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¹O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise and give thanks to Your name; For You have done miraculous things, Plans formed long, long ago, [fulfilled] with perfect faithfulness.

²For You have made a city into a heap [of trash], A fortified city into a ruin; A palace of foreigners is no longer a city, It will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore a strong people will honor You; Cities of terrible and violent nations will fear You.

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

⁵Like heat in a dry land, You will subdue the noise of foreigners [rejoicing over their enemies]; Like heat in the shadow of a cloud, the song of the tyrants is silenced.

⁶On this mountain [Zion] the LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples [to welcome His reign on earth], A banquet of aged wines—choice pieces [flavored] with marrow, Of refined, aged wines.

⁷And on this mountain He will destroy the covering that is [cast] over all peoples, And the veil [of death] that is woven and spread over all the nations.

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

⁹It will be said in that day, "Indeed, this is our God for whom we have waited that He would save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us shout for joy and rejoice in His salvation."

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

¹¹And Moab will spread out his hands in the middle of the filth As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, But the Lord will humiliate his pride in spite of the [skillful] movements of his hands.

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

¹In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as walls and ramparts.

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

³"You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].

⁴"Trust [confidently] in the LORD forever [He is your fortress, your shield, your banner], For the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].

⁵"For He has thrown down the [arrogant] ones who dwell on high, the lofty and inaccessible city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He hurls it to the dust.

⁶"The foot will trample it, Even the feet of the suffering, and the steps of the helpless."

⁷The way of the righteous [those in right-standing with God—living in moral and spiritual integrity] is smooth and level; O Upright One, make a level path for the just and righteous.

⁸Indeed, in the path of Your judgments, O LORD, We have waited expectantly for You; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire and deep longing of our souls.

⁹In the night my soul longs for You [O LORD], Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For [only] when Your judgments are experienced on the earth Will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Though the wicked is shown compassion and favor, He does not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he deals unjustly, And refuses to see the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹Though Your hand is lifted up [to strike], O LORD, the wicked do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame; Indeed, let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them.

¹²LORD, You will establish peace for us, Since You have also performed for us all that we have done.

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

¹⁴The [wicked] dead will not live [again], the spirits of the dead will not rise and return; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out every memory of them [every trace of them].

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

¹⁶O LORD, they sought You in distress; They managed only a prayerful whisper When Your discipline was upon them.

¹⁷As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth, She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor, So we were before You, O LORD.

¹⁸We have been with child, we have twisted and struggled in labor; We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish salvation for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

¹⁹Your dead will live; Their dead bodies will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy! For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural], And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers And shut your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until the [Lord's] wrath is past.

²¹Listen carefully, the LORD is about to come out of His [heavenly] place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing]; The earth will reveal the [innocent] blood shed upon her And will no longer cover her slain.

¹In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent With His fierce and great and mighty sword [rescuing Israel from her enemy], Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²In that day [it will be said of the redeemed nation of Israel], "A vineyard of wine, sing in praise of it!

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

⁴"I have no wrath. Should anyone give Me briars and thorns in battle, I would step on them, I would set them all on fire.

⁵"Or let him (Israel) cling to My strength and rely on My protection [My stronghold], Let him make peace with Me, Let him make peace with Me."

⁶In the generations to come Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and sprout, And they will fill the surface of the world with fruit.

⁷Like the striking by 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 exile, by driving them away [from Canaan]; He has expelled them with His fierce wind on the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven; And this will be the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin: When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones; When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.

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

¹¹When its branches are dry, they are broken off; The women come and make a fire with them. For they are not a people of understanding, Therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them, And He who created them will not be gracious to them.

¹²In that day the LORD will thresh [out His grain] from the flowing stream of the River [Euphrates] to the Brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

¹³It will come to pass in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost and 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 at Jerusalem.

¹Woe (judgment is coming) to [Samaria] the splendid crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the rich valley Of those who are overcome with wine!

²Listen carefully, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent [the Assyrian]; Like a tempest of hail, a disastrous storm, Like a tempest of mighty overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

³The splendid crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trampled by [the foreigners'] feet.

⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the rich valley, Will be like the early fig before the summer, Which one sees, And as soon as it is in his hand He [greedily] swallows it [and so will the Assyrians rapidly devour Samaria, Israel's capital].

⁵In that day the LORD of hosts will become a magnificent crown And a glorious diadem to the [converted] remnant of His people,

⁶A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment [administering the law], A strength to those who drive back the battle at the gate.

⁷But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink; They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while seeing visions, They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

⁸For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, so that there is no place [that is clean.]

⁹They say "To whom would He teach knowledge? And to whom would He explain the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰"For He says, 'Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Rule upon rule, rule upon rule, Here a little, there a little.'"

¹¹Indeed, the LORD will teach this people [in a more humiliating way] By [men with] 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," yet they would not listen.

¹³Therefore the word of the LORD to them will be [merely monotonous repetitions]: "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Rule upon rule, rule upon rule, Here a little, there a little." That they may go and stumble backward, and be broken, ensnared, and taken captive.

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

¹⁵Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol (the place of the dead) we have made an agreement, When the overwhelming scourge passes by, it will not reach us, For we have made lies our refuge and we have concealed ourselves in deception."

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD says this, "Listen carefully, I am laying in Zion a Stone, a tested Stone, A precious Cornerstone for the [secure] foundation, firmly placed. He who believes [who trusts in, relies on, and adheres to that Stone] will not be disturbed or give way [in sudden panic].

¹⁷"I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the mason's level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And waters will flood over the secret [hiding] place.

¹⁸"Your covenant with death will be annulled, And your agreement with Sheol (the place of the dead) will not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you will become its trampling ground.

¹⁹"As often as it passes through, it will seize you; For morning after morning it will pass through, by day and by night, And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means."

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on, And the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself [and likewise all their preparations are inadequate].

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

²²Now do not carry on as scoffers, Or the bands which bind you will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts [a decree] Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

²³Listen and hear my voice; Listen carefully and hear my words.

²⁴Does the farmer plow all day to plant seed? Does he continually dig furrows and harrow his ground [after it is prepared]?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow [the seed of] dill and scatter cumin, And plant wheat in rows, And barley in its [intended] place and rye within its border?

²⁶For his God instructs [him correctly] and teaches him properly.

²⁷For dill is not threshed with a sharp threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin; But dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread grain is crushed fine, Indeed, the farmer 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 hosts, Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.