6  “So I cut off the godless nations.

I knocked down their defense posts,

Filled her roads with rubble

so no one could get through.

Her cities were bombed-out ruins,

unlivable and unlived in.

7  “I thought, ‘Surely she’ll honor me now,

accept my discipline and correction,

Find a way of escape from the trouble she’s in,

find relief from the punishment I’m bringing.’

But it didn’t faze her. Bright and early

she was up at it again, doing the same old things.

8  “Well, if that’s what you want, stick around.”

God’s Decree.

“Your day in court is coming,

but remember I’ll be there to bring evidence.

I’ll bring all the nations to the courtroom,

round up all the kingdoms,

And let them feel the brunt of my anger,

my raging wrath.

My zeal is a fire

that will purge and purify the earth.

God Is in Charge at the Center

9–13  “In the end I will turn things around for the people.

I’ll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted,

Words to address God in worship

and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel.