48
1 Also there arose Elijah the prophet as fire,
And his word burned like a torch:
2 Who brought a famine upon them,
And by his zeal made them few in number.
3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven:
Thrice did he thus bring down fire.
4 How wast thou glorified, O Elijah, in thy wondrous deeds!
And who shall glory like unto thee?
5 Who did raise up a dead man from death,
And from * the place of the dead, by the word of the Most High:
6 Who brought down kings to destruction,
And honourable men from their bed:
7 Who heard rebuke in Sinai,
And judgements of vengeance in Horeb:
8 Who anointed kings for retribution,
And prophets to succeed after him:
9 Who was taken up in a tempest of fire,
In a chariot of fiery horses:
10 Who was recorded for reproofs in their seasons,
To pacify anger, before it brake forth into wrath;
To turn the heart of the father unto the son,
And to restore the tribes of Jacob.
11 Blessed are they that saw thee,
And they that have been beautified with love;
For we also shall surely live.
12 Elijah it was, who was wrapped in a tempest:
And Elisha was filled with his spirit;
And in all his days he was not moved by the fear of any ruler,
And no one brought him into subjection.
13 † Nothing was too high for him;
And when he was laid on sleep his body prophesied.
14 As in his life he did wonders,
So in death were his works marvellous.
15 For all this the people repented not,
And they departed not from their sins,
Till they were carried away as a spoil from their land,
And were scattered through all the earth;
And the people was left very few in number,
And a ruler was left in the house of David.
16 Some of them did that which was pleasing to God,
And some multiplied sins.
17 Hezekiah fortified his city,
And brought in ‡ water into the midst of them:
He digged the sheer rock with iron,
And builded up wells for waters.
18 In his days Sennacherib came up,
And sent Rabshakeh, and departed;
And he lifted up his hand against Sion,
And boasted great things in his arrogancy.
19 Then were their hearts and their hands shaken,
And they were in pain, as women in travail;
20 And they called upon the Lord which is merciful,
Spreading forth their hands unto him:
And the Holy One heard them speedily out of Heaven,
And delivered them by the hand of Isaiah.
21 He smote the camp of the Assyrians,
And his angel utterly destroyed them.
22 For Hezekiah did that which was pleasing to the Lord,
And was strong in the ways of David his father,
Which Isaiah the prophet commanded,
Who was great and faithful in his vision.
23 In his days the sun went backward;
And he added life to the king.
24 He saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last;
And he comforted them that mourned in Sion.
25 He shewed the things that should be to the end of time,
And the hidden things or ever they came.
* 48:5 Gr. Hades. † 48:13 Or, No man’s word overcame him ‡ 48:17 Some ancient authorities, apparently by a confusion, read Gog.