12. Therefore, the holy one of Israel says:Because you reject this wordand trust in oppression and cunning and rely on them,
13. your sin will be like a crack in a high wall; it bulges, about to fall:suddenly, in an instant, it breaks!
14. Its breaking is like the breaking of a storage jarthat is totally shattered.No piece from among its fragments will be large enough to take fire from a hearth,or to dip water from a cistern.
15. Therefore, the Lord God,the holy one of Israel, says:In return and rest you will be saved;quietness and trust will be your strength—but you refused.
16. You said,"No! We’ll flee on horses"—therefore, you will indeed flee—"and we’ll ride off; on swift steeds we will ride"—therefore, your pursuers will be swift.
17. One thousand will flee at the threat of one,and at the threat of five you will flee,until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,like a flag on a hill.
18. Nonetheless, the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you,and will rise up to show you compassion.The Lord is a God of justice;happy are all who wait for him.
19. People in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. God will certainly be merciful to you. Hearing the sound of your outcry, God will answer you.
20. Though the Lord gives you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, your teacher will no longer hide, but you will see your teacher.
21. If you stray to the right or the left, you will hear a word that comes from behind you: "This is the way; walk in it."
22. You will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered priestly vest, and you will scatter them like menstrual rags. "Get out," you will say to them.
23. God will provide rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food the ground produces will be rich and abundant. On that day, your cattle will graze in large pastures.
24. The oxen and donkeys that are working the ground will eat tasty feed spread for them with shovel and fork.