The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Look! ADONAI is stripping and destroying the land, turning it upside down and scattering its inhabitants
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Danger ahead! God's about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins, Rip everything out by the roots and send everyone scurrying:
2 cohen and commoner, slave and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
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Priests and laypeople alike, owners and workers alike, celebrities and nobodies alike, buyers and sellers alike, bankers and beggars alike, the haves and have-nots alike.
3 The land will be completely stripped, completely plundered, for ADONAI has spoken this word.
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The landscape will be a moonscape, totally wasted. And why? Because God says so. He's issued the orders.
4 The land fades and withers, the world wilts and withers, the exalted of the land languish.
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The earth turns gaunt and gray, the world silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colorless. Earth Polluted by Its Very Own People
5 The land lies defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the teachings, changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant.
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Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant.
6 Therefore a curse is devouring the land, and its inhabitants are punished for their guilt. It is why those living there waste away, and the people left are few.
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Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth. Its people pay the price of their sacrilege. They dwindle away, dying out one by one.
7 The new wine fails, the vines wilt, all the revelers sigh,
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No more wine, no more vineyards, no more songs or singers.
8 the happy sound of tambourines ceases, the shouts of merrymakers are stilled, the joy of the lyre ends.
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The laughter of castanets is gone, the shouts of celebrants, gone, the laughter of fiddles, gone.
9 They no longer sing as they drink their wine, strong liquor tastes bitter to those drinking it.
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No more parties with toasts of champagne. Serious drinkers gag on their drinks.
10 The city of chaos is shattered, every house closed up; no one can enter.
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The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns. Every house is boarded up, condemned.
11 In the streets they are crying over the wine; all joy has faded, cheer has left the land.
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People riot in the streets for wine, but the good times are gone forever - no more joy for this old world.
12 In the city, only desolation, its gates are battered beyond repair.
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The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble.
13 Around the earth, among the peoples, it will be as when beating an olive tree, as when gleaning the grapes at the end of the harvest.
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That's the way it will be on this earth. This is the fate of all nations: An olive tree shaken clean of its olives, a grapevine picked clean of its grapes.
14 They lift their voices, singing for joy, shouting from the west to honor ADONAI.
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But there are some who will break into glad song. Out of the west they'll shout of God's majesty.
15 So in the east, honor ADONAI ; in the coastlands, honor the name of ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.
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Yes, from the east God's glory will ascend. Every island of the sea Will broadcast God's fame, the fame of the God of Israel.
16 From the farthest part of the earth we have heard them sing, "Glory to the Righteous One!" But, I say, I'm wasting away, I am wasting away! Woe to me! Traitors betray! Oh, how the traitors betray and betray!
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From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing: "All praise to the Righteous One!" But I said, "That's all well and good for somebody, but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom." All of them at one another's throats, yes, all of them at one another's throats.
17 Terror, pit and trap are upon you, you who are living on earth.
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Terror and pits and booby traps are everywhere, whoever you are.
18 He who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit. He who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows above have been opened, and the earth's foundations shake.
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If you run from the terror, you'll fall into the pit. If you climb out of the pit, you'll get caught in the trap. Chaos pours out of the skies. The foundations of earth are crumbling.
19 The earth cracks and breaks open, the earth crumbles to pieces, the earth trembles and totters.
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Earth is smashed to pieces, earth is ripped to shreds, earth is wobbling out of control,
20 The earth staggers to and fro like a drunk, sways back and forth like a watchman's shelter; its transgression weighs heavy upon it; it will fall and not rise again.
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Earth staggers like a drunk, sways like a shack in a high wind. Its piled-up sins are too much for it. It collapses and won't get up again.
21 When that day comes, ADONAI will punish the armies of the high heaven on high, and the kings of the earth here on earth.
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That's when God will call on the carpet rebel powers in the skies and Rebel kings on earth.
22 They will be assembled like prisoners in a dungeon and shut up in prison to be punished many years.
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They'll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail, Corralled and locked up in a jail, and then sentenced and put to hard labor.
23 Then the moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for ADONAI-Tzva'ot will rule on Mount Tziyon and in Yerushalayim, with his glory manifest to the rulers of his people.
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Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated, red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced, Because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over, ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem, Splendid and glorious before all his leaders.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.