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12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vine.
13 Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land;
    yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
14 For 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,
15 until the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
    and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
    and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness;
    and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.
17 The work of righteousness will be peace,
    and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful habitation,
    in safe dwellings,
    and in quiet resting places,
19 though hail flattens the forest,
    and the city is leveled completely.
20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
    who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

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12 For people will be beating their breasts
    in mourning[a] over the pleasant fields,
        over the fruitful vines,
13 and over the land of my people
    overgrown with thorns and[b] briers—
yes, over all the houses of merriment
    and over this city of revelry.

14 “For the palace will be abandoned,
    the noisy city deserted;
the citadel and watchtower
    will become barren wastes forever,
the delight of wild donkeys,
    and a pasture for[c] flocks,
15 until the Spirit from on high is poured upon us,
    and the desert becomes a fertile field,
        and the fertile field seems like a forest.”

Restoration of God’s Reign

16 “Then justice will live in the wilderness,
    and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace,
    and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in peaceful dwellings,
    in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places.
19 But it will hail when the forest comes down,
    and the wood[d] will be leveled completely.
20 How happy you will be, sowing your seed beside every stream,
    and[e] letting your[f] cattle and donkeys range freely!”

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 32:12 1QIsaa MT lack mourning
  2. Isaiah 32:13 So 1QIsaa LXX; the Heb. lacks and
  3. Isaiah 32:14 So 1QIsaa; MT reads of; cf. LXX
  4. Isaiah 32:19 So 1QIsaa; MT reads the city; LXX lacks the wood
  5. Isaiah 32:20 So 1QIsaa; the Heb. lacks and
  6. Isaiah 32:20 Lit. letting the feet of your