¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled;
    your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.^(A)
When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,^(B)
    you will be beaten down^(C) by it.
¹⁹ As often as it comes it will carry you away;^(D)
    morning after morning,^(E) by day and by night,
    it will sweep through.”

The understanding of this message
    will bring sheer terror.^(F)
20 The bed is too short to stretch out on,
    the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.^(G)
21 The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,^(H)
    he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon^(I)—
to do his work,^(J) his strange work,
    and perform his task, his alien task.
²² Now stop your mocking,^(K)
    or your chains will become heavier;
the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me
    of the destruction decreed^(L) against the whole land.^(M)

²³ Listen^(N) and hear my voice;
    pay attention and hear what I say.
²⁴ When a farmer plows for planting,^(O) does he plow continually?
    Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
²⁵ When he has leveled the surface,
    does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?^(P)
Does he not plant wheat in its place,^[a]
    barley^(Q) in its plot,^[b]
    and spelt^(R) in its field?
²⁶ His God instructs him
    and teaches^(S) him the right way.

²⁷ Caraway is not threshed^(T) with a sledge,^(U)
    nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,^(V)
    and cumin with a stick.