1. Behold, the Lord will lay waste to the earth, and he will strip it, and he will afflict its surface, and he will scatter its inhabitants.
2. And this shall be: as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3. The earth will be utterly devastated and utterly plundered. For the Lord has spoken this word.
4. The earth mourned, and slipped away, and languished. The world slipped away; the loftiness of the people of the earth was weakened.
5. And the earth was corrupted by its inhabitants. For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have dissipated the everlasting covenant.