Isaiah 5:22–30

²²Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,

and men of capability at mixing strong drink!

²³Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe

and remove the justice of the innocent from him.

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so their root will become like the stench,

and their blossom will go up like the dust.

For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,

and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.

²⁵Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled^a against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them^b and struck them,^c

and the mountains quaked,

and their corpses^d were like refuse in the middle of the streets.

Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand

In all of this his anger has not turned back,

and still his hand is stretched out.

²⁶And he will raise a signal for a nation^e from afar,

and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.

And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

²⁷None is weary,

and none among him stumbles;

none slumbers and none sleeps.

And no loincloth on his waist is opened,

and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp,

and all of his bows are bent.

The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,

and his wheels like the storm wind.

²⁹His roaring is like the lion,

and he roars like young lions.

And he growls and seizes his prey,

and he carries it off,

and not one can rescue it.

³⁰And he will roar over him on that day

like the roaring of the sea,

and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!

And the light grows dark with its^f clouds.