A King Who Reigns in Righteousness
Leaders who shelter people like rock-shade in a weary land stand against the fool who lies about the Father and empties the hungry man's plate. Comfortable women hear the harvest will fail. The palace stays deserted until the Spirit is poured out and wasteland turns fruitful.
32 1Look, a king will reign in righteousness, and rulers will govern with justice. 2Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 3Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4The hasty mind will understand knowledge, and the stammering tongue will speak readily and clearly. 5No longer will the fool be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. 6For the fool speaks foolishness, and his heart plots evil: to practice ungodliness, to speak lies about our Father, to leave the hungry with nothing and to deprive the thirsty of drink. 7The scoundrel's weapons are evil; he devises wicked schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy pleads his case justly. 8But the noble person plans noble things, and by noble things he stands.
Rise up, Complacent Daughters
9You complacent women, rise up and hear my voice; you carefree daughters, listen to what I say.
10"In little more than a year you will tremble, you carefree women, for the grape harvest will fail, and there will be no gathering. 11Tremble, you complacent ones; shudder, you carefree ones! Strip yourselves bare and put mourning clothes around your waists. 12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13for the land of my people, where thorns and briers grow up; indeed, for all the houses of joy in the jubilant city. 14For the palace will be abandoned, the bustling city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become bare places forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks, 15until the Spirit of our Father is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is regarded as a forest. 16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. 17The work of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and security forever. 18My people will dwell in a peaceful home, in secure dwellings, in undisturbed resting places. 19Though hail flattens the forest and the city is completely leveled, 20blessed are you who sow beside all the waters, who let the ox and the donkey range freely."
