become feeble. 5 The earth is polluted by its inhabitants, because they transgressed the Torah, violated the statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant. 6 So a curse devours the earth, and those who live there are found guilty. The earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and few people survive.

7 The new wine mourns. The grapevines languish. All the merry-minded sigh. 8 The delightful sound of tambourines has stopped. The sound of jubilation ends. The delightful sound of harps has ceased. 9 They won’t drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. 10 The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, so that no one can come in. 11 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. 12 The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.

13 This is how it will be on earth among the nations—like shaking of an olive tree [to gather strays], or like gleaning grapes when the harvest is over. 14 These will lift up their voice. They’ll shout for the majesty of Yehovah. They cry aloud from the sea. 15 So praise Yehovah in the east, even the name of Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel, in the islands of the sea! 16 From the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs. Splendor to the righteous! But I said, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! Oye! The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.” 17 Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on those who inhabitant the earth. 18 Whoever flees at the sound of the terror will fall into a pit, and whoever climbes up out of the pit will be caught in a snare, because the windows of the heavens are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19 The earth is broken up. The earth is split apart. The earth is shaken violently. 20 The earth will reel like a drunkard, and will sway back and forth like a portable shelter. Its rebelion weighs heavy on it. It [rebellion] will fall and never rise again [1]. 21 When that day comes Yehovah will punish the army of angels in the heavenly heights, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 22 They’ll be rounded up like prisoners in a dungeon. They be confined in the prison, and after many days they’ll be punished. 23 Then the moon will be humiliated, and the sun ashamed, because Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, in splendor before His elders.

[1] There is an attempted coup after a thousand years (Revelation 20:7-10), but it will fail.

ISAIAH 25

1 Yehovah, You are my Elohim. I’ll exalt You! I’ll praise Your name, because You’ve done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth. 2 You’ve turned cities [plural Aramaic] into waves of rubble, a fortified city into a ruins, the foreigners’ stronghold is a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. 3 So a strong people will praise You. A city of awesome nations will fear You. 4 You’ve been a refuge to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in their distress, a shade from the heat, when the breath of the ruthless is like a violent storm pummeling a wall. 5 [1] Like a thick cloud tempering the heat of the sun on a burnt land, Your intervention, ‘silences’ the victory songs of the formidable.

6 On this mountain, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will prepare a ‘lavish’ banquet using the ‘best foods’ for every nation, a banquet with well aged wines, of ‘choice’ pieces full of marrow, and refined wines. 7 On this mountain He’ll remove the ‘covering that looms over’ all people, the veil that ‘overshadows’ every nation. 8 He will devour death forever! The Sovereign Yehovah will wipe away the tears from every face. He’ll eliminate the scorn of His people from the entire earth. Yehovah has spoken!

9 Israel will be saying in that day, “This is our Elohim! We have been waiting for Him to rescue us! This is Yehovah! We’ve been waiting for Him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate His rescue!” 10 Yehovah’s hand will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be trampled down under him, like urine soaked straw is trampled into the manure in a ‘stall’! 11 He’ll spread out his hands in ‘the manure’, like someone swimming spreads out their hands to swim, But ‘Yehovah’ will dash his pride along with his slight of hands. 13 He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

[1] This verse was clarified by the oldest known Scriptures, the Aramaic Targums.

ISAIAH 26

1 When that day comes this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. He sets up walls and ramparts for security. 2 Open the gates so that the righteous nation can come in, the one that remains faithful. 3 You’ll keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because they trust in You. 4 Trust in Yehovah forever, for in Yah, Yehovah, is an everlasting Rock. 5 He has brought down those who live on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it clear to the dust. 6 The foot will tread it down, the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7 The road of of the righteous is level, because You level the path of the righteous. 8 Yes, in the way of Your judgments, Yehovah, have we waited for You. Your name and your fame is the desire of our lives. 9 With my life I have desired You in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek You earnestly, because when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn rightways. 10 Even if favor is shown to the wicked, they still don’t learn to do what is right. Even in a land of rightways they go on doing evil, and disregard Yehovah’s majesty. 11 Yehovah, Your hand is lifted up to strike, but they don’t see it, but they’ll see Your zeal for the people and be ashamed. Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies. 12 Yehovah, You’ll establish peace for us, since you’ve already done everything else for us. 13 Yehovah our Elohim, other masters besides You have ruled over us, but we only acknowledge Your name. 14 They are dead, they won’t live again. Those departed spirits won’t arise. You have punished them and destroyed them, and deleted every memory of them. 15 You’ve increased the nation, O Yehovah. You’ve increased the nation! You are clothed with splendor! You’ve enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 Yehovah, they came to You in their distress. They could only whisper a prayer when Your chastening was on them. 17 Like a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we before You, Yehovah. 18 We have been pregnant. We writhed in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We haven’t brought any delivery to the earth; no births of people into the world. 19 Your dead will live. Their bodies will rise. Those who lie in the dust will wake up and sing for joy. Your dew reflects a delightful light, and the earth will push out her dead.

20 Come, My people, enter your safe chambers [1] and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves briefly until the anger passes over. 21 Yehovah is coming out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness. The earth will also uncover her blood and no longer hide her slain.

[1] A look at the 38 usages of this word is often associated with comfort, but never a tomb. This is a place of tranquility during Yehovah’s Day of great wrath.

ISAIAH 27

1 During that time, Yehovah will pay Leviathan a visit, along with His fierce, large and very sharp sword, the fugitive Leviathan, that twisted serpent, and He’ll kill the dragon * in the sea.

2 When that day comes, sing to her about a pleasant vineyard! 3 I, Yehovah, am its keeper. I’ll water it continuously. Otherwise someone could damage it, I’ll guard it night and day. 4 I am no longer furious [with Israel]. I wish I had briers and thorns confronting Me! I would set them all on fire. 5 Or else he should come to Me for refuge, so that he could make peace with Me. He should make peace with Me! 6 In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They’ll fill the surface of the earth with fruit.

7 Has [Yehovah] struck [Israel] the way He struck those who struck ‘her’? Or are they killed the same way those who killed them were killed? 8 You strove with them incrementally [Barnes] by banishing them, by sending them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. 9 So, by this the wickedness of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin, that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are bashed to pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars will rise no more. 10 The fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. Calves will feed there, and they’ll lie down there, and consume its branches. 11 When its boughs have withered, they’ll be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, because they are a people without understanding. So their Maker won’t have compassion on them, the One who formed them will show them no favor.

