Read the Bible

¹ Woe to the rebellious children, sayth the Lord, that take counsell, but not of mee; and that couer with a couering, but not of my Spirit, that they may adde sinne to sinne: ² That walke to goe downe into Egypt, (and haue not asked at my mouth) to strengthen themselues in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. ³ Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt, your confusion. ⁴ For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. ⁵ They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an helpe nor profite, but a shame and also a reproch. ⁶ The burden of the beastes of the South: into the lande of trouble and anguish, from whence come the yong and old lyon, the viper, and fierie flying serpent, they will carie their riches vpon the shoulders of yong asses, and their treasures vpon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profite them. ⁷ For the Egyptians shall helpe in vaine, and to no purpose: Therefore haue I cried concerning this: Their strength is to sit still.

⁸ Now goe, write it before them in a table, and note it in a booke, that it may bee for the time to come for euer and euer: ⁹ That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not heare the Law of the Lord: ¹⁰ Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophecie not vnto vs right things: speake vnto vs smooth things, prophecie deceits. ¹¹ Get ye out of the way: turne aside out of the path: cause the Holy one of Israel to cease from before vs. ¹² Wherefore, thus saith the Holy one of Israel: Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and peruersnesse, and stay thereon: ¹³ Therefore this iniquitie shalbe to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant. ¹⁴ And he shall breake it as the breaking of the potters vessell, that is broken in pieces, he shall not spare; so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it, a sheard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withall out of the pit. ¹⁵ For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saued, in quietnesse and in confidence shalbe your strength, and ye would not: ¹⁶ But ye said; No, for we will flee vpon horses; therefore shall ye flee. And we will ride vpon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you, be swift. ¹⁷ One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one: at the rebuke of fiue, shall ye flee, till ye be left as a beacon vpon the top of a mountaine, and as an ensigne on a hill.

¹⁸ And therefore wil the Lord wait that he may be gracious vnto you, and therefore wil he be exalted that he may haue mercy vpon you: for the Lord is a God of Iudgment. Blessed are all they that wait for him. ¹⁹ For the people shall dwel in Zion at Ierusalem: thou shalt weepe no more: hee will be very gracious vnto thee, at the voice of thy cry; when he shall heare it, he will answere thee. ²⁰ And though the Lord giue you the bread of aduersitie, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be remooued into a corner any more: but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. ²¹ And thine eares shall heare a word behinde thee, saying; This is the way, walke ye in it, when ye turne to the right hand, and when ye turne to the left. ²² Ye shall defile also the couering of thy grauen images of siluer, and the ornament of thy moulten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth, thou shalt say vnto it; Get thee hence. ²³ Then shall he giue the raine of thy seed that thou shalt sow the ground withall; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shalbe fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattell feed in large pastures. ²⁴ The oxen likewise and the yong asses that eare the ground, shall eate cleane prouender which hath bene winnowed with the shouell and with the fanne. ²⁵ And there shall be vpon euery high mountaine, and vpon euery high hill, riuers and streames of waters, in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. ²⁶ Moreouer the light of the Moone shalbe as the light of the Sunne, and the light of the Sunne shall be seuenfold, as the light of seuen dayes, in the day that the Lord bindeth vp the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

²⁷ Beholde, the Name of the Lord commeth from farre, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heauy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a deuouring fire. ²⁸ And his breath as an ouerflowing streame, shall reach to the midst of the necke, to sift the nations with the sieue of vanitie: and there shalbe a bridle in the iawes of the people causing them to erre. ²⁹ Yee shall haue a song as in the night, when a holy solemnitie is kept, and gladnesse of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountaine of the Lord, to the mighty one of Israel. ³⁰ And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting downe of his arme, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a deuouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailestones. ³¹ For through the voyce of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten downe, which smote with a rod. ³² And in euery place where the grounded staffe shall passe, which the Lord shall lay vpon him, it shall be with tabrets and harpes: and in battels of shaking will he fight with it. ³³ For Tophet is ordained of olde; yea, for the king it is prepared, he hath made it deepe and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the Lord, like a streame of brimstone, doeth kindle it.