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
1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,
and princes shall rule in justice.
2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind,
and a covert from the storm,
as streams of water in a dry place,
as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
3The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
4The heart of the rash will understand knowledge,
and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
5The fool will no longer be called noble,
nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
6For the fool will speak folly,
and his heart will work iniquity,
to practice profanity,
and to utter error against Yahweh,
to make empty the soul of the hungry,
and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7The ways of the scoundrel are evil.
He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words,
even when the needy speaks right.
8But the noble devises noble things,
and he will continue in noble things.
9Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice!
You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!
10For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women;
for the vintage will fail.
The harvest won’t come.
11Tremble, you women who are at ease!
Be troubled, you careless ones!
Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked,
and put sackcloth on your waist.
12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine.
13Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land;
yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
14For the palace will be forsaken.
The populous city will be deserted.
The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever,
a delight for wild donkeys,
a pasture of flocks,
15until the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness;
and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.
17The work of righteousness will be peace,
and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
18My people will live in a peaceful habitation,
in safe dwellings,
and in quiet resting places,
19though hail flattens the forest,
and the city is leveled completely.
20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.
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