Ezekiel 7:10–22

^10–13“ ‘Judgment Day!

Fate has caught up with you.

The scepter outsized and pretentious,

pride bursting all bounds,

Violence strutting,

brandishing the evil scepter.

But there’s nothing to them,

and nothing will be left of them.

Time’s up.

Countdown: five, four, three, two …

Buyer, don’t crow; seller, don’t worry:

Judgment wrath has turned the world topsy-turvy.

The bottom has dropped out of buying and selling.

It will never be the same again.

But don’t fantasize an upturn in the market.

The country is bankrupt because of its sins,

and it’s not going to get any better.

^14–16“ ‘The trumpet signals the call to battle:

“Present arms!”

But no one marches into battle.

My wrath has them paralyzed!

On the open roads you’re killed,

or else you go home and die of hunger and disease.

Either get murdered out in the country

or die of sickness or hunger in town.

Survivors run for the hills.

They moan like doves in the valleys,

Each one moaning

for his own sins.

^17–18“ ‘Every hand hangs limp,

every knee turns to rubber.

They dress in rough burlap—

sorry scarecrows,

Shifty and shamefaced,

with their heads shaved bald.

^19–27“ ‘They throw their money into the gutters.

Their hard-earned cash stinks like garbage.

They find that it won’t buy a thing

they either want or need on Judgment Day.

They tripped on money

and fell into sin.

Proud and pretentious with their jewels,

they deck out their vile and vulgar no-gods in finery.

I’ll make those god-obscenities a stench in their nostrils.

I’ll give away their religious junk—

strangers will pick it up for free,

the godless spit on it and make jokes.

I’ll turn my face so I won’t have to look

as my treasured place and people are violated,

As violent strangers walk in

and desecrate place and people—