Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim will be crushed under foot;

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley,
Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer,
Which one sees,
And as soon as it is in his hand,
He swallows it.

In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

But as for these, With wine, do they reel, and With strong drink, do they stagger, - Priest and prophet, reel with strong drink They are swallowed up through wine They stagger through strong drink, They reel in prophetic vision, They totter in pronouncing judgment.

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

For it is: "Do this and do that, do this and do that, Line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there."

For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

And to whom a word of Jehovah hath been, Rule on rule, rule on rule, line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there, So that they go and have stumbled backward, And been broken, and snared, and captured.

Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride, the rulers of this people in Jerusalem:

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol (the place of the dead) we have made an agreement,
When the overwhelming scourge passes by, it will not reach us,
For we have made lies our refuge and we have concealed ourselves in deception.”

Therefore the Lord God says this,

“Listen carefully, I am laying in Zion a Stone, a tested Stone,
A precious Cornerstone for the [secure] foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes [who trusts in, relies on, and adheres to that Stone] will not be disturbed or give way [in sudden panic].

Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

And disannulled hath been your covenant with death, And your provision with Sheol doth not stand, An overflowing scourge, when it passeth over, Then ye have been to it for a treading-place.

From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow when he would wrap himself in it.

For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

Now do not carry on as scoffers,
Or the bands which bind you will be made stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts [a decree]
Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say.

Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.

Bread -corn is beaten small, For not for ever doth he sorely thresh it, Nor crushed it hath a wheel of his cart, Nor do his hoofs beat it small.

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.

And I have sent distress to Ariel, And it hath been lamentation and mourning, And it hath been to me as Ariel.

And I will encamp {in a circle} against you, and I will lay siege to you [with] towers and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

And thou shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground. And thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of he who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground. And thy speech shall whisper out of the d

Then shall be as fine dust the multitude of thy foreigners, - And as chaff that passeth away, the multitude of tyrants; And it shall come to pass, in a twinkling, Suddenly,

All the many nations
going out to battle against Ariel—
all the attackers, the siege works against her,
and those who oppress her—
will then be like a dream, a vision in the night.

It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,
then wakes and is still hungry;
and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,
then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.
So it will be for all the many nations
who go to battle against Mount Zion.

For the Lord has poured out on you
an overwhelming urge to sleep;
He has shut your eyes—the prophets,
and covered your heads—the seers.

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?

Is it not yet a very little, And turned hath Lebanon to a fruitful field, And the fruitful field for a forest is reckoned?

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.

For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

Causing men to sin in word, And for a reprover in the gate lay a snare, And turn aside into emptiness the righteous.

Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob: "Jacob will no longer be ashamed, and his face will no longer grow pale.

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.

They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

For to you the protection of Pharaoh shall be a shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt a confusion.

For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

Everyone will start to stink because of a people [that] cannot profit them, not for help and not for profiting, but for shame and also for disgrace."

The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

That a rebellious people is this, sons -- liars, Sons not willing to hear the law of Jehovah.

Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

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:

Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said this,

“In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved,
In quietness and confident trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,

A thousand of you shall flee for one, or at the most for five, which do but only give you evil words: until ye be desolate, as a ship mast upon a high mountain, and as a beacon upon a hill.

And therefore doth wait Jehovah to favour you, And therefore He is exalted to pity you, For a God of judgment is Jehovah, O the blessedness of all waiting for Him.

O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will most certainly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry for help; when He hears it, He will answer you.

And the Lord hath given to you bread of adversity, And water of oppression. And thy directors remove no more, And thine eyes have seen thy directors,

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

And ye have defiled the covering of Thy graven images of silver, And the ephod of thy molten image of gold, Thou scatterest them as a sickening thing, 'Go out,' thou sayest to it.

Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

And the oxen and the young asses serving the ground, Fermented provender do eat, That one is winnowing with shovel and fan.

And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Behold, the glory of the LORD shall come from far, his face shall burn, that no man shall be able to abide it, his lips shall wag for very indignation, and his tongue shall be as a consuming fire.

And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

And every passage of the settled staff, That Jehovah causeth to rest on him, Hath been with tabrets, and with harps, And in battles of shaking he hath fought with it.

For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has been made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: it is massed with fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, puts a light to it.

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

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.

And the Egyptians [are] human and not God, and their horses [are] flesh and not spirit. And Yahweh stretches out his hand, and [the] helper will stumble, and [the] one being helped will fall, and together all of them will come to an end.

For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

As birds flying, so doth Jehovah of Hosts Cover over Jerusalem, covering and delivering, Passing over, and causing to escape.'

Turn back to Him from whom sons of Israel Have deepened apostasy.

For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.

And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of men, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become subject to taskwork.

And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Lo, for righteousness doth a king reign, As to princes, for judgment they rule.

Each [one of them] will be like a hiding place from the wind
And a shelter from the storm,
Like streams of water in a dry land,
Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched and weary land [to those who turn to them].

And not dazzled are the eyes of beholders, And the ears of hearers do attend.

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.

For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

But the noble deviseth noble things; and to noble things doth he stand.

Women, easy ones, rise, hear my voice, Daughters, confident ones, give ear to my saying,

{In a year} you will tremble, carefree ones, for [the] vintage will come to an end; [the] harvest will not come.

So tremble, you ladies of leisure! Shudder, you daughters who feel so complacent! Strip down and make yourselves naked down to the waist! Then wrap yourself in sackcloth and beat your breasts.

For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded city is abandoned. Hill and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there.

until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is thought to be a forest.

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