Isaiah

¹ See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants—

² for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.

³ and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.

⁴ the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish.

⁵ they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶ its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

⁷ all the merrymakers groan.

⁸ the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.

⁹ the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

¹⁰ the entrance to every house is barred.

¹¹ all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth.

¹² its gate is battered to pieces.

¹³ and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.

¹⁵ exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶ “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!”

¹⁷ O people of the earth.

¹⁸ will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake.

¹⁹ the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.

²⁰ it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.

²¹ the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.

²² like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.

²³ for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.