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14 Therefore, listen to the word of the Lord,
you arrogant rulers of this people in Jerusalem.
15 Proudly you have boasted,
“We have made a covenant with death
and entered into a pact with the netherworld.
And so, when the overwhelming scourge occurs,
it will not afflict us.
For we have made lies our refuge
and taken shelter in falsehood.”
16 Therefore, the Lord God
has this to say to you in response:
Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a stone that has been tested,
a precious cornerstone as a firm foundation;
those who place their trust in it will not falter.
17 And I will make justice the measuring line,
with righteousness as the plumb line.
Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and flood waters will submerge your hiding place.
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled
and your pact with Sheol will not survive.
When the raging waters roar forth,
you will be overwhelmed by them.
19 As often as the flood sweeps through,
it will engulf you,
sweeping over you day and night,
as terror conveys the message clearly.
20 For your bed will be too short
to enable you to stretch out,
and the blanket will be too narrow
to cover you sufficiently.
21 Then the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim,
and he will rage as he did in the Valley of Gibeon,
to accomplish his work, his mysterious work,
and to perform his deed, his strange deed.[a]
22 Therefore, cease your arrogance,
or your bonds will be further tightened.
For the Lord God of hosts has revealed to me
the destruction he has decreed for the entire earth.
23 Listen carefully to my words;
pay close attention to what I have to say.
24 Does the plowman spend his entire time plowing,
breaking up and harrowing his land?
25 Once he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter the fennel and sow cummin,
and plant wheat and barley,
with spelt around the borders?
26 God has instructed him in this
and trained him correctly.
27 Fennel must not be threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin.
28 Grain must be crushed for bread,
but it cannot be done so to excess;
one maneuvers the cartwheels and the horses
but is careful not to grind it too fine.
29 All this knowledge comes from the Lord of hosts
whose counsel is wonderful
and whose wisdom is great.
Chapter 29
The Siege of Jerusalem
1 [b]Woe to Ariel, Ariel,[c]
the city where David encamped.
Year after year will pass,
and the festivals will be celebrated annually.
2 Yet I will inflict distress upon Ariel,
and there will be endless mourning and lamentation
as she becomes like an altar of fire.
3 I will encamp against you like David,
completely surround you with my forces
and erect siege-works against you.
4 Then, as you lie prostrate, you will speak,
and from the dust of the earth
your words will come forth.
Your voice will rise from the ground
like that of a ghost,
and your words will whisper out of the dust.
5 But the vast throng of your enemies
will be like fine dust,
and the horde of your ruthless foes
will be like flying chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,
6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts,
accompanied by thunder and earthquake and intense din,
by whirlwind and tempest
and the flame of devouring fire.
7 Then the horde of all the nations
that fight against Ariel,
all who fight against her,
besieging her and causing her great anguish,
will fade away like a dream,
like a vision in the night.
8 Just as when a hungry man dreams of eating
and then awakens with an empty stomach,
or as when a thirsty man dreams of drinking
and then awakens to find his throat still parched,
so will it be with the horde of all the nations
that make war against Mount Zion.
Hypocrisy and Deception
9 If you stupefy yourselves,
you will remain in a stupor.
If you blind yourselves,
you will remain blind.
Be drunk, but not on wine;
stagger, but not from strong drink.
10 For the Lord has poured out on you
a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes, you prophets,
and covered your heads, you seers.
11 The prophetic vision of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. If you hand it to someone who is able to read and you say to him, “Please read this,” he will answer, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” 12 And if you hand it to someone who cannot read and say to him, “Please read this,” he will reply, “I cannot read.”
13 [d]Then the Lord said:
Because this people draws near to me
only with their words
and honors me only with their lips
while their hearts are far from me,
and their reverence for me has become
nothing but a human commandment
that has been memorized,
14 therefore, I will continue to deal with this people
in shocking and amazing ways.
The wisdom of their wise men will perish,
and the understanding of their discerning men will cease.
15 Woe to those who go to extreme measures
to conceal their plans from the Lord,
who perpetrate their evil deeds in the dark,
saying, “Who sees us? Who knows where we are?”
16 Such people are truly perverse.
Is the potter no better than the clay?
Can what is made say of its maker,
“He did not make me”?
Can a pot say of the potter,
“He really has no particular skill”?
Deliverance
17 It will be but a very short time
before Lebanon will become a fertile field
and its orchards will be regarded as forests.
18 On that day the deaf will hear
the words of a book being read,
and the eyes of the blind will see,
delivered from gloom and darkness.
19 The lowly will once again rejoice in the Lord,
and those who are poor will exult
in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the tyrants will be no more
and the arrogant will cease to exist;
all those who revel in evil deeds will be destroyed:
21 those whose lies cause a man to be judged guilty,
those who set traps to capture just arbiters
and thereby deprive the innocent
from being granted justice.
22 Therefore, thus says the Lord,
the deliverer of Abraham,
in regard to the house of Jacob:
No longer will the house of Jacob be ashamed,
nor will their faces grow pale.
23 For when they see in their midst
their children, the work of my hands,
they will acknowledge my name as holy.
They will reverence the Holy One of Jacob
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who err in spirit will gain understanding,
and those who are obstinate will receive instruction.
Chapter 30
Doomed Alliance with Egypt
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
who devise plans that were not in accord with my will,
who make alliances that were not inspired by me,
thereby adding sin upon sin.
2 They depart for Egypt
without seeking my counsel,
to take refuge in Pharaoh’s protection
and to take shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Therefore, Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame,
and the shelter of Egypt’s shadow
will be your humiliation.
4 For though his princes are at Zoan
and his envoys have reached Hanes,[e]
5 everyone has been put to shame
by a people who cannot be of any use,
who afford them neither help nor profit
but only shame and disgrace.
6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of the lioness and the roaring lion,
of the viper and the flying serpent,
they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a nation that cannot be of help to them.
7 For Egypt’s help is vain and futile;
therefore I have called her
“Rahab[f] the Worthless.”
8 [g]And so go forth and in their presence
write it on a scroll,
inscribe it on a tablet,
so that it may serve hereafter
as an eternal witness.
9 They are a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
children who refuse to listen
to the instruction of the Lord.
10 To the seers they say,
“Cease to have visions!”
To the prophets they demand,
“Do not prophesy to us what is right;
reveal to us pleasant things; prophesy illusions.
11 Cease with your warnings;
turn aside from the straight path.
We wish to hear nothing further
about the Holy One of Israel.”
23 The Benefit of Faith.[a]Now before faith came, we were prisoners of the Law, confined as we waited for the faith that would eventually be revealed. 24 Therefore, the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 However, now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 Children of God in Christ. Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free man, there is no longer male or female. For all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are the offspring of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.
Chapter 4
Set Free by Christ. 1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is a minor, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the owner of it all. 2 He remains under the supervision of guardians and trustees until the date designated by the father. 3 This is also true of us. As long as we were children, we were enslaved to the forces of this world.
4 However, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying out “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if you are a son, then through God you are also an heir.
No Return to Slavery.[b] 8 Previously, when you did not know God, you were slaves to forces who were not really gods at all. 9 But now that you have come to know God—or rather to be known by God—how can you turn back once again to those powerless and destitute forces? How can you consider becoming enslaved once again? 10 You even observe special days and months and seasons and years. 11 Now I am afraid for you, that I have labored among you in vain.
12 Appeal To Enter into Freedom from the Law. I beg you, brethren, to be like me, just as I have become like you. You never did me any wrong. 13 As you remember, it was because of illness[c] that I originally preached the gospel to you. 14 And though my illness was a trial to you, it did not lead to any scorn or revulsion; rather, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
15 What has become of your blessedness? For I can testify that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I have told you the truth?
17 Others are seeking to curry your favor, but they are not sincere. They are attempting to alienate you from us so that you may make them the sole object of your attention. 18 It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times, and not just when I am in your presence. 19 You are my children, and I am experiencing the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is formed in you. 20 I truly wish that I could be with you now and be able to alter my approach to you, because I do not know what to think about you.
21 Sarah and Hagar Foreshadow the Two Covenants.[d] And so tell me, you who are so eager to be subject to the Law: why do you not listen to the Law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 The son by the slave woman was born through the flesh. The son by the free woman was born through a promise.
24 Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One covenant is given on Mount Sinai and bears children who are born into slavery; this is Hagar. 25 Hagar stands for Sinai, a mountain in Arabia, and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, for she is in slavery together with her children. 26 However, the Jerusalem that is above is the free woman, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, you barren woman
who never bore a child;
break forth in song and shout with joy,
you who never were in labor.
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
than the children of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brethren, are, like Isaac, the children of the promise. 29 But just as in those days the child who was born through the flesh persecuted the child who was born through the Spirit, so is it now also. 30 However, what does Scripture say?
“Drive out the slave woman and her son!
For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance
with the son of the free woman.”
31 Therefore, brethren, we are the children not of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Psalm 62[a]
Trust in God Alone
1 For the director.[b] For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
2 In God alone is my soul[c] at rest;
it is from him that my salvation comes.
3 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress, so that I stand ever unshaken.
4 How long will you assault someone,
and all of you beat him down,
as if he were a leaning wall
or a tottering fence?[d]
5 They devise plots to dislodge me
from my place on high[e]
and delight in spreading lies about me.
They bless with their lips,
but they curse in their hearts. Selah
6 In God alone be at rest,[f] O my soul;
it is from him that my hope comes.
7 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress, so that I stand unshaken.
8 My deliverance and my glory depend on God;
he is my mighty rock and my refuge.
9 Trust in him at all times, my people,
and pour out your heart before him,[g]
for God is our refuge. Selah
10 Ordinary people are no more than a breath,
and the great are no more than a delusion.
When they are placed on scales all together,
they are lighter than air.[h]
11 Do not place your trust in extortion,
and set no vain hopes in stolen goods;
no matter how greatly your wealth increases,
do not set your heart[i] on it.
12 One thing God has revealed;
two things have I heard:
that power belongs to you, O God,
13 and so does kindness,[j] O Lord.
You reward each person
in accordance with his deeds.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise
as you direct your heart along the right path.
20 Do not consort with drunkards[a]
or be one of those who gorge themselves with meat.
21 For the drunkard and the glutton will become impoverished,
and stupor will clothe them in rags.
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