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God’s Judgment on the Earth

¹ Behold, the LORD lays waste to the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—² people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.³ The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered, for the LORD has spoken this word.⁴ The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.⁵ The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.⁶ Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.⁷ The new wine dries up; the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.⁸ The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.⁹ They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.¹⁰ The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.¹² The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.

¹³ So will it be on the earth and among the nations: like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west^(a) they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.¹⁵ Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare await you, O dwellers of the earth.¹⁸ Whoever flees the sound of terror will fall into a pit, and whoever escapes from the pit will be caught in a trap. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.¹⁹ The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently.²⁰ The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.²¹ In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.²² They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.²³ The moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and in the presence of His elders, He will display His glory.