And I will make war on you like David, and you will be shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you.

And you will be made low, and your voice will come out of the earth, and your words will be low out of the dust; and your voice will come out of the earth like that of a spirit, making bird-like noises out of the dust.

And the army of your attackers will be like small dust, and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind; suddenly it will come about.

The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and earth-shaking and great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and the flame of burning fire.

And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night.

And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming that he is feasting; but when he is awake there is nothing in his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he is drinking; but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is full of desire: so will all the nations be which make war on Mount Zion.

And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut:

For this cause I will again do a strange thing among this people, a thing to be wondered at: and the wisdom of their wise men will come to nothing, and the sense of their guides will no longer be seen.

You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth the same to you as the one who is forming it? will the thing made say of him who made it, He made me not: or the thing formed say of him who gave it form, He has no knowledge?

In a very short time Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will seem like a wood.

And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark.

And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says about the family of Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to shame, or his face be clouded with fear.

But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of my hands among them, they will give honour to my name; yes, they will give honour to the Holy One of Jacob, and go in fear of the God of Israel.

Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get knowledge, and those who made an outcry against him will give attention to his teaching.

And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing.

For they have all come with offerings to a people of no use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame and a bad name.

Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come.

For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:

For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:

This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.

And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring.

Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of quick-running beasts; so those who go after you will be quick-footed.

A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill.

For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him.

O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.

And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher on one side, but you will see your teacher:

And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.

And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!

And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.

And the oxen and the young asses which are used for ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free from the waste with fork and basket.

And there will be rivers and streams of water on every tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down.

And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows they have undergone.

And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction, like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way.

You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.

And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice.

For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.

And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against him.

Though he is wise, and able to send evil, and his purpose will not be changed; but he will go against the house of the evil-doers, and against those to whom they are looking for help.

For the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit: and when the Lord's hand is stretched out, the helper and he who is helped will come down together.

For the Lord has said to me, As a lion, or a young lion, makes an angry noise over his food, and if a band of herdsmen come out against him, he will not be in fear of their voices, or give up his food for their noise: so the Lord of armies will come down to make war against Mount Zion and its hill.

Like birds with outstretched wings, so will the Lord of armies be a cover to Jerusalem; he will be a cover and salvation for it, going over it he will keep it from danger.

For in that day they will all give up their images of silver and of gold, the sin which they made for themselves.

Then the Assyrian will come down by the sword, but not of man; the sword, not of men, will be the cause of his destruction: and he will go in flight from the sword, and his young men will be put to forced work.

And his rock will come to nothing because of fear, and his chiefs will go in flight from the flag, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his altar in Jerusalem.

See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs will give right decisions.

And a man will be as a safe place from the wind, and a cover from the storm; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a waste land.

And the eyes of those who see will not be shut, and those who have hearing will give ear to the word.

The man of sudden impulses will become wise in heart, and he whose tongue is slow will get the power of talking clearly.

The foolish man will no longer be named noble, and they will not say of the false man that he is a man of honour.

For the foolish man will say foolish things, having evil thoughts in his heart, working what is unclean, and talking falsely about the Lord, to keep food from him who is in need of it, and water from him whose soul is desiring it.

But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.

In not much more than a year, you, who are not looking for evil, will be troubled: for the produce of the vine-gardens will be cut off, and there will be no getting in of the grapes.

And for the land of my people, where thorns will come up; even for all the houses of joy in the glad town.

For the fair houses will have no man living in them; the town which was full of noise will become a waste; the hill and the watchtower will be unpeopled for ever, a joy for the asses of the woods, a place of food for the flocks;

Then in the waste land there will be an upright rule, and righteousness will have its place in the fertile field.

And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of an upright rule will be to take away fear for ever.

And my people will be living in peace, in houses where there is no fear, and in quiet resting-places.

But the tall trees will come down with a great fall, and the town will be low in a low place.

Happy are you who are planting seed by all the waters, and sending out the ox and the ass.

Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you waste; acting falsely to those who were not false to you. When you have come to an end of wasting, you will be made waste, and after your false acts, they will do the same to you.

At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your coming up the nations have gone in all directions.

And the goods taken in war will be got together like the massing of young locusts; men will be rushing on them like the rushing of locusts.

And she will have no more fear of change, being full of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her wealth.

Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen.

Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.

And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.

He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil;

He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will be certain.

Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be looking on a far-stretching land.

Your heart will give thought to the cause of your fear: where is the scribe, where is he who made a record of the payments, where is he by whom the towers were numbered?

Never again will you see the cruel people, a people whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language is strange to you.

Let your eyes be resting on Zion, the town of our holy feasts: you will see Jerusalem, a quiet resting-place, a tent which will not be moved, whose tent-pins will never be pulled up, and whose cords will never be broken.

But there the Lord will be with us in his glory, ... wide rivers and streams; where no boat will go with blades, and no fair ship will be sailing.

For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king; he will be our saviour.

Your cords have become loose; they were not able to make strong the support of their sails, the sail was not stretched out: then the blind will take much property, the feeble-footed will make division of the goods of war.

And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its people will have forgiveness for their sin.

Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it.

For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction.

Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing.

And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.

The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.

And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle.

And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.

It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever.

But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land.

The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end.

And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.

And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there.

The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos.

See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together.

And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.

The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.

It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of delight and songs; the glory of Lebanon will be given to it; the pride of Carmel and Sharon: they will see the glory of the Lord, the power of our God.

Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart: see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will come; he himself will come to be your saviour.

Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which are stopped will be open.

Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry places.

And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass.

And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.

No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price,