Bible in 90 Days

How has the oppressor ceased!
    The golden city ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
    and the scepter of the rulers;
⁶ he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes,
    he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
    they break forth into singing.
⁸ Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you,
    and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you are laid down,
    no tree cutter has come up against us.”

⁹ Hell from beneath is moved for you
    to meet you at your coming;
it stirs up the dead for you,
    even all the chief ones of the earth;
it has raised up from their thrones
    all the kings of the nations.
¹⁰ They all shall speak
    and say to you:
“Have you also become as weak as we have?
    Have you become like us?”
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Hell,
    and the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread under you,
    and the worms cover you.

¹² How are you fallen from heaven,
    O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who weaken the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart,
    “I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit also on the mount of the congregation,
    in the recesses of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
    I will be like the Most High.”
¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Hell,
    to the sides of the pit.

¹⁶ Those who see you shall stare at you
    and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth
    to tremble and shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ who made the world as a wilderness
    and destroyed its cities,
    who did not open the house of his prisoners?”

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
    each one in his own tomb;
¹⁹ but you are cast out of your grave
    like an abominable branch
and clothed with those who are slain,
    thrust through with a sword,
    who go down to the stones of the pit
as a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰     You shall not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land
    and slain your people.

The seed of evildoers
    shall never be renowned.
²¹ Prepare a place of slaughter for his children
    for the iniquity of their fathers;
they must not rise nor possess the land,
    nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²² For I will rise up against them,
    says the Lord of Hosts,
and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,
    and son, and nephew,
    says the Lord.
²³ I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog
    and pools of water,
and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
    says the Lord of Hosts.

Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
    and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
²⁵ that I will break the Assyrian in My land,
    and on My mountains tread him under foot.
Then shall his yoke depart from off them
    and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

²⁶ This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth,
    and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it?
    And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

²⁹ Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
    because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper,
    and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor shall feed,
    and the needy shall lie down in safety:
and I will kill your root with famine,
    and he shall slay your remnant.

³¹ Wail, O gate. Cry, O city.
    Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
for smoke shall come from the north,
    and there is no straggler in his ranks.
³² What shall one then answer
    the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
    and the poor of His people shall trust in it.

Surely in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste
    and brought to silence,
surely in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
    and brought to silence,
² he has gone up to the temple and to Dibon,
    the high places, to weep.
    Moab shall wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
on all their heads shall be baldness,
    and every beard cut off.
³ In their streets they shall clothe themselves with sackcloth;
    on the tops of their houses and in their streets,
everyone shall wail,
    weeping abundantly.
⁴ Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh;
    their voice shall be heard even to Jahaz;
therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out;
    his life shall be grievous to him.

⁵ My heart shall cry out for Moab;
    his fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
    like a three-year-old heifer.
For by the Ascent of Luhith
    they shall go up with weeping;
for in the way of Horonaim
    they shall raise up a cry of destruction,
⁶ for the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate;
    surely the grass is withered away;
the grass fails,
    there is no green thing.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained, and that which they have laid up,
    they shall carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab;
    its wailing to Eglaim,
    and its wailing to Beer Elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood;
    for I will bring more woes on Dimon,
lions on the fugitives of Moab,
    and on the remnant of the land.

16 Send the lamb
    to the ruler of the land
from Sela by way of the wilderness,
    to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
² For it shall be that as a wandering bird
    cast out of the nest,
so the daughters of Moab shall be
    at the fords of Arnon.

³ “Take counsel,
    execute justice,
make your shadow as the night
    at the height of noon.
Hide the outcasts,
    do not betray the fugitive.
⁴ Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab;
    be a hiding place to them from the face of the destroyer.”

For the extortioner has come to an end;
    the destroyer ceases;
    the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
⁵ In mercy the throne shall be established;
    and one who judges and seeks justice
    and is diligent in righteousness
shall sit on it in truth
    in the tabernacle of David, judging.

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab;
    he is very proud,
even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
    but his lies shall not be so.
⁷ Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab;
    everyone shall wail.
For the loss of raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
    surely they are destroyed.
⁸ For the fields of Heshbon languish,
    and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
    have broken down its choice plants;
they have come as far as Jazer
    and wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out;
    they are passed over the sea.
⁹ Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer,
    the vine of Sibmah;
I will water you with my tears,
    O Heshbon and Elealeh.
For the shouting for your summer fruits
    and for your harvest has fallen away.
¹⁰ Gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field,
    and in the vineyards there shall be no singing,
    nor shall there be shouting;
the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses.
    I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
¹¹ Therefore my heart shall sound like a harp for Moab,
    and my inward parts for Kir Hareseth.
¹² When it is seen that Moab
    is weary on the high place,
he shall come to his sanctuary to pray;
    but he shall not prevail.

