Day 51 of 90

¹The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains."

⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.

⁹You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.

¹²In that day, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:

¹³and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."

¹⁴The Lord of hosts revealed himself in my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die," says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, "Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,

¹⁶'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?' Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!"

¹⁷Behold, the Lord will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.

¹⁸He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord's house.

¹⁹I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

²⁰It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

²¹and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

²²I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.

²³I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house.

²⁴They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.

²⁵"In that day," says the Lord of hosts, "the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it."

¹The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.

²Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

³On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, "I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins."

⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The Lord has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds.

¹²He said, "You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest."

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.

¹⁴Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste!

¹⁵It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.

¹⁶Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷It will happen after the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the Lord. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

¹Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.

²It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.

³The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for the Lord has spoken this word.

⁴The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish.

⁵The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

⁷The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh.

⁸The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases.

⁹They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

¹¹There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone.

¹²The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.

¹³For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

¹⁴These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of the Lord. They cry aloud from the sea.

¹⁵Therefore glorify the Lord in the east, even the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea!

¹⁶From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, "I pine away! I pine away! Woe is me!" The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

¹⁷Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabitant the earth.

¹⁸It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently.

²⁰The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.

²¹It shall happen in that day that the Lord will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.

²²They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited.

²³Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders will be glory.

¹The Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.

²For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.

³Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you.

⁴For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.

⁵As the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.

⁶In this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.

⁷He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

⁸He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken it.

⁹It shall be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is the Lord! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!"

¹⁰For in this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.

¹¹He will spread out his hands in its midst, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands.

¹²He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

¹In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. He appoints salvation for walls and ramparts.

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith.

³You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever; for in Yah, the Lord, is an everlasting Rock.

⁵For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down; Even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy."

⁷The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.

⁸Yes, in the way of your judgments, the Lord, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.

⁹With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see the Lord's majesty.

¹¹The Lord, your hand is lifted up, yet they do not see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.

¹²The Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us.

¹³The Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.

¹⁴The dead shall not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

¹⁷Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Lord.

¹⁸We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.

²¹For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

¹In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

²In that day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard!

³I, the Lord, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.

⁴Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

⁵Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."

⁶In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.

⁷Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?

⁸In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²It will happen in that day, that the Lord will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.

¹³It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

¹Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.

⁴The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

⁵In that day, the Lord of hosts will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;

⁶and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.

⁸For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

¹⁰For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and a strange language;

¹²to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

¹⁵"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not be in fear.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message."

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

²²Now therefore do not be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, on the whole earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!

²⁴Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

²⁶For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.

²⁷For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

²⁹This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

¹Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

²then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.

³I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.

⁴You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.

⁶She will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

⁹Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"

¹²and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."

¹³The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, but in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?"

¹⁶You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He did not make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

¹⁷Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

¹⁸In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

¹⁹The humble also will increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off-

²¹who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.

²³But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction."

¹"Woe to the rebellious children," says the Lord, "who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

²who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

⁴For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

⁵They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

⁶The oracle of the animals of the Negev. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.

⁷For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.

⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

⁹For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord;

¹⁰who tell the seers, "Do not see!" and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

¹¹Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

¹⁴He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

¹⁵For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,

¹⁶but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;" therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;" therefore those who pursue you will be swift.

¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.

²⁰Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;

²¹and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."

²²You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"

²³He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

²⁴The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

²⁵There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.

²⁸His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

²⁹You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the Lord's mountain, to Israel's Rock.

³⁰The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.

³¹For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

³²Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the Lord will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.

³³For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The Lord's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the Lord!

²Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

⁴For thus says the Lord to me, "As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.

⁵As birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it."

⁶Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

⁷For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold-sin which your own hands have made for you.

⁸"The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.

⁹His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner," says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

¹Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.

²A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

³The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

⁶For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the Lord, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

⁸But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!

¹⁰For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won't come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹Though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

¹Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.

²Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

⁴Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

⁵The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is your treasure.

⁷Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man.

⁹The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹⁰"Now I will arise," says the Lord; "Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

¹¹You will conceive chaff. You will bring forth stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.

¹²The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might."

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

¹⁵He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-

¹⁶he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land.

¹⁸Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

¹⁹You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language that you can't understand.

²⁰Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the Lord will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there.

²²For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us.

²³Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey.

²⁴The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick." The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it.

²For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.

³Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood.

⁴All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.

⁶The Lord's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

¹⁴The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.

¹⁵The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.

¹⁶Search in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

²It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon's glory Lebanon will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Lord's glory, the excellence of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong. Do not be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution. He will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

⁶Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

⁷The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

⁸A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

⁹No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.

¹⁰The Lord's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."