4. And it comes to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob wastes away, and the fat of his flesh grows thin. 5. And it will be as when a reaper grasps the stalks of wheat, and his arm mows off the ears; and it will be as with one who gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6. Yet a gleaning remains from it, as at the olive-beating: two, three berries high up at the top; four, five in its, the fruit-tree’s branches, saith Jehovah the God of Israel. 7. At that day will man look up to his Creator, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. 8. And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and what his fingers have made he will not regard, neither the Astartes nor the sun-gods.
9. In that day will his fortified cities be like the ruins of the forest and of the mountain top, which they cleared before the sons of Israel: and there arises a waste place. 10. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not thought of the Rock of thy stronghold, therefore thou plantest charming plantations, and didst set them with strange vines. 11. In the day that thou plantedst, thou didst make a fence; and with the morning dawn thou madest thy sowing to blossom: a harvest heap in the day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heart.
12. Woe to the roaring of many nations: like the roaring of seas they roar; and low the rumbling of nations, like the rumbling of mighty waters they rumble! 13. Nations, like the rumbling of mighty waters they rumble; and He threatens it: then it flies far away, and is chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a cloud of dust before the gale. 14. At eventide, behold consternation; and before the morning dawn it is destroyed! this is the portion of our plunderers, and the lot of our robbers.
ethiopia’s submission to jehovah.—chap. xviii.
1. Woe to the land of the whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush; 2. that sends ambassadors into the sea, and in boats of papyrus over the face of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to the people stretched out and polished, to the terrible people far away on the other side, to the nation of command upon command and treading down, whose land rivers cut through. 3. All ye possessors of the globe and inhabitants of the earth, when a banner rises on the mountains, look ye: and when they blow the trumpets, hearken! 4. For thus hath Jehovah spoken to me: I will be still, and I will observe upon My throne during clear weather in sunshine, during a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5. For before the harvest, when the blossom falls off, and the fruit becomes the ripening grape: then will He cut off the branches with pruning-hooks; and the tendrils He removes, breaks off. 6. They are left altogether to the birds of prey on the mountains, and to the cattle of the land; and the birds of prey summer thereon, and all the cattle of the land will winter thereon.
7. At that time will there be offered as a homage to Jehovah of hosts a nation stretched out and polished, and from a terrible people, far away on the other side; a nation of command upon command and treading down, whose land rivers cut through, at the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mountain of Zion.
the oracle concerning egypt.—chap. xix.
1. Behold, Jehovah rideth upon a light cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shake before Him, and the heart of Egypt melteth within it. 2. And I spur Egypt against Egypt: and they go to war, every one with his brother, and every one with his neighbour; city against city, kingdom against kingdom. 3. And the spirit of Egypt is emptied out within it: and I swallow up its ready counsel; and they go to the idols to inquire, and to the mutterers, and to the oracle-spirits, and to the soothsayers. 4. And I shut up Egypt in the head of a hard rule; and a fierce king will rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
5. And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. 6. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up. 7. The meadow by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every cornfield of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. 8. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. 9. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics. 10. And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind.
11. The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? 12. Where are they then, thy wise men? Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. 13. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes. 14. Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. 15. And there does not occur of Egypt any work which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush.