16. Because of these things, this is what the Lord God says:“I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem.This will be a tested stone.Everything will be built on this important and precious rock.Anyone who trusts in it will never be disappointed.
17. I will use justice as a measuring line.I will use goodness to measure by.The lies you hide behind will be destroyed as if by hail.They will be washed away as if in a flood.
18. Your agreement with death will be erased.Your contract with death will not help you.When punishment comes,you will be crushed by it.
19. Whenever punishment comes, it will take you away.It will come morning after morning.It will defeat you by day and by night.Those who hear of this punishment will be terrified.”
20. You will be like the man who tried to sleepon a bed that was too short for him.And his blanket was too narrowto wrap around himself.
21. The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim.He will be angry as he was in the Valley of Gibeon.Then the Lord will do his work, his strange work.He will finish his job, his strange job.
22. Now, you must not make fun of these things.If you do, the ropes around you will become tighter.The Lord of heaven’s armies has told me these things.He has told me how the whole earth will be destroyed.
23. Listen closely to what I tell you.Listen carefully to what I say.
24. A farmer does not plow his field all the time.He does not go on working the soil.
25. He prepares the ground.Then he plants the dill seed and scatters the cummin seed.He plants the wheat in rows.He plants barley in its special place,and other wheat in its own field.
26. His God teaches himand shows him the right way.
27. A farmer doesn’t use heavy boards to crush dill.He doesn’t use a wagon to crush cummin.He uses a small stick to break open the dill.With a stick he opens the cummin.
28. The grain is ground to make bread.People do not ruin it by crushing it forever.The farmer separates the wheat from the chaff with his cart.But he does not let his horses grind it.
29. This lesson comes from the Lord of heaven’s armies.He gives wonderful advice. He is very wise.