The Egyptians Are Men, Not God

311 Cursed are those who go down to Egypt for help, and who put their faith in horses; looking to war-carriages for salvation, because of their numbers; and to horsemen, because they are very strong; but they are not looking to the Holy One of Israel, or turning their hearts to the Lord; 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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.

6 Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against by the children of Israel. 7 For in that day they will all give up their images of silver and of gold, the sin which they made for themselves. 8 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. 9 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.

The Righteous King

321 See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs will give right decisions. 2 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. 3 And the eyes of those who see will not be shut, and those who have hearing will give ear to the word. 4 The man of sudden impulses will become wise in heart, and he whose tongue is slow will get the power of talking clearly. 5 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. 6 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. 7 The designs of the false are evil, purposing the destruction of the poor man by false words, even when he is in the right. 8 But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.

Women of Jerusalem Warned

9 Give ear to my voice, you women who are living in comfort; give attention to my words, you daughters who have no fear of danger. 10 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. 11 Be shaking with fear, you women who are living in comfort; be troubled, you who have no fear of danger: take off your robes and put on clothing of grief. 12 Have sorrow for the fields, the pleasing fields, the fertile vine; 13 And for the land of my people, where thorns will come up; even for all the houses of joy in the glad town. 14 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; 15 Till the spirit comes on us from on high, and the waste land becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is changed into a wood. 16 Then in the waste land there will be an upright rule, and righteousness will have its place in the fertile field. 17 And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of an upright rule will be to take away fear for ever. 18 And my people will be living in peace, in houses where there is no fear, and in quiet resting-places. 19 But the tall trees will come down with a great fall, and the town will be low in a low place. 20 Happy are you who are planting seed by all the waters, and sending out the ox and the ass.

The LORD Will Bring Salvation

331 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. 2 O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for your help: be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble. 3 At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your coming up the nations have gone in all directions. 4 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. 5 The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has made Zion full of righteousness and true religion. 6 And she will have no more fear of change, being full of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her wealth. 7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly. 8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man. 9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling. 10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen. 11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath. 12 And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.

13 Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near. 14 The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings? 15 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; 16 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. 17 Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be looking on a far-stretching land. 18 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? 19 Never again will you see the cruel people, a people whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language is strange to you. 20 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. 21 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. 22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king; he will be our saviour. 23 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. 24 And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its people will have forgiveness for their sin.

The LORD's Wrath upon the Nations

341 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse. 6 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. 7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle. 8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion.

9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. 10 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. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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.