Chapter 24

24:1Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare
and making it desolate.
He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:
2people and priest alike,
servant and master,
female servant and mistress,
buyer and seller,
lender and borrower,
creditor and debtor.
3The earth will be stripped completely bare
and will be totally plundered,
for the Lord has spoken this message.
4The earth mourns and withers;
the world wastes away and withers;
the exalted people of the earth waste away.
5The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed teachings,
overstepped decrees,
and broken the everlasting covenant.
6Therefore a curse has consumed the earth,
and its inhabitants have become guilty;
the earth's inhabitants have been burned,
and only a few survive.
7The new wine mourns;
the vine withers.
All the carousers now groan.
8The joyful tambourines have ceased.
The noise of the jubilant has stopped.
The joyful lyre has ceased.
9They no longer sing and drink wine;
beer is bitter to those who drink it.
10The city of chaos is shattered;
every house is closed to entry.
11In the streets they cry for wine.
All joy grows dark;
earth's rejoicing goes into exile.
12Only desolation remains in the city;
its gate has collapsed in ruins.
13For this is how it will be on earth
among the nations:
like a harvested olive tree,
like a gleaning after a grape harvest.
14They raise their voices, they sing out;
they proclaim in the west
the majesty of the Lord.
15Therefore, in the east honor the Lord!
In the islands of the west
honor the name of Yahweh,
the God of Israel.
16From the ends of the earth we hear songs:
The Splendor of the Righteous One.
But I said, "I waste away! I waste away!
Woe is me."
The treacherous act treacherously;
the treacherous deal very treacherously.
17Panic, pit, and trap await you
who dwell on the earth.
18Whoever flees at the sound of panic
will fall into a pit,
and whoever escapes from the pit
will be caught in a trap.
For the windows are opened from heaven,
and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
19The earth is completely devastated;
the earth is split open;
the earth is violently shaken.
20The earth staggers like a drunkard
and sways like a hut.
Earth's rebellion weighs it down,
and it falls, never to rise again.
21On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven above
and kings of the earth below.
22They will be gathered together
like prisoners in a pit.
They will be confined to a dungeon;
after many days they will be punished.
23The moon will be put to shame
and the sun disgraced,
because the Lord of Hosts will reign as king
on Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
and He will display His glory
in the presence of His elders.

Chapter 25

25:1Yahweh, You are my God;
I will exalt You. I will praise Your name,
for You have accomplished wonders,
plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
2For You have turned the city into a pile of rocks,
a fortified city, into ruins;
the fortress of barbarians is no longer a city;
it will never be rebuilt.
3Therefore, a strong people will honor You.
The cities of violent nations will fear You.
4For You have been a stronghold for the poor,
a stronghold for the needy person in his distress,
a refuge from the rain, a shade from the heat.
When the breath of the violent
is like rain against a wall,
5like heat in a dry land,
You subdue the uproar of barbarians.
As the shade of a cloud cools the heat of the day,
so He silences the song of the violent.
6The Lord of Hosts will prepare a feast
for all the peoples on this mountain-
a feast of aged wine, choice meat, finely aged wine.
7On this mountain
He will destroy the burial shroud,
the shroud over all the peoples,
the sheet covering all the nations;
8He will destroy death forever.
The Lord God will wipe away the tears
from every face
and remove His people's disgrace
from the whole earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9On that day it will be said,
"Look, this is our God;
we have waited for Him, and He has saved us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for Him.
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
10For the Lord's power will rest on this mountain.
But Moab will be trampled in his place
as straw is trampled in a dung pile.
11He will spread out his arms in the middle of it,
as a swimmer spreads out his arms to swim.
His pride will be brought low,
along with the trickery of his hands.
12The high-walled fortress will be brought down,
thrown to the ground, to the dust.