12 When that day comes, Yehovah will thresh [harvest] from the Euphrates river valley to the Nile * of Egypt. You Israelites will be gleaned one by one. 13 Also during that day the great shofar will sound, and those who were dying in the land of Assyria and those who were banished to the land of Egypt will come and worship Yehovah on the Kadosh Mountain in Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 28

1 Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his splendid beauty, that is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! 2 Look, Yehovah has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, He’ll throw them down to the earth with His hand. 3 The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled under foot. 4 The fading flower of his splendid beauty, that is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, that someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

5 When that day comes, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will become a crown of splendor, and a diadem of beauty, to the survivors of His people, 6 and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. 8 All tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness. 9 Who will he teach knowledge? Who will he explain the message to, those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? 10 It’s precept on precept, precept on precept, line on line, line on line, here a little, there a little. 11 But he’ll speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language, 12 to who he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary. This is the refreshing,” yet they wouldn’t hear. 13 So the Word of Yehovah will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept, line on line, line on line, here a little, there a little, so that they can go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

14 So hear the Word of Yehovah, you scoffers, that rule these people in Jerusalem, 15 Because you’ve said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes thru, it won’t come to us, because we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.” 16 So the Sovereign Yehovah says: Look, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes won’t act hastily. 17 I’ll make justice the measuring line, and rightways the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. 18 Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol won’t stand. When the overflowing scourge passes thru, then you’ll be trampled down by it. 19 As often as it passes thru, it will seize you, because morning by morning it will pass thru, by day and by night, and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message. 20 The bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. 21 For Yehovah will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He’ll be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. 22 So don’t be scoffers, otherwise your bonds be made strong, because I’ve heard a decree of destruction from the Sovereign, Yehovih the ‘Warrior’ King, on the whole earth.

23 Listen, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech! 24 Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? 25 When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? 26 His Elohim instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him. 27 The dill aren’t threshed with a sharp instrument, nor is a cart wheel turned over the cumin, but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. 28 Bread flour must be ground, so he won’t always be threshing it. Altho he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it. 29 This also comes forth from Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

ISAIAH 29

1 Oye Ariel! Ariel, the city where David camped! Add year to year, celebrate the feasts on their annual cycle, 2 then I’ll distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She’ll be to me like an altar hearth. 3 I’ll encamp against you all around you, and lay siege against you with posted troops. I’ll raise siege works against you. 4 You’ll be brought down, and speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be like someone who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. 5 But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. 6 She’ll be visited by Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King with thunder, with an earthquake, with great noise, with tornadoes and storms, and with the flame of a devouring fire. 7 The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel—everyone who fights against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. 8 It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and look, he eats, but he awakens, and he is still hungry, or like when a thirsty man dreams—he drinks, but he awakens, and he is still faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine, they stagger, but not due to strong drink. 10 For Yehovah has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed the eyes of your prophets, and he has covered the heads of your ‘star gazers’. 11 All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, that men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please,” and he says, “I cant, because it’s sealed,” 12 and the book is handed to someone who isn’t educated, saying, “Read this, please,” and he says, “I can’t read.”

13 Yehovah says, “These people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but they’ve removed their thoughts far from me, and their awe of Me is based on human dogma, 14 So look, I’ll proceed to do a marvelous work among these people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

15 I pity those who who try to hide their plans from Yehovah, whose works are done in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” And, “Who knows us?” 16 You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, so that the thing made should say about the one who made it, “He didn’t make me,” or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding?” 17 Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? 18 When that day comes, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19 The humble also will increase their joy in Yehovah, and the poor among men will celebrate in the Kadosh One of Israel. 20 The ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off- 21 who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. 22 So This is what Yehovah says: who redeemed Abraham, concerning the ‘descendants’ of Jacob will no longer be ashamed, nor will his face grow pale. 23 But when they see their children among them, the work of My hands among them, they’ll revere My name. Yes, they’ll honor the Kadosh One of Jacob, AND stand in awe of the Elohim of Israel. 24 Those in spiritual error know the truth, and those who grumble will receive instruction.

ISAIAH 30

1 Yehovah says, “Oye, rebellious children who take counsel, but not from Me, and who make an alliance, but not with My Spirit, so that they can add sin to sin, 2 Who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! 3 So the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4 Their leaders are in Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. 5 They’ll all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that aren’t a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.” 6 The prophetic message of the animals of the South. “Thru the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people. 7 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose, so have I called her ‘Rahab who sits still’. 8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it can be for the time to come forever and ever.

9 It’s a rebellious people, lying children, children who won’t hear the Torah of Yehovah. 10 They tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. 11 Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Kadosh One of Israel to cease from before us.” 12 So the Kadosh One of Israel says: You despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it, 13 So this wickedness will be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. 14 He’ll break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern. 15 So said the Sovereign Yehovah, the Kadosh One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence. You refused, 16 but you said, “No, we’ll flee on horses,” so you’ll flee, and “We will ride on the swift,” so those who pursue you will be swift. 17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you’ll flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

18 So Yehovah will wait, that he can be merciful to you, and so he’ll be exalted, that he can have mercy on you, because Yehovah is an Elohim of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. 19 The people will live in Zion, in Jerusalem will no longer cry. He’ll surely be merciful to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears you, He’ll answer you. 20 Yehovah may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. But your teachers [yes, it’s plural] won’t be hidden any longer. You’ll see your teachers with your own eyes. 21 When you turn to the right or turn to the left, you will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the direction. Walk this way.” 22 You’ll defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You’ll throw them away like an unclean thing. You’ll tell it, “Go away!” 23 He’ll give the rain for your seed, with so that you’ll sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. When that day comes, your livestock will feed in large pastures. 24 The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, that has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. 25 There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall [earthquake]. 26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day when Yehovah binds up the fracture of His people, and heals the wounds He inflicted.

27 Look, the name of Yehovah comes from far away, with burning anger amid thick rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury, and His tongue is like a devouring fire. 28 His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the people. 29 You’ll have a song, as in the night when a kadosh Feast is celebrated, and gladness of mind, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yehovah’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock. 30 Yehovah will cause His splendid voice to be heard, and will show the descent of His arm, with the wrath of His anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones. 31 Thru the voice of Yehovah the Assyrian will be dismayed. He’ll strike him with his rod. 32 Every stroke of the rod of punishment, that Yehovah will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He’ll fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. 33 His burning place has long been ready. Yes, because the king it’s made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yehovah’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

ISAIAH 31

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because there are so many, and in horsemen, because they are so strong, but don’t look to the Kadosh One of Israel, or seek Yehovah! 2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and won’t call back his words, but will arise against the house of the wicked, and against the help of those who work wickedness. 3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not Elohim, and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yehovah stretches out his hand, both he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they all will be consumed together.

4 This is what Yehovah says to me: As a lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, won’t be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them, so Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. 5 As birds hovering, so Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will protect Jerusalem. He’ll protect and deliver it. He’ll pass over and preserve it. 6 Return to him from who you’ve deeply revolted, Israelites. 7 When that day comes everyone will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold-sin that your own hands have made for you. 8 The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man, and the sword, not of mankind, will devour him. He’ll flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor. 9 Yehovah says that His ‘strength’ will pass away due to terror, and his leaders will be afraid of the flag”. His fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 32

1 Look, a king will reign in rightways, and leaders will rule in justice. 2 A man will be like a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from storms, like streams of water in a desert, like the shade of a large rock in a weary land. 3 The eyes of those who see won’t be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4 The mentality of the rash will understand knowledge, and those who stutter will be ready to speak plainly. 5 The fool will no longer be called noble, nor will scoundrels be highly respected. 6 Fools speaks nonsense, their minds are preoccupied with evil. They practice unrightways, and spread error against Yehovah, depriving the hungry of food and the thirsty of water. 7 A scoundrel’s methods are wicked. He devises wicked schemes to destroy poor people with lies, even when the needy people plead for justice. 8 But the noble devises noble things, and he’ll continue in noble things.

