25 O Jehovah, you are my God. I exalt you, I laud your name, for you have done wonderful things, counsels from early times, in faithfulness, in trustworthiness. 2 For you have made a city a pile of stones, a fortified town a crumbling ruin, a dwelling tower of strangers to be no city, which will not be rebuilt even to time indefinite. 3 That is why those who are a strong people will glorify you; the town of the tyrannical nations, they will fear you. 4 For you have become a stronghold to the lowly one, a stronghold to the poor one in the distress that he has, a refuge from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the tyrannical ones is like a rainstorm against a wall. 5 Like the heat in a waterless country, the noise of strangers you subdue, the heat with the shadow of a cloud. The melody itself of the tyrannical ones becomes suppressed.

6 And Jehovah of armies will certainly make for all the peoples, in this mountain, a banquet of well-oiled dishes, a banquet of [wine kept on] the dregs, of well-oiled dishes filled with marrow, of [wine kept on] the dregs, filtered. 7 And in this mountain he will certainly swallow up the face of the envelopment that is enveloping over all the peoples, and the woven work that is interwoven upon all the nations. 8 He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].

9 And in that day one will certainly say: “Look! This is our God. We have hoped in him, and he will save us. This is Jehovah. We have hoped in him. Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.”

10 For the hand of Jehovah will settle down on this mountain, and Moab must be trodden down in its place as when a straw heap is trodden down in a manure place. 11 And he must slap out his hands in the midst of it as when a swimmer slaps [them] out to swim, and he must abase its haughtiness with the tricky movements of his hands. 12 And the fortified city, with your high walls of security, he must lay low; he must abase [it], bring [it] into contact with the earth, to the dust.

26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. He sets salvation itself for walls and rampart. 2 Open the gates, YOU men, that the righteous nation that is keeping faithful conduct may enter. 3 The inclination that is well supported you will safeguard in continuous peace, because it is in you that one is made to trust. 4 Trust in Jehovah, YOU people, for all times, for in Jah Jehovah is the Rock of times indefinite.

5 “For he has laid low those inhabiting the height, the elevated town. He abases it, he abases it to the earth; he brings it in touch with the dust. 6 The foot will trample it down, the feet of the afflicted one, the steps of the lowly ones.”

7 The path of the righteous one is uprightness. You being upright, you will smooth out the very course of a righteous one. 8 Yes, for the path of your judgments, O Jehovah, we have hoped in you. For your name and for your memorial the desire of the soul has been. 9 With my soul I have desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me I keep looking for you; because, when there are judgments from you for the earth, righteousness is what the inhabitants of the productive land will certainly learn. 10 Though the wicked one should be shown favor, he simply will not learn righteousness. In the land of straightforwardness he will act unjustly and will not see the eminence of Jehovah.

11 O Jehovah, your hand has become high, [but] they do not behold [it]. They will behold and be ashamed at the zeal for [your] people. Yes, the very fire for your own adversaries will eat them up. 12 O Jehovah, you will adjudge peace to us, because even all our works you have performed for us. 13 O Jehovah our God, other masters besides you have acted as owners of us. By you only shall we make mention of your name. 14 They are dead; they will not live. Impotent in death, they will not rise up. Therefore you have turned your attention that you might annihilate them and destroy all mention of them.

15 You have added to the nation; O Jehovah, you have added to the nation; you have glorified yourself. You have extended afar all the borders of the land. 16 O Jehovah, during distress they have turned their attention to you; they have poured out a whisper [of prayer] when they had your disciplining. 17 Just as a pregnant woman draws near to giving birth, has labor pains, cries out in her birth pangs, so we have become because of you, O Jehovah. 18 We have become pregnant, we have had labor pains; as it were, we have given birth to wind. No real salvation do we accomplish as regards the land, and no inhabitants for the productive land proceed to fall [in birth].

19 “Your dead ones will live. A corpse of mine—they will rise up. Awake and cry out joyfully, YOU residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of mallows, and the earth itself will let even those impotent in death drop [in birth].

20 “Go, my people, enter into your interior rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for but a moment until the denunciation passes over. 21 For, look! Jehovah is coming forth from his place to call to account the error of the inhabitant of the land against him, and the land will certainly expose her bloodshed and will no longer cover over her killed ones.”


27 In that day Jehovah, with his hard and great and strong sword, will turn his attention to Leviathan, the gliding serpent, even to Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will certainly kill the sea monster that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing to her, YOU people: “A vineyard of foaming wine! 3 I, Jehovah, am safeguarding her. Every moment I shall water her. In order that no one may turn his attention against her, I shall safeguard her even night and day. 4 There is no rage that I have. Who will give me thornbushes [and] weeds in the battle? I will step on such. I will set such on fire at the same time. 5 Otherwise let him take hold of my stronghold, let him make peace with me; peace let him make with me.”

6 In the coming [days] Jacob will take root, Israel will put forth blossoms and actually sprout; and they will simply fill the surface of the productive land with produce.

