26 *aIn that day bshall this song be sung in the land of Judah;

We have a strong city;

cSalvation will God appoint for walls and dbulwarks.

2  eOpen ye the gates,

eThat the righteous nation which keepeth the †truth may enter in.

3  Thou wilt keep him fin †perfect peace,

Whose ||mind is gstayed on thee:

Because hhe trusteth in thee.

4  Trust ye in the Lord ifor ever:

For in kthe Lord JEHOVAH is †everlasting strength:

5  For lhe bringeth down them that dwell on high;

lmThe lofty city, he layeth it low;

lHe layeth it low, even to the ground;

lHe bringeth it even to the dust.

6  The foot shall tread it down,

Even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7  The way of the just is nuprightness:

oThou, most upright, dost pweigh the path of the just.

8  Yea, qin the way of thy judgments, O Lord, rshave we waited for thee;

The desire of sour soul is tto uthy name, and qto uthe remembrance of thee.

9  With my soul have I desired thee vin the night;

Yea, with my spirit within me will I wseek thee early:

For when xthy judgments are in the earth,

The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10  yLet zfavour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness:

In athe land of uprightness will he deal unjustly,

And bwill not behold the majesty of the Lord.

11  Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, bThey will not see:

But they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy ||at the people;

Yea, cthe fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12  Lord, thou wilt ordain dPeace efor us:

For fthou also hast wrought all our works ||in us.

13  O Lord our God,

ffOther lords beside thee have had dominion over us:

But gby thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14  They are dead, they shall not live;

They are ggdeceased, they shall not rise:

hTherefore hast thou ivisited and destroyed them,

And kmade all their memory to perish.

15  lThou hast increased the nation, O Lord,

Thou hast increased the nation: mthou art glorified:

Thou hadst nremoved it far unto all othe ends of the earth.

16  Lord, pIn trouble have they visited thee,

They poured out a †prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17  qLike as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery,

Is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs;

So have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18  We have been with child, we have been in pain,

We have as it were brought forth wind;

We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth;

Neither have rthe inhabitants of the world sfallen.

19  tThy dead men shall live,

Together with my dead body shall they arise.

tAwake and sing, tye that dwell in dust:

For uthy dew is as the dew of vherbs,

And the earth shall cast out ggthe dead.

20  Come, my people, wenter thou into thy chambers,

And shut thy doors about thee:

Hide thyself as it were xfor a little ymoment,

zUntil the indignation be overpast.

21  aFor, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place

To bpunish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:

The earth also shall disclose her †blood,

And cshall no more cover her slain.

27 aIn that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword

Shall bpunish cdleviathan the ||piercing serpent,

Even cdleviathan that ecrooked serpent;

And he shall slay dthe dragon that is in the sea.

2  aIn that day fsing ye unto her,

gA vineyard of red wine.

3  hI the Lord do ikeep it;

I will water it jevery moment:

Lest any bhurt it, hI will ikeep it night and day.

4  kFury is not in me:

Who would lmset the briers and thorns against me in battle?

I would ||go through them, I would mburn them together.

5  Or let him take hold of nmy strength,

oThat he may make peace with me;

And he shall make peace with me.

6  He shall cause them that come of Jacob pto take root:

Israel shall qblossom and qbud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.

7  Hath he smitten him, †ras he smote those that smote him?

Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8  rsIn measure, ||when it shooteth forth, thou wilt tdebate with it:

||He stayeth his rough wind in the day of vthe east wind.

9  wBy this therefore shall xthe iniquity of Jacob be purged;

And this is all the fruit yto take away his sin;

When he maketh all the stones of the altar as zchalkstones that are beaten in sunder,

aThe groves and ||aimages shall not stand up.

10  Yet bthe defenced city shall be desolate,

And bcthe habitation dforsaken, and left blike a wilderness:

eThere shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down,

And consume fthe branches thereof.

11  When gthe boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off:

The women come, and hset them on fire:

For iit is a people of no understanding:

Therefore khe that made them will not have mercy on them,

And klhe that formed them will shew them no favour.

12  And it shall come to pass min that day,

That the Lord shall nubeat off from othe channel of pthe river qunto the stream of Egypt,

And ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13  And it shall come to pass min that day,

That rthe great trumpet shall be blown,

And they shall come which were sready to perish in the land of Assyria,

And tthe outcasts in the land of Egypt,

And ushall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

28 *Woe to athe crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose bglorious beauty is a fading flower,

bWhich are con the head of the fat valleys of them that are †overcome with wine!

2  Behold, the Lord hath da mighty and strong one,

Which as a tempest of ehail and a fdestroying gstorm,

As a flood of hmighty waters goverflowing,

Shall icast down to the earth with the hand.

3  aThe crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,

Shall be trodden †under feet:

4  And bthe glorious beauty, bwhich is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower,

And as kthe hasty fruit before the summer;

Which when he that looketh upon it seeth,

While it is yet in his hand he †eateth it up.

5  lIn that day shall the Lord of hosts be for ma crown of glory,

And for a diadem of bbeauty, unto the residue of his people,

6  And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,

And for strength to them that turn the battle nto the gate.

7  But they also ohave erred through wine, and pthrough strong drink are out of the way;

qThe priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,

They are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink;

They err in vision, they stumble in rjudgment.

8  For sall tables are full of vomit and filthiness,

So that there is no place clean.

9  tWhom shall he teach knowledge?

And whom shall he make to understand †doctrine?

uThem that are weaned from the milk,

And drawn from the breasts.

10  For precept ||must be upon precept, precept upon precept;

vLine upon line, line upon line;

Here a little, and there a little:

11  For wwith †xstammering lips and another tongue

||Will he speak to this people.

12  To whom he said,

yThis is the rest wherewith ye may cause zthe weary to rest;

And this is athe refreshing: wyet they would not hear.

13  But the word of the Lord was unto them

bPrecept upon precept, precept upon precept;

bLine upon line, line upon line;

Here a little, and there a little;

That they might go, and cfall backward, and cbe broken,

And csnared, and ctaken.

14  Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, dye scornful men,

That rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

15  Because ye have said, We have emade a covenant with death,

And ewith hell are we at agreement;

When fthe overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us:

For gwe have made lies our refuge,

And gunder falsehood have we hid ourselves:

16  Therefore thus saith the Lord God,

hBehold, I lay in Zion for a foundation ia stone,

jA tried stone, ia precious corner stone, ka sure foundation:

hlHe that believeth shall not make haste.

17  Judgment also will I lay to bmthe line,

And righteousness to mthe plummet:

And nthe hail shall sweep away gthe refuge of lies,

And the waters shall foverflow gthe hiding place.

18  And eyour covenant with death shall be disannulled,

And eyour agreement with hell shall not stand;

fWhen the overflowing scourge shall pass through,

Then ye shall be †trodden down by it.

19  From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you:

For nnmorning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night:

And it shall be oa vexation only ||to understand pthe report.

20  For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it:

And qthe covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

21  For the Lord shall rise up ras in mount Perazim,

He shall be wroth sas in the valley of tGibeon,

That he may do his work, uhis strange work;

And bring to pass his act, his strange act.

22  Now therefore dbe ye not mockers,

Lest your bands be made strong:

For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts

wA consumption, even determined

Upon the whole earth.

23  Give ye ear, and hear my voice;

Hearken, and hear my speech.

24  Doth the plowman plow all day to sow?

Doth he open and xbreak the clods of his ground?

25  When he hath made plain the face thereof,

Doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin,

And cast in ||the principal wheat

And the appointed barley and the ||rie in their †place?

26  ||For his God doth instruct him to ydiscretion, and doth teach him.

27  For the fitches are not threshed with za threshing instrument,

Neither is a cart awheel turned about upon the cummin;

But the fitches are aabeaten out with a staff,

And the cummin with a rod.

28  Bread corn is bruised;

Because he will not ever be threshing it,

Nor break it with the wheel of his cart,

Nor bruise it with his horsemen.

29  This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts,

bWhich is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in cworking.