The Bible

 

Ezekiel 36

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1 And thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:

2 Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said of you: Aha, the everlasting heights are given to us for an inheritance.

3 Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Because you have been desolate, and trodden under foot on every side, and made an inheritance to the rest of the nations, and are become the subject of the talk, and the reproach of the people:

4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the brooks, and to the valleys, and to desolate places, and ruinous walls, and to the cities that are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by the rest of the nations round about.

5 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: In the fire of my zeal I have spoken of the rest of the nations, and of all Edom, who have taken my land to themselves, for an inheritance with joy, and with all the heart, and with the mind: and have cast it out to lay it waste.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, to the ridges, and to the valleys: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I have spoken in my zeal, and in my indignation, because you have borne the shame of the Gentiles.

7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I have lifted up my hand, that the Gentiles who are round about you, shall themselves bear their shame.

8 But as for you, O mountains of Israel, shoot ye forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel: for they are at hand to come.

9 For lo I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be ploughed and sown.

10 And I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the ruinous places shall be repaired.

11 And I will make you abound with men and with beasts: and they shall be multiplied, and increased: and I will settle you as from the beginning, and will give you greater gifts, than you had from the beginning: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

12 And I will bring men upon you, my people Israel, and they shall possess thee for their inheritance: and thou shalt be their inheritance, and shalt no more henceforth be without them.

13 Thus saith the Lord God: Because they say of you: Thou art a devourer of men, and one that suffocatest thy nation:

14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, nor destroy thy nation any more, saith the Lord God:

15 Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the nations any more, nor shalt thou bear the reproach of the people, nor lose thy nation any more, saith the Lord God.

16 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it with their ways, and with their doings: their way was before me like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.

18 And I poured out my indignation upon them for the blood which they had shed upon the land, and with their idols they defiled it.

19 And I scattered them among the nations, and they are dispersed through the countries: I have judged them according to their ways, and their devices.

20 And when they entered among the nations whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of the Lord, and they are come forth out of his land.

21 And I have regarded my own holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among the nations to which they went in.

22 Therefore thou shalt say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God: It is not for your sake that I will do this, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations whither you went.

23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them: that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24 For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.

26 And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for corn, and will multiply it, and will lay no famine upon you.

30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the held, that you bear no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

31 And you shall remember your wicked ways, and your doings that were not good: and your iniquities, and your wicked deeds shall displease you.

32 It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith the Lord God, be it known to you: be confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited, and shall repair the ruinous places,

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in the sight of all that passed by,

35 They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a garden of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate, and destroyed, are peopled and fenced.

36 And the nations, that shall be left round about you, shall know that I the Lord have built up what was destroyed, and planted what was desolate, that I the Lord have spoken and done it.

37 Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this shall the house of Israel find me, that I will do it for them: I will multiply them as a flock of men,

38 As a holy dock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts: so shall the waste cities be full of flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   

The Bible

 

Isaiah 43

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1 AND now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine.

2 When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee:

3 For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia and Saba for thee.

4 Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.

5 Fear not, for I am with thee: I will. bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.

6 I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south: Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

7 And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him.

8 Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes: that are deaf, and have ears.

9 All the nations are assembled together, and the tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say: It is truth.

10 You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me, and understand that I myself am. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none.

11 I am, I am the Lord: and there is no saviour besides me.

12 I have declared, and have saved. I have made it heard, and there was no strange one among you. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God.

13 And from the beginning I am the same, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall turn it away?

14 Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships.

15 I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

16 Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.

17 Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are extinct.

18 Remember not former things, and look not on things of old.

19 Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring forth, verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

20 The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen.

21 This people have I formed for my- self, they shall shew forth my praise.

22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither hast thou laboured about me, O Israel.

23 Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with incense.

24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities.

25 I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.

26 Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.

27 Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

28 And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach.