Book 27 Isaias (continued 1)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
37:37. And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive.
37:38. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
Isaias Chapter 38
Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by prayer a prolongation of his life: in confirmation of which the sun goes back. The canticle of Ezechias.
38:1. In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet cane unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.
38:2. And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,
38:3. And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Ezechias wept with great weeping.
38:4. And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:
38:5. Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years:
38:6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
38:7. And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:
38:8. Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.
38:9. The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
38:10. I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.
Hell... Sheol, or Hades, the region of the dead.
38:11. I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.
38:12. My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
38:13. I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
38:14. I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me.
38:15. What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
38:16. O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.
38:17. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
38:18. For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.
38:19. The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make the truth known to the children.
38:20. O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
38:21. Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.
38:22. And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
Isaias Chapter 39
Ezechias shews all his treasures to the ambassadors of Babylon: upon which Isaias foretells the Babylonish captivity.
39:1. At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered.
39:2. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not.
39:3. Then Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon.
39:4. And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures.
39:5. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
39:6. Behold the days shall come that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall not any thing be left, saith the Lord.
39:7. And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
39:8. And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which he hath spoken, is good. And he said: Only let peace and truth be in my days.
Isaias Chapter 40
The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins. God's almighty power and majesty.
40:1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.