9 Rise up, you women who are complacent! Hear my voice! You careless maidens, listen to what I say! 10 In a little more than a year you’ll tremble, your security gone, because the grape harvest will fail, there will be no harvest. 11 Tremble, you complacent women! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful grapevines. 13 Thorns and briars will come up on My people’s land, yes, on all the joyful homes in the jubilant city. 14 The palace will be abandoned. The populous city will be deserted. The citadel and the watchtowers will become animal lairs before long [1] [U], a playground for wild donkeys, pasture for flocks, 15 until the spirit is poured on us from high above, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is considered a forest. 16 Then justice will settle into the wilderness, and rightways will occupy the fertile fields. 17 The work of rightways will be peace, and the effect of rightways, quietness and confidence forever. 18 My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe houses, and in quiet resting places, 19 tho hail flattens the forests, and the city is completely leveled. 20 How blessed they will be when they sow crops along the rivers, and allow their cattle and donkeys free range.

[1] My “before long” used here (in connection with verse 10) is incredibly more logical than the word other Bibles use here: ‘forever’. The very first word of verse 15: “until” and the rest of the chapter precludes Jerusalem being a wasteland “forever” (not to mention history and prophecy and that city in the news).

ISAIAH 33

1 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you’ve finished destroying, you’ll be destroyed, and when you’ve made an end of betrayal, you’ll be betrayed.

2 Yehovah, be merciful to us. We have waited for You. Be our strength every morning, our deliverance also in the time of trouble.

3 At the noise of the thunder, the people have fled. When You lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. 4 Your spoil will be gathered like a caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it like locusts leap. 5 Yehovah is exalted, because He lives high above. He has filled Zion with justice and rightways. 6 There will be stability in your times, abundance of deliverance, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yehovah is your treasure.

7 Look, their valiant ones cry outside, the ambassadors of peace cry bitterly. 8 The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The Covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man. 9 The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

10 Now I’ll arise, says Yehovah, “Now I’ll lift myself up. Now I’ll be exalted.” 11 You’ll conceive chaff. You will bear chaff. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 12 The people will be like burning lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire. 13 Hear, you who are far off, what I’ve done, and, you who are near, acknowledge My might.

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified. Trembling has seized the secular people. Which of us can live thru devouring fire? Which of us can live with continual burning? 15 Those who ‘live’ the right way, and speak the truth, who despise profiting from oppression, who gesture with their hands refusing a bribe, who stop their ears from hearing plots of murder, and refuse to ‘endorse’ evil 16 will live high above. Their refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, their water will be assured.

17 Your eyes will see the King in His splendor. You’ll see a land that stretches into the distance. 18 You will meditate on the terror. Where is the one who counted? Where is the one who weighed? Where is the one who counted the towers? 19 You’ll no longer see the fierce people, a people of a ‘foreign’ language that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language so that you can’t understand. 20 Look at Zion, the city of our appointed Festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tabernacle that won’t be removed. It’s stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. 21 But Yehovah will be there with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars will go, or any powerful ship pass by. 22 Because Yehovah is our judge. Yehovah writes our laws. Yehovah is our King. He’ll rescue us. 23 Your rigging hangs loose. You can’t securely fasten the base of the mast and spread the sail. Then an abundance of plunder will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder. 24 The inhabitants won’t say, “I’m sick.” The people who live there will be forgiven of their wickedness.

ISAIAH 34

1 Come near, you nations, and listen. Pay attention, you people! The earth and everything on it should hear, the world, and every living thing. 2 Yehovah is angry with all the nations, and furious with their armies. He has completely destroyed them. He has doomed them to slaughter. 3 Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their dead bodies will rise. The mountains will be drenched with their blood. 4 The entire array of ‘stars’ will disappear. The sky will roll down like a scroll, and all of its ‘stars’ will fall, like leaves falling from a grapevine or a figs from a tree [1]. 5 My sword was drenched with blood in the sky. Now it will descend on Edom, the nation I have marked for destruction. 6 Yehovah’s sword is drenched with blood. It’s covered with fat, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with fat from the kidneys of rams. Yehovah ‘will receive’ a zebak in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 Men as strong as a monoclonius [?] will fall next to them, young bulls with strong ones. Their land will be saturated with blood, and their dust will be greasy with fat. 8 Because Yehovah has a Time of Vengeance, a Year of Payback settling the dispute over Zion. 9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, and the ground turned to burning sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch. 10 It won’t be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will remain deserted. No one will ever travel thru it. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will live in it. He’ll stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 12 They’ll call its nobles to the kingdom, but none will be there, and all its leaders will be nothing. 13 Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It will be a haunt for dragons *, the habitat of dragons *! 14 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and wild goats will cry to its fellow. Yes, night creatures will settle there, finding their place of rest. 15 Arrow snakes will make their nests there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, kites will gather there, every one with her mate. 16 Search in Yehovah’s book, and read that not one of these will be missing. Not one will lack her mate. My mouth has commanded, and His spirit has gathered them. 17 He has thrown the lot for them, and His hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They’ll own it forever. From generation to generation they’ll live in it.

[1] I believe that top heavy New Jerusalem will shift north and become the new north pole, allowing for a stable rotation. Were this to happen slowly the stars would appear to be rolling south. As the motion accelerates they would seemingly disappear, just like stars disappear from the image of a moving camera.

ISAIAH 35

1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will celebrate and blossom like a rose. 2 It will blossom abundantly, and celebrate even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s splendor will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They’ll see Yehovah’s splendor, the excellence of our Elohim. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Tell those who are afraid, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Look, your Elohim will come with vengeance, Elohim’s retribution. He’ll come and save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing, because water will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of dragons *, where they lay. 8 A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Kadosh Way. The unclean won’t pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools won’t go there. 9 There won’t be any lions there, nor any other ferocious beasts get up on it. They won’t be found there, but the redeemed will walk there. 10 Yehovah’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy will crown their heads. They’ll obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

ISAIAH 36

1 Now during the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. 2 The King of Assyria sent the field commander from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. 4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, asks: Why are you so confident? 5 I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now who do you trust enough to rebel against me? 6 If you’re trusting in Egypt, that shattered reed of a staff will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like with anyone who trusts in him! 7 But if you tell me, “We trust in Yehovah our Elohim,” isn’t it He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away. He told Judah and to Jerusalem, “You will worship before this altar?” 8 Now So, please make a pledge to my master the King of Assyria, and I’ll give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Have I come up now without Yehovah against this land to destroy it? Yehovah told me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, and don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language where the people on the wall can hear it.” 12 But the field commander said, “Has my master only sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” 13 Then the field commander stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the King of Assyria! 14 The king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he won’t be able to deliver you. 15 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yehovah, saying, ‘Yehovah will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.’ 16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because the King of Assyria says: Make your peace with me, and come out to me, and each of you eat from his grapevine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware otherwise Hezekiah persuade you, saying, ‘Yehovah will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the King of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’� 21 But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, because the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.

22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the field commander.

ISAIAH 37

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yehovah’s Temple. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke and shame. Children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver. 4 Perhaps Yehovah your Elohim will hear the words of the field commander, who his master the King of Assyria has sent to defy the living Elohim, and reprimand him for the words that Yehovah your Elohim has heard. So pray for the remnant that still survives.”

5 So King Hezekiah’s servants went to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah answered them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what Yehovah says: Don’t be frightened by the message you heard—words that the underlings of the King of Assyria have blasphemed Me with. 7 Listen! I’m going to put a spirit in him, and he too will hear a message. He’ll return to his own country where I’ll have him cut down with a sword.’”

8 When the field commander returned, he found the King of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now ‘Sennacherib’ got word that Tirhakah, the Cushite king was coming out to fight against him. When he heard it, he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the Elohim who you trust in deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the King of Assyria. 11 You’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, destroying them completely! So will you be spared? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my ancestors destroyed rescue them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers hand, and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yehovah’s Temple, and spread it before Yehovah. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to Yehovah, 16 “O Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, the Elohim of Israel, the One enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are the Elohim of all the kingdoms of the earth. You’ve made Heaven and earth. 17 Bend your ear, O Yehovah, and listen. Open your eyes, O Yehovah, and look. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living Elohim. 18 Truly, O Yehovah, the kings of Assyria have devastated many nations and their lands, 19 and have thrown their elohim into the fire, because they weren’t the real Elohim, just wood and stone, sculptured by human hands. So ‘the Assyrians’ destroyed them. 20 Now, O Yehovah our Elohim, rescue us from his grasp, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you are Yehovah, You alone.”

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, that said, “This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel says: Since you’ve prayed to Me about Sennacherib King of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Yehovah has spoken against him. ‘The virgin maiden of Zion despises you and scorns you. The maiden Jerusalem wags her head at your back sides as you flee [U]! 23 Who have you mocked and blasphemed? Who have you shouted at and ‘glared’ at so arrogantly? Against the Kadosh One of Israel! 24 Thru your servants you have mocked Yehovah and have said, “With my numerous chariots I’ve ascended the highest mountains, the remotest peaks of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress trees. I’ll reach its highest peak, its most verdant forest. 25 I’ve dug wells and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I’ve dried up all the rivers of Egypt.” 26 Then Yehovah said, “Haven’t you heard? I destined it long ago. I planned it in ancient times. I’ve caused you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble. 27 Their inhabitants were weak. They were frightened and confused. They were like the vegetation in a field, like green herbs, like grass on the housetops, scorched before it matures. 28 But Sennacherib, I know where you live, when you leave and when you return, and how you rage against Me. 29 Because of your rage against Me, and because your arrogance has reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your mouth, and I’ll turn you back by the road you came.

30 Judah, ‘This will be the sign for you. You’ll eat what grows by itself this year, and in the second year [Jubilee] what springs up from that. But in the third year you’ll sow and harvest and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 The remaining survivors of the tribe of Judah will again put roots down, and raise a crop. 32 A few survivors will leave Jerusalem, a band of survivors from Mount Zion. The passionate commitment of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will cause this.’

33 “But this is what Yehovah says about the King of Assyria: He won’t come to this city, or shoot an arrow here. He won’t approach it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. 34 The road that he came in by is the road he’ll leave by. He won’t enter this city, says Yehovah! 35 Because I’ll defend this city and save it for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.

36 The Messenger of Yehovah went out and struck 185,000 soldiers in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up early in the morning, all they saw was corpses! 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria trekked back home to Nineveh, and stayed there. 38 Then, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with a sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

ISAIAH 38

1 In those days Hezekiah became deathly ill. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz went to visit him and told him, “This is what Yehovah says: Set your house in order, because you are going to die, you won’t recover.” 2 Hezekiah turned facing the wall and prayed to Yehovah, 3 and said, “Please remember, Yehovah, how I’ve lived in your presence in truth and sincerity, and have done what is good in Your sight.” Hezekiah cried bitterly. 4 Then the Word of Yehovah came to Isaiah, 5 “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of your ancestor David says: I’ve heard your prayer. I’ve seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life! 6 I’ll rescue you and this city out of the grasp of the King of Assyria. I will defend this city! 7 Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from Yehovah, that Yehovah will do what He has promised: 8 I’ll cause the shadow on the stairway that has moved down Ahaz’s stairway to move backward ten steps!” So the sun moved backward ten steps on the stairway that it had just gone down.

9 King Hezekiah of Judah wrote this after his illness and recovery: 10 I said, “In mid life am I to enter the gates of Sheol? Am I to be deprived of the rest of my years? 11 I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I won’t see the inhabitants of the world any more. 12 Like a shepherd’s tent my home is pulled up and removed from me. Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and He cuts me off from the loom. You ended my life in a day and a night. 13 I waited patiently till dawn for reprieve but like a lion He broke all my bones [1]. You ended my life in a day and a night. 14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes are weary from looking upward. Yehovah, I’m oppressed. Be my security. 15 But what could I say, now that He has spoken to me, and Personally caused it. I’ll wander around the rest of my years because of the bitterness of my life. 16 Yehovah, people live with these things, and my spirit finds life in them too. You restore my health and allow me to live! 17 Surely it was for my benefit that I had such anguish. You’ve lovingly kept me from the rotting pit. You’ve tossed all my sins behind Your back. 18 Sheol doesn’t thank You. Death doesn’t praise You. Those who go down into the pit can never hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living, praise You, as I do today. A Father must tell his sons about Your truth. 20 Yehovah will save me. So we’ll play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yehovah’s Temple.

21 Isaiah had said, “Take a poultice of figs, and apply it to the boil, and he’ll recover.” 22 Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I’ll go up to Yehovah’s Temple?”

[1] “You ended my life in a day and a night” “is not repeated at the end of this verse in the Syriac version; and a MS. omits it. It seems to have been inserted a second time in the Hebrew text by mistake.”

ISAIAH 39

1 At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, because he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them his treasure house, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and the entire armory, and everything that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to king Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And where did they come from to you?” Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far distant land, from Babylon.” 4 Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I didn’t shown them.”

5 Then Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Hear the Word of Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, 6 ‘The days are coming, says Yehovah, when everything in your house, everything that your ancestors have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon! Nothing will be left, . 7 They’ll take away your sons who will be descended from you, and they’ll be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yehovah’s word that you’ve spoken is good.” He said, “There will be peace and truth in my ‘lifetime’.”

ISAIAH 40

1 Comfort, comfort My people,” says your Elohim. 2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her warfare is over, and that her injustice has been pardoned, and that she has received from Yehovah’s hand double for all her sins.” 3 A voice is calling, “Prepare the way of Yehovah in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our Elohim. 4 Every valley will be raised, and every mountain and hill will be lowered. Steep terrain will be leveled, and rugged terrain will become broad valleys. 5 The splendor of Yehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together, because Yehovah has said it aloud.” 6 The voice said, “Shout!” Then I asked, “What should I shout?” All flesh is like grass, and all its splendor is like a field of wildflowers. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fade, because Yehovah’s spirit, she blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Elohim stands forever. 9 O Zion, climb a mountain and herald the good news! O Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice fearlessly. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your Elohim!” 10 Look, the Sovereign Yehovah will come in power, and His arm will rule for Him. Look, His wages are with Him, and His compensation before Him. 11 He’ll tend His flock like a shepherd. He’ll gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His arms. He’ll gently lead the nursing ewes.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the sky with His span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of Yehovah, or has taught Him as his counselor? 14 Who did He consult with, and who enlightened Him, and taught Him the path of justice. Who was the mentor who showed Him the path of understanding? 15 Look, the nations are like a drops in a bucket, like specks of dust on a balance beam scale! He raises islands as if they were specks of dirt. 16 Lebanon isn’t sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are like nothing before Him. They are regarded by Him as less than nothing, and vanity. 18 Who then will you compare Elohim to? Or what likeness will you compare Him? 19 A craftsman casts an idol, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and attaches silver chains to it. 20 Someone too impoverished for such an offering chooses a rot resistant wood. He then finds an artisan to set up an engraved image for him that won’t fall over. 21 Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard yet? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It’s the One who sits above the horisons of the earth, and views its inhabitants like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings rulers to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless. 24 No sooner are they planted, when they have barely been sown and taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and a storm carries them away like chaff. 25 “To who then will you compare Me to? Who is My equal?” Says the Kadosh One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yehovah, and the justice due me is disregarded by my Elohim?” 28 Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting Elohim, Yehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of the one who has no might. 30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men completely fall, 31 But those who wait because Yehovah will renew their strength. They’ll mount up with wings like eagles. They’ll run, and not be weary. They’ll walk, and not faint.

ISAIAH 41

1 Keep silent before me, islands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment. 2 Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in rightways? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven chaff to his bow. 3 He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he hadn’t gone with his feet. 4 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yehovah, the first, and with the last, I’m He. 5 The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. 6 Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” 7 So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good,” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

8 But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob who I’ve chosen, the descendant of Abraham My friend, 9 You who I’ve taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, “You are My servant, I’ve chosen you and not thrown you away.” 10 Don’t you be afraid, because I’m with you. Don’t be dismayed, because I’m your Elohim. I’ll strengthen you. Yes, I’ll help you. Yes, I’ll uphold you with the right hand of My rightways. 11 Look, all those who are incensed against you’ll be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you’ll be like nothing, and will perish. 12 You’ll seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you’ll be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. 13 Because I, Yehovah your Elohim, will hold your right hand, and tell you, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you. 14 Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel, I’ll help you, says Yehovah, your Redeemer, the Kadosh One of Israel. 15 Look, I’ve made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff. 16 You’ll winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the tornado will scatter them. You will celebrate in Yehovah. You will splendor in the Kadosh One of Israel. 17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yehovah, will answer them. I, the Elohim of Israel, won’t forsake them. 18 I’ll open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I’ll make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19 I’ll put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I’ll set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert, 20 so that they can see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yehovah has done this, and the Kadosh One of Israel has created it.

21 “Produce your cause, says Yehovah. Present your best arguments, says the King of Jacob. 22 Let them announce, and announce to us what will happen. Announce the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them, or show us things to come. 23 announce the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know so that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we can be dismayed, and see it together. 24 Look, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. 25 I’ve raised up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name, and he’ll come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 26 Who has announced it from the beginning, so that we may know? And before, so that we can sa that hee is right? Surely, there is no one who announces. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 27 I’m the first to say to Zion, “Look, look at them,” and I’ll give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 28 When I look, there is no man, even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 29 Look, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

ISAIAH 42

1 Look, my servant, who I uphold, my chosen, in who my life delights- I’ve put my Spirit on him. He’ll bring justice to the nations. 2 He won’t shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. 3 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He’ll faithfully bring justice. 4 He won’t fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law. 5 So says Elohim Yehovah, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and what comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it. 6 I, Yehovah, have called you to rightways, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations, 7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

8 I am Yehovah. That is My name. I won’t give My splendor to another, nor My praise to engraved images. 9 Look, the former things have happened, and I announce new things. I tell you about them before they come up.

10 Sing to Yehovah a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is there, the islands and their inhabitants. 11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains! 12 Let them give splendor to Yehovah, and announce his praise in the islands. 13 Yehovah will go out like a mighty man. He’ll stir up zeal like a man of war. He’ll raise a war cry. Yes, he’ll shout aloud. He’ll triumph over his enemies. 14 I’ve been silent a long time. I’ve been quiet and restrained myself. Now I’ll cry out like a travailing woman. I’ll both gasp and pant. 15 I’ll lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation. I’ll make the rivers islands and dry up the pools. 16 I’ll lead the blind by a way that they don’t know, in paths that they don’t know. I’ll turn darkness into light before them, and make rough places into level ground. These are the things I’ll do. I won’t forsake them. 17 Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, “You are our gods” will be turned back. They’ll be completely disappointed.

18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, so that you may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger who I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yehovah’s servant? 20 You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. 21 It pleased Yehovah, for His rightways’ sake, to magnify the Torah, and make it honorable. 22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey, and no one delivers, and a spoil, and no one says: Restore them!’ 23 Who is there among you who will listen to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yehovah, he against who we have sinned? They wouldn’t walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. 25 So he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle, and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know, and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to mind.

ISAIAH 43

1 But now thus says Yehovah who created you, Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: Don’t be afraid, because I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called you by your name. You are mine. 2 When you pass thru the waters, I’ll be with you, and thru the rivers, they won’t overflow you. When you walk thru the fire, you won’t be burned, and flame won’t scorch you. 3 Because I am Yehovah your Elohim, the Kadosh One of Israel, your Deliverer. I’ve given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba instead of you. 4 Since you’ve been precious and honored in my sight, and I’ve loved you, so I’ll give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. 5 Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you. I’ll bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west. 6 I’ll tell the north, “Give them up!” and tell the south, “Don’t hold them back!” Bring My sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth- 7 Everyone who is called by My name, and who I’ve created for My splendor, whom I’ve formed, yes, who I’ve made.

8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can announce this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, so that they can be justified, or let them hear, and say, “That is true.” 10 “You are My witnesses, says Yehovah, With My Servant who I’ve chosen, so that you can know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no Elohim formed, nor will there be after me. 11 I Myself am Yehovah, and besides Me there is no savior. 12 I’ve announced, I’ve saved, and I’ve shown, and there was no strange god among you. So you are My witnesses, says Yehovah and I am Elohim. 13 “Yes, since the first day was I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I’ll work, and who can hinder it?”

14 This is what Yehovah says: Your Redeemer, the Kadosh One of Israel: For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I’ll bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 15 I am Yehovah, your Kadosh One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 16 This is what Yehovah says: Who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they won’t rise, they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick), 18 Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. 19 Look, I’ll do a new thing. It springs forth now. Don’t you know it? I’ll even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild animals will honor Me, the dragons * and the ostrich, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, 21 the people that I formed for Myself, so that they would set forth My praise.

22 Yet you haven’t called on Me, Jacob, but you’ve been weary of Me, Israel. 23 You haven’t brought Me your sheep for burnt offerings, nor have you honored Me with your zebakim. I haven’t burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. 24 You’ve bought Me no sweet cane with silver, nor have you filled Me with the fat of your zebakim, but you’ve burdened Me with your sins. You’ve wearied Me with your sins. 25 I, even I, am the One who blots out your rebellion for My own sake, and I won’t call your sins to remember. 26 Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Set forth your case, so that you can be justified. 27 Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me. 28 So I’ll profane the leaders of the Temple, and I’ll make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.

ISAIAH 44

1 Yet listen now, Jacob My servant, and Israel, who I’ve chosen. 2 This is what Yehovah who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: Don’t be afraid, Jacob My servant, and you, Jeshurun, who I’ve chosen. 3 Because I’ll pour water on the one who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I’ll pour My spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring, 4 And they’ll spring up among the grass, like willows by the watercourses. 5 One will say, “I am Yehovah’s,” and another will be called by the name of Jacob, and another will write with his hand ‘to Yehovah’, and honor the name of Israel. 6 This is what Yehovah, the King of Israel, AND His Redeemer, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King, says: I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no other Elohim. 7 Who is like Me? Who will call, and will announce it, and set it in order for Me, since I established the ancient people? Let them announce the things that are coming, and that will happen. 8 Don’t fear, nor be afraid. Haven’t I announced it to you long ago, and shown it? You are My witnesses. Is there an Elohim besides Me? Indeed, there isnt. I don’t know any other Rock.

9 Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in won’t profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, so that they can be disappointed. 10 Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Look, all his fellows will be disappointed, and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They’ll fear. They’ll be put to shame together. 12 The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails, he drinks no water, and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it will be for a man to burn, and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it, he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it. 16 He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says “Aha! I’m warm. I’ve seen the fire. 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Rescue me, because you are my god!” 18 They don’t know, nor do they consider, because he has shut their eyes, so that they can’t see, and their minds, so that they can’t understand. 19 No one thinks, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I’ve burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I’ve also baked bread on its coals. I’ve roasted meat and eaten it. Will I make the rest of it into an abomination? Will I bow down to a tree trunk?” 20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived mind has turned him aside, and he can’t deliver his life, nor say isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

21 Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, because you are my servant. I’ve formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you won’t be forgotten by me. 22 I’ve blotted out, as a thick cloud, your rebellion, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, because I’ve redeemed you. 23 Sing, you heavens, because Yehovah has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, and all of your trees, because Yehovah has redeemed Jacob, and will display His splendor in Israel.

24 This is what Yehovah says: Your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb, “I am Yehovah, who makes everything, who alone stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by Myself, 25 who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad, who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish, 26 who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, “She’ll be inhabited,” and of the cities of Judah, “They’ll be rebuilt,” and “I’ll raise up its waste places,” 27 who says to the deep, “Be dry”, and “I’ll dry up your rivers.” 28 Who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and will perform all my pleasure,” even saying of Jerusalem, “She’ll be built,” and of the Temple, “Your foundation will be laid.”

ISAIAH 45

1 This is what Yehovah says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I’ve held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates won’t be shut, 2 I’ll go before you, and make the rough places smooth. I’ll break the brass doors in pieces, and cut apart the iron bars. 3 I’ll give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you can know that it’s I, Yehovah, calling you by name, even the Elohim of Israel. 4 For the sake of My servant Jacob, Israel My chosen, I’ve called you by name. I’ve surnamed you, tho you haven’t known Me. 5 I am Yehovah, and there is no other. Besides Me, there is no Elohim. I’ll strengthen you, tho you haven’t known Me, 6 So that they can know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one other than Me. I am Yehovah, and there is no one else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yehovah, who does all of these things.

8 Distil, you heavens, from above, and may the skies pour down rightways. Let the earth open, so that it can bring about deliverance, and may it cause rightways to spring up with it. I, Yehovah, have created it. 9 Woe to the one who strives with his Maker- a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Will the clay ask the one who fashions it, “What are you making?” Or your work, “He has no hands?” 10 Woe to the one who says to a father, “What have you become the father of?” Or to a mother, “To what have you given birth?”� 11 This is what Yehovah says: The Kadosh One of Israel, and the One who created him: You question Me about things to come, about My sons, and you give Me orders about My handiwork? 12 I’ve made the earth, and created humanity on it. I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and I’ve commanded all their army. 13 I’ve raised him up the right way, and I’ll straighten all his ways. He’ll build my city, and he’ll let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King.

14 This is what Yehovah says: The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they’ll be yours. They’ll go after you. They’ll come over in chains, and they’ll bow down to you. They’ll make supplication to you, “Surely Elohim is in you, and there is none else. There is no other Elohim.” 15 Most certainly you are an Elohim who hid yourself, Elohim of Israel, the Deliverer. 16 They’ll be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together. 17 Israel will be liberated by Yehovah with an everlasting liberation. You won’t be ashamed or humiliated for ages everlasting. 18 This is what Yehovah says who created/transformed the universe, the Elohim who originally created the earth and put it in order, who established it, and didn’t create it as a desolate wasteland, who formed it to be inhabitedI am Yehovah, and there is no other. 19 I haven’t spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the descendants of Jacob, “Seek Me in vain.” I, Yehovah, speak rightways. I announce things that are right. 20 Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save. 21 Announce and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has announced it of old? Haven’t I, Yehovah? There is no other Elohim besides me, a just Elohim and a DelivererThere is no one besides me. 22 Look to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth, because I’m Elohim, and there is no other. 23 By Myself have I sworn, the word has gone out from My mouth in rightways, and won’t return, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear. 24 They’ll say of Me, “There are rightways and strength only in Yehovah.” Even to him will men come, and all those who were incensed against him will be disappointed. 25 In Yehovah will all the seed of Israel be justified, and will splendor.

ISAIAH 46

1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock, the things so that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary animal. 2 They stoop, they bow down together, they couldn’t deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

3 Listen to me, ‘descendants’ of Jacob, and all of the remnant of the nation of Israel, that have been borne by me from their birth, that have been carried from the womb, 4 And even to old age I’m he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I’ve made, and I’ll bear, yes, I’ll carry, and will deliver.

5 To who will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, so that we can be like? 6 Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down-yes, they worship. 7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it won’t move, yes, one may cry to it, yet it can’t answer, nor save him out of his trouble. 8 Remember this, and show yourselves men, bring it again to mind, you transgressors. 9 Remember the events of antiquity, because I’m Elohim, and there is no other, I’m Elohim, and there’s no one like Me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that haven’t been done yet. I say that My purposes will be established, and I’ll do the things I delight in, 11 calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country, yes, I’ve spoken, I’ll also bring it to pass, I’ve purposed, I’ll also do it.

12 Listen to Me, you hard headed people, who are far from rightways, 13 I bring My rightways near, it won’t be far off, and My deliverance won’t wait, and I’ll place deliverance in Zion for Israel, My splendor.