See, Damascus will cease from being a city;
    it shall be a ruinous heap.
² The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
    they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down,
    and no one shall make them afraid.
³ The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
    and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram;
    they shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel,
    says the Lord of Hosts.

⁴ In that day the glory of Jacob shall decrease,
    and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
⁵ It shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn
    and reaps the ears with his arm,
and it shall be as he who gathers ears
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it,
    as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
    four or five in its outmost fruitful branches,
    says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ On that day a man shall look to his Maker,
    and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He shall not look to the altars,
    the work of his hands,
nor shall he respect what his fingers have made,
    either the groves or the images.

¹⁰ Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength,
therefore you plant pleasant plants
    and set them with vine slips of a strange god;
¹¹ in the day that you plant it, you carefully fence it in,
    and in the morning you make your seed to flourish;
but the harvest shall be a heap of ruins
    in the day of grief and desperate pain.

¹² Woe to the multitude of many people
    who make a noise like the noise of the seas,
and the rushing of many peoples
    who make a rumble like the rumbling of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations rumble like the rumbling of many waters;
    but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
    and like rolling dust before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ At evening time, sudden terror!
    And before the morning, they are no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
    and the lot of those who rob us.

“Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
    to a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
    whose land the rivers have divided.”

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
    and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains,
    you will see it;
and when he blows a trumpet,
    you will hear it.
⁴ For so the Lord said to me:
    I will look from My dwelling place quietly,
like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
⁵ For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
    and the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
then He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
    and take away and cut down the branches.
⁶ They shall be left together for the fowl of the mountains
    and for the beasts of the earth;
and the fowl shall spend the summer feeding on them,
    and all the beasts of the earth shall spend the winter on them.

from a people tall and smooth,
    and from a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
    whose land the rivers have divided,

See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
    and shall come into Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence,
    and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.

² I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians,
    and they shall fight every one against his brother,
    and every one against his neighbor,
    city against city,
    and kingdom against kingdom.
³ The spirit of Egypt shall be discouraged in their midst,
    and I will destroy their counsel;
then they shall seek for the idols and for the charmers
    and for the mediums and the sorcerers.
⁴ The Egyptians I will give over
    into the hand of a cruel lord,
and a fierce king shall rule over them,
    says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.

⁵ The waters from the sea shall dry up,
    and the river shall be parched and dry.
⁶ The canals shall emit a stench;
    the streams of Egypt shall diminish and dry up;
the reeds and rushes shall wither.
⁷     The papyrus reeds by the brooks,
    by the mouth of the brooks,
and everything sown by the brooks,
    shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ The fishermen also shall mourn,
    and all those who cast a line into the brooks shall lament,
and those who spread nets on the waters
    shall languish.
⁹ Moreover those who work with fine flax
    and those who weave white cloth shall be humiliated;
¹⁰ and the pillars of Egypt shall be crushed.
    All the hired workers shall be grieved in soul.

¹¹ Surely the princes of Zoan are fools;
    the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am a son of the wise,
    a son of ancient kings?”

¹² Where are they? Where are your wise men?
    Let them tell you now, and let them understand
what the Lord of Hosts
    has purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools;
    the princes of Memphis are deceived;
they have also seduced Egypt,
    even those who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled
    a perverse spirit in her;
so they have caused Egypt to err in her every work,
    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ Nor shall there be any work for Egypt,
    which its head or tail, its branch or bulrush, may do.

As whirlwinds in the Negev pass through,
    so it comes from the desert,
    from a terrible land.

² A grievous vision is declared to me;
    the treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, O Elam. Lay siege, O Media.
    All her sighing I have made to cease.

³ Therefore, my loins are filled with pain;
    pangs have taken hold of me as the pangs of a woman who travails.
I am so perplexed at the hearing of it;
    I am so dismayed at the seeing of it.
⁴ My heart panted,
    fearfulness overwhelmed me;
the night for which I longed
    has turned into trembling for me.

