The Hebrew Prophets

therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "Look, I am laying in Tziyon a tested stone, a costly cornerstone, a firm foundation-stone; he who trusts will not rush here and there.

I will make justice the plumbline and righteousness the plumb-bob; hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, water will overflow the hiding place,

your covenant with death will be annulled, and your contract with Sh'ol will not stand. When the raging flood passes through, you will be trampled down by it.

As often as it passes through, it will take you, for it will pass through every morning, day after day, night after night; understanding the message will be sheer terror."

For, [as the saying goes,] "The bed is too short for a person to stretch, and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold] even if he crams himself in."

For ADONAI will arise, as at Mount P'ratzim, and storm with rage, as in the Giv'on Valley; so he can do his deed, his strange deed, and perform his task, his alien task.

Therefore, now, stop your scoffing, or your bonds will be further tightened; for I have heard from Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot that destruction is decreed for the whole land.

Listen and hear my voice; pay attention, and hear what I say:

Does a farmer sowing keep plowing forever? Does he never stop breaking up and harrowing his land?

No - when he finishes levelling it, he scatters his dill-seed, sows his cumin, puts wheat in rows, barley where it belongs, and plants buckwheat around the edges;

because his God has taught him this, has given him instruction.

Dill must not be threshed with a sledge or cartwheels driven over cumin; rather, dill one beats with a stick and cumin with a flail.

When crushing grain for bread, one doesn't thresh it forever; one drives the horse and cart wheels over it but doesn't crush it to powder.

This too comes from ADONAI-Tzva'ot - his counsel is wonderful, his wisdom great.

Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,

but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.

Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.

But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.

You will be visited by ADONAI-Tzva'ot with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises, whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.

Then, all the nations fighting Ari'el, every one at war with her, the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.

It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted - it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.

If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.

For ADONAI has poured over you a spirit of lethargy; he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets) and covered your heads (that is, the seers).

For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, "Please read this," he answers, "I can't, because it's sealed."