^b“Today, if you hear his voice,

8  do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9  where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for ^cforty years.

10  Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’

11  ^dAs I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

^b“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16  ^xTake a man’s garment when he has put up security for a stranger,

and ^yhold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.¹

17  ^zBread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,

but afterward his mouth will be full of ^agravel.

18  ^bPlans are established by counsel;

by ^cwise guidance ^dwage war.

19  Whoever ^egoes about slandering reveals secrets;

therefore do not associate with ^fa simple babbler.²

20  ^gIf one curses his father or his mother,

^hhis lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

21  ⁱAn inheritance gained hastily in the beginning

will not be blessed in the end.

22  Do not say, ^j“I will repay evil”;

^kwait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

23  ^lUnequal weights are an abomination to the Lord,

and ^mfalse scales are not good.

24  A man’s ⁿsteps are from the Lord;

how then can man understand his way?

25  It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,”

and to reflect only ^oafter making vows.

26  A wise king ^pwinnows the wicked

and drives ^qthe wheel over them.

27  ^rThe spirit³ of man is the lamp of the Lord,

^ssearching all ^this innermost parts.

28  ^uSteadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,

and by steadfast love his ^vthrone is upheld.

29  The glory of young men is their strength,

but ^wthe splendor of old men is their gray hair.

30  ^xBlows that wound cleanse away evil;

strokes make clean ^tthe innermost parts.

1  There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of ^lJesse,

and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2  And ^mthe Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

3  And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

ⁿHe shall not judge by ^owhat his eyes see,

or decide disputes by ^owhat his ears hear,

4  but ^pwith righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall ^qstrike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and ^rwith the breath of his lips ^she shall kill the wicked.

5  Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

and ^tfaithfulness the belt of his loins.

6  ^uThe wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

and a little child shall lead them.

7  The cow and the bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

9  ^uThey shall not hurt or destroy

in all ^vmy holy mountain;

^wfor the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

12  He will raise ^za signal for the nations

and will assemble ⁱthe banished of Israel,

and gather the dispersed of Judah

from the four corners of the earth.

13  ^jThe jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,

and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,

and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

14  ^kBut they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,

and together they shall plunder ^lthe people of the east.

They shall put out their hand ^magainst ⁿEdom and ^oMoab,

and ^pthe Ammonites shall obey them.

15  And the Lord will utterly destroy²

^qthe tongue of the Sea of Egypt,

and will wave his hand over ^rthe River³

with his scorching breath,⁴

and strike it into seven channels,

and he will lead people across in sandals.

16  And there will be ^sa highway from Assyria

for the remnant that remains of his people,

^tas there was for Israel

when they came up from the land of Egypt.

1  You⁵ will say ^uin that day:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,

for though you were angry with me,

^vyour anger turned away,

that you might comfort me.

2  “Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for ^wthe Lord God⁶ is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation.”

^z“Give thanks to the Lord,

call upon his name,

^amake known his deeds among the peoples,

proclaim ^bthat his name is exalted.

5  ^c“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;

let this be made known⁸ in all the earth.

6  Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

for great ^din your⁹ midst is ^ethe Holy One of Israel.”

2  On a bare hill ^hraise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for ⁱthem to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3  I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.¹⁰

4  The sound ^jof a tumult is on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

^kThe Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

5  ^lThey come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole land.¹¹

6  ^mWail, for ⁿthe day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty¹² it will come!

7  Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart ^owill melt.

8  They will be dismayed:

^ppangs and agony will seize them;

^qthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9  Behold, ⁿthe day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and ^rto destroy its sinners from it.

10  ^sFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

^tthe sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11  I will punish ^uthe world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will ^vput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

^wand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12  I will make ^xpeople more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the ^ygold of Ophir.

13  Therefore ^zI will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14  And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

^aeach will turn to his own people,

and each will flee to his own land.

15  Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16  ^bTheir infants will be dashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

17  Behold, ^cI am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18  ^dTheir bows will slaughter¹³ the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19  And Babylon, ^ethe glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,

will be ^flike Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

20  ^gIt will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

no ^hArab will pitch his tent there;

no ⁱshepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21  But ^jwild animals will lie down there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ^kostriches¹⁴ will dwell,

and there wild goats will dance.

22  Hyenas¹⁵ will cry in its towers,

and ^ljackals in ^mthe pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.