Isaiah 1:24–31

^24–31This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

the Strong One of Israel:

“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.

I’ll get back at my enemies.

I’ll give you the back of my hand,

purge the junk from your life, clean you up.

I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you

just like it was back in the beginning.

Then you’ll be renamed

City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”

God’s right ways will put Zion right again.

God’s right actions will restore her penitents.

But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,

a dead end for those who walk out on God.

“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines

will leave you looking mighty foolish,

All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens

that you thought was the latest thing.

You’ll end up like an oak tree

with all its leaves falling off,

Like an unwatered garden,

withered and brown.

‘The Big Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,

and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire

That exposes man and work both

as nothing but cinders and smoke.”