The Judgment of God
Woe ato you, O destroyer,
While you were not destroyed;
And he bwho is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, cyou will be destroyed;
As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will ddeal treacherously with you.
2 O Lord, abe gracious to us; we have bwaited for You.
Be their cstrength every morning,
Our salvation also in the dtime of distress.
3 At the sound of the tumult apeoples flee;
At the blifting up of Yourself nations disperse.
4 Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.
5 The Lord is aexalted, for He dwells on high;
He has bfilled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 And He will be the astability of your times,
A bwealth of salvation, wisdom and cknowledge;
The dfear of the Lord is his treasure.
7 Behold, their brave men cry in the streets,
The aambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are desolate, the atraveler has ceased,
He has bbroken the covenant, he has despised the cities,
He has no regard for man.
9 aThe land mourns and pines away,
bLebanon is shamed and withers;
cSharon is like a desert plain,
And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.
10 “Now aI will arise,” says the Lord,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.
11 “You have aconceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;
My bbreath will consume you like a fire.
12 “The peoples will be burned to lime,
aLike cut thorns which are burned in the fire.
13 “You who are far away, ahear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14 aSinners in Zion are terrified;
bTrembling has seized the godless.
“Who among us can live with cthe consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual dburning?”
15 He who awalks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects unjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And bshuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
16 He will dwell on the heights,
aHis refuge will be the impregnable rock;
bHis bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.
17 Your eyes will see athe King in His beauty;
They will behold ba far‑distant land.
18 Your heart will meditate on aterror:
“Where is bhe who counts?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
19 You will no longer see a fierce people,
A people of aunintelligible speech which no one comprehends,
Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.
20 aLook upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an bundisturbed habitation,
cA tent which will not be folded;
Its stakes will never be pulled up,
Nor any of its cords be torn apart.
21 But there the majestic One, the Lord, will be for us
A place of arivers and wide canals
On which no boat with oars will go,
And on which no mighty ship will pass—
22 For the Lord is our ajudge,
The Lord is bour lawgiver,
The Lord is cour king;
dHe will save us—
23 Your tackle hangs slack;
It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then the aprey of an abundant spoil will be divided;
bThe lame will take the plunder.
24 And no resident will say, “I am asick”;
The people who dwell there will be bforgiven their iniquity.
God’s Wrath against Nations
Draw near, aO nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
bLet the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.
2 For the Lord’s aindignation is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies;
He has butterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to cslaughter.
3 So their slain will be athrown out,
And their corpses will give off their bstench,
And the mountains will be drenched with their cblood.
4 And aall the host of heaven will wear away,
And the bsky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.
5 For aMy sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon bEdom
And upon the people whom I have cdevoted to destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in aBozrah
And a great slaughter in the land of bEdom.
7 aWild oxen will also fall with them
And byoung bulls with strong ones;
Thus their land will be csoaked with blood,
And their dust become greasy with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of avengeance,
A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into abrimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
10 It will anot be quenched night or day;
Its bsmoke will go up forever.
From cgeneration to generation it will be desolate;
dNone will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But apelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the bline of desolation
And the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is ano one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be bnothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its afortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of bjackals
And an abode of ostriches.
14 The desert acreatures will meet with the wolves,
The ahairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
15 The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.
Yes, athe hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.
16 Seek from the abook of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For bHis mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the alot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by bline.
They shall possess it forever;
From cgeneration to generation they will dwell in it.
Zion’s Happy Future
The awilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the bArabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
2 It will ablossom profusely
And brejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The cglory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of dCarmel and Sharon.
They will see the eglory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
3 aEncourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
4 Say to those with aanxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with bvengeance;
The crecompense of God will come,
But He will dsave you.”
5 Then the aeyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the alame will leap like a deer,
And the btongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the cwilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
7 The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground asprings of water;
In the bhaunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 aA highway will be there, ba roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of cHoliness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And dfools will not wander on it.
9 No alion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there.
But bthe redeemed will walk there,
10 And athe ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
And bsorrow and sighing will flee away.