| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Look, a king will promote fairness; officials will promote justice. | 1"Look, a king will reign in righteousness, and rulers will rule with justice. |
| 2Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a rainstorm; like streams of water in a dry region and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land. | 2Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a hiding place from storms, like streams of water in the desert, in the shadow of a great rock in an exhausted land. |
| 3Eyes will no longer be blind and ears will be attentive. | 3Then the eyes of those who can see won't turn away, and the ears of those who can hear will listen. |
| 4The mind that acts rashly will possess discernment and the tongue that stutters will speak with ease and clarity. | 4The hearts of reckless people will understand sound judgment, and the tongues of those who stammer will be ready to speak clearly. |
| 5A fool will no longer be called honorable; a deceiver will no longer be called principled. | 5People will no longer call a fool noble, nor will a bad person be declared honorable. |
| 6For a fool speaks disgraceful things; his mind plans out sinful deeds. He commits godless deeds and says misleading things about the LORD; he gives the hungry nothing to satisfy their appetite and gives the thirsty nothing to drink. | 6For fools utter contempt, and their minds plot wrong things: practicing ungodliness, spreading lies about the LORD, leaving the pangs of hungry people unsatisfied, and depriving thirsty people of drink. |
| 7A deceiver's methods are evil; he dreams up evil plans to ruin the poor with lies, even when the needy are in the right. | 7Furthermore, the crimes of bad people are evil; and they devise wicked schemes, destroying the poor with lying words, even when needy people plead a just cause. |
| 8An honorable man makes honorable plans; his honorable character gives him security. | 8But those who are decent plan noble things, and by noble deeds they stand." |
| 9You complacent women, get up and listen to me! You carefree daughters, pay attention to what I say! | 9"As for you ladies of leisure— Get up and listen to my voice! You daughters who feel so complacent— hear what I have to say! |
| 10In a year's time you carefree ones will shake with fear, for the grape harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not arrive. | 10In little more than a year, you complacent women will shudder; for the grape harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not come. |
| 11Tremble, you complacent ones! Shake with fear, you carefree ones! Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves--put sackcloth on your waist! | 11So tremble, you ladies of leisure! Shudder, you daughters who feel so complacent! Strip down and make yourselves naked down to the waist! Then wrap yourself in sackcloth and beat your breasts. |
| 12Mourn over the field, over the delightful fields and the fruitful vine! | 12For people will be beating their breasts in mourning over the pleasant fields, over the fruitful vines, |
| 13Mourn over the land of my people, which is overgrown with thorns and briers, and over all the once-happy houses in the city filled with revelry. | 13and over the land of my people overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, over all the houses of merriment and over this city of revelry. |
| 14For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded city is abandoned. Hill and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there. | 14"For the palace will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; the citadel and watchtower will become barren wastes forever, the delight of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks, |
| 15This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. Then the desert will become an orchard and the orchard will be considered a forest. | 15until the Spirit from on high is poured upon us, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest." |
| 16Justice will settle down in the desert and fairness will live in the orchard. | 16"Then justice will live in the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field. |
| 17Fairness will produce peace and result in lasting security. | 17The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. |
| 18My people will live in peaceful settlements, in secure homes, and in safe, quiet places. | 18My people will live in peaceful dwellings, in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places. |
| 19Even if the forest is destroyed and the city is annihilated, | 19But it will hail when the forest comes down, and the wood will be leveled completely. |
| 20you will be blessed, you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, you who let your ox and donkey graze. | 20How happy you will be, sowing your seed beside every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range freely!" |
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