The Judgment on the Earth

24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste

and is about to devastate it,

and he will twist her surface,

and he will scatter her inhabitants.

2 And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest;

as with the slave, so with his master;

as with the female slave, so with her mistress;

as with the buyer, so with the seller;

as with the lender, so with the borrower;

as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends.

3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste,

and it shall be utterly plundered,

for Yahweh has spoken this word.

4 The earth dries up, it withers;

the world languishes, it withers.

The elevated of the people of the earth languish,

5 and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants.

For they have transgressed laws;

they have passed by statutes;a

they have broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,

and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt.

Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn,

and ⌊few men are left⌋.b

7 The new wine dries up;

the vine languishes.

All the merry of heart sigh;

8 the joy of the tambourine has stopped.

The noise of the jubilant has ceased;

the joy of the lyre has stopped.

9 They do not drink wine with song;

strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

10 The city of emptiness is broken;

every house is shut ⌊so that no one can enter⌋;c

11 there is an outcry over the wine in the streets.

All joy turns into ⌊darkness⌋;d

the joy of the earth disappears.

12 Desolation is left in the city;

the gate is crushed into a state of ruin.

13 For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth,

among the nations,

like the beating of an olive tree,

like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.

14 They lift up their voices;e they sing for joy;

they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.

15 Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,

the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.

16 We hear songs from the ⌊edge⌋f of the earth:

“Glory to the righteous one!”

But I say, “Ruin to me!

Ruin to me! Woe to me!

The treacherous ones deal treacherously,

and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”

17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, inhabitantsg of the earth!

18 And this shall happen:

The one who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit,

and the one who goes up from ⌊inside the pit⌋h shall be caught in the snare,

for the windows from heaven are opened,

and the foundations of the earth tremble.

19 The earth is utterly broken;

the earth is torn asunder;

the earth is shaken violently.

20 The earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard,

and it sways like a hut,

and its transgression is heavy upon it,

and it falls and does not rise again.

21 And this shall happen on that day:

Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven,

and the kings of the earth on the earth.

22 And they will be gathered in a gathering, like a prisoner ⌊in⌋i a pit.

And they will be shut ⌊in⌋j a prison and be punished ⌊after⌋k many days.

23 And the full moon will be ashamed

and the sun will be ashamed,

for Yahweh of hosts will rule on ⌊Mount Zion⌋l and in Jerusalem,

and before his elders in glory.