The Pillars of Three Faiths: Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran. Various Authors

to pass, when it is seen that Moab hath wearied himself upon the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail

      ¹³This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in time past. ¹⁴But now the Lord hath spoken, saying: 'Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall wax contemptible for all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and without strength.'

       17The burden of Damascus.

      Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city,And it shall be a ruinous heap.²The cities of Aroer are forsaken;They shall be for flocks,Which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.³The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,And the kingdom from Damascus;And the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel,Saith the Lord of hosts. ⁴And it shall come to pass in that day,That the glory of Jacob shall be made thin,And the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.⁵And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing corn,And reapeth the ears with his arm;Yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth earsIn the valley of Rephaim.⁶Yet there shall be left therein gleanings,As at the beating of an olive-tree,Two or three berriesIn the top of the uppermost bough,Four or five in the branches of the fruitful tree,Saith the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁷In that day shall a man regard his Maker,And his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.⁸And he shall not regard the altars,The work of his hands,Neither shall he look to that which his fingers have made,Either the Asherim, or the sun-images.

       ⁹In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel, after the manner of woods and lofty forests; and it shall be a desolation.

      ¹⁰For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,And thou hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy stronghold;Therefore thou didst plant plants of pleasantness,And didst set it with slips of a stranger;¹¹In the day of thy planting thou didst make it to grow,And in the morning thou didst make thy seed to blossom—A heap of boughs in the day of griefAnd of desperate pain. ¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples,That roar like the roaring of the seas;And the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!¹³The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters;But He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,And shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,And like the whirling dust before the storm.¹⁴At eventide behold terror;And before the morning they are not.This is the portion of them that spoil us,And the lot of them that rob us. 18Ah, land of the buzzing of wings,Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;²That sendeth ambassadors by the sea,Even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters!Go, ye swift messengers,To a nation tall and of glossy skin,To a people terrible from their beginning onward;A nation that is sturdy and treadeth down,Whose land the rivers divide!³All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth,When an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye;And when the horn is blown, hear ye. ⁴For thus hath the Lord said unto me:I will hold Me still, and I will look on in My dwelling-place,Like clear heat in sunshine,Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,And the bud becometh a ripening grape,He will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks,And the shoots will He take away and lop off.⁶They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains,And to the beasts of the earth;And the ravenous birds shall summer upon them,And all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

      ⁷In that time shall a present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people tall and of glossy skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.

       19The burden of Egypt.

      Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud,And cometh unto Egypt;And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence,And the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.²And I will spur Egypt against Egypt;And they shall fight every one against his brother,And everyone against his neighbour;City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.³And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it;And I will make void the counsel thereof;And they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers,And to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.⁴And I will give over the EgyptiansInto the hand of a cruel lord;And a fierce king shall rule over them,Saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts. ⁵And the waters shall fail from the sea,And the river shall be drained dry,⁶And the rivers shall become foul;The streams of Egypt shall be minished and dried up;The reeds and flags shall wither.⁷The mosses by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile,And all that is sown by the Nile,Shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more.⁸The fishers also shall lament,And all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn,And they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.⁹Moreover they that work in combed flax,And they that weave cotton, shall be ashamed.¹⁰And her foundations shall be crushed,All they that make dams shall be grieved in soul. ¹¹The princes of Zoan are utter fools;The wisest counsellors of Pharaoh are a senseless counsel;How can ye say unto Pharaoh: 'I am the son of the wise,The son of ancient kings'?¹²Where are they, then, thy wise men?And let them tell thee now;And let them know what the Lord of hostsHath purposed concerning Egypt.¹³The princes of Zoan are become fools,The princes of Noph are deceived;They have caused Egypt to go astray,That are the corner-stone of her tribes.¹⁴The Lord hath mingled within herA spirit of dizziness;And they have caused Egypt to stagger in every work thereof,As a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.¹⁵Neither shall there be for Egypt any work,Which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

      ¹⁶In that day shall Egypt be like unto women; and it shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which He shaketh over it. ¹⁷And the land of Judah shall become a terror unto Egypt, whensoever one maketh mention thereof to it; it shall be afraid, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts, which He purposeth against it.

      ¹⁸In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction. ¹⁹In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. ²⁰And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a saviour, and a defender, who will deliver them. ²¹And the Lord shall make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it.

      ²²And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto the Lord, and He will be entreated of them, and will heal them. ²³In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians.

      ²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; ²⁵for that the Lord of hosts hath blessed him, saying: 'Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.'

       20In the year that Tartan came into Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; ²at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying: 'Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put thy shoe from off thy foot.' And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

      ³And the Lord said: 'Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot to be for three years a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, ⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. ⁶And the inhabitant of this coast-land shall say in that day: Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?'

       21The burden of the wilderness