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Ephraim Will Fall

28 How horrible it will be for the arrogant drunks of Ephraim.
Their glorious beauty is ⌞like⌟ a withered flower.
They are at the entrance to a fertile valley
where they lie drunk from wine.
The Lord has one who is strong and powerful.
He is like a hailstorm, a destructive wind.
He is like a thunderstorm, an overwhelming flood.
He will throw them to the ground forcefully.
The arrogant drunks of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot.
Their glorious beauty is ⌞like⌟ a withered flower.
They are at the entrance to a fertile valley.
They will be like figs that ripened early.
As soon as someone sees them,
they will be taken and eaten.

When that day comes, the Lord of Armies will be
like a glorious crown for his few remaining people.
He will give a spirit of justice to those who judge.
He will give strength to those who defend the city gates in battle.

Priests and prophets stagger from wine and wobble from too much liquor.
They stagger from too much liquor
and become confused from too much wine.
They wobble because of their liquor.
They stagger when they see visions.
They swerve as they judge.
All the tables are covered with vomit and excrement.
There isn’t a clean place left.
To whom will they make the message understood?
To whom will they explain this message?
To children just weaned from milk?
To those just taken from their ⌞mother’s⌟ breasts?
10 They speak utter nonsense.[a]

11 The Lord will speak to these people.
He will mock them by speaking in a foreign language.
12 He will say to them,
“This is a place for comfort.
This is a place of rest for those who are tired.
This is a place for them to rest.”
But they weren’t willing to listen.
13 The Lord speaks utter nonsense to them.
That is why they will fall backwards.
That is why they will be hurt, trapped, and captured.

A Message to Jerusalem

14 So hear the Lord’s word, you foolish talkers
who rule the people in Jerusalem.
15 You say, “We made a treaty with death
and an agreement with the grave.
When the overwhelming disaster passes by,
it won’t matter to us,
because we have taken refuge in our lies,
and falsehood is our hiding place.”

16 This is what the Almighty Lord says:

I am going to lay a rock in Zion,
a rock that has been tested,
a precious cornerstone,
a solid foundation.
Whoever believes ⌞in him⌟ will not worry.
17 I will make justice a measuring line
and righteousness a plumb line.
Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies,
and floodwaters will wash away your hiding place.
18 Your treaty with death will be wiped away.
Your agreement with the grave will not stand.
When the overwhelming disaster passes by,
you will be trampled by it.
19 Each time it passes by it will take you.
It will pass by morning after morning,
during the day and during the night.
Understanding this message brings only terror.
20 The bed is too short to stretch out on.
The blanket is too narrow to serve as a cover.
21 The Lord will rise as he did on Mount Perazim.
He will wake up as he did in Gibeon Valley.
He will do his work, his unexpected work,
and perform his deeds, his mysterious deeds.
22 Now stop laughing, or your chains will be tightened,
because I have heard that the Almighty Lord of Armies
has finally determined to destroy the whole land.

23 Open your ears, and listen to me!
Pay attention, and hear me!
24 Does a farmer go on plowing every day so he can plant?
Does he continue to break up the soil and make furrows in the ground?
25 When he has smoothed its surface,
doesn’t he scatter black cumin seed and plant cumin?
Doesn’t he plant wild wheat in rows?
Doesn’t he put barley in its own area
and winter wheat at its borders?
26 God will guide him in judgment,
and his God will teach him.

27 Black cumin isn’t threshed [b] with a sledge,
and wagon wheels aren’t rolled over cumin.
Black cumin is beaten with a rod
and cumin with a stick.
28 Grain is ground into flour, but the grinding eventually stops.
It will be threshed.
The wheels of his cart will roll over it,
but his horses won’t crush it.
29 All of this has come from the Lord of Armies.
His counsel is wonderful, and his wisdom is great.

