- Bel has fallen, Nabo is broken to pieces, their graven images are gone to the wild beasts and the cattle: ye take them packed up as a burden to the weary, exhausted, hungry, and at the same time helpless man;
2 who will not be able to save themselves from war, but they themselves are led away captive.
3 Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, who are borne by me from the womb, and taught by me from infancy, even to old age:
4 I am he; and until ye shall have grown old, I am he: I bear you, I have made, and I will relieve, I will take up and save you.
5
- To whom have ye compared me? see, consider, ye that go astray.
6 They that furnish gold out of a purse, and silver by weight, will weigh it in a scale, and they hire a goldsmith and make idols, and bow down, and worship them.
7 They bear it upon the shoulder, and go; and if they put it upon its place, it remains, it cannot move: and whosoever shall cry to it, it cannot hear; it cannot save him from trouble.
8 Remember ye these things, and groan: repent, ye that have gone astray, return in your heart;
9 and remember the former things that were of old: for I am God, and there is none other beside me,
10 telling beforehand the latter events before they come to pass, and they are accomplished together: and I said, all my counsel shall stand, and I will do all things that I have planned:
11 calling a bird from the east, and from a land afar off, for the things which I have planned: I have spoken, and brought him; I have created and made him; I have brought him, and prospered his way.
12 Hearken to me, ye senseless ones, that are far from righteousness:
13 I have brought near my righteousness, and I will not be slow with the salvation that is from me: I have given salvation in Sion to Israel for glory.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]