Isaiah 38:12–14

¹FOR we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

¹²And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

¹⁴For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

⁴For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

¹³Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

¹⁴Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

⁸And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

²⁰It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

²He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

¹MY breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

²⁰They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

⁹Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

³So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

⁷O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

²⁵Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

²⁶They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

¹¹My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

²³He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

²⁴I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

²³Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.

²²For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

⁴⁵The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

²⁴¶ And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.

⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

²⁴And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.

²⁵And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

²⁶And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him.

³⁰For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

³¹For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

³²But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

¹⁴For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

¹⁶For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

¹⁷Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

¹²I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

¹³His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

²²Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

³⁶Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.

¹¹We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

³I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

¹⁶¶ But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

⁷And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

¹²²Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

¹²³Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

¹UNTO thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

²Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

³Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

³Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

¹⁷As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

⁷I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

⁸²Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.