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Government with Justice Predicted

32See, a king will reign in righteousness,
   and princes will rule with justice.
² Each 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.
³ Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,
   and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.
⁴ The minds of the rash will have good judgement,
   and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.
⁵ A fool will no longer be called noble,
   nor a villain be said to be honourable.
⁶ For fools speak folly,
   and their minds plot iniquity:
to practise ungodliness,
   to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
   and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷ The 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.
⁸ But those who are noble plan noble things,
   and by noble things they stand.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
   you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.
¹⁰ In little more than a year
   you will shudder, you complacent ones;
for the vintage will fail,
   the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease,
   shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
   and put sackcloth on your loins.
¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
   for the fruitful vine,
¹³ for the soil of my people
   growing up in thorns and briers;
yes, for all the joyous houses
   in the jubilant city.
¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken,
   the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watch-tower
   will become dens for ever,
the joy of wild asses,
   a pasture for flocks;
¹⁵ until 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.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
   and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷ The effect of righteousness will be peace,
   and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.
¹⁸ My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
   in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
¹⁹ The forest will disappear completely,^*
   and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰ Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,
   who let the ox and the donkey range freely.