Isaiah 43

1 Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left. 2 The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished away, all the merry have sighed. 3 The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. 4 They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 5 The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man cometh in. 6 There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away. 7 Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the gates. 8 For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. 9 These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea. 10 Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. 11 From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated. 12 Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth. 13 And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. 14 With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved. 15 With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. 16 And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth. 17 And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited. 18 And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients. 20 O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt O thee, and give glory to thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things, thy designs of old faithful, amen. 21 For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers, to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever. 22 Therefore shall a strong people praise thee, the city of mighty nations shall fear thee. 23 Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall. 24 Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away. 25 And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. 26 And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations. 27 He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. 28 And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyful in his salvation.