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Government with Justice Predicted32 See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. 3 Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed, and the ears of those who have hearing will listen. 4 The minds of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly. 5 A fool will no longer be called noble, nor a villain said to be honorable. 6 For fools speak folly, and their minds plot iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the L ord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink. 7 The villainies of villains are evil; they devise wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. 8 But those who are noble plan noble things, and by noble things they stand.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, listen to my speech. 10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent ones; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and put sackcloth on your loins. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yes, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant city. 14 For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks; 15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. The Peace of God’s Reign16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17 The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 19 The forest will disappear completely, and the city will be utterly laid low. 20 Happy will you be who sow beside every stream, who let the ox and the donkey range freely.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
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18. And my people shall dwell. As we have said that spiritual righteousness is that which has its seat in the hearts of men, we must say the same thing about peace, which is the fruit of it. Accordingly, when quiet habitations and resting-places are here mentioned, let us remember the saying of Paul, “justified by faith, we have peace with God.” (Romans 5:1.) When Christ says that he “leaves” this peace to the disciples, (John 14:27,) he affirms that “it cannot be given by the world;” and we ought not to wonder at this, for, as the same Apostle Paul informs us in another passage, “this peace surpasses all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7.) Having obtained this righteousness, we are no longer restless or alarmed within, as when we feel in the gnawings of conscience the wrath of God. A bad conscience is always alarmed, and harassed by wretched uneasiness. Wicked men must therefore be uneasy, and distressed by a variety of terrors; for where righteousness is banished that peace cannot be found; and where Christ reigns, there alone do we find true peace. Assured peace, therefore, is enjoyed by none but believers, who appeal to the heavenly tribunal, not only by their piety, but by their reliance on the mercy of God. Hence we infer that Christ does not yet reign where consciences are uneasy, and tossed by the various waves of doubts, as must be the case with Papists and all others who are not built on the sacrifice of Christ and the atonement obtained through him. |