The Living Bible (218 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
The Girl:
“Oh, if only you were my brother; then I could kiss you no matter who was watching, and no one would laugh at me.
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I would bring you to my childhood home,
*
and there you would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, sweet pomegranate wine.
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His left hand would be under my head and his right hand would embrace me.
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I adjure you, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken him until he pleases.”
The Young Women of Jerusalem:
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“Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?”
King Solomon:
“Under the apple tree where your mother gave birth to you in her travail, there I awakened your love.”
The Girl:
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“Seal me in your heart with permanent betrothal, for love is strong as death, and jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. It flashes fire, the very flame of Jehovah.
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Many waters cannot quench the flame of love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man tried to buy it with everything he owned, he couldn’t do it.”
The Girl’s Brothers:
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“We have a little sister too young for breasts. What shall we do if someone asks to marry her?”
King Solomon:
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“If she has no breasts,
*
we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and if she is a door, we will enclose her with cedar boards.”
*
The Girl:
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“I am slim, tall,
*
and full-breasted,
*
and I have found favor in my lover’s eyes.
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Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon, which he rented out to some farmers there, the rent being one thousand pieces of silver from each.
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But as for my own vineyard, you, O Solomon, shall have my thousand pieces of silver, and I will give two hundred pieces to those who care for it.
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O my beloved, living in the gardens, how wonderful that your companions may listen to your voice; let me hear it too.
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Come quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or young deer upon the mountains of spices.”
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These are the messages that came to Isaiah, son of Amoz, in the visions he saw during the reigns of King Uzziah, King Jotham, King Ahaz, and King Hezekiah—all kings of Judah. In these messages God showed him what was going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem in the days ahead.
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Listen, O heaven and earth, to what the Lord is saying:
The children I raised and cared for so long and tenderly have turned against me.
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Even the animals—the donkey and the ox—know their owner and appreciate his care for them, but not my people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still don’t care.
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Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They walk bent-backed beneath their load of guilt. Their fathers before them were evil too. Born to be bad, they have turned their backs upon the Lord and have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have cut themselves off from his help.
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Oh, my people, haven’t you had enough of punishment? Why will you force me to whip you again and again? Must you forever rebel? From head to foot you are sick and weak and faint, covered with bruises and welts and infected wounds, unanointed and unbound.
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Your country lies in ruins; your cities are burned; while you watch, foreigners are destroying and plundering everything they see.
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You stand there helpless and abandoned like a watchman’s shanty in the field when the harvesttime is over—or when the crop is stripped and robbed.
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If the Lord Almighty had not stepped in to save a few of us, we would have been wiped out as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
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An apt comparison!
*
Listen, you leaders of Israel, you men of Sodom and Gomorrah, as I call you now. Listen to the Lord. Hear what he is telling you!
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I am sick of your sacrifices. Don’t bring me any more of them. I don’t want your fat rams; I don’t want to see the blood from your offerings.
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Who wants your sacrifices when you have no sorrow for your sins? The incense you bring me is a stench in my nostrils. Your holy celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath, and your special days for fasting—even your most pious meetings—all are frauds! I want nothing more to do with them.
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I hate them all; I can’t stand the sight of them.
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From now on, when you pray with your hands stretched out to heaven, I won’t look or listen. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are those of murderers; they are covered with the blood of your innocent victims.
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Oh, wash yourselves! Be clean! Let me no longer see you doing all these wicked things; quit your evil ways.
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Learn to do good, to be fair, and to help the poor, the fatherless, and widows.
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Come, let’s talk this over, says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!
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If you will only let me help you, if you will only obey, then I will make you rich!
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But if you keep on turning your backs and refusing to listen to me, you will be killed by your enemies; I, the Lord, have spoken.
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Jerusalem, once a faithful wife! And now a prostitute! Running after other gods! Once “The City of Fair Play,” but now a gang of murderers.
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Once like sterling silver; now mixed with worthless alloy! Once so pure, but now diluted like watered-down wine!
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Your leaders are rebels, companions of thieves; all of them take bribes and won’t defend the widows and orphans.
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Therefore the Lord, the Mighty One of Israel, says: I will pour out my anger on you, my enemies!
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I myself will melt you in a smelting pot and skim off your slag.
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And afterwards I will give you good judges and wise counselors like those you used to have. Then your city shall again be called “The City of Justice” and “The Faithful Town.”
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Those who return to the Lord, who are just and good, shall be redeemed.
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(But all sinners shall utterly perish, for they refuse to come to me.)
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Shame will cover you, and you will blush to think of all those times you sacrificed to idols in your groves of “sacred” oaks.
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You will perish like a withered tree or a garden without water.
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The strongest among you will disappear like burning straw; your evil deeds are the spark that sets the straw on fire, and no one will be able to put it out.
This is another message to Isaiah from the Lord concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
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In the last days Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord will become the world’s greatest attraction,
*
and people from many lands will flow there to worship the Lord.
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“Come,” everyone will say, “let us go up the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Israel; there he will teach us his laws, and we will obey them.” For in those days the world will be ruled from Jerusalem.
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The Lord will settle international disputes; all the nations will convert their weapons of war into implements of peace.
*
Then at the last all wars will stop and all military training will end.
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O Israel, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord and be obedient to his laws!
*
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The Lord has rejected you because you welcome foreigners from the East who practice magic and communicate with evil spirits, as the Philistines do.
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Israel has vast treasures of silver and gold, and great numbers of horses and chariots
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and idols—the land is full of them! They are man-made, and yet you
worship
them!
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Small and great, all bow before them; God will not forgive you for this sin.
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Crawl into the caves in the rocks and hide in terror from his glorious majesty,
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for the day is coming when your proud looks will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted.
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On that day the Lord Almighty will move against the proud and haughty and bring them to the dust.
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All the tall cedars of Lebanon and all the mighty oaks of Bashan shall bend low,
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and all the high mountains and hills,
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and every high tower and wall,
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and all the proud ocean ships and trim harbor craft
—all
shall be crushed before the Lord that day.
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All the glory of mankind will bow low; the pride of men will lie in the dust, and the Lord alone will be exalted.
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And all idols will be utterly abolished and destroyed.
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When the Lord stands up from his throne to shake up the earth, his enemies will crawl with fear into the holes in the rocks and into the caves because of the glory of his majesty.
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Then at last they will abandon their gold and silver idols to the moles and bats
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and crawl into the caverns to hide among the jagged rocks at the tops of the cliffs, to try to get away from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth.
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Puny man! Frail as his breath! Don’t ever put your trust in him!