A king will reign in righteousness, and rulers will rule with justice, like streams in a dry place. Isaiah rebukes the complacent women of Jerusalem and promises that the Spirit will be poured out, and the effect of righteousness will be peace.
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness , and princes shall rule in judgment .
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind , and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place , as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land .
3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim , and the ears of them that hear shall hearken .
4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge , and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly .
5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal , nor the churl said to be bountiful .
6 For the vile person will speak villany , and his heart will work iniquity , to practise hypocrisy , and to utter error against the LORD , to make empty the soul of the hungry , and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail .
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil : he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words , even when the needy speaketh right .
8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things ; and by liberal things shall he stand .
9 Rise up , ye women that are at ease ; hear my voice , ye careless daughters ; give ear unto my speech .
10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled , ye careless women : for the vintage shall fail , the gathering shall not come .
11 Tremble , ye women that are at ease ; be troubled , ye careless ones : strip you, and make you bare , and gird sackcloth upon your loins .
12 They shall lament for the teats , for the pleasant fields , for the fruitful vine .
13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers ; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city :
14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken ; the multitude of the city shall be left ; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever , a joy of wild asses , a pasture of flocks ;
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high , and the wilderness be a fruitful field , and the fruitful field be counted for a forest .
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness , and righteousness remain in the fruitful field .
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever .
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation , and in sure dwellings , and in quiet resting places ;
19 When it shall hail , coming down on the forest ; and the city shall be low in a low place .
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters , that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass .