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Government with Justice Predicted

32

See, 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 judgment,

and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

5

A fool will no longer be called noble,

nor a villain said to be honorable.

6

For fools speak folly,

and their minds plot iniquity:

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the L ord,

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 watchtower

will become dens forever,

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 forever.

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.

 


11. Tremble. This repetition is not unnecessary, but states more fully what he formerly said; for when men are asleep, they are not easily aroused by the voice of the prophets, and therefore it is needful to cry aloud and reprove them continually. And thus, by adding one threatening to another, or by repeating the same threatenings, he shews how great is the stupidity of men, when they have once been blinded by prosperity; for they can scarcely endure any longer to hear the warnings which God addresses to them. Men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity; for when matters go smoothly with them, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success; and therefore it was necessary to deal more sharply with the Jews, in order to shake off that slothfulness. This exhortation of the Prophet ought to be explained in the future tense; as if he had said, “You shall at length tremble, for the rest which you now enjoy will not be perpetual.”

By bidding them make themselves bare, and gird sackcloth on their loins, he describes the manner and dress of mourners. Whenever they were visited by deep adversity, they put on sackcloth, made bare the other parts of their body, and by dress, and attitude, and every method, manifested their grief. He desires women to put on sackcloth and other expressions of mourning, instead of the luxuries and pleasures in which they eagerly indulged.


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