Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹An oracle concerning Damascus. See, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins.

²Her towns will be deserted forever; they will be places for flocks, which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.

³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel, — says the LORD of hosts.

⁴On that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

⁵And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain and their arms harvest the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten — two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, — says the LORD God of Israel.

⁷On that day people will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;

⁸they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles or the altars of incense.

⁹On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,

¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹²Ah, the thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations, they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

¹³The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴At evening time, lo, terror! Before morning, they are no more. This is the fate of those who despoil us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

¹Ah, land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

²sending ambassadors by the Nile in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.

³All you inhabitants of the world, you who live on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, listen!

⁴For thus the LORD said to me: I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he will hew away.

⁶They shall all be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the animals of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.

¹An oracle concerning Egypt. See, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, one against the other, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;

³the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;

⁴I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; a fierce king will rule over them, says the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts.

⁵The waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry;

⁶its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile; and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸Those who fish will mourn; all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will languish.

⁹The workers in flax will be in despair, and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.

¹⁰Its weavers will be dismayed, and all who work for wages will be grieved.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the sages, a descendant of ancient kings”?

¹²Where now are your sages? Let them tell you and make known what the LORD of hosts has planned against Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of its tribes have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has poured into them a spirit of confusion; and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings as a drunkard staggers around in vomit.

¹⁵Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed, will be able to do anything for Egypt.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts raises against them.

¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the LORD of hosts is planning against them.

¹⁸On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.

²⁰It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them.

²¹The LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day, and will worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.

²²The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing; they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.

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

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

²⁵whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.”

¹In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it —

²at that time the LORD had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.

³Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,

⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

⁵And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their boast.

⁶In that day the inhabitants of this coastland will say, ‘See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

¹The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

²A stern vision is told to me; the betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam, lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear, I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

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

⁵They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Rise up, commanders, oil the shield!

⁶For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, post a lookout, let him announce what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.”

⁸Then the watcher called out: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed throughout the night.

⁹Look, there they come, riders, horsemen in pairs!” Then he responded, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.

¹¹The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, “Sentinel, what of the night? Sentinel, what of the night?”

¹²The sentinel says: “Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.”

¹³The oracle concerning the desert plain. In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water to the thirsty, meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema.

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

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end;

¹⁷and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

¹The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,

²you that are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are they dead in battle.

³Your rulers have all fled together; they were captured without the use of a bow. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said: Look away from me, let me weep bitter tears; do not try to comfort me for the destruction of my beloved people.

⁵For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a cry for help to the mountains.

⁶Elam bore the quiver with chariots and cavalry, and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away the covering of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,

⁹and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and putting on sackcloth;

¹³but instead there was joy and festivity, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:

¹⁶What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock?

¹⁷The LORD is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you,

¹⁸whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house!

¹⁹I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

²⁰On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah,

²¹and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²²I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.

²³I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.

²⁴And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.

²⁵On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the LORD has spoken.

¹The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is destroyed. When they came in from Cyprus they learned of it.

²Be still, O inhabitants of the coast, O merchants of Sidon, your messengers crossed over the sea

³and were on the mighty waters; your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the fortress of the sea, saying: “I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.”

⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish — wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?

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 hosts has planned it — to defile the pride of all glory, to shame all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰Cross over to your own land, O ships of Tarshish; this is a harbor no more.

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its fortresses.

¹²He said: You will exult no longer, O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon; rise, cross over to Cyprus — even there you will have no rest.

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, they tore down her palaces, they made her a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is destroyed.

¹⁵From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade, and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the LORD; her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the LORD.

¹Now the LORD is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

²And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

³The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for the LORD has spoken this word.

⁴The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.

⁵The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left.

⁷The wine dries up, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.

⁸The mirth of the timbrels is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.

⁹No longer do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The city of chaos is broken down, every house is shut up so that no one can enter.

¹¹There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished.

¹²Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins.

¹³For thus it shall be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.

¹⁴They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; they shout from the west over the majesty of the LORD.

¹⁵Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, I pine away, I pine away. Woe is me! For the treacherous deal treacherously, the treacherous deal very treacherously.

