Isaiah 32
32
Safe Houses, Quiet Gardens
1-8But look! A king will rule in the right way,
and his leaders will carry out justice.
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.
Anyone who looks will see,
anyone who listens will hear.
The impulsive will make sound decisions,
the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
No more will fools become celebrities,
nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
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.
And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are,
inventive in sin and scandal,
Exploiting the poor with scams and lies,
unmoved by the victimized poor.
But those who are noble make noble plans,
and stand for what is noble.
* * *
9-14Take your stand, idle women!
Listen to me!
Indulgent, idle women,
listen closely to what I have to say.
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.
Oh tremble, you idle women.
Get serious, you pampered dolls!
Strip down and discard your silk fineries.
Put on funeral clothes.
Shed honest tears for the lost harvest,
the failed vintage.
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.
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.
15-20Yes, 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.
Justice will move into the badlands desert.
Right will build a home in the fertile field.
And where there’s Right, there’ll be Peace
and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood—
in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
The forest of your pride will be clear-cut,
the city showing off your power leveled.
But you will enjoy a fortunate life,
planting well-watered fields and gardens,
with your farm animals grazing freely.
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Isaiah 32: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 32
32
The Kingdom of Righteousness
1See, a king will rule according to righteousness,
and princes will rule according to justice.
2And each one will be like a hiding place from the wind
and a covering from the rainstorm,
like streams of water in a dry region,
like the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
3And the eyes of those who see will not gaze,#The same consonants with different vowels would be translated “be blinded,” which fits the context better
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
4And the minds#Literally “heart” of the rash will understand knowledge,#Literally “to know”
and the tongues#Hebrew “tongue” of stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
5A fool will no longer be called noble,
and a scoundrel will not be said to be eminent.
6For a fool speaks folly,
and his mind#Literally “heart” does iniquity:
to behave wickedly,#Literally “do ungodliness”
and to speak error concerning Yahweh,
to leave the throat of the hungry empty,
and he deprives the thirsty of drink.
7And a scoundrel, his weapons are evil;
he plans evil devices
to ruin the poor with words of deception
even#Or “and” when the speech of the needy is right.
8But#Or “And” the nobleman plans noble things,
and he stands upon noble things.
Against the Carefree Women
9Women who are at ease, rise up; hear my voice!
Carefree daughters, listen to my word!
10In a year#Literally “In days upon a year” you will tremble, carefree ones,
for the vintage will come to an end;
the harvest will not come.
11Tremble, you who are at ease;
tremble, carefree ones;
strip, and strip yourself,
and gird yourself on your loins,#Although the carefree and at ease addressees in this verse are feminine plural (“you women”), the commands are masculine singular in form
12mourning over breasts,
over fields of delight,
over the fruitful vine,
13over the soil of my people.
It goes up in thorns#Hebrew “thorn” and briers,#Hebrew “brier”
indeed over all of the houses of joy in the jubilant city.
14For the palace will be forsaken,
the crowded city#Literally “crowd of the city” deserted;
the hill and the watchtower will become#The Hebrew text has “for the benefit of” following “become” a cave forever,
the joy of wild asses, a pasture for#Literally “of” flocks.
15Until a spirit is poured out on us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is reckoned as the forest.
16Then#Or “And” justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness will live in the fruitful field.
17And the work of righteousness will be peace,
and the work of righteousness, quietness and security forever.
18And my people will dwell in a settlement of peace
and in a dwelling place of security
and in undisturbed resting places.
19And it hails when the forest comes down,#Literally “the coming down of the forest”
and the city will become low in humiliation.
20Happy are you who sow by all waters,
who let the foot of the ox and the donkey go free.
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