41. Hear the word, my people. Prepare yourselves for battle, and in the midst of disasters be like strangers on earth.
42. Let the person who sells be like a person who is about to run away, and let the person who buys be like a person who is about to lose.
43. Let one who does business be as one who makes no profit; one who builds as one who won’t get to live in the building;
44. one who sows as one who will not reap; one who prunes as one who will not harvest;
45. those who get married as people who will have no children; and those who don’t marry as though they were widowed,
46. because those who toil, toil for no reason.
47. Foreigners will gather their fruits, plunder their wealth, knock down their houses, and take their children captive, for in captivity and hunger they will produce their offspring.
48. Those who transact business do so only to be plundered. The longer they adorn their cities and houses, possessions and persons,
49. the more I will be enraged against them on account of their sins, says the Lord.
50. Just as a proper and good woman is enraged at a woman who is promiscuous,
51. so justice will be enraged against sin when it tries to make itself beautiful, and will accuse it to its face since he who defends will come, hunting up sins on the earth.
52. Therefore, don’t be like it or its ways.
53. Look, just a little longer and sin will be removed from the earth and justice will rule over us.
54. Let sinners not deny that they have sinned, for God will burn coals of fire over the head of those who say, "I haven’t sinned before God and his glory."
55. Look, the Lord knows all the works of humanity, their devices, their plotting, and their hearts.