⁵ Prepare the table,
    watch in the watchtower,
    eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
    and oil the shields.

“Go, station a watchman;
    let him declare what he sees.
⁷ When he sees chariots
    with horsemen in pairs,
a chariot of donkeys,
    and a chariot of camels,
then let him pay close attention,
    very close attention.”

“O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime,
    and I am stationed at my guard post every night.
⁹ Look, here comes a chariot of men,
    horsemen in pairs.”
And he answered and said,
    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon.
And all the graven images of her gods
    lie shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰ O my threshed people and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
    What I have heard from the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel,
    I have declared to you.

He calls to me out of Seir,
    “Watchman, how far gone is the night?
    Watchman, how far gone is the night?”
¹² The watchman says,
    “The morning comes and also the night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
    return again.”

In the forest of Arabia you shall lodge,
    O traveling companies of Dedanites.
¹⁴     Bring water for the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
    meet the fugitive with bread.
¹⁵ For they fled from the swords,
    from the drawn sword,
and from the bent bow,
    and from the grievousness of war.

What ails you now,
    that you all have gone up to the housetops,
² you who were full of noise,
    a tumultuous city, a joyous city?
Your slain are not slain with the sword,
    nor did they die in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
    they are captured by the archers.
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
    although they had fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore, I say, “Look away from me,
    I will weep bitterly;
do not try to comfort me
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵ For it is a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity
    by the Lord God of Hosts
    in the Valley of Vision,
a breaking down of the walls
    and a crying to the mountains.
⁶ Elam took up the quiver
    with chariots of men and horsemen,
    and Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ Your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots,
    and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸ And He shall remove the protection of Judah.
    You shall depend in that day
    on the weapons of the house of the forest;
⁹ you have seen also that the breaches
    of the City of David are many;
and you gathered together the waters
    of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You have numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
    and the houses you have broken down to fortify the wall.
¹¹ You also made a reservoir between the two walls
    for the water of the old pool.
But you have not looked to its Maker,
    nor did you respect Him who fashioned it long ago.

¹² In that day the Lord God of Hosts
    called you to weeping and mourning,
    and to tear your hair and wear sackcloth.
¹³ Yet, there is joy and gladness,
    slaying of oxen and killing of sheep,
    eating of meat and drinking wine:
“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we may die.”

Come, go to this treasurer,
    even to Shebna, who is over the royal household, and say:
¹⁶ What right do you have here? And whom do you have here
    that you have dug out for yourself a tomb here,
as he who hews out for himself a tomb on high,
    and who cuts a habitation for himself in a rock?

¹⁷ Indeed, the Lord is about to hurl you headlong, O man;
    He is about to seize you firmly.
¹⁸ He will surely violently turn
    and toss you like a ball into a large country;
there you shall die,
    and there the chariots of your glory shall be
    the shame of your lord’s house.
¹⁹ I will drive you from your office
    and pull you down from your station.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for Tyre is laid waste
    so that there is no house or harbor;
from the land of Cyprus
    it is reported to them.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
    you merchants of Sidon;
    your messengers passed over the sea,
³ and were on many waters;
    the grain of the Nile,
the harvest of the River^[b] was her revenue;
    and she was the market of nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken,
    even the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have not travailed nor brought forth children;
    neither have I brought up young men nor raised virgins.”
⁵ When the report reaches Egypt,
    they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

⁶ Pass over to Tarshish;
    wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
⁷ Is this your joyous city,
    whose origin is from ancient days,
whose feet used to carry her
    to sojourn in distant locations?
⁸ Who has planned this against Tyre,
    the crowning city,
whose merchants are princes,
    whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of Hosts has purposed it,
    to stain the pride of all glory
    and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰ Pass through your land as the Nile,
    O daughter of Tarshish;
    there is no more restraint.
¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea,
    He shook the kingdoms;
the Lord has given a command against the merchant city,
    to destroy its strongholds.
¹² He said: You shall rejoice no more,
    O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, pass over to Cyprus;
    there also you shall have no rest.
¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans;
    this was a people who was not;
Assyria founded it
    for those who dwell in the wilderness.
They set up their siege towers,
    they stripped its palaces,
    and brought it to ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁶ Take your harp, go about the city,
    O forgotten harlot;
make sweet melody, sing many songs,
    that you may be remembered.

⁴ The earth mourns and fades away,
    the world languishes and fades away,
    the haughty people of the earth languish.
⁵ The earth also is defiled by its inhabitants
    because they have transgressed the laws,
violated the ordinances,
    broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore, the curse devours the earth,
    and those who dwell in it are held guilty.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
    and few men are left.
⁷ The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
    all the merry-hearted sigh.
⁸ The joy of tambourines ceases,
    the noise of those who rejoice ends,
    the joy of the harp ceases.
⁹ They shall not drink wine with song;
    strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The city of confusion is broken down;
    every house is shut up so that no one may come in.
¹¹ There is an outcry for wine in the streets,
    all joy is turned to gloom,
    the joyfulness of the earth is gone.
¹² Desolation is left in the city,
    and the gate is battered to destruction.
¹³ For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
    among the peoples,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
    and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.

¹⁴ They lift up their voices; they sing for the majesty of the Lord;
    they cry aloud from the west.
¹⁵ Therefore glorify the Lord in the east,
    even the name of the Lord God of Israel
    in the coastlands of the sea.
¹⁶ From the uttermost part of the earth we hear songs,
    that is, “Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I say, Woe to me! Woe to me!
    Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously;
    indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.
¹⁷ Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you,
    O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ He who flees from the report of disaster
    shall fall into the pit,
and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit
    shall be taken in the snare.

For the windows from on high are open,
    and the foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹ The earth is utterly broken down,
    the earth is split through,
    the earth is shaken violently.
²⁰ The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard,
    and it totters like a shack,
and its transgression is heavy upon it,
    and it shall fall, never to rise again.

²¹ In that day the Lord shall punish
    the host of heaven on high
    and the kings of the earth on the earth.
²² They shall be gathered together,
    as prisoners are gathered in the dungeon,
and shall be shut up in the prison,
    and after many days they shall be punished.
²³ Then the moon shall be humiliated and the sun ashamed,
    when the Lord of Hosts reigns
in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
    and His glory shall be before His elders.

⁶ In this mountain the Lord of Hosts shall prepare
    for all people a lavish feast,
a feast of aged wines,
    choice pieces full of marrow, and refined, aged wines.
⁷ He will destroy in this mountain
    the covering which is over all peoples,
even the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸     He will swallow up death for all time,
and the Lord God will wipe away tears
    from all faces;
and the reproach of His people He shall take away
    from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken it.

Look, this is our God
    for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
    we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

¹⁰ For in this mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest,
    and Moab shall be trodden down in his place
    as straw is trodden down in the water for the manure pile.
¹¹ He shall spread out his hands in the midst of it,
    as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
yet the Lord shall bring down his pride
    together with the trickery of his hands.
¹² The unassailable fortresses of your walls
    He shall bring down, lay low,
and bring to the ground,
    even to the dust.

We have a strong city;
    He appoints walls
    and bulwarks for security.
² Open the gates,
    that the righteous nation may enter,
    the one who remains faithful.
³ You will keep him in perfect peace,
    whose mind is stayed on You,
    because he trusts in You.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock.
⁵ For He brings down those who dwell on high,
    the lofty city; He lays it low; He lays it low,
even to the ground;
    He brings it even to the dust.
⁶ The foot shall tread it down,
    even the feet of the poor
    and the steps of the needy.

⁷ The way of the righteous is smooth;
    O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
⁸ In the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
    we have waited for You eagerly;
the desire of our souls is Your name,
    even Your memory.
⁹ With my soul I have desired You in the night;
    my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
for when Your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ Though favor is shown to the wicked,
    yet he will not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals unjustly
    and does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ Lord, Your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
    the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

¹² Lord, You will ordain peace for us,
    for You also have done all our works for us.
¹³ O Lord our God, other lords besides You have had dominion over us,
    but through You alone we confess Your name.
¹⁴ The dead shall not live;
    the departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore, You have punished and destroyed them
    and made all remembrance of them to perish.
¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O Lord,
    You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
    You have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, in trouble they have sought You;
    they poured out a prayer
    when Your chastening was on them.
¹⁷ Like a woman with child, who is in pain and cries out in her pangs
    when she draws near the time of her delivery,
    so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
¹⁸ We have been with child, we have been in pain,
    we have, as it were, brought forth wind;
we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
    nor were the inhabitants of the world born.

