They charged ¹  two-thirds of a shekel ²  to sharpen plowshares and cutting instruments, and a third of a shekel ³  to sharpen picks and axes, and to set ox goads.

If an iron axhead ¹  is blunt and a workman ²  does not sharpen ³  its edge, ⁴  he must exert a great deal of effort; ⁵  so wisdom has the advantage of giving success.

Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. ¹  Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; ²  no war galley will enter; ³  no large ships will sail through. ⁴ 

They made your oars from oaks of Bashan; they made your deck ¹  with cypresses ²  from the Kittean isles. ³ 

“‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword ¹  at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment.

Beat your plowshares ¹  into swords, and your pruning hooks ²  into spears! ³  Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ ⁴ 

Rush forth with ¹  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, ²  for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great! ³ 

When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said, “Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ¹  How can Jacob survive? ²  He is too weak!” ³ 

Other seed fell among the thorns, ¹  and they grew up and choked it, ²  and it did not produce grain.

So they slipped ¹  the anchors ²  and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage ³  that bound the steering oars ⁴  together. Then they hoisted ⁵  the foresail ⁶  to the wind and steered toward ⁷  the beach.

Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination directs.

Then ¹  I looked, and a white cloud appeared, ²  and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! ³  He had ⁴  a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

So ¹  the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard ²  of the earth and tossed them into the great ³  winepress of the wrath of God.

The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for ¹  the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows ²  in the ground, everything that the hail has left.”

“‘All the days of the vow ¹  of his separation no razor may be used on his head ²  until the time ³  is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, ⁴  and he must let ⁵  the locks of hair on his head grow long.

And do this ¹  to them to purify them: Sprinkle water of purification ²  on them; then have them shave ³  all their body ⁴  and wash ⁵  their clothes, and so purify themselves. ⁶ 

Jehu aimed his bow and shot an arrow right between Jehoram’s shoulders. ¹  The arrow went through ²  his heart and he fell to his knees in his chariot.

He will judge disputes between nations; he will settle cases for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, ¹  and their spears into pruning hooks. ²  Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.

At that time ¹  the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, ²  the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; ³  it will also shave off the beard.

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ²