In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea.

²In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine.

³I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.

⁴There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall I march against it, shall I set it on fire together?

⁵Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?

⁶When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.

⁷Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him?

⁸In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat.

⁹Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.

¹⁰For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches.

¹¹Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it.

¹²And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel.

¹³And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.

Chapter 28

Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower the glory his joy, who were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine.

²Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail: a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet.

⁴And the fading flower the glory of his joy, who is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people:

⁶And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle to the gate.

⁷But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of judgment.

⁸For all the tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place.

⁹Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.

¹⁰For command, command again, command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there.

¹¹For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people.

¹²To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear.

¹³And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten.

¹⁷And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection.

¹⁸And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it.

¹⁹Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away: because in the morning early it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear.

²⁰For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both.

²¹For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions: he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.

²²And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait. For I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech.

²⁴Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow, shall he open and harrow his ground?

²⁵Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, soweth, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds?

²⁶For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him.

²⁷For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a staff.

²⁸But breadcorn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.

²⁹This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.

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