1 Wherefore woe be unto thee, O robber: shalt not thou be robbed also? And unto thee that layest wait: as who say there should no wait be laid for thee? Woe unto thee which doest hurt: even so shalt thou be hurt also. And as thou layest wait, so shall wait be laid for thee also.
2 LORD be merciful unto us, we wait for thee. Thine arm is at a point to visit us, but be thou our health in the time of trouble.
3 Grant that the people may flee at the anger of thy voice, and that at thine upstanding the Gentiles may be scattered abroad;
4 and that their spoil may be gathered, as the grasshoppers are commonly gathered together into the pit.
5 Stand up LORD, thou that dwellest on high: Let Zion be filled with equity and righteousness.
6 Let truth and faithfulness be in her time: power, health, wisdom, knowledge and the fear of God are her treasure.
7 Behold, their messengers cry without, the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8 The streets are waste, there walketh no man therein; the covenant is broken, the cities are despised; they are not regarded,
9 the desolate earth is in heaviness. Lebanon taketh it but for a sport, that it is hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness: Bashan and Carmel are turned upside down.
10 And therefore sayeth the LORD, "I will up; now will I get up, now will I arise.
11 Ye shall conceive stubble, and bear straw, and your spirit shall be the fire, that it may consume you.
12 And the people shall be burnt like lime, and as thorns burn that are hewn off, and cast in the fire."
13 Now hearken to, ye that are far off, how I do with them; and consider my glory, ye that be at hand.
14 The sinners at Zion are afraid, and a sudden fearfulness is come upon the hypocrites. "What is he among us," say they, "that will dwell by that consuming fire? Which of us may abide that everlasting heat?"
15 He that leadeth a godly life - say I - and speaketh the truth; He that abhorreth to do violence and deceit; he that keepeth his hand that he touch no reward; which stoppeth his ears, that he hear no counsel against the innocent; which holdeth down his eyes, that he see none evil.
16 He it is, that shall dwell on high; whose safeguard shall be in the true rock, to him shall be given the right true meat and drink.
17 His eyes shall see the king in his glory, and in the wide world;
18 and his heart shall delight in the fear of God. What shall then become of the scribe? Of the receiver of our money? What of him that taxed our fair houses?
19 There shalt thou not see a people of a strange tongue to have so diffused a language, that it may not be understood: neither so strange a speech but it shall be perceived.
20 There shall Zion be seen, the head city of our solemn feasts. There shall thine eyes see Jerusalem, that glorious habitation; the tabernacle that never shall remove, whose nails shall never be taken out; world without end, whose cords everyone shall never corrupt.
21 For the glorious Majesty of the LORD shall there be present among us. In that place, where fair broad rivers and streams are, shall neither Galley row, nor great ship sail.
22 For the LORD shall be our captain, the LORD shall be our law giver. The LORD shall be our king, and he himself shall be our Saviour
23 There are the cords so laid abroad, that they cannot be better; The mast set up of such a fashion, that no banner nor sail hangeth thereon; but there is dealt great spoil: yea, lame men run after the prey;
24 There lieth no man that sayeth, "I am sick," but all evil is taken away from the people, that dwell there.