Beginning

28 Woe to the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim. For his glorious beauty shall be as a fading flower upon the head of the valley of fatness to those who are overcome with wine.

² Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, like a tempest of hail, a whirlwind that overthrows, like a tempest of mighty waters that overflow, which throw to the ground mightily.

³ They shall be trampled underfoot: the crown, the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim.

⁴ For his glorious beauty shall be as a fading flower upon the head of the valley of fatness, as the first fruits before Summer. When one has looked upon it, he sees it. And while it is in his hand, he eats it.

⁵ On that day, shall the LORD of Hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the residue of His people,

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

⁷ But they have erred because of wine and are out of the way due to strong drink. The priest and the prophet have erred by strong drink. They are swallowed up with wine. They have gone astray through strong drink. They fail in vision. They stumble in judgment.

⁸ For all their tables are full of filthy vomiting. No place is clean.

⁹ To whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make understand the things that he hears? Those who are weaned from the milk drawn from the breasts.

¹⁰ For “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

¹¹ For with a stammering tongue and with a strange language he shall speak to this people,

¹² to whom He said, “This is the rest: give rest to him who is weary.” And, “This is the refreshing.” But they would not hear.

¹³ Therefore shall the Word of the LORD be to them “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line unto line, line unto line, here a little, there a little”, so that they may go and fall backward and be broken and be snared and be taken.

¹⁴ Therefore, hear the Word of the LORD, you scornful men who rule this people who are at Jerusalem,

¹⁵ because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Hell are we in agreement. Though a scourge run over and pass through, it shall not come at us, for we have made falsehood our refuge, and under vanity are we hidden.”

¹⁶ Therefore, thus says the LORD God: “Behold, I will lay a stone in Zion, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He who believes shall not hurry.

¹⁷ “I will also lay judgment to the rule, and righteousness to the balance. And the hail shall sweep away the vain confidence. And the waters shall overflow the secret place.

¹⁸ “And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When a scourge shall run over and pass through, then shall you be trampled down by it.

¹⁹ “When it passes over, it shall take you away. For it shall pass through every morning, in the day and in the night. And there shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing.”

²⁰ For the bed is so short that it cannot suffice, and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself.

²¹ For the LORD shall stand, as on Mount Perazim. He shall be angry, as in the Valley of Gibeon, so that He may do His work (His strange work) and bring to pass His act (His strange act).

²² Now, therefore, do not be mockers, lest your bonds increase. For I have heard the LORD of Hosts has determined a consumption upon the whole Earth.

²³ Listen and hear my voice! Listen and hear my speech!

²⁴ Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open and break the clots of his ground?

²⁵ When he has made it level, will he not then sow the black cumin, and sow cumin, and cast in wheat by measure, and the appointed barley and rye in their place?

²⁶ For his God instructs him to have discretion, teaches him.

²⁷ For black cumin shall not be threshed with a threshing instrument, nor shall a cartwheel be turned upon the cumin. But the black cumin is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

²⁸ Bread (when it is threshed) he does not always thresh, nor does the wheel of his cart make a noise, nor will he break it with its teeth.

²⁹ This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel, excellent in works.

29 Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city in which David dwelt! Add year to year. Let them kill lambs.

² But I will bring Ariel into distress. And there shall be heaviness and sorrow. And it shall be to Me like Ariel.

³ And I will besiege you with a circle, and fight against you on a siege mount, and will cast up ramparts against you.

⁴ So shall you be humbled, and shall speak from the ground. And your speech shall be from the dust. Your voice, also, shall be from the ground, like one who has a spirit of divination. And your talking shall whisper from the dust.

⁵ Moreover, many of your strangers shall be like small dust. And the multitude of strong men shall be as chaff that passes away. And it shall be in a moment, suddenly.

⁶ You shall be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder, and shaking, and a great noise, a whirlwind, and a tempest, and a flame of a devouring fire.

⁷ And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel shall be as a dream, a vision by night, all those who make the war against it and strongholds against it and lay siege to it.

⁸ And it shall be like a hungry man dreams: And behold, he eats. And when he awakens, his soul is empty. Or like a thirsty man dreams: And lo, he is drinking. And when he awakens, behold, he faints. And his soul longs. So shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ Wait and wonder. Blind yourself and be blinded. They are drunk, but not with wine. They stagger, but not by strong drink.

¹⁰ For the LORD has covered you with a spirit of slumber and has shut your eyes. He has covered the Prophet and your chief Seers.

¹¹ And all their visions have become to you as the words of a book that is sealed up, which they deliver to one who can read, saying, “Read this, please.” And he shall say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹² And the book is given to him who cannot read, saying, “Read this, please.” And he shall say, “I cannot read.”

¹³ Therefore, the LORD said, “Because this people comes near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but has removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me was taught by the precept of men,

¹⁴ “therefore behold, I will again do a marvelous work in this people, a marvelous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.

