¹Behold, the Lord is about to depopulate the land

And empty it,

And he will overturn the face of it

And scatter its inhabitants.

²And it will come to pass that

As the people at large are,

So the priest will be;

As the manservant is,

So his master will be;

As the maidservant is,

So her mistress will be;

As the buyer is,

So the seller will be;

As the lender is,

So the borrower will be;

As the creditor is,

So his debtor will be.

³The land will certainly be depopulated,

And it will certainly be plundered,

For the Lord has spoken these words.

⁴The land will mourn and fade,

The world will languish and fade;

The haughty among the people of the land will languish.

⁵And the land has been defiled by its inhabitants,

For they have transgressed the laws.

They have disregarded the statute;

They have violated the age-abiding covenant,

⁶Which is why a curse has devoured the land,

And those who inhabit it bear the guilt.

It is why the inhabitants of the land are fuming,

And very few men remain.

⁷The new wine is mourning,

The vine is languishing;

All those of joyful heart

Are now sighing.

⁸The rejoicing of drums has ceased,

The tumult of those exulting has stopped;

The rejoicing of the harp has ceased.

⁹They shall not drink wine with singing;

The liquor will become bitter

To those who drink it.

¹⁰The town of desolation has been broken up;

Every house is shut up,

Preventing entering.

¹¹There is a cry for wine in the streets;

All joy has drawn to a close,

And the rejoicing in the land has passed away.

¹²What remains in the city is desolation,

And the gate has been pounded to ruins.

¹³For so it will be on the earth among the nations,

As when the olive tree has been beaten,

Like the gleanings when the grape harvest has finished.

¹⁴They will raise their voices;

They will be jubilant.

They will shout for joy from across the sea

Because of the majesty of the Lord.

¹⁵For this reason, glorify the Lord with lights

– The name of the Lord God of Israel –

In the coastlands of the sea.

¹⁶From the extremities of the earth we have heard singing

To the illustriousness of the righteous one,

But I said,

“Woe is me, woe is me, alas for me,

Traitors have betrayed me,

And the traitors have committed a betrayal.”

¹⁷Fear, and a pitfall, and a snare

Are looming over you,

You inhabitants of the earth.

¹⁸And it will come to pass

That he who flees at a fearful sound

Will fall into the pit,

And he who comes up out of the pit

Will be caught in the snare,

For the floodgates on high will open,

And the foundations of the earth will shake.

¹⁹The earth will be utterly broken into pieces,

The earth will be thoroughly torn apart;

The earth will totter perilously.

²⁰The earth will stagger precariously like a drunkard,

And it will sway like a shack,

And its transgression will weigh heavily on it,

And it will fall

And not rise again.

²¹And it will come to pass on that day

That the Lord will visit the higher powers

In a high place,

And the kings of the earth

On the earth.

²²And they will be gathered up,

Like the herding of prisoners into the pit,

And they will be shut up in confinement,

Then after many days they will be visited.

²³And the moon will blush,

And the sun will be at a loss,

When the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

With glory in the presence of his appointed elders.