| New Living Translation | International Standard Version |
| 1Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him. | 1"Look, a king will reign in righteousness, and rulers will rule with justice. |
| 2Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a parched land. | 2Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a hiding place from storms, like streams of water in the desert, in the shadow of a great rock in an exhausted land. |
| 3Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it. | 3Then the eyes of those who can see won't turn away, and the ears of those who can hear will listen. |
| 4Even the hotheads will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer will speak out plainly. | 4The hearts of reckless people will understand sound judgment, and the tongues of those who stammer will be ready to speak clearly. |
| 5In that day ungodly fools will not be heroes. Scoundrels will not be respected. | 5People will no longer call a fool noble, nor will a bad person be declared honorable. |
| 6For fools speak foolishness and make evil plans. They practice ungodliness and spread false teachings about the LORD. They deprive the hungry of food and give no water to the thirsty. | 6For fools utter contempt, and their minds plot wrong things: practicing ungodliness, spreading lies about the LORD, leaving the pangs of hungry people unsatisfied, and depriving thirsty people of drink. |
| 7The smooth tricks of scoundrels are evil. They plot crooked schemes. They lie to convict the poor, even when the cause of the poor is just. | 7Furthermore, the crimes of bad people are evil; and they devise wicked schemes, destroying the poor with lying words, even when needy people plead a just cause. |
| 8But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity. | 8But those who are decent plan noble things, and by noble deeds they stand." |
| 9Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug. | 9"As for you ladies of leisure— Get up and listen to my voice! You daughters who feel so complacent— hear what I have to say! |
| 10In a short time—just a little more than a year— you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place. | 10In little more than a year, you complacent women will shudder; for the grape harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not come. |
| 11Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief. | 11So 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. |
| 12Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines. | 12For people will be beating their breasts in mourning over the pleasant fields, over the fruitful vines, |
| 13For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone. | 13and over the land of my people overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, over all the houses of merriment and over this city of revelry. |
| 14The palace and the city will be deserted, and busy towns will be empty. Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze in the empty forts and watchtowers | 14"For the palace will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; the citadel and watchtower will become barren wastes forever, the delight of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks, |
| 15until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven. Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops. | 15until the Spirit from on high is poured upon us, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest." |
| 16Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile field. | 16"Then justice will live in the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field. |
| 17And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. | 17The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. |
| 18My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest. | 18My people will live in peaceful dwellings, in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places. |
| 19Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down, | 19But it will hail when the forest comes down, and the wood will be leveled completely. |
| 20the LORD will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely. | 20How happy you will be, sowing your seed beside every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range freely!" |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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