32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. |
32:2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. |
32:3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will hearken. |
32:4 The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly. |
32:5 The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to be honorable. |
32:6 For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink. |
32:7 The knaveries of the knave are evil; he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. |
32:8 But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands. |
32:9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. |
32:10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come. |
32:11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. |
32:12 Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, |
32:13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyful city. |
32:14 For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; |
32:15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. |
32:16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. |
32:17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever. |
32:18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. |
32:19 And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be utterly laid low. |
32:20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free. |