A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes
1Ah, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
with whom no one has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,
you will be dealt with treacherously.
2O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;
before your majesty, nations scattered.
4Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
as locusts leap, they leaped upon it.
5The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high;
he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;
6he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.
7Listen! the valiant cry in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8The highways are deserted,
travelers have quit the road.
The treaty is broken,
its oaths are despised,
its obligation is disregarded.
9The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert;
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”
15Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
16they will live on the heights;
their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
their food will be supplied, their water assured.
The Land of the Majestic King
17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
they will behold a land that stretches far away.
18Your mind will muse on the terror:
“Where is the one who counted?
Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19No longer will you see the insolent people,
the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a language that you cannot understand.
20Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
and none of whose ropes will be broken.
21But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor stately ship can pass.
22For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
the Lord is our king; he will save us.
23Your rigging hangs loose;
it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,
or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even the lame will fall to plundering.
24And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.
