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God’s Judgment on the Earth

Verse1Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—

Verse2people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

Verse3The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered.For the LORD has spoken this word.

Verse4The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

Verse5The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

Verse6Therefore 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.

Verse7The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.

Verse8The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.

Verse9They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

Verse10The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.

Verse11In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.

Verse12The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.

Verse13So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

Verse14They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.

Verse15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

Verse16From 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.

Verse17Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth.

Verse18Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Verse19The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently.

Verse20The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.

Verse21In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.

Verse22They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.

Verse23The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.