Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹The pronouncement concerning Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin.

²The cities of Aroer are abandoned; They will be for herds to lie down in, And there will be no one to frighten them.

³The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,” Declares the LORD of armies.

⁴Now on that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵It will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost branch, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷On that day man will look to his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Even the Asherim and incense altars.

⁹On that day their strong cities will be like abandoned places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And the land will be a desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

¹¹On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will flee On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹²Oh, the uproar of many peoples Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

¹³The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

¹⁴At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning they are gone. This will be the fate of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.

¹Woe, land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,

²Which sends messengers by the sea, Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, To a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation Whose land the rivers divide.

³All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth, As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it, And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look from My dwelling place Like dazzling heat in the sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, And remove and tear away the spreading branches.

⁶They will be left together for mountain birds of prey, And for the animals of the earth; And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them, And all the animals of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

⁷At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies From a people tall and smooth, From a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.

¹The pronouncement concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, And to mediums and spiritists.

⁴Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of armies.

⁵The waters from the sea will dry up, And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸And the fishermen will grieve, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.

¹⁰And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed; All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The officials of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

¹²Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of armies Has planned against Egypt.

¹³The officials of Zoan have turned out to be fools, The officials of Memphis are deluded; Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes Have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of armies, which He is going to wave over them.

¹⁷The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the LORD of armies which He is making against them.

¹⁸On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of armies; one will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the LORD beside its border.

²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will save them.

²¹So the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.

²²And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³On that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,

²⁵whom the LORD of armies has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

¹In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it,

²at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot.

³Then the LORD said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and symbol against Egypt and Cush,

⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

⁵Then they will be terrified and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their pride.

⁶So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and how are we ourselves to escape?’ ”

¹The pronouncement concerning the wilderness of the sea: As windstorms in the Negev come in turns, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.

²A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media; I have put an end to all the groaning she has caused.

³For this reason my loins are full of anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

⁴My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned into trembling for me.

⁵They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink; “Rise up, captains, oil the shields!”

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, station the lookout, have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees a column of chariots, horsemen in pairs, A train of donkeys, a train of camels, He is to pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸Then the lookout called, “Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

⁹Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰My downtrodden people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of armies, The God of Israel, I make known to you.

¹¹The pronouncement concerning Edom: One keeps calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, how far gone is the night? Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

¹²The watchman says, “Morning comes but also night. If you would inquire, inquire; Come back again.”

¹³The pronouncement about Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night, You caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty, You inhabitants of the land of Tema; Meet the fugitive with bread.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords, From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, And from the press of battle.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord said to me: “In a year, as a hired worker would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end;

¹⁷and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken.”

¹The pronouncement concerning the valley of vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You who were full of noise, You tumultuous town, you jubilant city; Your dead were not killed with the sword, Nor did they die in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together, And have been captured without the bow; All of you who were found were taken captive together, Though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I say, “Look away from me, Let me weep bitterly, Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord GOD of armies has a day of panic, subjugation, and confusion In the valley of vision, A breaking down of walls And a crying to the mountain.

⁶Elam picked up the quiver, With the chariots, infantry, and horsemen; And Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took positions at the gate.

⁸And He removed the defense of Judah. On that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,

⁹And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

¹²Therefore on that day the Lord GOD of armies called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head, and to wearing sackcloth.

¹³Instead, there is joy and jubilation, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

¹⁴But the LORD of armies revealed Himself to me: “Certainly this wrongdoing will not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord GOD of armies.

¹⁵This is what the Lord GOD of armies says: “Come, go to this steward, To Shebna who is in charge of the royal household,

¹⁶‘What right do you have here, And whom do you have here, That you have cut out a tomb for yourself here, You who cut out a tomb on the height, You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?

¹⁷Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you violently, you strong man. And He is about to grasp you firmly

¹⁸And wrap you up tightly like a ball, To be driven into a vast country; There you will die, And there your splendid chariots will be, You shame of your master’s house!’

¹⁹I will depose you from your office, And I will pull you down from your position.

