Beginning
Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt
31
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who put their faith in horses,
who trust in chariots because there are many of them,
who trust in charioteers[a] because they are very powerful.
They do not trust in the Holy One of Israel.
They do not seek the Lord.
2 The Lord is wise, and he will bring disaster.
He will not go back on his word,
but he will deal with those who do evil,
and with those who help the wicked.
3 The Egyptians are merely men, not gods.
Their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand to punish,
both the helper and the one seeking help will fall.
Together they will perish.
4 This is what the Lord said to me:
When a lion or a young lion snarls over its prey,
and a band of shepherds is called out to drive it away,
it is not afraid of their shouts,
and it is not bothered by the noise they make.
In the same way, the Lord of Armies will fearlessly come down
to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
5 Like a hovering[b] bird,
the Lord of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect it and deliver it.
He will pass over it and preserve it.
6 O people of Israel, return to the one you have so completely betrayed. 7 In that day every one of you will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—things you made, which caused you to sin.
8 Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword.
A sword will devour him, but not one wielded by men.
He will flee from the sword,
but his young men will be forced into slavery.
9 His rocky stronghold will pass away because of fear,
and his officials will abandon their banner in panic,
declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
whose blast furnace is in Jerusalem.
The Righteous Kingdom
32
See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and officials will govern with justice.
2 Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water for a dry place,
like the shade of a massive cliff in a parched land.
3 The eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
4 Hasty hearts[c] will gain understanding,
and stammering tongues will speak clearly.
5 The fool will no longer be called noble,
nor will rogues be treated like respectable people.[d]
6 The fool speaks folly,
and his heart plots evil:
to do what is ungodly,
to tell lies about the Lord,
to deny food to the hungry,
and to refuse even one drink for the thirsty.
7 The rogue’s ways are evil.
He plots evil to ruin the humble with lies,
even when the poor speak with justice.
8 But the noble man plans noble deeds,
and by noble deeds he stands.
Judgment and Restoration
9 Get up, you complacent women, and listen!
You carefree girls, hear what I have to say!
10 In a little more than a year, you carefree women will be worried,
because the grape harvest will fail,
and the fruit harvest will not arrive.
11 Tremble, you complacent women!
Be worried, you carefree girls!
Strip yourselves naked,
and put sackcloth around your waist.
12 Beat your breasts in mourning
for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vines,
13 because my people’s land will yield only thorns and briers.
Weep for all the houses where you partied,
in the city where you celebrated.
14 Then the fortress will be abandoned.
The crowded city will be deserted.
The citadel and the watchtower will become
rugged ruins[e] for a long time,
enjoyed by wild donkeys,
and a pasture for flocks,
15 until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness will live in the fertile field.
17 The result of righteousness will be peace,
and righteousness will bring lasting tranquility and security.
18 My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places.
19 Even if hail destroys the forest,
or if the city is totally leveled,
20 how blessed you will be,
as you sow seed beside streams,
and let your cattle and donkeys run free.
Rise Up, O Lord!
33
Woe to you who destroy, even though you have not been destroyed,
you who betray, though you have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed,
and when you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
2 O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait hopefully for you.
Be our strength every morning.
Be our salvation in times of trouble.
3 At the thunder of your voice, people flee.
When you stir up your great power, nations scatter.
4 Your plunder will be taken away
the way a caterpillar[f] eats things up.
People will swarm on it like a locust swarm.
5 The Lord is exalted, because he dwells on high.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 There will be stability in your time,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Your treasure will be the fear of the Lord.
7 Listen! Their elite troops[g] are crying in the streets.
The peace envoys weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted.
All travel has stopped.
The treaty has been broken.
Witnesses[h] are despised,
and no one is respected.
9 The land mourns and becomes weak.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
The Plain of Sharon is like the Arabah,
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.
11 You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
12 People will be burned to lime,[i]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
13 You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
15 Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
16 they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.
17 Your eyes will see the King[j] in his splendor.
They will see a land that stretches far and wide.
18 Your heart will think about the past terrors.
You will think, “Where is the one who took the inventory?[k]
Where is the one who weighed the silver?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19 You will no longer see a barbaric people,
a people with unintelligible speech, which you cannot understand,
a people who babble in a language that makes no sense.
20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold our festivals.
You will see Jerusalem as a peaceful place,
as a tent that cannot be removed.
Its stakes will never be pulled up.
Its ropes will never be broken.
21 There the Lord will be with us in majesty,
as in a place with wide rivers and streams,
where no enemy warship can row,
where no sailing ship can slip past.
22 Because the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
and the Lord is our king,
he is the one who will save us.
23 Your rigging hangs loose.
The mast is not steady.
The sail is not set.[l]
When they divide all the plunder,
there will be so much that even the crippled will take part.
24 No one who lives there will say, “I am sick.”
The guilt of the people who live there will be forgiven.
Judgment Against the Nations
34
Come near, you nations, and hear!
Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it hear,
the world and everything that it produces.
2 The Lord is angry with all the nations,
and he is furious with all their armies.
He has condemned them to destruction.
He has handed them over for slaughter.
3 Their fallen bodies will lie unburied,
and the stench of their corpses will linger.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
4 The whole army of the heavens will fall apart.
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
and its whole army will waste away and fall,
like leaves withering on a vine,
like fruit that falls from a fig tree.
5 Yes, my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
Now it will fall on Edom,
on the people I have sentenced to judgment.
6 The sword of the Lord is covered with blood.
It is coated with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat from the kidneys of rams,
for the Lord has made a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a massive slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall along with them,
bull calves and powerful bulls.
Their land will be soaked with blood,
and their dust will be saturated with fat.
8 It will be a day of vengeance for the Lord,
a year of retribution for Zion’s sake.[m]
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch,
10 which will not be extinguished night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
Generation after generation, it will lie in ruins.
No one will ever pass through it. Never again!
11 But the desert owl and the porcupine will live there.[n]
The screech owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch a measuring line for chaos over Edom,
and a plumb line for uninhabited ruins.[o]
12 There will be nothing left for its nobles to call a kingdom.
All its officials will be gone.
13 Thorns will cover its citadels.
Thistles and briers will overgrow its fortresses.
It will be a den of jackals,
a haunt for ostriches.
14 Desert animals and hyenas will gather,
and wild goats[p] will bleat to each other.
Creatures of the night[q] will settle there
and find a resting place.
15 An owl[r] will nest there.
She will lay eggs, hatch them,
and gather her young under her shade.
Falcons will gather there too,
each with its mate.
16 Search through the book of the Lord, and read.
Not one of them will be missing.
Not one will lack her mate.
For his mouth has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
17 He has allotted this land for these creatures.
His hand has divided it up for them with a surveying line.
They will possess it forever.
They will live there generation after generation.
The Joyful Return
35
The wilderness and the desert will be glad.
The wasteland of the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like a crocus.
2 It will bloom lavishly,
and there will be great joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it.
It will be excellent like Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the shaky knees steady.
4 Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
6 The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.
There will be grass, reeds, and rushes where the haunts
of jackals once lay.
8 A highway will be there,
a road that will be called the holy way.
The impure will not walk there.
It will be reserved for those who walk in that holy way.
Wicked fools will not wander onto it.
9 No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but only the redeemed will walk there.
10 Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.