19As often as it comes it will carry you away;

morning after morning, by day and by night,

it will sweep through.”

The understanding of this message

will bring sheer terror.

20The bed is too short to stretch out on,

the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

21The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,

he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—

to do his work, his strange work,

and perform his task, his alien task.

22Now stop your mocking,

or your chains will become heavier;

the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me

of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

23Listen and hear my voice;

pay attention and hear what I say.

24When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?

25When he has leveled the surface,

does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place,^d

barley in its plot,^e

and spelt in its field?

26His God instructs him

and teaches him the right way.

27Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin;

caraway is beaten out with a rod,

and cummin with a stick.

28Grain must be ground to make bread;

so one does not go on threshing it forever.

Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,

his horses do not grind it.

29All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,

wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.