ISAIAH 47

1 Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin maiden of Babylon, sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans, because you’ll no longer be called tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones, and grind meal, remove your veil, strip off of the train, uncover your leg, pass thru the rivers. 3 Your nakedness will be exposed, yes, your shame will be seen. I’ll take vengeance, and won’t intervene for anyone. 4 Our Redeemer, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is His name, the Kadosh One of Israel. 5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans, because you’ll no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy, on the aged you’ve very heavily laid your yoke. 7 You said, I’ll be mistress forever, so that you didn’t lay these things to your mind, nor did remember the latter end of it. 8 So hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your mind, I am, and there is none else besides me, I won’t sit as a widow, nor will I know the loss of children, 9 but these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood, in their full measure will they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great bundance of your enchantments. 10 You’ve trusted in your wickedness, you’ve said, No one sees me, your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you’ve said in your mind, I am, and there is none else besides me. 11 So evil will come on you, you won’t know when it dawns, and mischief will fall on you, you won’t be able to put it away, and desolation will come on you suddenly, so that you don’t know. 12 Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in that you’ve labored from your youth, if so be you’ll be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. 13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels, let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that will come on you. 14 They’ll be like chaff, the fire will burn them up, they can’t save themselves from the grasp of the flames. It won’t be glowing coals to keep them warm, or a fire to sit by! 15 So will the things be to you in that you’ve labored, those who have trafficked with you from your youth will wander everyone to his quarter, there will be none to save you.

ISAIAH 48

1 Hear this, ‘descendants’ of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have coming out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yehovah, and make mention of the Elohim of Israel, but not in truth, nor in rightways 2(because they call themselves of the kadosh city, and stay themselves on the Elohim of Israel, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King is his name), 3 I’ve announced the former things from of old, yes, they went out of my mouth, and I showed them, suddenly I did them, and they happened. 4 Because I knew so that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass, 5 So I’ve announced it to you from of old, before it came to pass I showed it to you, otherwise you should say, “My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.” 6 You’ve heard it, see all this, and you, will you not announce it? I’ve shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, that you haven’t known. 7 They are created now, and not from of old, and before today you didn’t hear them, otherwise you should say, “Look, I knew them.” 8 Yes, you didn’t hear, yes, you didn’t know, yes, from of old your ear wasn’t opened, because I knew so that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb. 9 My name’s sake I will defer my anger, and for My praise I will refrain for you, that I not cut you off. 10 Look, I’ve refined you, but not as silver, I’ve chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 11 My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it, because how should My name be profaned? And My splendor I won’t give to another.

12 Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called, I am He, I am the first, I also am the last. 13 Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens, when I call to them, they stand up together. 14 Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear, who among them has announced these things? He who Yehovah loves will perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm will be on the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken, yes, I’ve called him, I’ve brought him, and he’ll make his way prosperous. 16 Come near to me and hear this: From the beginning I haven’t spoken in secret, from the time that it was, there am I. Now the Sovereign Yehovah has sent Me, endowed with His spirit. 17 This is what Yehovah says: Your Redeemer, the Kadosh One of Israel, I am Yehovah your Elohim, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way so that you should go. 18 Oh so that you had listened to My Commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your rightways like the waves of the sea, 19 Your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains, his name wouldn’t be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing announce, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth, say, Yehovah has redeemed his servant Jacob. 21 They didn’t thirst when he led them thru the deserts, he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them, he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

22 “There is no peace for the wicked.” says Yehovah,

ISAIAH 49

1 Listen to me islands, and listen those of you people from far away, Yehovah has called me from the womb, from the womb of my mother He mentioned My name, 2 and He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand He hid me, and He made me like a polished shaft in his quiver, and He has kept me close, 3 And he told me, “You are My servant, Israel. I’ll be clothed with splendor thru you.” 4 But I said, “I’ve labored in vain, I’ve spent my strength for nothing and vanity, yet surely the justice due to me is with Yehovah, and my reward with my Elohim.” 5 And now Yehovah says—the One who formed me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel could be regathered to Him (because I am honored in the sight of Yehovah, and my Elohim has become my strength), 6 He asks, “It is too small of a thing for you to be My servant to reestablish the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the Israelites who were ‘spared?’ I’ll make you a light to the nations, so that you can bring My message of deliverance to the remotest parts of the earth.”

7 This is what Yehovah says, the Redeemer of Israel, and ‘their’ Kadosh One, to the One who man despises, to the One who the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers: Kings will see You and rise, and leaders will bow down, because of Yehovah who is faithful, the Kadosh One of Israel, who has chosen You. 8 This is what Yehovah says: In a favorable time have I answered You, and in a day of deliverance I have helped You. I’ll protect You [the Messiah: Barnes] and give You to the people as a covenant [the covenantee], to restore the land, and to repossess its desolate heritage. 9 You will say to the prisoners, “Come out” and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves”! They’ll be My sheep, grazing along the roads and finding pastures on every high places that was previously bare. 10 They won’t hunger or thirst, nor will the heat or sun beat down on them, because the One who has mercy on them will lead them. He’ll guide them to springs of water. 11 11 I’ll make all My mountains traversable, and My highways in the valleys will be elevated. 12 They will come from far away! They will come from the north and from the west, and they will come from Australia. 13 Shout for joy, you heavens, and earth rejoice, and break out into singing, you mountains, because Yehovah has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His meek and afflicted.

14 But Zion said, “Yehovah has forsaken me. Yehovah has forgotten me.” 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not to have compassion on the child she has borne? Well they may forget, but I won’t forget you! 16 I’ve engraved you [Zion] on the palms of My hands [nail prints: Gill’s], your walls [New Jerusalem?] are continually before Me! 17 Your children will hurry back. Those who overthrew you and devastated you will flee from you. 18 ‘Look’ around, and see, all your children gathering together, and returning to you. “As surely as I live, says Yehovah, You will adorn yourself with them all like jewelry, and put them on you, like a bride does. 19 As for your desolate places and your devastated land—surely now you’ll be too small for the inhabitants, and those who engulfed you will be far away. 20 The children of your bereavement will yet again say in your ears, “The place is too small for me, give me a place to live.” 21 Then you’ll ask yourself, “Who has borne these children for me. I’ve been bereaved of my children and barren, an exile, and a wanderer? Who raised these children? I was left all alone! Where did these children come from?’

22 The Sovereign Yehovah says: I’ll ‘wave’ my hand in a summoning gesture to the nations. They’ll bring your sons in their ‘arms’, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. 23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers, they’ll bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet, and you’ll know that I am Yehovah. Those who anticipate My arrival won’t be disappointed.

24 Can loot be taken from warriors, or even legally obtained captives be set free? 25 But Yehovah says, “Even the captives of the warriors will be ‘brought back’, and the plunder of terrorists will be retrieved, because I’ll fight with those who fought with you, and I’ll save your children! 26 I’ll feed your oppressors their own flesh, and they’ll be drunk on their own blood, as if it were new wine. Then all of ‘humanity’ will know that I, Yehovah, am your Deliverer, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

ISAIAH 50

1 This is what Yehovah says: Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, that I’ve sent her away with? Or which of My creditors is it who I’ve sold to you? Look, you were sold for your sins, and your mother was put away for your rebellion. 2 Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Look, at my reprimand I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. 3 I clothe heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

4 the Sovereign Yehovah has given me gifted speech, so that I understand how to sustain the weary with words, He arouses my consciousness morning by morning, He awakens me with inspired revelation as the gifted. 5 the Sovereign Yehovah has opened my ear, and I wasn’t rebellious, I haven’t turned back. 6 I yielded my back to those who scourged me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out my hair, I didn’t hide my face from dishonor and spitting. 7 the Sovereign Yehovah will help me, so I won’t remain dishonored, so I set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed. 8 The One who justifies me is near, who will bring charges against me? Let’s stand up together, who is my adversary? He should approach me. 9 Look, the Sovereign Yehovah will help me, who will condemn me? Look, all they’ll wear out like clothing, moths will eat them.

