Isaiah 32

¹See, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule with justice.

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

a covert from the tempest,

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 have sight will not be closed,

and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.

⁴The minds of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

⁵A fool will no longer be called noble,

nor a villain said to be honorable.

⁶For fools speak folly,

and their minds plot 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.

⁷The villainies of villains are evil;

they devise wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

⁸But those who are noble plan noble things,

and by noble things they stand.

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

you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.

¹⁰In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent ones;

for the vintage will fail,

the fruit harvest will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and put sackcloth on your loins.

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 jubilant city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens forever,

the joy of wild asses,

a pasture for flocks;

¹⁵until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,

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.

¹⁷The 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.

¹⁹The forest will disappear completely,

and the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,

who let the ox and the donkey range freely.