Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of  ¹Ephraim
And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome by wine.

Indeed the Lord has  ¹someone strong and mighty;
As a hailstorm and a tempest of destruction,
As a storm of mighty overflowing waters,
He will cast down to the earth with His hand.

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
Will be trodden under foot;

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fat valley,
Will be like the first-ripe fig before the summer,
Which when someone looks upon it he sees it,
And in an instant it is in his hand, and he swallows it up.

In that day Jehovah of hosts
Will become a  ¹crown of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of His people,

And a spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment
And strength to those who turn away the battle at the gate.

But these also reel with wine
And stagger from liquor:
The priest and the prophet stagger from liquor;
They are swallowed up with wine;
They stagger from liquor, They reel in their visions,
They totter in their judgments.

For all the tables are full of vomit and filth;
There is no place clean.

Whom will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he instruct with the report?
Those weaned from milk?
Those drawn from the breasts?

For his words are:  ¹Rule upon rule, rule upon rule;
Line upon line, line upon line;
Here a little, there a little.

For with stammering lips
And with a  ¹foreign tongue
He will speak to this people,

He who said to them,
This is rest; give rest to the weary;
And, This is repose.
But they would not hear.

Therefore Jehovah's word to them will be:
 ¹Rule upon rule, rule upon rule;
Line upon line, line upon line;
Here a little, there a little;
That they may go and stumble backward,
And be broken, snared, and taken.

Therefore hear the word of Jehovah,
You scoffing men,
Who rule this people
Who are in  ¹Jerusalem:

Because you have said, We have made
A covenant with death,
And with Sheol
We have made an agreement:
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come upon us;
For we have made falsehood our refuge
And have hidden ourselves in deception.

Therefore thus says
The Lord Jehovah:
Indeed I lay a stone in Zion as a foundation,
A tested stone,
A precious  ¹cornerstone as a foundation firmly established;
He who believes will not hasten away.

And I will make justice the line
And righteousness the plummet;
And the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the secret place.

And your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
You will be a trampling ground to it.

As often as it passes through,
It will take hold of you.
For morning by morning it will pass through,
By day and by night;
And it will be nothing but terror
To understand the report of it.

For the bed is too short for a man to stretch on,
And the sheet is too narrow for him to wrap himself in.

For Jehovah will  ¹rise as on Mount Perazim,
He will be agitated as in the valley of Gibeon,
To do His deed, His strange deed,
And to do His work, His most different work.

Now therefore do not be mockers,
Lest your fetters become stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts
Of complete and decisive destruction upon the whole earth.

Hearken and hear my voice;
Attend and hear my speech.

Does the  ¹plowman plow all day long to sow his seed?
Does he open and harrow his ground continually?

Does he not, once he levels the surface,
Scatter dill and broadcast cummin,
And put the wheat in rows and the barley in its appointed place
And the rye where it belongs?

For his God instructs him toward such discretion
And teaches him so.

For dill is not threshed with a sharp tool,
Nor is the cart wheel turned upon the cummin;
But dill is beaten out with a rod,
And cummin with a stick.

Bread grains are ground,
Yet one does not thresh and thresh forever.
And once the wheel of his cart and his horses drive over it,
One does not grind it.

This also comes forth from Jehovah of hosts,
He who makes His counsel extraordinary and His sound wisdom great.

Woe to  ¹Ariel, to Ariel,
The city where David camped!
Add year to year; let the feasts run their course.

But I will distress Ariel,
And she will become mourning and lamentation
And will be like an Ariel to me.

And I will encamp in a circle against you,
And will besiege you with palisades,
And will raise up siegeworks against you.

And you will be brought down; from the ground you will speak,
And your speech will come from low in the dust.
And your voice will be like that of a departed spirit from the ground,
And your speech will twitter from the dust.

But the multitude of your enemies will be like fine dust,
And the multitude of those who terrorize will be like chaff that passes away;
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.

From Jehovah of hosts you will be visited,
With thunder and earthquake and great noise,
With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of consuming fire.

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her stronghold and who distress her,
Will be like a dream, like a vision in the night.

And as when a hungry man dreams and finds himself eating,
But he awakens and what he desires is not there;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams and finds himself drinking,
But he awakens and is indeed faint and what he desires is far from him;
So will the multitude of all the nations be
That fight against Mount Zion.

Linger and be astounded,
Blind yourselves and be blind.
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with liquor.

For Jehovah has poured out upon you
A spirit of deep sleep
And has shut your eyes, the prophets;
And your heads, the seers, He has covered.

And all the vision will be to you like the words of a book that has been sealed, which when they give to him who is literate, saying, Please read this, he will say, I am not able to, for it is sealed.

Then the book will be given to him who is illiterate, saying, Please read this, and he will say, I am illiterate.

And the Lord said,
Because this people  ¹draws near with their mouth,
And with their lips they honor Me,
Yet they remove their heart far from Me,
And their fear for Me
Is a commandment of men merely learned;

Therefore, indeed, I will once again
Do something wondrous with this people, something wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the understanding of those who understand will be hidden.

