Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/777

---

Because they have taunted and spoken boastfully

Against the people of the Lord of hosts.

¹¹The Lord will be terrible unto them;

For He will famish all the gods of the earth;

Then shall all the isles of the nations worship Him,

Every one from its place.

¹²Ye Ethiopians also,

Ye shall be slain by My sword.

 

¹³And He will stretch out His hand against the north,

And destroy Assyria,

And will make Nineveh a desolation,

And dry like the wilderness.

¹⁴And all beasts of every kind

Shall lie down in the midst of her in herds;

Both the pelican and the bittern

Shall lodge in the capitals thereof;

Voices shall sing in the windows;

Desolation shall be in the posts;

For the cedar-work thereof shall be uncovered.

¹⁵This is the joyous city

That dwelt without care,

That said in her heart:

'I am, and there is none else beside me';

How is she become a desolation,

A place for beasts to lie down in,'

Every one that passeth by her

Shall hiss, and wag his hand.

 

3Woe to her that is filthy and polluted,

To the oppressing city!

²She hearkened not to the voice,

She received not correction;

She trusted not in the Lord,

She drew not near to her God.

³Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions;

Her judges are wolves of the desert,

They leave not a bone for the morrow.

⁴Her prophets are wanton

And treacherous persons;

Her priests have profaned that which is holy,

They have done violence to the law.

⁵The Lord who is righteous is in the midst of her,

He will not do unrighteousness;

Every morning doth He bring His right to light,

It faileth not;

But the unrighteous knoweth no shame.

⁶I have cut off nations,

Their corners are desolate;

I have made their streets waste,

So that none passeth by;

Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man,

So that there is no inhabitant.

⁷I said: 'Surely thou wilt fear Me,

Thou wilt receive correction;

So her dwelling shall not be cut off,

Despite all that I have visited upon her';

But they betimes corrupted all their doings.

 

⁸Therefore wait ye for Me, saith the Lord,

Until the day that I rise up to the prey;

For My determination is to gather the nations,

That I may assemble the kingdoms,

To pour upon them Mine indignation,

Even all My fierce anger;

For all the earth shall be devoured

With the fire of My jealousy.

755