And thou, Beth-Lehem Ephratah, Little to be among the chiefs of Judah! From thee to Me he cometh forth--to be ruler in Israel, And his comings forth are of old, From the days of antiquity.
`And I--in my coming in from Padan- Aram Rachel hath died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, while yet a kibrath of land to enter Ephrata, and I bury her there in the way of Ephrata, which is Bethlehem.'
`And thou--thou dost provide out of all the people men of ability, fearing God, men of truth, hating dishonest gain, and hast placed these over them, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,
and Moses chooseth men of ability out of all Israel, and maketh them chiefs over the people, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,
Yea, he cometh up as a tender plant before Him, And as a root out of a dry land, He hath no form, nor honour, when we observe him, Nor appearance, when we desire him.
And his honourable one hath been of himself, And his ruler from his midst goeth forth, And I have caused him to draw near, And he hath drawn nigh unto Me, For who is he who hath pledged his heart To draw nigh unto Me? An affirmation of Jehovah.
And we know--we pursue to know Jehovah, As the dawn prepared is His going forth, And He cometh in as a shower to us, As gathered rain--sprinkling earth.'
In that day I raise the tabernacle of David, that is fallen, And I have repaired their breaches, And its ruins I do raise up, And I have built it up as in days of old.
Be pained, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, As a travailing woman, For now, thou goest forth from the city, And thou hast dwelt in the field, And thou hast gone unto Babylon, There thou art delivered, There redeem thee doth Jehovah from the hand of thine enemies.
Sword, awake against My shepherd, And against a hero--My fellow, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, and scattered is the flock, And I have put back My hand on the little ones.
Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, Lo, thy King doth come to thee, Righteous--and saved is He, Afflicted--and riding on an ass, And on a colt--a son of she-asses.
And thou, Beth-Lehem, the land of Judah, thou art by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for out of thee shall come one leading, who shall feed My people Israel.'
and began to accuse him, saying, `This one we found perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying himself to be Christ a king.'
`And I take the heads of your tribes, men, wise and known, and I appoint them heads over you, princes of thousands, and princes of hundreds, and princes of fifties, and princes of tens, and authorities, for your tribes.
That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we did behold, and our hands did handle, concerning the Word of the Life--
and He said to me, `It hath been done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; I, to him who is thirsting, will give of the fountain of the water of the life freely;
And it cometh to pass, in the days of the judging of the judges, that there is a famine in the land, and there goeth a man from Beth-Lehem-Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
And all the people who are in the gate say--also the elders--`Witnesses! Jehovah make the woman who is coming in unto thy house as Rachel and as Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel; and do thou virtuously in Ephrathah, and proclaim the Name in Beth-Lehem;
and ye to-day have rejected your God, who is Himself your saviour out of all your evils and your distresses, and ye say, `Nay, but--a king thou dost set over us; and now, station yourselves before Jehovah, by your tribes, and by your thousands.'
And David is son of this Ephrathite of Beth-Lehem-Judah, whose name is Jesse, and he hath eight sons, and the man in the days of Saul hath become aged among men;
and these ten cuttings of the cheese thou dost take in to the head of the thousand, and thy brethren thou dost inspect for welfare, and their pledge dost receive.'
And see and know of all the hiding-places where he hideth himself, and ye have turned back unto me prepared, and I have gone with you, and it hath been, if he is in the land, that I have searched him out through all the thousands of Judah.'
also to appoint for himself heads of thousands, and heads of fifties; also to plow his plowing, and to reap his reaping; and to make instruments of his war, and instruments of his charioteer.