Isaiah, 24

1. See how Yahweh lays the earth waste, makes it a desert, buckles its surface, scatters its inhabitants,

2. priest and people alike, master and slave, mistress and maid, seller and buyer, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

3. Ravaged, ravaged the earth will be, despoiled, despoiled, for Yahweh has uttered this word.

4. The earth is mourning, pining away, the pick of earth's people are withering away.

5. The earth is defiled by the feet of its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the decree, broken the everlasting covenant.

6. That is why the curse has consumed the earth and its inhabitants pay the penalty, that is why the inhabitants of the earth have been burnt up and few people are left.

7. The new wine is mourning, the vine is withering away, the once merry-hearted are sighing.

8. The cheerful sound of tambourines is silent, the sound of revelling is over, the cheerful sound of the harp is silent.

9. No more will they sing over their wine, liquor will taste bitter to the drinker.

10. The city of nothingness is in ruins, every house is shut, no one can enter.

11. People shout in the streets to try to get wine; all joy has vanished, happiness has been banished from the country.

12. Nothing but rubble in the city, the gate has collapsed in ruins.

13. For at the heart of earth's life, among the peoples, it is as at the beating of the olive trees, as at the gleaning of the grapes when the grape harvest is over.

14. They raise their voices, shouting for joy, in Yahweh's honour they shout from the west.

15. 'Yes, in the east, give glory to Yahweh, in the islands of the sea, to the name of Yahweh, God of Israel!'

16. We have heard psalms from the remotest parts of earth, 'Glory to the Upright One!' But I thought, 'What an ordeal, what an ordeal! What misery for me!' The traitors have betrayed, the traitors have acted most treacherously.

17. Fear, the pit and the snare for you, inhabitants of the city!

18. And whoever flees from the cry of fear will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Yes, the sluice-gates above are open, the foundations of the earth are quaking.

19. A cracking, the earth cracks open, a jolting, the earth gives a jolt, a lurching, the earth lurches backwards and forwards.

20. The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard, it will be shaken like a shanty; so heavy will be its sin on it, it will fall, never to rise again.

21. When that day comes, Yahweh will punish the armies of the sky above and on earth the kings of the earth;

22. they will be herded together, herded together like prisoners in a dungeon and shut up in gaol, and, after long years, punished.

23. The moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for Yahweh Sabaoth is king on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and the Glory will radiate on their elders.