7 As with the stroke of one striking him does one have to strike him? Or as with the slaughter of his killed ones does he have to be killed? 8 With a scare cry you will contend with her when sending her forth. He must expel [her] with his blast, a hard one in the day of the east wind. 9 Therefore by this means the error of Jacob will be atoned for, and this is all the fruit [when] he takes away his sin, when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones that have been pulverized, so that the sacred poles and the incense stands will not rise up. 10 For the fortified city will be solitary, the pasture ground will be left to itself and abandoned like a wilderness. There the calf will graze, and there it will lie down; and he will actually consume her boughs. 11 When her sprigs have dried up, women coming in will break [them] off, lighting them up. For it is not a people of keen understanding. That is why its Maker will show it no mercy, and its own Former will show it no favor.

12 And it must occur in that day that Jehovah will beat off [the fruit], from the flowing stream of the River to the torrent valley of Egypt, and so YOU yourselves will be picked up one after the other, O sons of Israel. 13 And it must occur in that day that there will be a blowing on a great horn, and those who are perishing in the land of Assyria and those who are dispersed in the land of Egypt will certainly come and bow down to Jehovah in the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

28 Woe to the eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading blossom of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley of those overpowered by wine! 2 Look! Jehovah has someone strong and vigorous. Like a thunderous storm of hail, a destructive storm, like a thunderous storm of powerful, flooding waters, he will certainly do a casting down to the earth with force. 3 With the feet the eminent crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled down. 4 And the fading flower of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley must become like the early fig before summer, that, when the seer sees it, while it is yet in his palm, he swallows it down.

5 In that day Jehovah of armies will become as a crown of decoration and as a garland of beauty to the ones remaining over of his people, 6 and as a spirit of justice to the one sitting in the judgment, and as mightiness [to] those turning away the battle from the gate.

7 And these also—because of wine they have gone astray and because of intoxicating liquor they have wandered about. Priest and prophet—they have gone astray because of intoxicating liquor, they have become confused as a result of the wine, they have wandered about as a result of the intoxicating liquor; they have gone astray in their seeing, they have reeled as to decision. 8 For the tables themselves have all become full of filthy vomit—there is no place [without it].

9 Whom will one instruct in knowledge, and whom will one make understand what has been heard? Those who have been weaned from the milk, those moved away from the breasts? 10 For it is “command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little.” 11 For by those stammering with their lips and by a different tongue he will speak to this people, 12 those to whom he has said: “This is the resting-place. GIVE rest to the weary one. And this is the place of ease,” but who were not willing to hear. 13 And to them the word of Jehovah will certainly become “command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little,” in order that they may go and certainly stumble backwards and actually be broken and ensnared and caught.

14 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, YOU braggarts, YOU rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem: 15 Because YOU men have said: “We have concluded a covenant with Death; and with Sheol we have effected a vision; the overflowing flash flood, in case it should pass through, will not come to us, for we have made a lie our refuge and in falsehood we have concealed ourselves”; 16 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tried stone, the precious corner of a sure foundation. No one exercising faith will get panicky. 17 And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling instrument; and the hail must sweep away the refuge of a lie, and the waters themselves will flood out the very place of concealment. 18 And YOUR covenant with Death will certainly be dissolved, and that vision of YOURS with Sheol will not stand. The overflowing flash flood, when it passes through—YOU must also become for it a trampling place. 19 As often as it passes through, it will take YOU men away, because morning by morning it will pass through, during the day and during the night; and it must become nothing but a reason for quaking to make [others] understand what has been heard.”

20 For the couch has proved too short for stretching oneself on, and the woven sheet itself is [too] narrow when wrapping oneself up. 21 For Jehovah will rise up just as at Mount Perazim, he will be agitated just as in the low plain near Gibeon, that he may do his deed—his deed is strange—and that he may work his work—his work is unusual. 22 And now do not show yourselves scoffers, in order that YOUR bands may not grow strong, for there is an extermination, even something decided upon, that I have heard of from the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, for all the land.

23 Give ear, YOU men, and listen to my voice; pay attention and listen to my saying. 24 Is it all day long that the plower plows in order to sow seed, that he loosens and harrows his ground? 25 Does he not, when he has smoothed out its surface, then scatter black cumin and sprinkle the cumin, and must he not put in wheat, millet, and barley in the appointed place, and spelt as his boundary? 26 And one corrects him according to what is right. His own God instructs him. 27 For it is not with a threshing instrument that black cumin is given a treading; and upon cumin no wheel of a wagon is turned. For it is with a rod that black cumin is generally beaten out, and cumin with a staff. 28 Is breadstuff itself generally crushed? For never does one incessantly keep treading it out. And he must set the roller of his wagon in motion, and his own steeds, [but] he will not crush it. 29 This also is what has come forth from Jehovah of armies himself, who has been wonderful in counsel, who has done greatly in effectual working.