The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 But look! A king will rule in the right way, and his leaders will carry out justice.
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Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds, provide safe cover in stormy weather. Each will be cool running water in parched land, a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.
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Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Anyone who looks will see, anyone who listens will hear.
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Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4 The impulsive will make sound decisions, the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
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The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
5 No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
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The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
6 For fools are fools and that's that, thinking up new ways to do mischief. They leave a wake of wrecked lives and lies about God, Turning their backs on the homeless hungry, ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets.
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For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with 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 And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are, inventive in sin and scandal, Exploiting the poor with scams and lies, unmoved by the victimized poor.
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As for the scoundrel--his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
8 But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble.
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But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.
9 Take your stand, indolent women! Listen to me! Indulgent, indolent women, listen closely to what I have to say.
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Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10 In just a little over a year from now, you'll be shaken out of your lazy lives. The grape harvest will fail, and there'll be no fruit on the trees.
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In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.
11 Oh tremble, you indolent women. Get serious, you pampered dolls! Strip down and discard your silk fineries. Put on funeral clothes.
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Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist.
12 Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage.
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Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
13 Weep for my people's gardens and farms that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes. Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy, the merry city no longer merry.
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for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city.
14 The royal palace is deserted, the bustling city quiet as a morgue, The emptied parks and playgrounds taken over by wild animals, delighted with their new home.
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For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
15 Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests.
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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 Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field.
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Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
17 And where there's Right, there'll be Peace and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
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And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
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My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19 The forest of your pride will be clear-cut, the city showing off your power leveled.
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And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, with your farm animals grazing freely.
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Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.