ישעיהו לב

Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,
And ministers shall govern with justice;

Every one of them shall be
Like a refuge from gales,
A shelter from rainstorms—
Or like brooks of water in a desert,
Like the shade of a massive rock
In a languishing land.

Then the eyes of those who have sight shall not be sealed,
And the ears of those who have hearing shall listen;

And the minds of the thoughtless shall attend and note,
And the tongues of mumblers shall speak with fluent eloquence.

No more shall a villain be called noble,
Nor shall “honorable” be said of a knave.

For the villains speak villainy
And plot treachery;
To act impiously
And to preach disloyalty against GOD;
To leave the hungry unsatisfied
And deprive the thirsty of drink.

As for the knaves, their tools are knavish.
They forge plots
To destroy the poor with falsehoods
And the needy when they plead their cause.

But the noble have noble intentions
And are constant in noble acts.

You carefree women,
Attend, hear my words!
You confident ladies,
Give ear to my speech!

In little more than a year,
You shall be troubled, O confident ones,
When the vintage is over
And no ingathering takes place.

Tremble, you carefree ones!
Quake, O confident ones!
Strip yourselves naked,
Put the cloth about your loins!

Lament upon the breasts,
For the pleasant fields,
For the spreading grapevines,

For my people’s soil—
It shall be overgrown with briers and thistles—
Aye, and for all the houses of delight,
For the city of mirth.

For the castle shall be abandoned,
The noisy city forsaken;
Citadel and tower shall become
Bare places forever,
A stamping ground for wild asses,
A pasture for flocks—

Till a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
And wilderness is transformed into farmland,
While farmland rates as mere brush.

Then justice shall abide in the wilderness
And righteousness shall dwell on the farmland.

For the work of righteousness shall be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, calm and confidence forever.

Then my people shall dwell in peaceful homes,
In secure dwellings,
In untroubled places of rest.

And the brush shall sink and vanish,
Even as the city is laid low.

Happy shall you be who sow by all waters,
Who send out cattle and donkeys to pasture.