¹⁵ “Woe to those who seek deeply to hide counsel from the LORD. For their works are in darkness. And they say, ‘Who sees us?’ and, ‘Who knows us?’

¹⁶ “You pervert things. Shall the potter be thought the same as the clay? For shall the work say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me,’ or the thing formed say of him who fashioned it, ‘He has no understanding’?

¹⁷ “Is it not but a little while before Lebanon shall be turned into Carmel, and Carmel shall be counted as a forest?

¹⁸ “And on that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book. And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

¹⁹ “The meek in the LORD shall receive joy again. And the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰ “For the cruel man shall cease and the scornful shall be consumed. And all who hurried to iniquity shall be cut off,

²¹ “who made a man sin with words and took him who reproved in the gate in a snare and made the just fall without cause.”

²² Therefore, thus says the LORD to the House of Jacob, He who redeemed Abraham: “Jacob shall not be confounded now, nor shall his face be pale now.

²³ “But when he sees his children, the work of My Hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My Name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

²⁴ “Then, those who erred in spirit shall have understanding. And those who murmured shall learn doctrine.”

30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “who take counsel, but not from Me, and cover with a covering, but not by My Spirit, so that they may lay sin upon sin.

² “They walk forth to go down into Egypt to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh and trust in the shadow of Egypt and have not asked from My Mouth.

³ “But the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

⁴ “For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

⁵ “They shall all be ashamed of the people who cannot profit them or help or do them good but are a shame and a reproach.”

⁶ The burden of the beasts of the South: In a land of trouble and anguish—from where comes the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent—they shall bear their riches upon the shoulders of the colts, and their treasures upon the bunches of the camels, to a people that cannot profit.

⁷ “For the Egyptians are purposeless, and they shall help in vain. Therefore I have cried to her. Their strength is to sit still.

⁸ “Now go. Write it before them on a tablet, and note it in a Book, so that it may be for the last day, forever and ever,

⁹ “that it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that would not hear the Law of the LORD.

¹⁰ “They say to the Seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the Prophets, ‘Do not Prophesy to us right things. Speak flattering things to us. Prophesy errors.

¹¹ “‘Depart out of the way. Go aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from us.’”

¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you have cast off this Word, and trust in violence, and wickedness, and stay thereupon,

¹³ “therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach that falls, a swelling in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in a moment.

¹⁴ “And its breaking is like the breaking of a potter’s pot, which is broken without pity. And in its breaking, there is not found a shard to take fire out of the hearth, or to take water out of the cistern.”

¹⁵ For thus said the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel, “In rest and quietness shall you be saved. Your strength shall be in quietness and in confidence.” But you would not.

¹⁶ For you have said, “No, but we will flee away upon horses!” Therefore, shall you flee. “We will ride upon the swiftest!” Therefore, your persecutors shall be swifter.

¹⁷ A thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you are left as a ship mast upon the top of a mountain, and as a beacon upon a hill.

¹⁸ And, therefore, the LORD will wait, so that He may have mercy upon you. And, therefore, He will be exalted, so that He may have compassion upon you. For the LORD is the God of Judgment. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

¹⁹ Surely a people shall dwell in Zion. In Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will certainly have mercy upon you at the voice of your cry. When He hears you, He will answer you.

²⁰ And when the LORD has given you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, your rain shall be kept back no more. But your eyes shall see your rain.

²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

²² And you shall pollute the covering of the images of silver, and the rich ornament of your images of gold, and cast them away as a menstruous cloth. And you shall say to it, “Get away!”

²³ Then He shall give rain to your seed when you shall sow the ground, and bread from the increase of the Earth. And it shall be fat and rich. On that day, your cattle shall be fed in large pastures.

²⁴ The oxen, also, and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat clean fodder, which is winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

²⁵ And upon every high mountain and upon every high hill there shall be rivers, streams of waters, on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers shall fall.

²⁶ Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun. And the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, and like the light of seven days, on the day that the LORD shall bind up the breach of His people and heal the stroke of their wound.

²⁷ Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar. His Face is burning, and its burden heavy. His Lips are full of indignation, and His Tongue as a devouring fire.

²⁸ and His Spirit as a river that overflows up to the neck. It divides apart, to fan the nations with the fan of frivolity. And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people that causes them to err.

²⁹ There shall be a song to you, as in the night (when a solemn Feast is kept), and gladness of heart, as he who comes with a flute to go to the Mount of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel.

³⁰ And the LORD shall cause His glorious Voice to be heard and shall declare the descent of His Arm with the anger of His Countenance, and flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailstones.

³¹ For with the Voice of the LORD shall Assyria be destroyed, who struck with the rod.

³² And in every place of punishment that the staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, there will be tambourines and harps. And in brandishing battles, He shall fight against it.

³³ For Tophet is prepared of old. It is even prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large. It burns with fire and much wood. The breath of the LORD, like a river of brimstone, kindles it.