1. Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bareand making it desolate.He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:
2. people and priest alike,servant and master,female servant and mistress,buyer and seller,lender and borrower,creditor and debtor.
3. The earth will be stripped completely bareand will be totally plundered,for the Lord has spoken this message.
4. The earth mourns and withers;the world wastes away and withers;the exalted people of the earth waste away.
5. The earth is polluted by its inhabitants, for they have transgressed teachings,overstepped decrees,and broken the everlasting covenant.
6. Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants have become guilty;the earth’s inhabitants have been burned,and only a few survive.
7. The new wine mourns; the vine withers.All the carousers now groan.
8. The joyful tambourines have ceased.The noise of the jubilant has stopped.The joyful lyre has ceased.
9. They no longer sing and drink wine;beer is bitter to those who drink it.