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¹LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have accomplished wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

²For you have turned the city into a pile of rocks, a fortified city, into ruins; the fortress of barbarians is no longer a city; it will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore, a strong people will honor you. The cities of violent nations will fear you.

⁴For you have been a stronghold for the poor person, a stronghold for the needy in his distress, a refuge from storms and a shade from heat. When the breath of the violent is like a storm against a wall,

⁵like heat in a dry land, you will subdue the uproar of barbarians. As the shade of a cloud cools the heat of the day, so he will silence the song of the violent.

⁶On this mountain, the LORD of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine.

⁷On this mountain he will destroy the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations;

⁸he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken.

⁹On that day it will be said, “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

¹⁰For the LORD’s power will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trampled in a dung pile.

¹¹He will spread out his arms in the middle of it, as a swimmer spreads out his arms to swim. His pride will be brought low, along with the trickery of his hands.

¹²The high-walled fortress will be brought down, thrown to the ground, to the dust.

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city. Salvation is established as walls and ramparts.

²Open the gates so a righteous nation can come in — one that remains faithful.

³You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever, because in the LORD, the LORD himself, is an everlasting rock!

⁵For he has humbled those who live in lofty places — an inaccessible city. He brings it down; he brings it down to the ground; he throws it to the dust.

⁶Feet trample it, the feet of the humble, the steps of the poor.

⁷The path of the righteous is level; you clear a straight path for the righteous.

⁸Yes, LORD, we wait for you in the path of your judgments. Our desire is for your name and renown.

⁹I long for you in the night; yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you, for when your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

¹⁰But if the wicked man is shown favor, he does not learn righteousness. In a righteous land he acts unjustly and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹LORD, your hand is lifted up to take action, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame. Let fire consume your adversaries.

¹²LORD, you will establish peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us.

¹³LORD our God, lords other than you have owned us, but we remember your name alone.

¹⁴The dead do not live; departed spirits do not rise up. Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them; you have wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵You have added to the nation, LORD. You have added to the nation; you are honored. You have expanded all the borders of the land.

¹⁶LORD, they went to you in their distress; they poured out whispered prayers because your discipline fell on them.

¹⁷As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so we were before you, LORD.

¹⁸We became pregnant, we writhed in pain; we gave birth to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen.

¹⁹Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.

²¹For look, the LORD is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal the blood shed on it and will no longer conceal her slain.

¹On that day the LORD with his relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgment on Leviathan, the fleeing serpent — Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea.

²On that day sing about a desirable vineyard:

³I am the LORD, who watches over it to water it regularly. So that no one disturbs it, I watch over it night and day.

⁴I am not angry. If only there were thorns and briers for me to battle, I would trample them and burn them to the ground.

⁵Or let it take hold of my strength; let it make peace with me — make peace with me.

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

⁷Did the LORD strike Israel as he struck the one who struck Israel? Was Israel killed like those killed by the LORD?

⁸You disputed with Israel by banishing and driving her away. He removed her with his severe storm on the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for in this way, and the result of the removal of his sin will be this: when he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

¹⁰For the fortified city will be desolate, pastures deserted and abandoned like a wilderness. Calves will graze there, and there they will spread out and strip its branches.

¹¹When its branches dry out, they will be broken off. Women will come and make fires with them, for they are not a people with understanding. 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 grain from the Euphrates River as far as the Wadi of Egypt, and you Israelites will be gathered one by one.

¹³On that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those lost in the land of Assyria will come, as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt; and they will worship the LORD at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.

¹Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards, and to the fading flower of its beautiful splendor, which is on the summit above the rich valley. Woe to those overcome with wine.

²Look, the Lord has a strong and mighty one  — like a devastating hail storm, like a storm with strong flooding water. He will bring it across the land with his hand.

³The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.

⁴The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, which is on the summit above the rich valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest. Whoever sees it will swallow it while it is still in his hand.

⁵On that day the LORD of Armies will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of splendor to the remnant of his people,

⁶a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who repel attacks at the city gate.

⁷Even these stagger because of wine and stumble under the influence of beer: priest and prophet stagger because of beer, they are confused by wine. They stumble because of beer, they are muddled in their visions, they stumble in their judgments.

⁸Indeed, all their tables are covered with vomit; there is no place without a stench.

⁹Who is he trying to teach? Who is he trying to instruct? Infants just weaned from milk? Babies removed from the breast?

¹⁰“Law after law, law after law, line after line, line after line, a little here, a little there.”

¹¹For he will speak to this people with stammering speech and in a foreign language.

¹²He had said to them: “This is the place of rest; let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would not listen.

¹³The word of the LORD will come to them: “Law after law, law after law, line after line, line after line, a little here, a little there,” so they go stumbling backward, to be broken, trapped, and captured.

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

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death, and we have an agreement with Sheol; when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through, it will not touch us, because we have made falsehood our refuge and have hidden behind treachery.”

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.

¹⁷And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the mason’s level.” Hail will sweep away the false refuge, and water will flood your hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with Death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not last. When the overwhelming catastrophe passes through, you will be trampled.

¹⁹Every time it passes through, it will carry you away; it will pass through every morning — every day and every night. Only terror will cause you to understand the message.

²⁰Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and its cover too small to wrap up in.

²¹For the LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim. He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his unexpected work, and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task.

²²So now, do not scoff, or your shackles will become stronger. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Armies a decree of destruction for the whole land.

²³Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say.

²⁴Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed? Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface, does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, with spelt as their border.

²⁶His God teaches him order; he instructs him.

²⁷Certainly black cumin is not threshed with a threshing board, and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cumin. But black cumin is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread grain is crushed, but is not threshed endlessly. Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles, his horses do not crush it.

²⁹This also comes from the LORD of Armies. He gives wondrous advice; he gives great wisdom.