The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 27: Isaias

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51:19. There are two things that have happened to thee: who shall be
sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the
sword, who shall comfort thee?

51:20. Thy children are cast forth, they have slept at the head of all
the ways, and the wild ox that is snared: full of the indignation of the
Lord, of the rebuke of thy God.

51:21. Therefore hear this, thou poor little one, and thou that art
drunk but not with wine.

51:22. Thus saith thy Sovereign the Lord, and thy God, who will fight
for his people: Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of dead
sleep, the dregs of the cup of my indignation, thou shalt not drink it
again any more.

51:23. And I will put it in the hand of them that have oppressed thee,
and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast
laid thy body as the ground, and as a way to them that went over.

Isaias Chapter 52

Under the figure of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, the
church is invited to rejoice for her redemption from sin. Christ's
kingdom shall be exalted.

52:1. Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the garments of
thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One: for henceforth the
uncircumcised, and unclean shall no more pass through thee.

52:2. Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O Jerusalem: loose the
bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion.

52:3. For thus saith the Lord: You were sold gratis, and you shall be
redeemed, without money.

52:4. For thus saith the Lord God: My people went down into Egypt at the
beginning to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without
any cause at all.

52:5. And now what have I here, saith the Lord: for my people is taken
away gratis. They that rule over them treat them unjustly, saith the
Lord, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long.

52:6. Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: for I myself
that spoke, behold I am here.

52:7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth forth good,
that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign!

52:8. The voice of thy watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they
shall praise together: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall
convert Sion.

52:9. Rejoice, and give praise together, O ye deserts of Jerusalem: for
the Lord hath comforted his people: he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

52:10. The Lord hath prepared his holy arm in the sight of all the
Gentiles: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God.

52:11. Depart, depart, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing: go
out of the midst of her, be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of the
Lord.

52:12. For you shall not go out in a tumult, neither shall you make
haste by flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel
will gather you together.

52:13. Behold my servant shall understand, he shall be exalted, and
extolled, and shall be exceeding high.

52:14. As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his visage be
inglorious among men, and his form among the sons of men.

52:15. He shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouth at
him: for they to whom it was not told of him, have seen: and they that
heard not, have beheld.

Isaias Chapter 53

A prophecy of the passion of Christ.

53:1. Who a hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed?

53:2. And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root
out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and
we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be
desirous of him:

53:3. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and
despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.

53:4. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and
we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and
afflicted.

53:5. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our
sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we
are healed.

53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside
into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:7. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his
mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as
a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.

53:8. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall
declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the
living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

53:9. And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his
death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his
mouth.

53:10. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall
lay down his life for sin, he shall see a longlived seed, and the will
of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

53:11. Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by
his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear
their iniquities.

53:12. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide
the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death,
and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and
hath prayed for the transgressors.

Isaias Chapter 54

The Gentiles, who were barren before, shall multiply in the church of
Christ: from which God's mercy shall never depart.

54:1. Give praise, O thou barren, that bearest not: sing forth praise,
and make a joyful noise, thou that didst not travail with child: for
many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a
husband, saith the Lord.

54:2. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and stretch out the skins of thy
tabernacles, spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.

54:3. For thou shalt pass on to the right hand, and to the left: and thy
seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall inhabit the desolate cities.

54:4. Fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded, nor blush: for thou
shalt not be put to shame, because thou shalt forget the shame of thy
youth, and shalt remember no more the reproach of thy widowhood.

54:5. For he that made thee shall rule over thee, the Lord of hosts is
his name: and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the
God of all the earth.

54:6. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and mourning in
spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth, said thy God.

54:7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee.

54:8. In a moment of indignation have I hid my face a little while from
thee, but with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on thee, said the
Lord thy Redeemer.

54:9. This thing is to me as in the days of Noe, to whom I swore, that I
would no more bring in the waters of Noe upon the earth: so have I sworn
not to be angry with thee, and not to rebuke thee.

54:10. For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills shall tremble;
but my mercy shall not depart from thee, and the covenant of my peace
shall not be moved: said the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

54:11. O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without all comfort,
behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy foundations with
sapphires,

54:12. And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy gates of graven
stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones.

54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be
the peace of thy children.

54:14. And thou shalt be founded in justice: depart far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near
thee.

54:15. Behold, an inhabitant shall come, who was not with me, he that
was a stranger to thee before, shall be joined to thee.

54:16. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the
fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created
the killer to destroy.

54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper: and every
tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the
inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their justice with me,
saith the Lord.

Isaias Chapter 55

God promises abundance of spiritual graces to the faithful, that shall
believe in Christ out of all nations, and sincerely serve him.

55:1. All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no
money make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk without
money, and without any price.

55:2. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your
labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me,
and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness.

55:3. Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies
of David.

55:4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, for a leader
and a master to the Gentiles.

55:5. Behold thou shalt call a nation, which thou knewest not: and the
nations that knew not thee shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy
God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.

55:6. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he
is near.

55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to
our God: for he is bountiful to forgive.

55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways,
saith the Lord.

55:9. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways
exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

55:10. And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no
more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring,
and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

55:11. So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth: it shall
not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall
prosper in the things for which I sent it.

55:12. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall sing praise before you, and all the trees
of the country shall clap their hands.

