waste,
And twist its surface,
And scatter its inhabitants.
2Layman and priest shall fare alike,
Slave and master,
Handmaid and mistress,
Buyer and seller,
Lender and borrower,
Creditor and debtor.
3The earth shall be bare, bare;
It shall be plundered, plundered;
For it is the LORD who spoke this word.
4The earth is withered, sear;
The world languishes, it is sear;
a-The most exalted people of the earth-a languish.
5For the earth was defiled
Under its inhabitants;
Because they transgressed teachings,
Violated laws,
Broke the ancient covenant.b
6That is why a curse consumes the earth,
And its inhabitants pay the penalty;
That is why earth’s dwellers have dwindled,
And but few men are left.
7The new wine fails,
The vine languishes;
And all the merry-hearted sigh.
8Stilled is the merriment of timbrels,
Ended the clamor of revelers,
Stilled the merriment of lyres.
9They drink their wine without song;
Liquor tastes bitter to the drinker.
10Towns are broken,c empty;
Every house is shut, none enters;
11Even over wine, a cry goes up in the streets:
The sun has set on all joy,
The gladness of the earth is banished.
12Desolation is left in the town
And the gate is battered to ruins.
13For thus shall it be among the peoples
In the midst of the earth:
As when the olive tree is beaten out,
Like gleanings when the vintage is over.
14These shall lift up their voices,
Exult in the majesty of the LORD.
They shall shout from the sea:
15Therefore, honor the LORD with lights
In the coastlands of the sea—
The name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
16From the end of the earth
We hear singing:
Glory to the righteous!
d-And I said:-d
e-I waste away! I waste away! Woe is me!
The faithless have acted faithlessly;
The faithless have broken faith!-e
17f-Terror, and pit, and trap-f
Upon you who dwell on earth!
18He who flees at the report of the terror
Shall fall into the pit;
And he who climbs out of the pit
Shall be caught in the trap.
For sluices are opened on high,
And earth’s foundations tremble.
19The earth is breaking, breaking;
The earth is crumbling, crumbling.
The earth is tottering, tottering;
20The earth is swaying like a drunkard;
It is rocking to and fro like a hut.
Its iniquity shall weigh it down,
And it shall fall, to rise no more.
21In that day, the LORD will punish
The host of heaven in heaven
And the kings of the earth on earth.
22They shall be gathered in a dungeon
As captives are gathered;
And shall be locked up in a prison.
But after many days they shall be remembered.
23Then the moon shall be ashamed,
And the sun shall be abashed.
For the LORD of Hosts will reign
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And the Presence will be revealed to His elders.
25 O LORD, You are my God;
I will extol You, I will praise Your name.
For You planned graciousnessa of old,
Counsels of steadfast faithfulness.
2For You have turned a city into a stone heap,
A walled town into a ruin,
The citadel of strangersb into rubble,c
Never to be rebuilt.
3Therefore a fierce people must honor You,
A city of cruel nations must fear You.
4For You have been a refuge for the poor man,
A shelter for the needy man in his distress—
Shelter from rainstorm, shade from heat.
When the fury of tyrants was like a winterc rainstorm,
5The rage of strangersb like heat in the desert,
You subdued the heat with the shade of clouds,
The singingd of the tyrants was vanquished.
6The LORD of Hosts will make on this mount-e
For all the peoples
A banquet ofc-rich viands,
A banquet of choice wines—
Of rich viands seasoned with marrow,
Of choice wines-c well refined.
7And He will destroy on this mounte the shroud
That is drawn over the faces of all the peoples
And the covering that is spread
Over all the nations:
8He will destroy deathf forever.
My Lord GOD will wipe the tears away
From all faces
And will put an end to the reproach of g-His people-g
Over all the earth—
For it is the LORD who has spoken.
9In that day they shall say:
This is our God;
We trusted in Him, and He delivered us.
This is the LORD, in whom we trusted;
Let us rejoice and exult in His deliverance!
10For the hand of the LORD shall descend
Upon this mount,e
And Moabh shall be trampled under Him
As straw is threshed to bits at Madmenah.i
11Then He will spread out His hands in their homeland,j
As a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
And He will humble their pride
Along with k-the emblems of their power. -k
12Yea, the secure fortification of theirl walls
He will lay low and humble,
Will raze to the ground, to the very dust.
26 In that day, this song shall be sung
In the land of Judah:
Ours is a mighty city;
He makes victory our inner and outer wall.
2Open the gates, and let
A righteous nation enter,
[A nation] that keeps faith.
3The confident mind You guard in safety,
In safety because it trusts in You.
4Trust in the LORD for ever and ever,
For in Yah the LORD you have an everlasting Rock.
5For He has brought low those who dwelt high up,
Has humbled the secure city,
Humbled it to the ground,
Leveled it with the dust—
6To be trampled underfoot,
By the feet of the needy,
By the soles of the poor.
7The path is level for the righteous man;
O Just One, You make smooth the course of the righteous.
8For Your just ways, O LORD, we look to You;
We long for the name by which You are called.
9At night I yearn for You with all my being,
I seek You with all a-the spirit within me.-a
For when Your judgments are wrought on earth,
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10But when the scoundrel is spared, he learns not righteousness;
In a place of integrity, he does wrong—
He ignores the majesty of the LORD.
11O LORD!
They see not Your hand exalted.
Let them be shamed as they behold
Your zeal for Your people
And fire consuming Your adversaries.
12bO LORD!
May You appoint well-being for us,
Since You have also requited all our misdeeds.
13O LORD our God!
Lords other than You possessed us,
But only Your name shall we utter.
14They are dead, they can never live;
Shades, they can never rise;
Of a truth, You have dealt with them and wiped them out,
Have put an end to all mention of them.
15cWhen You added to the nation, O LORD,
When You added to the nation,
Extending all the boundaries of the land,
You were honored.
16O LORD! In their distress, they sought You;
Your chastisement reduced them
To anguishedd whispered prayer.
17Like a woman with child
Approaching childbirth,
Writhing and screaming in her pangs,
So are we become because of You, O LORD.
18We were with child, we writhed—
It is as though we had given birth to wind;
We have won no victory on earth;
The inhabitants of the world have not e-come to life!-e
19Oh, let Your dead revive!
Let corpsesf arise!
Awake and shout for joy,
You who dwell in the dust!—
For Your dew is like the dew on fresh growth;
You make the land of the shades e-come to life.-e
20Go, my people, enter your chambers,
And lock your doors behind you.
Hide but a little moment,
Until the indignation passes.
21For lo!
The LORD shall come forth from His place
To punish the dwellers of the earth
For their iniquity;
And the earth shall disclose its bloodshed
And shall no longer conceal its slain.
27 In that day the LORD will punish,
With His great, cruel, mighty sword
Leviathan the Elusivea Serpent—
Leviathan the Twistinga Serpent;
He will slay the Dragon of the sea.b
2In that day,
They shall sing of it:c
“Vineyard of Delight.”d
3I the LORD keep watch over it,
I water it every moment;
e-That no harm may befall it,-e
I watch it night and day.
4There is no anger in Me:
a If one offers Me thorns and thistles,
I will march to battle against him,
And set all of them on fire.-a
5But if he holds fast to My refuge,
a He makes Me his friend;
He makes Me his friend.-a
6[In days] to come Jacob shall strike root,
Israel shall sprout and blossom,
And the face of the world
Shall be covered with fruit.
7Was he beaten as his beater has been?
Did he suffer such slaughter as his slayers?
8f-Assailing them-f with fury unchained,
His pitiless blast bore them off
On a day of gale.
9gAssuredly, by this alone
Shall Jacob’s sin be purged away;
This is the only price
For removing his guilt:
That he make all the altar-stones
Like shattered blocks of chalk—
With no sacred post left standing,
Nor any incense altar.
10Thus fortified cities lie desolate,
Homesteads deserted, forsaken like a wilderness;
There calves graze, there they lie down
h-And consume its boughs.
11When its crown is withered, they break;-h
Women come and make fires with them.
For they are a people without understanding;
That is why
Their Maker will show them no mercy,
Their Creator will deny them grace.

12And in that day, the LORD will beat out [the peoples like grain] from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt; and you shall be picked up one by one, O children of Israel!
13And in that day, a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the LORD on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.

28 Ah, the proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim,
Whose glorious beauty is but wilted flowers
On the heads of men bloateda with rich food,
Who are overcome by wine!
2Lo, my Lord has something strong and mighty,
Like a storm of hail,
A shower of pestilence.
Something like a storm of massive, torrential rainb
Shall be hurled with force to the ground.
3Trampled underfoot shall be
The proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim,
4The wilted flowers—
On the heads of men bloateda with rich food—
That are his glorious beauty.
They shall be like an early fig
Before the fruit harvest;
Whoever sees it devours it
While it is still c-in his hand. -c

5In that day, the LORD of Hosts shall become a crown of beauty and a diadem of glory for the remnant of His people, 6and a spirit of judgment for him who sits in judgment and of valor for those who repel attacks at the gate.

7But these are also muddled by wine
And dazed by liquor:
Priest and prophet
Are muddled by liquor;
They are confused by wine,
They are dazed by liquor;
They are muddled in their visions,
They stumble in judgment.
8Yea, all tables are covered
With vomit and filth,
So that no space is left.
9d“To whom would he give instruction?
To