1. Thus said Jehovah: `Where [is] this--the bill of your mother's divorce, Whom I sent away? Or to which of My creditors have I sold you? Lo, for your iniquities ye have been sold, And for your transgressions Hath your mother been sent away.
2. Wherefore have I come, and there is no one? I called, and there is none answering, Hath My hand been at all short of redemption? And is there not in me power to deliver? Lo, by My rebuke I dry up a sea, I make rivers a wilderness, Their fish stinketh, for there is no water, And dieth with thirst.
3. I clothe the heavens [with] blackness, And sackcloth I make their covering.
4. The Lord Jehovah hath given to me The tongue of taught ones, To know to aid the weary [by] a word, He waketh morning by morning, He waketh for me an ear to hear as taught ones.
5. The Lord Jehovah opened for me the ear, And I rebelled not--backward I moved not.
6. My back I have given to those smiting, And my cheeks to those plucking out, My face I hid not from shame and spitting.
7. And the Lord Jehovah giveth help to me, Therefore I have not been ashamed, Therefore I have set my face as a flint, And I know that I am not ashamed.
8. Near [is] He who is justifying me, Who doth contend with me? We stand together, who [is] mine opponent? Let him come nigh unto me.
9. Lo, the Lord Jehovah giveth help to me, Who [is] he that declareth me wicked? Lo, all of them as a garment wear out, A moth doth eat them.