Bible Browser

A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes

33Ah, you destroyer,
   who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
   with whom no one has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
   you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,
   you will be dealt with treacherously.

² O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
   Be our arm every morning,
   our salvation in the time of trouble.
³ At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;
   before your majesty, nations scattered.
⁴ Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
   as locusts leap, they leapt^* upon it.
⁵ The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high;
   he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;
⁶ he will be the stability of your times,
   abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
   the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.^*

⁷ Listen! the valiant^* cry in the streets;
   the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways are deserted,
   travellers have left the road.
The treaty is broken,
   its oaths^* are despised,
   its obligation^* is disregarded.
⁹ The land mourns and languishes;
   Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert;
   and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰ ‘Now I will arise,’ says the Lord,
   ‘now I will lift myself up;
   now I will be exalted.
¹¹ You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;
   your breath is a fire that will consume you.
¹² And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
   like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.’

¹³ Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;
   and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid;
   trembling has seized the godless:
‘Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
   Who among us can live with everlasting flames?’
¹⁵ Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
   who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
   who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
   and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
¹⁶ they will live on the heights;
   their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
   their food will be supplied, their water assured.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
   they will behold a land that stretches far away.
¹⁸ Your mind will muse on the terror:
   ‘Where is the one who counted?
   Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
   Where is the one who counted the towers?’
¹⁹ No longer will you see the insolent people,
   the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
   stammering in a language that you cannot understand.
²⁰ Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
   Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
   a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
   and none of whose ropes will be broken.
²¹ But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
   a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
   nor stately ship can pass.
²² For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
   the Lord is our king; he will save us.

²³ Your rigging hangs loose;
   it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,
   or keep the sail spread out.

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
   even the lame will fall to plundering.
²⁴ And no inhabitant will say, ‘I am sick’;
   the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.