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31Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord! ²Yet he too is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will rise against the house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. ³The Egyptians are human, and not God; their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall, and they will all perish together. ⁴For thus the Lord said to me, As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey, and—when a band of shepherds is called out against it— is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill. ⁵Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it.

⁶Turn back to him whom you have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel. ⁷For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. ⁸“Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of mortals; and a sword, not of humans, shall devour him; he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. ⁹His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

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

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, listen to my speech. ¹⁰In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent ones; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come. ¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and put sackcloth on your loins. ¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, ¹³for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yes, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant city. ¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks; ¹⁵until 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. ¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. ¹⁷The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. ¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. ¹⁹The forest will disappear completely, and the city will be utterly laid low. ²⁰Happy will you be who sow beside every stream, who let the ox and the donkey range freely.