10 Who is among you who fears Yehovah, who obeys the voice of his Servant? The one who walks in darkness, and has no light, should trust in the name of Yehovah, and rely on his Elohim. 11 Look, all of you who kindle a fire and grasp torches, walk in the firelight, and among the torches so that you’ve lit. This is what you’ll get from me, you’ll lie down in sorrow.

ISAIAH 51

1 Listen to Me, you who follow after rightways, you who seek Yehovah, look to the rock that you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit from where you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who carried you, because when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. 3 Yehovah will comfort Zion. He’ll have compassion on all her ruin, and make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like Yehovah’s garden. Joy and happiness will be found there, thanksgiving, and the sound of music.

4 Pay attention to Me, My people. Hear Me, My nation, because My Torah will go out from Me, and I’ll establish My justice as a light to the nations. 5 My rightways is near, My deliverance is coming, and My arms will judge the nations, the coastlands will wait for Me, and wait in hope for My Arm.

6 ‘Look’ up to the skies, and look at the earth below, because the skies will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothing, and those who live there will die like a swarm of gnats [1], but My deliverance will be forever, and My rightways will never be shattered. 7 Listen to Me, you who understand rightways, you people who have ‘internalized’ My Torah. Don’t be afraid of people's scorn, or fear their insults. 8 Moths will eat them up like clothing, and worms will eat them like they do wool, but My rightways will last forever, and My deliverance [from sin] thru all generations.

9 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength arm of Yehovah, awake, as in the days of old, as in generations of long ago. Didn’t you cut Rahab in pieces. Who pierced the dragon? 10 Didn’t you dry up the sea, the water of the great depths, making the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? 11 Those ransomed by Yehovah will return, and come singing into Zion. Everlasting joy will ‘crown’ their heads; they’ll be overwhelmed with gladness and joy, as sorrow and sighing flee away. 12 I, yes I am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mortals, humans made like grass. 13 You’ve forgotten Yehovah your Creator, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in constant fear all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he prepares for your destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exiles will soon be set free. They won’t die in dungeons or go without food. 15 I am Yehovah your Elohim, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar, Yehovah the Warrior King is My name. 16 I’ve put My words in your mouth, and covered you in the shadow of My hand, so that I can establish the skies, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, “You are My people.”

17 Wake up, wake up,, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yehovah the cup of His wrath. You’ve drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons who she has bore, nor is there anyone who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has raised. 19 These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword, how will I comfort you? 20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net, they are full of the wrath of Yehovah, the reprimand of your Elohim. 21 So hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine, 22 This is what the Sovereign Yehovah says: Your Elohim who pleads the cause of His people. I’ve taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of the cup of My wrath, you’ll no longer drink from it. 23 I’ll put it into the hand of your tormentors, those who said, “Lie down, so that we can walk over you.” You’ve even made your back like the ground, and like the street for them to cross.”

[1] This is not an end of the world/universe reference, the timeframe of this chapter clearly concerns the catastrophic Day of Yehovah and the imminent establishment of the Everlasting Kingdom. This topic is further addressed in 2 Peter 3.

ISAIAH 52

1 Wake up, wake up, Zion! Clothe yourself with strength. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, the kadosh city, because from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean won’t enter you. 2 Shake off your dust, get up and sit on your throne [Barnes], O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, captive maiden Zion. 3 This is what Yehovah says: You were sold for nothing, and you’ll be redeemed without silver. 4 The Sovereign Yehovah says: My people initially went down into Egypt to stay there, and the Assyrian has oppressed them for no reason. 5 So Yehovah asks, “What do I find here, My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them whail, says Yehovah and My name is blasphemed continually all day long. 6 So my people will know my name, so they’ll know in that day that I’m he who does speak, look, it’s I. 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes deliverance, who says to Zion: Your Elohim reigns!” 8 Listen to the voice of your watchmen! They shout for joy together, because they’ll see it with their own eyes [Barnes], when Yehovah returns to Zion. 9 Break out into shouts of joy, you ruined places of Jerusalem, because Yehovah has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 Yehovah has bared His kadosh arm [for battle: Barnes] within view of all the nations, and all of the remotest parts of the earth have seen the deliverance of our Elohim. 11 Leave! Leave, get away from there! Touch nothing unclean! Get out of her ‘presence’! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yehovah [1]. 12 You won’t go out in a hurry, nor will you go as fugitives, because Yehovah will go before you, and the Elohim of Israel will be your rear guard.

13 My Servant will act wisely; He’ll be lifted up and highly exalted, and will be very high! 14 Just as many were appalled at You—His appearance was disfigured beyond human recognition, He didn’t even appear human— 15 so He’ll sprinkle many nations [with His blood]. Kings will will be speechless because of Him. They’ll see things they’d never been told about, and understand things that they’d never heard about.

[1] The vessels of Yehovah are those hidden by Jeremiah just prior to the destruction of the second temple, that may be found and used in the third temple.

ISAIAH 53

1 Who has believed our message? Who has the Arm [1] of Yehovah been revealed to? 2 He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. There was nothing particularly stately or majestic about His appearance; nothing about His appearance that would have attracted our attention to Him. 3 He was despised, and rejected by humanity, a man of suffering who understood being grief stricken. He was despised like someone who people hide their face from; and we considered Him worthless. 4 Surely He has borne our sickness, and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by Elohim, and punished. 5 But He was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our wickedness. His punishment brought about our peace, and by His wounds we are healed. 6 We have all strayed like sheep. Each of us has turned our own way. Yet Yehovah has laid on Him the punishment for all of our sins! 7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He didn’t ‘say a word’. He was led to the slaughter like a lamb, and like a sheep is silent before its shearers, He didn’t open His mouth. 8 He was taken away due to oppression and judgment, and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living and struck down because of My people’s rebellion. 9 He was given a grave with the wicked, ‘buried’ in a rich man’s grave, tho He had done nothing violent, nor had He ‘spoken’ anything deceitful.

10 Yet it was Yehovah’s desired plan to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if it would render Him a sin offering. He’ll see His offspring, and prolong His days, and the desirable things of Yehovah will advance by His hand. 11 After the suffering in His life, He’ll see His accomplishment and be satisfied. My righteous Servant will justify many by what He has learned through suffering. He’ll bear their sins. 12 As a result, He’ll inherit the ‘survivors of many nations’ [2], and He’ll divide the spoils of the strong, because He poured out His life in death, and was considered a rebel, yet He bore the sins of many, and interceded for the rebels.

[1] There are equivalent metaphors in English. We call an indispensable associate a “right hand man,” and we refer to the enforcement of the Law as “the arm of the Law”. Yeshua (Jesus) is the Arm of the Torah, the enforcer!