²⁰Then it will come about on that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

²¹And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely around him. I will hand your authority over to him, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²²Then I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder; When he opens, no one will shut, When he shuts, no one will open.

²³I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the descendants, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars.

²⁵On that day,” declares the LORD of armies, “the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the load that is hanging on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

¹The pronouncement concerning Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish, For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor; It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon; Your messengers crossed the sea

³And were on many waters. The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue; And she was the market of nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have neither been in labor nor given birth, I have neither brought up young men nor raised virgins.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt, They will be in anguish over the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland.

⁷Is this your jubilant city, Whose origin is from antiquity, Whose feet used to bring her to colonize distant places?

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

⁹The LORD of armies has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty, To despise all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰Overflow your land like the Nile, you daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint.

¹¹He has stretched His hand out over the sea, He has made the kingdoms tremble; The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.

¹²He has said, “You shall not be jubilant anymore, you crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people that did not exist; Assyria allocated it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, you ships of Tarshish, For your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁵Now on that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶Take your harp, wander around the city, You forgotten prostitute; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, That you may be remembered.

¹⁷It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her prostitute’s wages and commit prostitution with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸Her profit and her prostitute’s wages will be sacred to the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her profit will become sufficient food and magnificent attire for those who dwell in the presence of the LORD.

¹Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, twists its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.

²And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the female servant like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.

³The earth will be completely laid waste and completely plundered, for the LORD has spoken this word.

⁴The earth dries up and crumbles away, the mainland dries out and crumbles away, the exalted of the people of the earth dwindle.

⁵The earth is also defiled by its inhabitants, for they violated laws, altered statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth decrease in number, and few people are left.

⁷The new wine mourns, The vine decays, All the joyful-hearted sigh.

⁸The joy of tambourines ceases, The noise of revelers stops, The joy of the harp ceases.

⁹They do not drink wine with song; Intoxicating drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The city of chaos is broken down; Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.

¹¹There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine; All joy turns to gloom. The joy of the earth is banished.

¹²Desolation is left in the city And the gate is battered to ruins.

¹³For so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, As the shaking of an olive tree, As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

¹⁴They raise their voices, they shout for joy; They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD.

¹⁵Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, The name of the LORD, the God of Israel, In the coastlands of the sea.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear songs: “Glory to the Righteous One,” But I say, “I am finished! I am finished! Woe to me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

¹⁷Terror and pit and snare Confront you, you inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸Then it will be that the one who flees the sound of terror will fall into the pit, And the one who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.

¹⁹The earth is broken apart, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently.

²⁰The earth trembles like a heavy drinker And sways like a hut, For its wrongdoing is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again.

²¹So it will happen on that day, That the LORD will punish the rebellious angels of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth.

²²They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished.

²³Then the moon will be ashamed and the sun be put to shame, For the LORD of armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.

¹LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

²For You have turned a city into a heap, A fortified city into a ruin; A palace of strangers is no longer a city, It will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore a strong people will glorify You; Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.

⁴For You have been a stronghold for the helpless, A stronghold for the poor in his distress, A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of the ruthless Is like a rain storm against a wall.

⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the uproar of foreigners; Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.

⁶Now the LORD of armies will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.

⁷And on this mountain He will destroy the covering which is over all peoples, The veil which is stretched over all nations.

⁸He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.

⁹And it will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

¹⁰For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, And Moab will be trampled down in his place As straw is trampled down in the water of a manure pile.

¹¹And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.

¹²The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down, Lay low, and throw to the ground, to the dust.

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; He sets up walls and ramparts for security.

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, The one that remains faithful.

³The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

⁵For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

⁶The foot will trample it, The feet of the poor, the steps of the helpless.”

⁷The way of the righteous is smooth; O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

⁸Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, LORD, We have waited for You eagerly; Your name, and remembering You, is the desire of our souls.

⁹At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments, The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Though the wicked person is shown compassion, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹LORD, Your hand is lifted up, yet they do not see it. They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame; Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.

¹²LORD, You will establish peace for us, Since You have also performed for us all our works.

¹³LORD, our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we confess Your name.

