21. For Jehovah will rise up as in the mountain of Perazim, and be wroth as in the valley at Gibeon to work His work; and to set His act; strange is His act.

22. And now drive ye not mockeries, lest your fetters be strengthened: for I have heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a judgment of destruction, and an irrevocable one, upon the whole earth.

23. Lend me your ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my address! 24. Does the husbandman plough continually to sow? to furrow and to harrow his land? 25. Is it not so: when he levels the surface thereof, he scatters black poppy seed, and strews cummin, and puts in wheat in rows, and barley in the appointed piece, and spelt on its border? 26. And He has instructed him how to act rightly: his God teaches him.

27. For the black poppy is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin; but black poppy is knocked out with a stick, and cummin with a staff. 28. Is bread-corn crushed? No; he does not go on threshing for ever, and drive the wheel of his cart and his horses over it: he does not crush it. 29. This also, it goeth forth from Jehovah of hosts: He gives wonderful intelligence, high understanding.

The Second Woe.—The Oppression and Deliverance of Ariel.—Chap. xxix.

1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the castle where David pitched his tent! Add year to year, let the feasts revolve: 2. then I distress Ariel, and there is groaning and moaning; and so she proves herself to Me as Ariel. 3. And I encamp in a circle round about thee, and surround thee with watch-posts, and erect tortoises against thee. 4. And when brought down thou wilt speak out of the ground, and thy speaking will sound low out of the dust; and thy voice cometh up like that of a demon from the ground, and thy speaking will whisper out of the dust.

5. And the multitude of thy foes will become like finely powdered dust, and the multitude of tyrants like chaff flying away; and it will take place suddenly, very suddenly. 6. For Jehovah of hosts there comes a visitation with crash of thunder and earthquake and great noise, whirlwind and tempest, and the blazing up of devouring fire. 7. And the multitude of all the nations that gather together against Ariel, and all those who storm and distress Ariel and her stronghold, will be like a vision of the night in a dream. 8. And it is just as a hungry man dreams, and behold he eats; and when he wakes up his soul is empty: and just as a thirsty man dreams, and behold he drinks; and when he wakes up, behold, he is faint, and his soul is parched with thirst: so will it be to the multitude of nations which gather together against the mountain of Zion.

9. Stop and stare; blind yourselves, and grow blind!

They are drunken, and not with wine; they reel, and not with meth. 10. For Jehovah hath poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and bound up your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, He has veiled. 11. And the revelation of all this will be to you like the words of a sealed writing, which they give to him that understands writing, say, Pray, read this; but he says, I cannot, it is sealed. 12. And they give the writing to one who does not understand writing, saying, Pray, read this; but he says, I do not understand writing.

13. The Lord hath spoken: Because this people approaches Me with its mouth, and honours Me with its lips, and keeps its heart far from Me, and its reverence for Me has become as a commandment learned from men; 14. therefore, behold, I will proceed wondrously with this people, wondrously and marvellously strange; and the wisdom of its wise men is lost, and the understanding of its intelligent men becomes invisible.