The Earth Judged

1Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare

and making it desolate.

He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:

2people and priest alike,

servant and master,

female servant and mistress,

buyer and seller,

lender and borrower,

creditor and debtor.

3The earth will be stripped completely bare

and will be totally plundered,

for the Lord has spoken this message.a

4The earth mourns and withers;

the world wastes away and withers;

the exalted people of the earth waste away.

5The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,a

for they have transgressed teachings,

overstepped decrees,

and broken the permanent covenant.b

6Therefore a curse has consumed the earth,a

and its inhabitants have become guilty;

the earth’s inhabitants have been burned,

and only a few survive.

7The new wine mourns;a

the vine withers.

All the carousers now groan.

8The joyful tambourinesa have ceased.

The noise of the jubilant has stopped.

The joyful lyre has ceased.

9They no longer sing and drink wine;

beer is bitter to those who drink it.

10The city of chaos is shattered;a

every house is closed to entry.b

11In the streets they cryA for wine.

All joy grows dark;

earth’s rejoicing goes into exile.

12Only desolation remains in the city;

its gate has collapsed in ruins.

13For this is how it will be on earth

among the nations:

like a harvested olive tree,

like a gleaning after a grape harvest.a

14They raise their voices, they sing out;

they proclaim in the west

the majesty of the Lord.

15Therefore, in the east honor the Lord!

In the coasts and islands of the west

honor the name of the Lord,

the God of Israel.

16From the ends of the earth we hear songs:

The Splendor of the Righteous One.a

But I said, “I waste away! I waste away!A

Woe is me.”

The treacherous act treacherously;

the treacherous deal very treacherously.b

17Panic, pit, and trap await youa

who dwell on the earth.b

18Whoever flees at the sound of panic

will fall into a pit,

and whoever escapes from the pit

will be caught in a trap.

For the floodgates on high are opened,a

and the foundations of the earth are shaken.b

19The earth is completely devastated;

the earth is split open;

the earth is violently shaken.

20The earth staggers like a drunkarda

and sways like a hut.

Earth’s rebellion weighs it down,

and it falls, never to rise again.

21On that daya the Lord will punish

the army of the heights in the heights

and the kings of the ground on the ground.

22They will be gathered together

like prisoners in a pit.a

They will be confined to a dungeon;b

after many days they will be punished.

23The moon will be put to shame

and the sun disgraced,

because the Lord of Armies will reign as king

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,

and he will display his glory

in the presence of his elders.a