New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Look! The LORD is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people.
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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 Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared.
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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 earth will be completely emptied and looted. The LORD has spoken!
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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 earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away.
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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 earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his 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 consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.
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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 grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.
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No more wine, no more vineyards, no more songs or singers.
8 The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent.
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The laughter of castanets is gone, the shouts of celebrants, gone, the laughter of fiddles, gone.
9 Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth.
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No more parties with toasts of champagne. Serious drinkers gag on their drinks.
10 The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders.
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The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns. Every house is boarded up, condemned.
11 Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from 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 The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down.
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The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble.
13 Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after 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 But all who are left shout and sing for joy. Those in the west praise the LORD ’s majesty.
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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 In eastern lands, give glory to the LORD . In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
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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 We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth, songs that give glory to the Righteous One! But my heart is heavy with grief. Weep for me, for I wither away. Deceit still prevails, and treachery is everywhere.
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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 and traps and snares will be your lot, you people of the earth.
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Terror and pits and booby traps are everywhere, whoever you are.
18 Those who flee in terror will fall into a trap, and those who escape the trap will be caught in a snare. Destruction falls like rain from the heavens; the foundations of the earth 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 has broken up. It has utterly collapsed; it is violently shaken.
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Earth is smashed to pieces, earth is ripped to shreds, earth is wobbling out of control,
20 The earth staggers like a drunk. It trembles like a tent in a storm. It falls and will not rise again, for the guilt of its rebellion is very heavy.
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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 In that day the LORD will punish the gods in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations 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 rounded up and put in prison. They will be shut up in prison and will finally be punished.
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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 glory of the moon will wane, and the brightness of the sun will fade, for the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will rule on Mount Zion. He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the leaders 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.