1Look, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

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

3Then the eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will hear attentively.

4The rash will think carefully with understanding, and the stutterer will speak distinctly and with ease.

5The fool will no longer be called honorable, nor the deceiver called principled.

6For the fool speaks folly, and his heart plans evil
and godless actions, and he speaks wrongly against Yahweh.
He makes the hungry empty, and the thirsty he causes to lack drink.

7The deceiver's methods are evil. He devises wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lies, even when the poor say what is right.

8But the honorable man makes honorable plans; and because of his honorable actions he will stand.

9Rise up, you women who are at ease, and listen to my voice;
you carefree daughters, listen to me.

10For in a little more than a year your confidence will be broken,
you carefree women, for the grape harvest will fail, the ingathering will not come.

11Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you confident ones;
take off your fine clothes and make yourselves bare; put on sackcloth around your waists.

12You will wail for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines.

13The land of my people will be overgrown with thorns and briers,
even in all the once joyful houses in the city of revelry.

14For the palace will be forsaken, the crowded city will be deserted;
the hill and the watchtower will become caves forever,
a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

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

16Then justice will reside in the wilderness; and righteousness will live in the fruitful field.

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

18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in secure homes, and in quiet resting places.

19But even if it hails and the forest is destroyed, and the city is completely annihilated,

20
you who sow beside all the streams will be blessed, you who send out your ox and donkey to graze.