¹⁷Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

¹⁸Whoever flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit; and whoever climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn asunder, the earth is violently shaken.

²⁰The earth staggers like a drunkard, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.

²¹On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven in heaven, and on earth the kings of the earth.

²²They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.

²³Then the moon will be abashed, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders he will manifest his glory.

¹O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

²For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

⁴For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,

⁵the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.

⁶On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

⁷And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations;

⁸he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

⁹It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

¹⁰For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.

¹¹Though they spread out their hands in the midst of it, as swimmers spread out their hands to swim, their pride will be laid low despite the struggle of their hands.

¹²The high fortifications of his walls will be brought down, laid low, cast to the ground, even to the dust.

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; he sets up victory like walls and bulwarks.

²Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

³Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace — in peace because they trust in you.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD GOD you have an everlasting rock.

⁵For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low. He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.

⁶The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

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

⁸In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire.

⁹My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness they deal perversely and do not see the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹O LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

¹²O LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.

¹³O LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but we acknowledge your name alone.

¹⁴The dead do not live; shades do not rise — because you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O LORD, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

¹⁷Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time, so were we because of you, O LORD;

¹⁸we were with child, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and no one is born to inhabit the world.

¹⁹Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.

²¹For the LORD comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no longer cover its slain.

¹On that day the LORD with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

²On that day: A pleasant vineyard, sing about it!

³I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. I guard it night and day so that no one can harm it;

⁴I have no wrath. If it gives me thorns and briers, I will march to battle against it. I will burn it up.

⁵Or else let it cling to me for protection, let it make peace with me, let it make peace with me.

⁶In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷Has he struck them down as he struck down those who struck them? Or have they been killed as their killers were killed?

⁸By expulsion, by exile you struggled against them; with his fierce blast he removed them in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no sacred poles or incense altars will remain standing.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; the calves graze there, there they lie down, and strip its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without understanding; therefore he that made them will not have compassion on them, he that formed them will show them no favor.

¹²On that day the LORD will thresh from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel.

¹³And on that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

¹Ah, the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of those bloated with rich food, of those overcome with wine!

²See, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters; with his hand he will hurl them down to the earth.

³Trampled under foot will be the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim.

⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of those bloated with rich food, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer; whoever sees it, eats it up as soon as it comes to hand.

⁵In that day the LORD of hosts will be a garland of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;

⁶and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused with wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.

⁸All tables are covered with filthy vomit; no place is clean.

⁹“Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast?

¹⁰For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

¹¹Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people,

¹²to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;” in order that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

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

¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord GOD, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: “One who trusts will not panic.”

¹⁷And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.

¹⁸Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through you will be beaten down by it.

¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.

²¹For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon to do his deed — strange is his deed! — and to work his work — alien is his work!

²²Now therefore do not scoff, or your bonds will be made stronger; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land.

²³Listen, and hear my voice; Pay attention, and hear my speech.

²⁴Do those who plow for sowing plow continually? Do they continually open and harrow their ground?

²⁵When they have leveled its surface, do they not scatter dill, sow cummin, and plant wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and spelt as the border?

²⁶For they are well instructed; their God teaches them.

²⁷Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin; but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cummin with a rod.

²⁸Grain is crushed for bread, but one does not thresh it forever; one drives the cart wheel and horses over it, but does not pulverize it.

²⁹This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

¹Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals run their round.

²Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and Jerusalem shall be to me like an Ariel.

³And like David I will encamp against you; I will besiege you with towers and raise siegeworks against you.

⁴Then deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust your words shall come; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of tyrants like flying chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,

⁶you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating and wakes up still hungry, or a thirsty person dreams of drinking and wakes up faint, still thirsty, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not from wine; stagger, but not from strong drink!

¹⁰For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

¹¹The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot read.”

¹³The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;

¹⁴so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.

¹⁵Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the LORD, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

¹⁶You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

¹⁷Shall not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?

¹⁸On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off —

²¹those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

²²Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: No longer shall Jacob be ashamed, no longer shall his face grow pale.

²³For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.