1Look, a king will rule with fairness, and leaders will govern justly.
2A person will be like a shelter from the wind, a cover from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a large rock in a parched land.
3The eyes of those who see will no longer be dim, and the ears of those who hear will pay attention.
4Those who are thoughtless will understand knowledge, and those who stammer will be able to speak clearly.
5Foolish people will no longer be called honorable, nor will scoundrels be highly respected.
6Because a foolish person speaks foolishness, and their heart plans evil, to practice ungodliness and speak lies against Yahweh, to leave the hungry empty, and to deny the thirsty a drink.
7The scoundrel's ways are evil. They plan wicked schemes to destroy the humble with lies, even when the needy person speaks what is right.
8But the honorable person plans honorable things, and they will continue to do noble things.
9Get up, you women who are living comfortably! Listen to my voice! You careless daughters, pay attention to what I say!
10In a little more than a year, you careless women will be troubled, because the grape harvest will fail. The regular harvest will not come.
11Tremble, you women who are living comfortably! Be troubled, you careless ones! Take off your fine clothes, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth around your waist.
12Mourn for the beautiful fields and the fruitful grapevines.
13Thorns and briars will grow on my people's land, yes, on all the joyful houses in the happy city.
14For the palace will be abandoned. The crowded city will be empty. The hill and the watchtower will become permanent dens, a playground for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.
15This will continue until the Spirit is poured out on us from above, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is seen as a forest.
16Then justice will live in the wilderness, and fairness will remain in the fruitful field.
17The result of fairness will be peace, and the outcome of fairness will be quietness and security forever.
18My people will live in peaceful homes, in safe houses, and in quiet places to rest.
19Even though hail flattens the forest and the city is completely destroyed.
20You who plant seeds by all the waters are blessed, sending out your oxen and donkeys to work.