22 And now deal ye not scoffingly, lest your bonds grow strong; for a destruction and a decision have I heard from the Lord God of Hosts, upon the whole earth.

23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my speech.

24 Is the ploughman always ploughing, to sow? (always) opening and harrowing his ground?

25 Doth he not, when he hath made plain the face thereof, cast abroad fennel, and scatter cummin, and set the wheat in rows, and barley in the appointed place, and spelt in the border thereof?

26 And he instructeth him according to judgment; his God teacheth him.

27 For fennel is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled upon cummin; for fennel is beaten out with a staff, and cummin with a rod.

28 Bread (corn) is crushed ; for not for ever is he threshing it, and driving his cart wheel and his horses; he doth not crush it.

18. disannulled,’ lit. ‘smeared over,’ obliterated.19. Or, ‘utter terror (agitation) to discern the message’ (lit. hearing), cf. ver. 9.25 fin. Or, ‘as the border thereof.’26. Or, ‘correcteth’ it according to...’27. Or, ‘but fennel is beaten...’28. Or, ‘Is bread corn crushed? Nay, not for ever so...’

29 This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts; he maketh counsel wonderful, he maketh wisdom great.

XXIX. 1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, city (where) David camped! add ye year to year; let the feasts go round.

2 And I will distress Ariel, and there shall be lamentation and lament; and she shall be unto me as Ariel.

3 And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay ’ siege against thee with a mound, and raise siege works against thee :

4 And thou shalt be brought down, out of the earth shalt thou speak, and thy speech shall come low from the dust; and thy voice shall be as that of a ghost from the ground, and thy speech shall chirp out of the dust.

5 And the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones like passing chaff; and it shall be in a moment suddenly.