Woe, Trust, and the Highway of Holiness

28:2Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.

28:3The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.

28:4The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

28:5In that day, the LORD of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people,

28:6and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

28:7They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.

28:8For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

28:9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

28:10For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

28:11But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language,

28:12to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear.

28:13Therefore the LORD’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

28:14Therefore hear the LORD’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

28:15“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’”

28:16Therefore the Lord GOD says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.

28:17I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

28:18Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

28:19As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”

28:20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

28:21For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

28:22Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, GOD of Armies, on the whole earth.

28:23Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!

28:24Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

28:25When 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?

28:26For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him.

28:27For the dill isn’t threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

28:28Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it.

28:29This also comes out from the LORD of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

29:2then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.

29:3I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.

29:4You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

29:5But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.

29:6She will be visited by the LORD of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.

29:7The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

29:8It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

29:9Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

29:10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.

29:11All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;”

29:12and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”

29:13The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

29:14therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

29:15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the LORD, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”

29:16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

29:17Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

29:18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

29:19The humble also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

29:20For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off—

29:21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

29:22Therefore the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.

29:23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

29:24They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”

30:2who set out to go down into Egypt without asking for my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

30:3Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

30:4For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

30:5They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”

30:6The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.

30:7For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.

30:8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

30:9For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the LORD’s law;

30:10who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

30:11Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”

30:12Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it,

30:13therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

30:14He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

30:15For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,

30:16but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift.

30:17One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

30:18Therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

30:19For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.

30:20Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;

30:21and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”

30:22You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”

30:23He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

30:24The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

30:25There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

30:26Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

30:27Behold, the LORD’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is as a devouring fire.

30:28His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

30:29You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock.

30:30The LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.

30:31For through the LORD’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

30:32Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the LORD will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.

30:33For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The LORD’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

31:2Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

31:3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

31:4For the LORD says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so the LORD of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.

31:5As birds hovering, so the LORD of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.”

31:6Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

31:7For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you.

31:8“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.

31:9His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

32:2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

32:3The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

32:4The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

32:5The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

32:6For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

32:7The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

32:8But the noble devises noble things, and he will continue in noble things.

32:9Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!

32:10For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage will fail. The harvest won’t come.

32:11Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

32:12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

32:13Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

32:14For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks,

32:15until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

32:16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.

32:17The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

32:18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places,

32:19though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.

32:20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

33:2LORD, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

33:3At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

33:4Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

33:5The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

33:6There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is your treasure.

33:7Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

33:8The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man.

33:9The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

33:10“Now I will arise,” says the LORD. “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

33:11You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.

33:12The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.

33:13Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.”

33:14The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

33:15He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

33:16he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.

33:17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land.

33:18Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

33:19You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand.

33:20Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

33:21But there the LORD will be with us in majesty, a place of wide rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there.

33:22For the LORD is our judge. The LORD is our lawgiver. The LORD is our king. He will save us.

33:23Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey.

33:24The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

34:2For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.

34:3Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will melt in their blood.

34:4All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.

34:5For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.

34:6The LORD’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.

34:8For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

34:9Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.

34:10It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.

34:11But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

34:12They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.

34:13Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

34:14The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.

34:15The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.

34:16Search in the book of the LORD, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.

34:17He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

35:2It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the LORD’s glory, the excellence of our God.

35:3Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm.

35:4Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

35:5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

35:6Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

35:7The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

35:8A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools shall not go there.

35:9No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.

35:10Then the LORD’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”