The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 But look! A king will rule in the right way, and his leaders will carry out justice.
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Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him.
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 one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a parched land.
3 Anyone who looks will see, anyone who listens will hear.
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Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it.
4 The impulsive will make sound decisions, the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
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Even the hotheads will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer will speak out plainly.
5 No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
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In that day ungodly fools will not be heroes. Scoundrels will not be respected.
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 fools speak foolishness and make evil plans. They practice ungodliness and spread false teachings about the LORD . They deprive the hungry of food and give no water to the thirsty.
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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The smooth tricks of scoundrels are evil. They plot crooked schemes. They lie to convict the poor, even when the cause of the poor is just.
8 But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble.
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But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.
9 Take your stand, indolent women! Listen to me! Indulgent, indolent women, listen closely to what I have to say.
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Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug.
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 a short time—just a little more than a year— you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place.
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 of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief.
12 Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage.
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Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines.
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 your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone.
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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The palace and the city will be deserted, and busy towns will be empty. Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze in the empty forts and watchtowers
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 at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven. Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.
16 Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field.
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Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile 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 this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
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My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.
19 The forest of your pride will be clear-cut, the city showing off your power leveled.
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Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down,
20 But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, with your farm animals grazing freely.
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the LORD will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely.
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.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.