Isaiah 32

1See, a king will reign in righteousness, and officials will rule with justice.

2Each will be like a hiding place from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

3Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4The mind of the rash will understand and know, and the tongue of those who stammer will speak quickly and clearly.

5A fool will no longer be called noble, nor a scoundrel be spoken of as honorable.

6For a fool speaks foolishness, and his heart plots evil: to practice godlessness, to speak error about Yahweh, to leave the hungry empty, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

7The scoundrel’s methods are evil; he devises wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the needy plead their just cause.

8But the noble person plans noble things, and by noble things he stands.

9You women who are at ease, rise up and hear my voice; you daughters who feel secure, listen to what I say.

10In a little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble, for the grape harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not come.

11Tremble, you women who are at ease; shudder, you who feel secure! Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.

12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13for the soil of my people, where thorns and briers will grow up, yes, for all the joyful houses in the jubilant city.

14For the palace will be abandoned, the crowded city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

15until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is regarded as a forest.

16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will live in the fruitful field.

17The work of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness will be quietness and security forever.

18My people will live in a peaceful home, in secure dwellings, in undisturbed places of rest.

19But hail will fall when the forest comes down, and the city will be utterly laid low.

20Blessed are you who sow beside every stream, who let the ox and the donkey range free.