Isaiah 32

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in 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 see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will hearken.

⁴The mind of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

⁵The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the knave said to be honorable.

⁶For the fool speaks folly,

and his mind plots 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 knaveries of the knave are evil;

he devises wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

⁸But he who is noble devises noble things,

and by noble things he stands.

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 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 gird sackcloth upon your loins.

¹²Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

¹³for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers;

yea, for all the joyous houses

in the joyful city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens for ever,

a joy of wild asses,

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 for ever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹And the forest will utterly go 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 ass range free.