New Living Translation NLT
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him.
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There is coming a king who will reign justly and princes who will rule uprightly.
2 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.
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A man will be like a refuge from the wind, like protection from a storm, like streams of water on arid ground, like a rock cliff shading a weary land.
3 Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it.
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The eyes of those seeing will not be closed, the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.
4 Even the hotheads will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer will speak out plainly.
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The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully, the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.
5 In that day ungodly fools will not be heroes. Scoundrels will not be respected.
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The mean person will no longer be called generous, or the miserly said to be noble;
6 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.
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for the mean person will speak meanness, his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly, spreading error concerning ADONAI, as he lets the hungry go on starving and deprives the thirsty of drink.
7 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.
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The mean person's means are mean - he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor and needy with lies, even when their cause is just.
8 But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.
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But the generous person devises generous things, and his generosity will keep him standing.
9 Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug.
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You women who are so complacent, listen to me! Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!
10 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.
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In a year and a few days more, you overconfident women will shudder, because the vintage will fail, the harvest will not come.
11 Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief.
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Tremble, you complacent women! Shudder, you overconfident women! Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.
12 Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines.
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Beat your breasts in mourning for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,
13 For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone.
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for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars, for all the happy homes in the joyful city.
14 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
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For the palace will be abandoned, the crowded city deserted, 'Ofel and fortress wastelands forever, a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks
15 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.
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till the Spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes a fertile field, with the fertile field regarded as a forest.
16 Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile field.
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Then justice will dwell in the desert, and righteousness abide in the fertile field.
17 And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.
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The effect of righteousness will be peace; the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.
18 My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.
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My people will live in a peaceful place, in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.
19 Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down,
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Just as the forest will surely come down, the city will surely be laid low.
20 the LORD will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely.
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Happy are you who sow by all streams, letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.
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.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.