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Chapter Summary
Woe to you, O destroyer! The fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure. "I will arise," says the LORD. You will see the king in his beauty.
1Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt. 2O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation. 3From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered. 4And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them. 5The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice. 6And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure. 7Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly. 8The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men. 9The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together. 10“Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!” 11You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire. 12And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns. 13“You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!” 14The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame? 15The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil. 16Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable. 17His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away. 18Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones? 19You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom. 20Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken. 21For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it. 22For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us. 23Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils. 24He who is nearby will not say: “I am too weak.” The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them.