Isaiah 32

A King Will Reign in Righteousness

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice.

²Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a shelter from the storm,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

³Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will give attention.

⁴The heart of the hasty will understand and know,

and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

⁵The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.

⁶For the fool speaks folly,

and his heart is busy with iniquity,

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the Lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

⁷As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;

he plans wicked schemes

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

⁸But he who is noble plans noble things,

and on noble things he stands.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.

¹⁰In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent women;

for the grape harvest fails,

the fruit harvest will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and tie sackcloth around your waist.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

¹³for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers,

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the exultant city.

¹⁴For the palace is forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens 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 deemed a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

¹⁷And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹And it will hail when the forest falls down,

and the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰Happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.