Woe to those who  ¹hide deeply
Their counsel from Jehovah,
And whose deeds are in the dark
And who say, Who sees us? And, Who knows us?

You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be considered to be like the clay,
That what is made should say of him who made it, He did not make me,
Or what is formed should say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

 ¹Is it not yet a little while
Before Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field will be considered to be a forest.

And in that day the deaf will hear the words of the book,
And out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see,

And the afflicted will increase their joy in Jehovah,
And the needy of mankind will exult in the Holy One of Israel.

For he who terrorizes will cease to be, and the scorner will be consumed,
And all who watch for iniquity will be cut off,

Those who make a man sin by his words
And ensnare him who judges at the gate
And turn aside the righteous with an empty argument.

Therefore thus says Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob will not now be ashamed,
Nor will his face now turn pale;

But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,
They will sanctify My name
And sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
And hold the God of Israel in awe.

And those who have erred in spirit will come to understand,
And the murmurers will learn teaching.

Woe to the rebellious children,
Declares Jehovah,
Who devise counsel, but not of Me,
And who  ¹make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add
Sin upon sin;

Who go down to  ¹Egypt,
Yet do not ask of My mouth,
To take refuge in the refuge of Pharaoh,
And to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt.

Therefore the refuge of Pharaoh will be your shame,
And shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.

For their princes are at Zoan,
And their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

All are ashamed
Of a people that cannot profit them,
Nor be a help or profit to them,
But rather a shame and also a reproach.

The burden concerning the beasts of the  ¹Negev:
Through the land of distress and anguish,
From which come lioness and lion,
Viper and flying fiery serpent,
They carry their riches upon young donkeys' backs
And their treasures upon camels' humps
To a people that cannot profit them;

For Egypt helps in a vain and empty way.
Therefore I call her
Rahab, who sits still.

Go now; write it on a tablet before them,
And inscribe it on a scroll,
That it may be, for the time to come,
 ¹As a witness forever.

For this is a rebellious people,
False children,
Children who refuse to hear
The instruction of Jehovah;

Who say to those who see, Do not see;
And to those who have visions, Do not give us true visions;
Speak pleasant things to us;
Give us illusions as your visions;

Get out of the way;
Turn aside from the path;
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
Because you despise this word
And trust in oppression and guile,
And rely on them,

Therefore this iniquity
Will be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
Sticking out on a high wall,
Whose crashing comes
In an instant, suddenly.

And its crashing will be like the crashing of the potters' vessel:
Crushed — he will not spare;
And there will not be found
Among the crushed pieces a shard
With which to take fire from the hearth
Or to draw water from the cistern.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel,
In  ¹returning and rest you will be saved;
In quietness and in trust will be your strength;
But you were not willing,

And said, No, for we will flee on horses;
Therefore you will flee.
And, We will ride upon the swift;
Therefore those who chase you will be swift.

One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one;
At the rebuke of five you will flee,
Until you are left
Like a bare mast upon a mountaintop
And a standard on a hill.

And therefore Jehovah waits to be gracious to you,
And therefore He remains on high to have compassion on you;
For Jehovah is a God of justice;
Blessed are those who wait for Him.

For a people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem —
You will weep no more;
He will be most gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will answer you.

And though the Lord has given you
The bread of adversity and the water of oppression,
Your  ¹Teacher will no longer hide Himself in a corner,
But your eyes will see your Teacher.

And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying,
This is the way, walk in it,
When you turn to the right or turn to the left.

And you will defile the silver covering of your graven images
And the gold plating of your molten idols;
You will scatter them like some dirty thing;
You will say to it, Go away!

Then He will give rain for your seed,
Which you will sow in the ground,
And the bread of the increase of the ground;
And it will be fat and plenteous.
Your livestock will feed in that day
In a vast pasture.

And the oxen and donkeys that work the ground
Will eat salted fodder that has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

And upon every high mountain
And upon every prominent hill
There will be brooks and streams of water
In the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be  ¹sevenfold, like the light of seven days,
On the day when Jehovah binds up the breach of His people
And heals the wound left from His stroke.

Behold, the name of Jehovah comes from a distance,
Burning with His anger and heavy with smoke;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue is like a devouring fire;

His breath, like an overflowing stream,
Reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of  ¹nothingness;
And a bridle that leads them to err is in the jaws of the peoples.

You will have a song
As in the night when the feast is sanctified,
And gladness of heart as when one marches to the flute
To go to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.

And Jehovah will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard
And the descending of His arm to be seen,
With the blasting of anger and the flame of devouring fire,
In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.

For at the voice of Jehovah, Assyria will be dismayed;
With a staff He will strike.

And every pass of the appointed rod,
Which Jehovah will lay upon him,
Will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of brandishing weapons He will fight against them.

For  ¹Topheth has been arranged since long ago;
Indeed it has been prepared for the king;
He made it deep; He made it large.
The pile in it is of fire and much wood;
The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone,
Sets it on fire.