Chronological Plan

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD!

²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity.

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together.

⁴For thus the LORD has spoken to me: “As a lion roars, And a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice Nor be disturbed by their noise), So the LORD of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.

⁵Like birds flying about, So will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

⁷For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold— sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸“Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, And his young men shall become forced labor.

⁹He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear, And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,” Says the LORD, Whose fire is in Zion And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, And princes will rule with justice.

²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, And a cover from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

³The eyes of those who see will not be dim, And the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful;

⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the LORD, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice.

⁸But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, Hear my voice; You complacent daughters, Give ear to my speech.

¹⁰In a year and some days You will be troubled, you complacent women; For the vintage will fail, The gathering will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;

¹⁴Because the palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—

¹⁵Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace, And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.

¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,

¹⁹Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

¹Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, They will deal treacherously with you.

²O LORD, be gracious to us; We have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, Our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the tumult the people shall flee; When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;

⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.

⁵The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside, The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

⁸The highways lie waste, The traveling man ceases. He has broken the covenant, He has despised the cities, He regards no man.

⁹The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and shriveled; Sharon is like a wilderness, And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

¹⁰“Now I will rise,” says the LORD; “Now I will be exalted, Now I will lift Myself up.

¹¹You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble; Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:

¹⁶He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.

¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

¹⁹You will not see a fierce people, A people of obscure speech, beyond perception, Of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, A tabernacle that will not be taken down; Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, Nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the majestic LORD will be for us A place of broad rivers and streams, In which no galley with oars will sail, Nor majestic ships pass by

²²(For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Lawgiver, The LORD is our King; He will save us);

²³Your tackle is loosed, They could not strengthen their mast, They could not spread the sail. Then the prey of great plunder is divided; The lame take the prey.

²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it.

²For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter.

³Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

⁴All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment.

⁶The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

⁹Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches.

¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest.

¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs And hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”