The Bible

 

Isaiah 1

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

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #39

  
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39. 11. (The solitude of Jerusalem is described in direful terms, that to the sole of the foot there is no soundness (Isaiah 1:6-9).

The worship of these things is vanity unless you have cleansed yourselves from evil (Isaiah 1:11-18).)

The restoration of all things by the redemption, and then the salvation of the faithful and the condemnation of the unfaithful, is described (Isaiah 1:25-31).

And it shall come to pass in the last of the days that the mountain of Jehovah shall be established because the Word of Jehovah shall be from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:2-6). It treats of the restoration of all things through the New Church.

Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day (Isaiah 2:11, 17).

The restoration of all things through the New Church, which there is Jerusalem, where everyone is written unto life: and it is said, In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be for beauty and glory (Isaiah 4:1 to the end).

(That He would destroy the vine, because it did not bring forth grapes, but wild grapes; I will bring it to desolation, the house to devastation; because they regard not the work of Jehovah (Isaiah 5:3-15).)

A curse upon them, because they call good evil and evil good, and put darkness for light and light for darkness, since they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and despised the saying of the Holy One of Israel. He shall roar against him in that day like the roaring of the sea; and if one look unto the land, behold darkness, anxiety, and the light shall be darkened in the ruins thereof (Isaiah 5:18-30).

That the Lord will appear in the Word; the Lord is meant by "Adonai," and by "holy, holy, holy Jehovah of hosts," by "the Seraphim from above him" (Isaiah 6:1-8).

(Devastation is next treated of because they do not wish to understand the truth; that the cities therefore will be devastated, and the land will be brought back to solitude (Isaiah 6:9-13).)

(In that day Jehovah shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria; and they shall come and shall rest in the rivers of desolation (Isaiah 7:18-19).)

In that day shall the Lord shave the head and the hair of Assyria; He shall also consume the beard (Isaiah 7:20). The consummation.

In that day every place shall be for the brier and the thorn (Isaiah 7:23-24). The consummation.

What will ye do in the day of visitation and of devastation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? The devastation there is described by the pride of their own intelligence (Isaiah 10:3-19), further (Isaiah 10:23-34). And it is said that Jehovah bakes a consummation and decision in the whole earth (verse 23).

Howl ye; for the day of Jehovah is at hand, it will come as a devastation from Shaddai. Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel with indignation and with wrath to lay thy land waste; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shine not with their light, the sun is darkened at his rising, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (Isaiah 13:6-10). Therefore I will shake heaven, and the earth will tremble in the indignation of Jehovah of Hosts, in the day of the wrath of anger (13:13). There it treats of the vastation of Babylon.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.