55:13. Instead of the shrub, shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the nettle, shall come up the myrtle tree: and the Lord shall be named
for an everlasting sign, that shall not be taken away.

Isaias Chapter 56

God invites all to keep his commandments: the Gentiles that keep them
shall be the people of God: the Jewish pastors are reproved.

56:1. Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.

56:2. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that shall
lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that
keepeth his hands from doing any evil.

56:3. And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord,
speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people. And
let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree.

56:4. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my
sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold
fast my covenant:

56:5. I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place, and
a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting
name which shall never perish.

56:6. And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to
worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that
keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my
covenant:

56:7. I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in
my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me
upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for all
nations.

56:8. The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I will
still gather unto him his congregation.

56:9. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the
forest.

56:10. His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not
able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.

56:11. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds
themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own
way, every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last.

56:12. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it
shall be as to day, so also to morrow, and much more.

Isaias Chapter 57

The infidelity of the Jews: their idolatry. Promises to humble
penitents.

57:1. The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of
mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the
just man is taken away from before the face of evil.

57:2. Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his
uprightness.

57:3. But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
adulterer, and of the harlot.

57:4. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth
wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false
seed,

57:5. Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree, sacrificing
children in the torrents, under the high rocks?

57:6. In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and
thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice.
Shall I not be angry at these things?

57:7. Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy bed, and hast
gone up thither to offer victims.

57:8. And behind the door, and behind the post thou hast set up thy
remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself near me, and hast received
an adulterer: thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant with them:
thou hast loved their bed with open hand.

57:9. And thou hast adorned thyself for the king with ointment, and hast
multiplied thy perfumes. Thou hast sent thy messengers far off, and wast
debased even to hell.

57:10. Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways: yet thou
saidst not: I will rest: thou has found life of thy hand, therefore thou
hast not asked.

57:11. For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that thou hast
lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor thought on me in thy heart?
for I am silent, and as one that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.

57:12. I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.

57:13. When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind
shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away, but he that
putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess my
holy mount.

57:14. And I will say: Make a way: give free passage, turn out of the
path, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

57:15. For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth eternity:
and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with
a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite.

57:16. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be angry unto the
end: because the spirit shall go forth from my face, and breathings I
will make.

57:17. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck
him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry: and he went away wandering
in his own heart.

57:18. I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him back, and
restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn for him.

57:19. I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.

57:20. But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and
the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.

57:21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.

Isaias Chapter 58

God rejects the hypocritical fasts of the Jews: recommends works of
mercy, and sincere godliness.

58:1. Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my
people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

58:2. For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a
nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of
their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to
approach to God.

58:3. Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled
our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your
fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

58:4. Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist
wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry
to be heard on high.

58:5. Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his
soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to
spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day
acceptable to the Lord?

58:6. Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of
wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go
free, and break asunder every burden.

58:7. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the
harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him,
and despise not thy own flesh.

58:8. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health
shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the
glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

58:9. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and
he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the
midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that
which profiteth not.

58:10. When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt
satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness,
and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.

58:11. And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy
soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not
fail.

58:12. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in
thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation of generation and generation:
and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths
into rest.

58:13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own
will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of
the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways,
and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:

58:14. Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up
above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the
inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it.

Isaias Chapter 59

The dreadful evil of sin is displayed, as the great obstacle to all good
from God: yet he will send a Redeemer, and make an everlasting covenant
with his church.

59:1. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save,
neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.

59:2. But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.

59:3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth iniquity.

59:4. There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one
that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak
vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity.

59:5. They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of
spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is
brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.

59:6. Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and the
work of iniquity is in their hands.

59:7. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood:
their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are in
their ways.

59:8. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in
their steps: their paths are become crooked to them, every one that
treadeth in them knoweth no peace.

59:9. Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake
us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have
walked in the dark.

59:10. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped as
if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, we are in
dark places, as dead men.

59:11. We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful
doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation,
and it is far from us.

59:12. For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have
testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and have known
our iniquities:

59:13. In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away so
that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression: we
have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood.

59:14. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far
off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not
come in.

59:15. And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil,
lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his
eyes, because there is no judgment.

59:16. And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished,
because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought
salvation to him, and his own justice supported him.

59:17. He put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation
upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with
zeal as with a cloak.

59:18. As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries,
and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands.

59:19. And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and they
from the rising of the sun, his glory when he shall come as a violent
stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on:

59:20. And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them that return
from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.

59:21. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is
in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out
of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of
thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

This is my covenant, etc... Note here a clear promise of perpetual
orthodoxy to the church of Christ.

Isaias Chapter 60

The light of true faith shall shine forth in the church of Christ, and
shall be spread through all nations, and continue for all ages.

60:1. Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

60:2. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
thee.

60:3. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising.

60:4. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered
together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy
daughters shall rise up at thy side.

60:5. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be
enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the
strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee.

60:6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of
Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and
frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.

60:7. All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the
rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they shall be offered upon my
acceptable altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.

60:8. Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?

60:9. For, the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in the
beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their silver, and their
gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of
Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

60:10. And the children of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their
kings shall minister to thee: for in my wrath have I struck thee, and in
my reconciliation have I had mercy upon thee.

60:11. And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut
day nor night, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee,
and their kings may be brought.

60:12. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall
perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.

60:13. The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the
box tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet.

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