9
Listen, you women who lie around in ease.
Listen to me, you who are so smug.
10
In a short time - just a little more than a year -
you careless ones will suddenly begin to care.
For your fruit crops will fail,
and the harvest will never take place.
11
Tremble, you women of ease;
throw off your complacency.
Strip off your pretty clothes,
and put on burlap to show your grief.
12
Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms
and your fruitful grapevines.
13
For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers.
Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone.
14
The palace and the city will be deserted,
and busy towns will be empty.
Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze
in the empty forts 1 and watchtowers
15
until at last the Spirit is poured out
on us from heaven.
Then the wilderness will become a fertile field,
and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.
16
Justice will rule in the wilderness
and righteousness in the fertile field.
17
And this righteousness will bring peace.
Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.
18
My people will live in safety, quietly at home.
They will be at rest.
19
Even if the forest should be destroyed
and the city torn down,
20
the Lord will greatly bless his people.
Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up.
Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely.