Beginning
Egypt’s Horses Will Stumble
31 Oy, those going down to Egypt for help.
They are relying on horses,
trusting in chariots since they are many,
and in horsemen since they are very mighty,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
nor seek Adonai!
2 Yet He is also wise.
He brings disaster, and does not take back His words.
He rises against the house of evildoers,
against help for workers of iniquity.
3 Now Egyptians are men and not God,
and their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When Adonai stretches out His hand,
both he who helps will stumble
and he who is helped will fall,
and both will perish together.
A Lion Protects Zion
4 For thus says Adonai to me:
“As a lion or a young lion
growls over its prey,
though a company of shepherds
is called out against him
—their voice does not disturb him,
nor does their noise upset him—
so Adonai-Tzva’ot will come down
to fight on Mount Zion, on its hill.
5 Like hovering birds,
so Adonai-Tzva’ot will protect Jerusalem.
By protecting, He will deliver.
By passing over, He will save.”
6 Return to the One from whom rebellion is so deep, Bnei-Yisrael.
7 For in that day everyone will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which you made for yourselves with your hands of sin.
8 “Then Assyria will fall, not by a sword of man,
so a sword not of man will devour him
and he will flee from the sword.
His young men will be put to forced labor.
9 His rock will pass away because of fear.
His princes will be afraid of the banner”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
His fire is in Zion,
and His furnace is in Jerusalem.
Reign in Righteousness
32 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness
and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind
and a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a massive rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will pay attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand knowledge,
and the tongue of stammerers will speak fluently, clearly.
5 No longer will a fool be called noble,
or a scoundrel said to be a gentleman.
6 For the fool speaks foolishness
and his heart works wickedness,
to practice ungodliness,
and speak error about Adonai,
to deprive the hungry of food
and withhold drink from the thirsty.
7 The scoundrel’s methods are evil—
he makes up wicked schemes
to destroy the poor with lies,
even when the plea of the needy is just.
8 But the noble devises noble plans,
and for noble causes he stands.
9 Rise up, you women at ease,
And hear my voice.
You complacent daughters,
give ear to my words.
10 Within a year and a few days
you will shudder, complacent ones.
For the grape harvest will fail
and the gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women at ease!
Shudder, you complacent ones!
Strip and make yourselves bare,
and put sackcloth on your waist.
12 Beat your breasts lamenting for pleasant fields,
or fruitful vine,
13 for the land of my people,
where thorns and briars come up,
for all the joyful houses
of the jubilant city.
14 For the palace will be abandoned;
the bustling city will be deserted;
the citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
a delight of wild donkeys,
a pasture for flocks,
15 until the Ruach is poured out on us from on high,[a]
and the desert becomes a garden,
and a garden seems like a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the garden.
17 The result of righteousness will be shalom
and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
quiet resting places.
19 Then hail will flatten the forest;
and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 Blessed are you, sowing by all waters,
letting the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.
Ambassadors of Peace Weep Bitterly
33 Oy, you destroyer, never destroyed,
you traitor, never betrayed!
When you have stopped destroying,
you will be destroyed;
and when you finish betraying,
they will betray you.
2 Adonai, be gracious to us!
We long for You.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of trouble.
3 From the noise of tumult people will flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations will be scattered.
4 Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
like a swarm of locusts, they are rushing over it.
5 Adonai is exalted, for He dwells on high!
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 It will be your time of faithfulness,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge—
the fear of Adonai is His treasure.
7 Behold, heroes cry outside.
Ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8 Highways are desolate;
travel has ceased;
covenant is broken;
cities are despised;
there is no regard for humanity.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a wilderness;
Bashan and Carmel are shaken bare.
Our Eternal Judge Arises
10 “Now I will arise,” says Adonai.
“Now I will be exalted.
Now I will lift Myself up.
11 You conceive chaff,
you will give birth to stubble.
My breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 Then peoples will be burned as lime,
like thorns cut down, burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done,
and you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14 Sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?”
“Who among us can live with everlasting burnings?”
15 One who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly,
who refuses unjust gain by extortion,
who shakes his hands free of bribes,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.
16 He will dwell on the heights—
his refuge will be an impregnable cliff.
His bread will be provided,
his water assured.
17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.
They will gaze at a far-distant land.
18 Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is the counter?”
“Where is the weigher?”
“Where is the counter of towers?”
19 You will no longer see the fierce people,
the people of speech too obscure to comprehend,
with a stammering tongue no one understands.
20 Look upon Zion, city of our Festivals.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a quiet home,
a tent that will never be folded,
Its stakes never pulled up,
its cords never broken.
21 For there the majestic One, Adonai, will be for us—
a place of rivers and wide canals,
on which no boat with oars will go,
nor any mighty ship will travel by.
22 For Adonai is our Judge,
Adonai is our Lawgiver,
Adonai is our King—
He will save us!
23 Your cords hang slack,
not holding the mast in place firmly,
nor spreading out the sail.
Then abundant spoil will be divided—
even the lame will carry off plunder.
24 No inhabitant will say, “I am sick.”
The people dwelling there will be forgiven their iniquity.
End-Time Vision
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all it contains,
the world, and all its offspring!
2 For Adonai is enraged at all the nations,
and furious at all their armies.
He will utterly destroy them.
He will give them over to slaughter.
3 So their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses will rise,
and the hills will be drenched with their blood.
4 Then all the host of heaven will dissolve,
and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll—
so all their array will wither away,
like a leaf drooping from a vine,
like a fig shriveling from a fig tree.
Seek the Scroll and Read
5 For My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
See, it will come down upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to judgment.
6 The sword of Adonai is filled with blood, gorged with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
the fat of kidneys of rams.
For Adonai has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will go down with them,
bull calves with mighty steers.
So their land will be soaked with blood
and their dust greasy with fat.
8 For Adonai has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the hostility against Zion.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into brimstone,
and its land will become burning tar.
10 It will not be quenched night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lay waste—
forever and ever none will pass through it.
11 But pelican and porcupine will have it,
owl and raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch a line of chaos over it
and stones of desolation.
12 As for its nobles, there are none there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes will come to nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It will be a haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 Wildcats will meet with wolves,
the goat-demon will cry to its kind—
yes, the night monster will settle there
and find itself a resting place.
15 A tree snake will nest and lay eggs there,
hatch and gather them under its shadow.
Surely, hawks are gathered there,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek from the scroll of Adonai, and read!
Not one of them will be missing;
none will lack its mate.
For His mouth commanded it,
and His Ruach gathered them.
17 He cast the lot for them,
and His hand divided it out to them with the line.
They will possess it forever,
and dwell in it from generation to generation.
Highway in the Wilderness
35 The wilderness and dry land will be glad.
The desert will rejoice and blossom like a lily.
2 It will blossom profusely,
will rejoice with joy and singing,
will be given the glory of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of Adonai,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the limp hands,
make firm the wobbly knees.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
“Be strong, have no fear!”
Behold, your God!
Vengeance is coming!
God’s recompense—it is coming!
Then He will save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.[b]
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing.[c]
For water will burst forth in the desert
and streams in the wilderness.
7 The parched land will become a pool,
the thirsty ground springs of water.
In the haunt of jackals, where they rest,
grass will become reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there—a roadway.
It will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it.
It is for the one who walks the way.
Fools will not go astray.
9 No lion will be there.
No ravenous beast will go up on it.
They will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there.
10 The ransomed of Adonai will return
and come to Zion with singing,
with everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.