¶ The prophesy of Esay the son of Amos, which he shewed upon Iuda and Ierusalem in the time of Oziah, Ioatham, Ahaz, and Iehezekiah, kings of Iuda.
¶ Hear O heaven hearken O earth, for the LORD speaketh: I have nourished and brought up children, and they are fallen away from me.
An ox knoweth his lord, and an Ass his master's stall, but Israel knoweth nothing, my people hath no understanding.
Alas for this sinful people, which are expert in blasphemies, a froward generation, unnatural children. They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the holy one of Israel unto anger, and are gone backward.
Wherefore should ye be plagued any more? For ye are ever falling away. The whole head is sick, and the heart is very heavy.
From the sole of the foot unto the head, there is no whole part in all your body: but all are wounds, botches, sores and stripes, which can neither be helped, bound up, molified, nor eased with any ointment.
Your land lieth waste, your cities are brent up, your enemies devour your land, and ye must be fain to stond, and look upon it: and it is desolate, as it were with enemies in a battle.
Moreover the daughter of Sion is left alone like a cottage in a vineyard, like a watch house in time of war, like a besieged city.
And except the LORD of Hosts had left us a few alive: we should have been as Sodoma, and like unto Gomorra.
¶ Hear the word of the LORD ye tyrants of Sodoma: and hearken unto the law of our God, thou people of Gomorra.
Why offer ye so many sacrifices unto me? I am discontent for the brentofferings of wethers, and with the fatness of fed beasts. I have no pleasure in the blood of bullocks, lambs, and goats.
When ye appear before me, who requireth you to tread within my porches?
Offer me no more oblations, for it is but lost labour. I abhor your incense. I may not away with your new moons, your Sabbaths and solempne days. Your fastings are also in vain.
I hate your new holy days and fastings, even from my very heart. They make me weary, I can not abide them.
Though ye hold out your hands, yet turn I my eyes from you. And though ye make many prayers, yet hear I nothing at all, for your hands are full of blood.
¶ Wash you, make you clean, put away your evil thoughts out of my sight, cease from doing of evil and violence.
Learn to do right, apply yourselves to equity, deliver the oppressed, help the fatherless to his right, let the widows complaint come before you.
Now go to (sayeth the LORD) we will walk together. Is it not so? Though your sins be as red as scarlet, shall they not be whiter than snow? And though they were like purple, shall they not be like white wool?
Is it not so? If ye be loving and obedient, ye shall enjoy the best thing that groweth in the land.
But if ye be obstinate and rebellious, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for thus the LORD hath promised with his own mouth.
¶ How happeneth it then that the righteous city (which was full of equity) is become unfaithful as an whore? righteousness dwelt in it, but now murder.
Thy silver is turned to dross, and thy wine mixt with water.
Thy princes are traitors and companions of thieves. They love gifts altogether, and follow rewards. As for the fatherless, they help him not to his right, neither will they let the widows causes come before them.
Therefore speaketh the Lord GOD of Hosts the mighty one of Israel: Ah, I must ease me of mine enemies, and avenge me upon them.
And therefore shall I lay my hand upon thee, and burn out thy dross from the finest and purest, and put out all thy lead,
and set thy judges again as they were sometime, and thy Senators as they were from the beginning. Then shalt thou be called the righteous city, the faithful city.
But Sion shall be redeemed with equity, and her captivity with righteousness.
For the transgressors and ungodly, and such as are become unfaithful unto the LORD, must altogether be utterly destroyed.
And except ye be ashamed of the oak trees wherein ye have so delighted, and of the gardens that ye have chosen:
Ye shall be as an oak whose leaves are fallen away, and as a garden that hath no moistness.
And as for the glory of these things, it shall be turned to dry straw, and he that made them to a spark. And they shall both burn together, so that no man shall be able to quench them.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.