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¹ Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in 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 see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will hearken.⁴ The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.⁵ The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to be honorable.⁶ For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots 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.⁷ The knaveries of the knave are evil; he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.⁸ But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands.

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.¹⁰ In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; 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 gird sackcloth upon your loins.¹² Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,¹³ for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyful city.¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.¹⁷ And 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 And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be utterly laid low.²⁰ Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free.