13. So the Lord’s word will be for them:"tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,"a little of this, a little of that.So that they will go and stagger backward,they will be broken, snared, and captured.
14. Therefore, hear the Lord’s word,you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15. You said, "We’ve cut a deal with death;with the underworld we made a pact.When the overflowing flood passes through, it won’t reach us;for we have made lies our hiding place,and in falsehood we take shelter."
16. Therefore, the Lord God says:Look! I’m laying in Zion a stone,a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone,a sure foundation:the one who trusts won’t tremble.
17. I will make justice the measuring lineand righteousness the plumb line.But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies,and water will overflow the shelter.
18. Your deal with death will be dissolved,and your pact with the grave won’t stand.The rushing flood: when it passes through,you will be annihilated by it.
19. Every time it passes through it will take you,for morning by morning it will pass,by day and by night.It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.
20. The bed is too short to stretch out,and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.
21. Just as on Mount Perazim, the Lord will rise up;as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!—And to work his work—foreign is his work!
22. So now stop your scoffing,or your chains will be tightened,because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!—by the Lord God of heavenly forces against the whole land.
23. Listen and hear my voice;pay attention and hear my word:
24. Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting,opening and harrowing their ground?
25. When he has smoothed its surface,doesn’t he scatter fennel, and sow cumin,and plant wheat and barley in their places,and spelt as a border?
26. They are properly ordered;their God directs them.
27. Fennel isn’t threshed with a threshing sledge,nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,but fennel is beaten with a staff,and cumin with a rod.