¹⁴The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶LORD, they sought You in distress; They could only whisper a prayer, Your discipline was upon them.

¹⁷As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, She writhes and cries out in her labor pains; This is how we were before You, LORD.

¹⁸We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

¹⁹Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course.

²¹For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wrongdoing; And the earth will reveal her bloodshed And will no longer cover her slain.

¹On that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²On that day, “A vineyard of beauty, sing of it!

³I, the LORD, am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will damage it, I guard it night and day.

⁴I have no wrath. Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle, Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.

⁵Or let him rely on My protection, Let him make peace with Me, Let him make peace with Me.”

⁶In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, And they will fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?

⁸You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore through this Jacob’s wrongdoing will be forgiven; And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones; When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city is isolated, A homestead deserted and abandoned like the desert; There the calf will graze, And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.

¹¹When its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and make a fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment, Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²On that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, you sons of Israel.

¹³It will come about also on that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

¹Woe to the proud crown of the habitually drunk of Ephraim, And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent; As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He has thrown it down to the earth with His hand.

³The splendid crown of the habitually drunk of Ephraim is trampled underfoot.

⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley, Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to the summer, Which one sees, And as soon as it is in his hand, He swallows it.

⁵On that day the LORD of armies will become a beautiful crown And a glorious wreath to the remnant of His people;

⁶A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

⁷And these also reel with wine and stagger from intoxicating drink: The priest and the prophet reel with intoxicating drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from intoxicating drink; They reel while having visions, They stagger when rendering a verdict.

⁸For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

⁹“To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’ ”

¹¹Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,

¹²He who said to them, “This is the place of quiet, give rest to the weary,” And, “This is the resting place,” but they would not listen.

¹³So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.

¹⁴Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The gushing flood will not reach us when it passes by, Because we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will overflow the secret place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the gushing flood passes through, Then you will become its trampling ground.

¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will seize you; For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night, And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”

²⁰The bed is too short on which to stretch out, And the blanket is too small to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be stirred up as in the Valley of Gibeon, To do His task, His unusual task, And to work His work, His extraordinary work.

²²And now do not carry on as scoffers, Or your shackles will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of armies Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

²³Listen and hear my voice, Pay attention and hear my words.

²⁴Does the farmer plow continually to plant seed? Does he continually turn and break up his ground?

²⁵Does he not level its surface And sow dill and scatter cumin And plant wheat in rows, Barley in its place and rye within its area?

²⁶For his God instructs and teaches him properly.

²⁷For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is the cartwheel driven over cumin; But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a club.

²⁸Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.

²⁹This also comes from the LORD of armies, Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.

¹Woe, Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, keep your feasts on schedule.

²I will bring distress to Ariel, And she will be a city of grieving and mourning; And she will be like an Ariel to me.

³I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set up siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you.

⁴Then you will be brought low; From the earth you will speak, And from the dust where you are prostrate Your words will come. Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground, And your speech will whisper from the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust, And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; And it will happen instantly, suddenly.

⁶From the LORD of armies you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

⁷And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against Ariel, Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸It will be as when a hungry person dreams— And behold, he is eating; But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied, Or as when a thirsty person dreams— And behold, he is drinking, But when he awakens, behold, he is faint And his thirst is not quenched. So will the multitude of all the nations be Who wage war against Mount Zion.

⁹Be delayed and horrified, Blind yourselves and be blind; They become drunk, but not with wine, They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.

¹⁰For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes—the prophets; And He has covered your heads—the seers.

¹¹The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which, when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

¹³Then the Lord said, “Because this people approaches Me with their words And honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught;

¹⁴Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the understanding of their men who have understanding will be concealed.”

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

¹⁶You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

¹⁷Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?

¹⁸On that day those who are deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of those who are blind will see.

¹⁹The afflicted also will increase their joy in the LORD, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished, Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be eliminated,

²¹Who cause a person to be indicted by a word, And set a trap for the arbitrator at the gate, And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

²²Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob will not be ashamed now, nor will his face turn pale now;

²³But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, They will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who err in mind will know the truth, And those who criticize will accept instruction.