Isaiah, 32

1. There will be a king who reigns uprightly and princes who rule with fair judgement;

2. each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams on arid ground, like the shade of a solid rock in a desolate land.

3. The eyes of seers will no longer be closed, the ears of hearers will be alert,

4. the heart of the hasty will learn to think things over, and the tongue of stammerers will speak promptly and clearly.

5. The fool will no longer be called generous, nor the rascal be styled bountiful.

6. For the fool speaks folly and his heart is set on villainy; he is godless in his actions and his words ascribe error to Yahweh; he starves the hungry of their food and refuses drink to the thirsty.

7. Everything to do with the rascal is evil, he devises infamous plans to ruin the poor with lying words even when the needy has right on his side;

8. but the noble person plans only noble things, noble his every move.

9. Stand up, you haughty women, listen to my words; you over-confident daughters, pay attention to what I say.

10. Within one year and a few days you will tremble, you over-confident women; grape-harvesting will be finished, gathering will never happen again.

11. Shudder, you haughty women, tremble, you over-confident women; strip, undress, put sackcloth round your waists.

12. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13. for my people's soil where the bramble-bush will be growing and for all the happy houses, for the rejoicing city.

14. For the citadel will be abandoned and the thronged city deserted, Ophel and the Keep will be denuded for ever, the playground of wild donkeys and the pasture of flocks,

15. until the spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes an orchard, and an orchard that seems like a forest.

16. Fair judgement will fix its home in the desert, and uprightness live in this orchard,

17. and the product of uprightness will be peace, the effect of uprightness being quiet and security for ever.

18. My people will live in a peaceful home, in peaceful houses, tranquil dwellings.

19. And should the forest be totally destroyed and the city gravely humiliated,

20. You will be happy to sow wherever there is water and to let the ox and donkey roam free.