Beginning

31 Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help. They 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 or seek the LORD.

² But He is still wisest. Therefore, He will bring misery, and not turn back His Word. But He will arise against the house of the wicked, and against the help of those who work vanity.

³ Now the Egyptians are men, and not God. And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And when the LORD shall stretch out His Hand, the helper shall fall. And he who is helped shall fall. And they all shall fail.

⁴ For this has the LORD spoken to me, “As the lion or the lion’s whelp roars upon his prey, against whom a multitude of shepherds are called, he will not be afraid at their voice. Nor will he humble himself at their noise. So shall the LORD of Hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for its hill.

⁵ “As birds that fly, so shall the LORD of Hosts defend Jerusalem by defending and delivering, by passing through and preserving it.”

⁶ O you children of Israel, turn again, inasmuch as you are sunken deep in rebellion!

⁷ For on that day, every man shall cast out his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, sin which your hands have made.

⁸ “Then shall Assyria fall by the sword—not of man, nor shall the sword of man devour him—and he shall flee from the sword. And his young men shall faint.

⁹ “And he shall go in fear to his tower. And his princes shall be afraid of the standard,” says the LORD, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.”

32 Behold, a King shall reign in justice, and the princes shall rule in judgment.

² A man shall be like a hiding place from the wind, and a refuge from the storm, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

³ The eyes of the seeing shall not be shut, and the ears of those who hear, shall listen.

⁴ And the heart of the foolish shall understand knowledge. And the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak distinctly.

⁵ No more shall a foolish person be called noble, nor the scoundrel generous.

⁶ But the fool will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity, and do wickedly, and speak falsely against the LORD, to make the hungry soul empty, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷ For the weapons of the scoundrel are wicked. He devises wicked counsels to undo the poor with lying words, and to speak against the poor in judgment.

⁸ But the generous man will devise generous things. And he will continue his generosity.

⁹ Rise up you women who are at ease! Hear my voice, you careless daughters! Listen to my words!

¹⁰ For many days and years, you women who are careless shall be in fear. For the vintage shall fail, and the harvests shall come no more.

¹¹ Be astonished, you women who are at ease! Fear, O you careless women! Take off your clothes. Make yourselves bare and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

¹² Men shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields and for the fruitful vine.

¹³ Upon the land of my people shall grow thorns and briers —yea, upon all the houses of joy —in the city of rejoicing.

¹⁴ Because the palace shall be forsaken, the noise of the city shall be left. The tower and fortress shall be caves forever —the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks —

¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured upon us from above and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the plenteous field is counted as a forest.

¹⁶ And judgment shall dwell in the desert. And justice shall remain in the fruitful field.

¹⁷ And the work of justice shall be peace, even the work of justice and quietness and assurance, forever.

¹⁸ And my people shall dwell in the tabernacle of peace, and in sure dwellings, and in safe resting places.

¹⁹ When it hails, it shall fall on the forest. And the city shall be humiliated.

²⁰ Blessed are you who sow upon all waters and drive the feet of the ox and the donkey.

33 Woe to you who plunder, yet were not plundered, and does wickedly, yet they did not do wickedly against you. When you shall cease to plunder, you shall be plundered. When you shall stop doing wickedly, they shall do wickedly against you.

² O LORD, have mercy upon us. We have waited for You. Be their Arm in the morning, our help also in time of trouble!

³ At the noise of the tumult, the people fled. At Your exalting, the nations were scattered.

⁴ And Your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of caterpillars. And He shall go against him like the leaping of grasshoppers.

⁵ The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.

⁶ And there shall be stability of the times, strength, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD shall be His treasure.

⁷ Behold, their messengers shall cry outside. And the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

⁸ The paths are desolate. The wayfaring man ceases. He has broken the covenant. He has despised the cities. He regards no man.

⁹ The Earth mourns and faints. Lebanon is ashamed and withered. Sharon is like a wilderness. And Bashan is shaken, and Carmel.

¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift Myself up.

¹¹ “You shall conceive chaff and bring forth stubble. The fire of your breath shall devour you.

¹² “And the people shall be as the burning of lime. And they shall be burnt in the fire, as the cut thorns.

¹³ “Hear, you who are far off, what I have done! And you who are near, know My power!”

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid. A fear has come upon the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?

¹⁵ He who walks in justice, and speaks righteous things —refusing gain of oppression, shaking his hands from the taking of gifts, stopping his ears from hearing of blood, and shutting his eyes from seeing evil —

¹⁶ he shall dwell on high. His defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given to him. His waters shall be sure.

¹⁷ Your eyes shall see the King in His Glory. They shall behold the land from far away.

¹⁸ Your heart shall contemplate fear: “Where is the scribe?” “Where is the receiver?” “Where is he who counted the towers?”

¹⁹ You shall not see a fierce people, a people of dark speech that you cannot perceive, of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our solemn Feasts. Your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed. And its stakes can never be taken away. Nor shall any of its cords be broken.

²¹ For surely there the mighty LORD will be to us as a place of streams and broad rivers, whereby no ship with oars shall pass. Nor shall a great ship pass thereby.

²² For the LORD is our Judge. The LORD is our Lawgiver. The LORD is our King. He will save us.

²³ Your cords are loosened. They could not strengthen their mast well. Nor could they spread the sail. Then the prey shall be divided for a great plunder. The lame shall take away the prey.

²⁴ And no inhabitant shall say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein shall have their iniquity forgiven.

34 Come near, you nations and hear! And listen, you people! Let the Earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all that proceeds from it.

² For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and wrath upon all their armies. He has destroyed them, delivered them to the slaughter.

³ And their slain shall be cast out. And their stink shall come up out of their bodies. And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

⁴ And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved. And the heavens shall be folded like a book. And all their hosts shall fall, as the leaf falls from the vine, and as it falls from the fig tree.

⁵ “For My sword shall be quenched in Heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon Edom, even upon the people of My curse, to judgment.”

⁶ The sword of the LORD is filled with blood. It prospers with the fat, with the blood of the lambs and the goats, with the fat of the kidneys of the rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷ And the wild oxen shall come down with them, and the heifers with the bulls. And their land shall be drenched with blood, and their dust made to prosper with fatness.

⁸ For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the judgment of Zion.

⁹ And its rivers shall be turned into tar, and its dust into brimstone. And its land shall be burning tar.

¹⁰ It shall not be quenched, night or day. Its smoke shall go up forever. It shall be desolate from generation to generation. No one shall pass through it, forever and ever.

¹¹ But the pelican and the hedgehog shall possess it. And the great owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

¹² Its nobles shall call to the kingdom and there shall be none. And all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³ And it shall bring forth thorns in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its strongholds. And it shall be a home for serpents, and a court for unclean birds.

¹⁴ Also, the wild beasts of the desert shall meet the jackals there. And the wild goat shall cry to his companion. And the night demon shall rest there and shall find for herself a quiet dwelling.

¹⁵ There shall the owl make her nest and lay and hatch and gather them under her shadow. There shall the vultures also be gathered, each one with her mate.

¹⁶ Seek in the Book of the LORD and read. None of these shall fail. None shall want for a mate. For His Mouth has Commanded, and His very Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷ And He has cast the lot for them. And His Hand has divided to them by line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation shall they dwell in it.

35 The desert and the wilderness shall rejoice. And the waste ground shall be glad and flourish as the rose.

² It shall flourish abundantly and shall also greatly rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the beauty of Carmel and of Sharon. They shall see the Glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God.

³ Strengthen the weak hands and comfort the feeble knees.

⁴ Say to those who are fearful, “Be strong! Do not fear! Behold, your God comes with vengeance! God, with a recompense, He will come and save you!”

⁵ Then shall the eyes of the blind be lightened, and the ears of the deaf be opened.

⁶ Then shall the lame man leap as a deer. And the mute man’s tongue shall shout for joy. For waters shall break out in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

⁷ And the dry ground shall be as a pool, and the thirsty as springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where they lay, shall be a place for reeds and rushes.

⁸ And there shall be a path and a way. And the way shall be called holy. The polluted shall not pass by it. But it shall be for those who walk in that way. And they, though fools, shall not err on it.

⁹ There shall be no lion. Nor shall noisy beasts ascend by it. Nor shall they be found there. So that the redeemed may walk.

¹⁰ Therefore, the redeemed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with praise. And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. And sorrow and mourning shall flee away.