¹ See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in judgment. ² And a man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempts; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. ³ And the eyes of them that see will not be dim, and the ears of them that hear will listen. ⁴ The heart also of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. ⁵ The vile person will be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. ⁶ For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. ⁷ The instruments also of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. ⁸ But the liberal devises liberal things and by liberal things will he stand. ⁹ Rise up, you women that are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; listen to my speech. ¹⁰ Many days and years will you be troubled, you careless women: for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come. ¹¹ Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth on your loins. ¹² They will lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. ¹³ Upon the land of my people will come up thorns and briers; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city ¹⁴ Because the palaces will be abandoned; the multitude of the city will be left; the forts and towers will be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; ¹⁵ Until the spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. ¹⁶ Then judgment will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. ¹⁷ And the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. ¹⁸ And my people will dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; ¹⁹ When it will hail, coming down on the forest; and the city will be low in a low place. ²⁰ Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forward there the feet of the ox and the ass.