1See, a sovereign shall reign in righteousness, and rulers rule in right-ruling.

2And each one shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the downpour, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

3And the eyes of those who see are not dim, and the ears of those who hear listen.

4And the heart of the rash understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers hurries to speak plainly.

5A fool is no longer called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be respectable;

6for a fool speaks folly, and his heart works wickedness: to practise filthiness, and to speak against יהוה that which misleads, to starve the being of the hungry, and to withhold the drink from the thirsty.

7And the methods of the scoundrel are evil – he has devised wicked plans to destroy the poor with words of falsehood, even when the needy pleads for right-ruling.

8But the generous one devises what is generous, and by generous deeds he rises up.

9Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; rise up you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.

10In little more than a year you shall be troubled, you complacent women; for the grape harvest shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.

11Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you complacent ones; strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists.

12Lament upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruit-bearing vine.

13Weeds and thornbushes come up over the ground of My people, indeed, over all the houses of joy, the city of revelry;

14for the palace is abandoned, the crowded city deserted. Hill and watchtower serve as caves forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

15until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall become garden-land, and the garden-land be reckoned as a forest.

16Then right-ruling shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the garden-land.

17The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the service of righteousness be rest and safety forever.

18And My people shall dwell in a home of peace, and in safe dwellings, and in undisturbed resting places,

19even when hail shall fall, felling the forest, and the city be brought low in humiliation.

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