New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
1
But look! A king will rule in the right way, and his leaders will carry out justice.
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
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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.
3 Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed, and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.
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Anyone who looks will see, anyone who listens will hear.
4 The minds of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.
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The impulsive will make sound decisions, the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
5 A fool will no longer be called noble, nor a villain said to be honorable.
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No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
6 For fools speak folly, and their minds plot 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.
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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.
7 The villainies of villains are evil; they devise wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
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And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are, inventive in sin and scandal, Exploiting the poor with scams and lies, unmoved by the victimized poor.
8 But those who are noble plan noble things, and by noble things they stand.
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But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble.
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.
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Take your stand, indolent women! Listen to me! Indulgent, indolent women, listen closely to what I have to say.
10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent ones; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come.
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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.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and put sackcloth on your loins.
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Oh tremble, you indolent women. Get serious, you pampered dolls! Strip down and discard your silk fineries. Put on funeral clothes.
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
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Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage.
13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yes, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant city.
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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.
14 For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks;
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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.
15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
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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.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
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Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field.
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
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And where there's Right, there'll be Peace and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
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My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
19 The forest will disappear completely, and the city will be utterly laid low.
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The forest of your pride will be clear-cut, the city showing off your power leveled.
20 Happy will you be who sow beside every stream, who let the ox and the donkey range freely.
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But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, with your farm animals grazing freely.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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.