¹⁹ Your dead shall live,
    their corpses shall arise.
Awake and sing,
    you who dwell in dust,
for your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
    and the earth shall give birth to the departed spirits.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide for a little while
    until the indignation is over.
²¹ For the Lord comes out of His place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth also shall disclose her bloodshed
    and shall cover her slain no more.

the Lord with His fierce and great
    and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
    even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Sing of it! A vineyard of red wine.
³ I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment;
lest anyone damage it,
    I protect it night and day.
⁴     I have no fury.
Should someone give Me briers and thorns in battle,
    then I would step on them,
    I would burn them fully.
⁵ Or let him rely on My strength;
    let him make peace with Me;
    let him make peace with Me.

⁶ In the days to come Jacob shall take root;
    Israel shall blossom and bud
    and shall fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷ Has He struck them,
    as He struck those who struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain,
    have they been slain?
⁸ You fought with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
    He has expelled them
    on the day of the east wind with His fierce wind.
⁹ Through this, therefore, the iniquity of Jacob shall be forgiven,
    and this will be the full price of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altar
    as chalkstones that are pulverized,
when the groves and incense altars
    shall not stand.
¹⁰ For the fortified city shall be desolate,
    a homestead forlorn and forsaken like a wilderness;
there the calf shall graze,
    and there it shall lie down
    and eat its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they are broken off;
    the women come and make a fire with them,
for they are not a people of understanding;
    therefore, their Maker will not have mercy on them,
    and their Creator will show them no grace.

⁵ In that day the Lord of Hosts
    shall become a crown of glory
and a diadem of beauty
    to the remnant of His people,
⁶ a spirit of justice
    for him who sits in judgment,
and strength
    to those who turn away the battle at the gate.

⁷ But they also have erred through wine
    and stagger from strong drink;
the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
    they are confused by wine,
they stagger from strong drink;
    they err while having visions,
    they stumble when rendering judgment.
⁸ For all the tables are full of vomit
    and filthiness so that there is no clean place.

⁹ “To whom shall He teach knowledge,
    and to whom shall He interpret the message?
Those just weaned from the milk
    and drawn from the breasts?
¹⁰ For He says,
    ‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little.’ ”

¹¹ For with stammering lips and foreign tongue
    He will speak to this people,
¹² He who said to them,
    “This is the rest. Give rest to the weary,”
and, “This is repose,”
    yet they would not listen.
¹³ So the word of the Lord will be to them,
    “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little,”
that they might go and fall backward,
    be broken, snared, and taken captive.

¹⁴ Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers,
    who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
¹⁵ because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with hell we are in agreement.
The overflowing scourge shall not come to us
    when it passes through,
for we have made lies our refuge
    and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.”

See, I lay in Zion a stone,
    a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, firmly placed;
    he who believes shall not act hastily.
¹⁷ I shall make justice the measuring line
    and righteousness the plummet;
then the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies
    and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
¹⁸ Your covenant with death shall be annulled,
    and your agreement with hell shall not stand;
when the overflowing scourge passes through,
    then you shall be trodden down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it shall seize you;
    for morning by morning it shall pass through,
    anytime by day or night.

It shall be terror only
    to understand the report.
²⁰ The bed is too short to stretch out,
    and the covering is too small to wrap oneself in it.
²¹ For the Lord shall rise up as at Mount Perazim,
    He shall be wrathful as in the Valley of Gibeon
to do His work, His unusual work,
    and bring to pass His task, His exceptional task.
²² Now therefore, do not continue as mockers,
    lest your bonds be made stronger;
for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts
    of determined destruction upon the whole earth.

²³ Give ear and hear my voice;
    listen and hear my speech.
²⁴ Does the plowman plow all day to sow?
    Does he continually turn and break the clods of his ground?
²⁵ Does he not level its surface
    and sow dill and scatter the cumin
and plant wheat in rows,
    barley in its place
    and the rye within its area?
²⁶ For his God instructs
    and teaches him appropriately.

²⁷ For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument,
    nor is a cartwheel driven over the cumin;
but the dill is beaten out with a staff,
    and the cumin with a rod.
²⁸ Grain for bread is crushed;
    so he does not continue to thresh it forever,
nor break it with the wheel of his cart,
    nor crush it with his horsemen.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of Hosts,
    who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.