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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Isaiah 33


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1Woe to you, destroying though not yourself destroyed, betraying though not yourself betrayed; whenyou have finished destroying, you wil be destroyed, when you have stopped betraying, you wil be betrayed.2Yahweh, show us your mercy, we hope in you. Be our arm every morning and our salvation in time ofdistress.3At the sound of tumult the peoples flee, when you stand up the nations scatter.4Your spoil is gathered in as a grasshopper gathers in, like a swarm of locusts people descend on it.5Yahweh is exalted, for he is enthroned above, he has fil ed Zion with fair judgement and saving justice.6You can count on this al your days: wisdom and knowledge are the riches that save, the fear ofYahweh is his treasure.7Look, Ariel is lamenting in the streets, the ambassadors of peace are weeping bitterly.8The highways are deserted, no travel ers any more on the roads. Agreements are broken, witnessesheld in contempt, there is respect for no one.9The land pines away in mourning, the Lebanon is withering with shame, Sharon has become like thewasteland, Bashan and Carmel are shuddering.10'Now I shal stand up,' says Yahweh, 'now I shal rise, now draw myself up.11You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw: like fire, my breath wil devour you.12The peoples will be burnt up as though by quicklime, like cut thorns they wil be burnt on the fire.13You who are far away, listen to what I have done, and you who are near, realise my strength.'14The sinners in Zion are panic-stricken and fear seizes on the godless, 'Which of us can survive thedevouring fire, which of us survive everlasting burning?'15The one who acts uprightly and speaks honestly, who scorns to get rich by extortion, who rejectsbribes out of hand, who refuses to listen to plans involving bloodshed and shuts his eyes rather thancountenance crime:16such a man wil live on the heights, the craggy rocks wil be his refuge, he wil be fed, he wil not wantfor water.17Your eyes will gaze on the king in his beauty, they wil look on a country stretching far and wide.18Your heart wil meditate on past terrors, 'Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the manwho did the weighing? Where is the man who counted off the towers?'19No more wil you see that insolent people, that people of unintel igible speech, of barbarous andmeaningless tongue.20Gaze at Zion, city of our feasts; your eyes wil see Jerusalem as a home that is secure, a tent not tobe moved, none of its tent-pegs ever to be pul ed out, none of its guy-ropes ever to be broken.21There it is that Yahweh shows us his power, like a place of rivers and very wide canals on which willrow no galley, over which wil pass no majestic ship.22(For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king and our Saviour.)23Your tackle has given way, it cannot support the mast, it cannot hoist the pennon. And so there ismuch booty to be shared out; the lame fal to plundering,24and no one living there wil say, 'I am sickly'; the people living there wil find their guilt forgiven.