The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 27: Isaias

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This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net]
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia
and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.

THE HOLY BIBLE

Translated from the Latin Vulgate

Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages

THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582

With Annotations

The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752

THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS

This inspired writer is called by the Holy Ghost, the great prophet,
(Ecclesiasticus:48.25,) from the greatness of his prophetic spirit, by
which he hath foretold so long before, and in so clear a manner, the
coming of Christ, the mysteries of our redemption, the calling of the
Gentiles, and the glorious establishment, and perpetual flourishing of
the church of Christ: insomuch that he may seem to have been rather an
evangelist than a prophet. His very name is not without mystery; for
Isaias in Hebrew signifies the salvation of the Lord, or Jesus is the
Lord. He was, according to the tradition of the Hebrews, of the blood
royal of the kings of Juda: and after a most holy life, ended his days
by a glorious martyrdom; being sawed in two, at the command of his
wicked son in law, King Manasses, for reproving his evil ways.

Isaias Chapter 1

The prophet complains of the sins of Juda and Jerusalem, and exhorts
them to a sincere conversion.

1:1. The vision of Isaias the Son of Amos, which he saw concerning Juda
and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings
of Juda.

1:2. Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath
spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have
despised me.

1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel
hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.

1:4. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked
seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have
blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.

1:5. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase
transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.

1:6. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no
soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not
bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.

1:7. Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your
country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as
when wasted by enemies.

1:8. And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard,
and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid
waste.

1:9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom,
and we should have been like to Gomorrha.

1:10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law
of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.

1:11. To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims,
saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of
fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats.

1:12. When you came to appear before me, who required these things at
your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

1:13. Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me.
The new moons, and the sabbaths and other festivals I will not abide,
your assemblies are wicked.

1:14. My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are
become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.

1:15. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes
from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands
are full of blood.

1:16. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from
my eyes, cease to do perversely,

1:17. Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for
the fatherless, defend the widow.

1:18. And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as
crimson, they shall be white as wool.

1:19. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good
things of the land.

1:20. But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall
devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

1:21. How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a
harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.

1:22. Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled with water.

1:23. Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love
bribes, they run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and
the widow's cause cometh not in to them.

1:24. Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of
Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be
revenged of my enemies.

1:25. And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy
dross, and I will take away all thy tin.

1:26. And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy
counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be called the city of the
just, a faithful city.

1:27. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back
in justice.

1:28. And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and
they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.

1:29. For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which they have
sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have
chosen.

1:30. When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a
garden without water.

1:31. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a
spark: and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench
it.

Isaias Chapter 2

All nations shall flow to the church of Christ. The Jews shall be
rejected for their sins. Idolatry shall be destroyed.

2:1. The word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning Juda and
Jerusalem.

2:2. And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the
hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

The last days... The whole time of the new law, from the coming of
Christ till the end of the world, is called in the scripture the last
days; because no other age or time shall come after it, but only
eternity.-Ibid. On the top of mountains, etc... This shews the perpetual
visibility of the church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of
mountains cannot be hid.

2:3. And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will
teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come
forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

2:4. And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they
shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they be exercised any more to war.

2:5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the
Lord.

2:6. For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they
are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the
Philistines, and have adhered to strange children.

2:7. Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of
their treasures.

2:8. And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are
innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work
of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.

2:9. And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased:
therefore forgive them not.

2:10. Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face
of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

2:11. The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men
shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

2:12. Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that
is proud and highminded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he
shall be humbled.

2:13. And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all
the oaks of Basan.

2:14. And upon all the high mountains and upon all the elevated hills.

2:15. And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.

2:16. And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to
behold.

2:17. And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness
of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that
day.

2:18. And idols shall be utterly destroyed.

Idols shall be utterly destroyed... or utterly pass away. This was
verified by the establishment of Christianity. And by this and other
texts of the like nature, the wild system of some modern sectaries is
abundantly confuted, who charge the whole Christian church with
worshipping idols, for many ages.

2:19. And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of
the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of
his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.

2:20. In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his
idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats.

2:21. And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of
stones from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his
majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.

2:22. Cease ye therefore from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils,
for he is reputed high.

Isaias Chapter 3

The confusion and other evils that shall come upon the Jews for their
sins. The pride of their women shall be punished.

3:1. For behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall take away from
Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong, the whole strength
of bread, and the whole strength of water.

3:2. The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet and
the cunning man, and the ancient.

3:3. The captain over fifty, and the honourable in countenance, and the
counsellor, and the architect, and the skilful in eloquent speech.

3:4. And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate
shall rule over them.

3:5. And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against
his neighbour: the child shall make a tumult against the ancient, and
the base against the honourable.

3:6. For a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the house of his
father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou our ruler, and let this
ruin be under thy hand.

3:7. In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer, and in my
house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people.

3:8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because their tongue,
and their devices are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his
majesty.

3:9. The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and they have
proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it: woe to
their souls, for evils are rendered to them.

3:10. Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of
his doings.

3:11. Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his hands shall be
given him.

3:12. As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women
have ruled over them. O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same
deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps.

3:13. The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the
people.

3:14. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people,
and its princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the spoil of
the poor is in your house.

3:15. Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of the poor?
saith the Lord the God of hosts.

3:16. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and
have walked with stretched out necks, and wanton glances of their eyes,
and made a noise as they walked with their feet and moved in a set pace:

3:17. The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of
Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair.

3:18. In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of shoes, and
little moons,

3:19. And chains and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets,

3:20. And bodkins, and ornaments of the legs, and tablets, and sweet
balls, and earrings,

3:21. And rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead,

3:22. And changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine linen, and
crisping pins,

3:23. And lookingglasses, and lawns, and headbands, and fine veils.

3:24. And instead of a sweet smell there shall be stench, and instead of
a girdle, a cord, and instead of curled hair, baldness, and instead of a
stomacher, haircloth.

3:25. Thy fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and thy valiant ones
in battle.

3:26. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate
on the ground.

Isaias Chapter 4

After an extremity of evils that shall fall upon the Jews, a remnant
shall be comforted by Christ.

4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We
will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called
by thy name, take away our reproach.

4:2. In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory,
and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that
shall have escaped of Israel.

The bud of the Lord... That is, Christ.

4:3. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in
Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every
one that is written in life in Jerusalem.

4:4. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and
shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the
spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

4:5. And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where
he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a
flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.

4:6. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the
heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.

Isaias Chapter 5

The reprobation of the Jews is foreshewn under the parable of a
vineyard. A woe is pronounced against sinners: the army of God shall
send against them.

5:1. I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his
vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.

My cousin... So the prophet calls Christ, as being of his family and
kindred, by descending from the house of David. Ibid. On a hill, etc...
Literally, in the horn, the son of oil.

5:2. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted
it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and
set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth
grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

5:3. And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge
between me and my vineyard.

5:4. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have
not done to it? was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it hath brought forth wild grapes?

5:5. And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take
away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the
wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.

5:6. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall
not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command
the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

5:7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and
the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do
judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.

5:8. Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to
the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?

5:9. These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: Unless many
great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.

5:10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and
thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.

5:11. Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow
drunkenness, and to drink in the evening, to be inflamed with wine.

5:12. The harp, and the lyre, and, the timbrel and the pipe, and wine
are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you
consider the works of his hands.

5:13. Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not
knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their
multitude were dried up with thirst.

5:14. Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth
without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their
high and glorious ones shall go down into it.

5:15. And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the
eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.

5:16. And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy
God shall be sanctified in justice.

5:17. And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers
shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.

5:18. Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the
rope of a cart.

5:19. That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that
we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that
we may know it.

5:20. Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet
for bitter.

5:21. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own
conceits.

5:22. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at
drunkenness.

5:23. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of
the just from him.

5:24. Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the
heat of the flame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and
their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the
Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.

5:25. Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and
he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the
mountains were troubles, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst
of the streets. For after this his anger is not turned away, but his
hand is stretched out still.

5:26. And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will
whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come
with speed swiftly.

5:27. There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall
not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be
loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.

5:28. Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of
their horses shall be like the flint, and their wheels like the violence
of a tempest.

5:29. Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young
lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall
keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.

5:30. And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the
roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness
of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.

Isaias Chapter 6

A glorious vision, in which the prophet's lips are cleansed: he
foretelleth the obstinacy of the Jews.

6:1. In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.

6:2. Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other
had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered
his feet, and with two they flew.

6:3. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord
God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory,

6:4. And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

6:5. And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath
unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.

6:6. And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live
coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.

6:7. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy
lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be
cleansed.

6:8. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and
who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.

6:9. And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear,
and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.

6:10. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.

6:11. And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be
wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land
shall be left desolate.

6:12. And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be
multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.

6:13. And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn,
and shall be made a show as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that
spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy
seed.

Isaias Chapter 7

The prophet assures king Achaz that the two kings his enemies shall not
take Jerusalem. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

7:1. And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of Joathan, the
son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Rasin king of Syria and Phacee the son
of Romelia king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem, to fight against it:
but they could not prevail over it.

7:2. And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon
Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the
trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

7:3. And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub
thy son that is left, to the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the
fuller's field.

7:4. And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not
thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these firebrands, smoking with
the wrath of the fury of Rasin king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.

7:5. Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of
Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:

7:6. Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and
make the son of Tabeel king in the midst thereof.

7:7. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be.

7:8. But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rasin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a
people:

7:9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the
son of Romelia. If you will not believe, you shall not continue.

7:10. And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:

7:11. Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of
hell, or unto the height above.

7:12. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.

7:13. And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small
thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God
also?

7:14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.

7:15. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the
evil, and to choose the good.

7:16. For before the child know to refuse the evil and to choose the
good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her
two kings.

7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the
house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the
separation of Ephraim from Juda with the king of the Assyrians.

7:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and
for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

7:19. And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in the torrents of
the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all places set with
shrubs, and in all hollow places.

7:20. In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by
them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head
and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.

7:21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a
young cow, and two sheep.

7:22. And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter: for butter and
honey shall every one eat that shall be left in the midst of the land.

7:23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where
there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall
become thorns and briers.

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