The Lord’s Word Will Be Hidden from Some but Revealed to Others

29 How horrible it will be for you Ariel, Ariel,[c]
the city where David camped.
Let year after year go by.
Let your annual festivals go on.
I will torment Ariel,
and the city will be filled with people grieving and mourning.
The city will become like Ariel.
I will set up war camps all around you.
I will blockade you with towers.
I will put up mounds of dirt around you.
When you have fallen, you will speak as you lie on the ground.
Your words will be muffled by the dust.
Your voice will come out of the ground like that of a ghost.
Your words will be whispered from the dust.
Your many enemies will be like fine dust.
Your many foes will be like husks blown by the wind.
All of this will happen suddenly, unexpectedly.
The Lord of Armies will punish you
with thunder, earthquakes, and loud noises,
with windstorms, rainstorms, and fire storms.
The armies from all the nations will go to war against Ariel.
They will go to war against it, blockade it, and torment it.
All of this will be like a dream, like a vision in the night.
They will be like hungry people who dream that they’re eating
and wake up to find they’re hungry.
They will be like thirsty people who dream that they’re drinking
and wake up to find they’re lightheaded and parched with thirst.
This is what will happen to the armies from all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.

If you confuse yourselves, you will be confused.
If you blind yourselves, you will be blinded.
You are drunk, but not from wine.
You stagger, but not from liquor.
10 The Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.
He will shut your eyes. (Your eyes are the prophets.)
He will cover your heads. (Your heads are the seers.[d])

11 To you all these visions will be like words in a book that is closed and sealed. You give this book to someone who can read, saying, “Please read this.”

He answers, “I can’t read it. It’s sealed.”

12 Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.”

He answers, “I can’t read.”

13 The Lord says,

“These people worship me with their mouths
and honor me with their lips.
But their hearts are far from me,
and their worship of me is ⌞based on⌟ rules made by humans.
14 That is why I am going to do something completely amazing
for these people once again.
The wisdom of their wise people will disappear.
The intelligence of their intelligent people will be hidden.”

15 How horrible it will be for those
who try to hide their plans from the Lord.
Their deeds are done in the dark,
and they say, “No one can see us”
and “No one can recognize us.”
16 You turn things upside down!
Is the potter no better than his clay?
Can something that has been made
say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Can a piece of pottery
say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
17 In a very short time Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field
and the fertile field will be considered a forest.
18 When that day comes, the deaf will hear the words written in the book.
The blind will see out of their gloom and darkness.
19 Humble people again will find joy in the Lord.
The poorest of people will find joy in the Holy One of Israel.
20 Tyrants will be gone.
Mockers will be finished.
All who look for ways to do wrong will come to an end:
21 those who make people sin with words,
those who lay traps for judges,
those who, without any reason, deny justice
to people who are in the right.

22 This is what the Lord, who saved Abraham, says about the descendants of Jacob:

Jacob will no longer be ashamed.
Jacob’s face will no longer turn pale.
23 When they see all their children,
the children I made with my hands,
they will acknowledge my name as holy.
They will treat the Holy One of Jacob as holy.
They will stand in terror of the God of Israel.
24 Then those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding,
and those who complain will accept instruction.

Judah Should Trust the Lord, Not Egypt

30 The Lord declares,

“How horrible it will be for those rebellious children.
They carry out plans, but not mine.
They make alliances against my will.
They pile sin on top of sin.
They go to Egypt without asking me.
They look for shelter under Pharaoh’s protection
and look for refuge in Egypt’s shadow.
But Pharaoh’s protection will be their shame,
and the refuge in Egypt’s shadow will be their disgrace.
Although Pharaoh’s officials are in Zoan
and his messengers have reached Hanes,
the people of Judah will be put to shame
because that nation can’t help them.
That nation can’t give aid or help to them.
It can only offer shame and disgrace.”

This is the divine revelation about the animals in the Negev.

“My people travel through lands
where they experience distress and hardship.
Lions and lionesses live there.
Vipers and poisonous snakes live there.
They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a nation that can’t help them.
Egypt’s help is completely useless.
That is why I call it, ‘Rahab [e] who sits still.’
Now, write this on a tablet for them, and inscribe it in a book
so that it will be there in the future as a permanent witness.
These people are rebellious and deceitful children,
children who refuse to listen to the Lord’s teachings.
10 They say to the seers,[f] ‘Don’t see ⌞the future⌟.’
They say to those who have visions,
‘Don’t have visions that tell us what is right.
Tell us what we want to hear. See illusions.
11 Get out of our way! Stop blocking our path!
Get the Holy One of Israel out of our sight.’ ”

12 This is what the Holy One of Israel says:

You have rejected this warning,
trusted oppression and deceit,
and leaned on them.
13 That is why your sin will be
like a high wall with a bulging crack, ready to fall.
All of a sudden it will fall.
14 It will break like pottery.
It will be smashed, and nothing will be left of it.
No piece will be big enough to carry live coals from a fireplace
or to dip water from a reservoir.

15 This is what the Almighty Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

You can be saved by returning to me.
You can have rest.
You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting me.
But you don’t want that.
16 You’ve said, “No, we’ll flee on horses.”
So you flee.
You’ve added, “We’ll ride on fast horses.”
So those who chase you will also be fast.
17 One thousand people will flee when one person threatens them,
and you will flee when five threaten you.
Then you will be left alone
like a flagpole on top of a mountain,
like a signpost on a hill.
18 The Lord is waiting to be kind to you.
He rises to have compassion on you.
The Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who wait for him.

The Lord Will Heal His People’s Wounds

19 You will live in Zion, in Jerusalem. You won’t cry anymore. The Lord will certainly have pity on you when you cry for help. As soon as he hears you, he will answer you. 20 The Lord may give you troubles and hardships. But your teacher will no longer be hidden from you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. 21 You will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left.” 22 Then you will dishonor your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered statues. You will throw them away like clothing ruined by stains. You will say to them, “Get out!”

23 The Lord will give you rain for the seed that you plant in the ground, and the food that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing. When that day comes, your cattle will graze in large pastures. 24 The oxen and the donkeys which work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed [g] with forks and shovels. 25 There will be brooks and streams on every lofty mountain and every high hill. When the day of the great slaughter comes, towers will fall. 26 Then the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun. The light of the sun will be seven times as strong, like the light of seven days. When that day comes, the Lord will bandage his people’s injuries and heal the wounds he inflicted.

27 The name of the Lord is going to come from far away.
His anger is burning.
His burden is heavy.
His lips are filled with fury.
His tongue is like a devouring flame.
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream.
It rises neck high,
sifting the nations with a sieve of destruction,
placing a bit in the mouths of the people
to lead them astray.
29 You will sing a song
like the song you sing on a festival night.
Your hearts will be happy like someone going out with a flute
on the way to the Lord’s mountain, to the rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will make his majestic voice heard.
He will come down with all his might,
with furious anger,
with fire storms, windstorms, rainstorms, and hailstones.
31 At the sound of the Lord, the people of Assyria will be shattered.
He will strike them with his rod.
32 To the sound of tambourines and lyres, the Lord will pound on them.
He will fight them in battle, swinging his fists.
33 Topheth was prepared long ago.
It was made ready for the king.
It was made deep and wide and piled high with plenty of burning logs.
The Lord’s breath will be like a flood of burning sulfur,
setting it on fire.

Footnotes

  1. 28:10 Or “Command for command, command for command, line for line, line for line, a little here, a little there.” Also in verse 13.
  2. 28:27 Threshing is the process of beating stalks to separate them from the grain.
  3. 29:1 Ariel is an unknown Hebrew word which may mean “lion of God,” “mountain of God,” or “fireplace.”
  4. 29:10 A seer   is a prophet.
  5. 30:7 Rahab   is the name of a demonic creature who opposes God.
  6. 30:10 A seer   is a prophet.
  7. 30:24 Winnowing is the process of separating husks from grain.

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