18. Your covenant with death will be called off. The agreement you made with the grave will not stand. When the terrible plague comes to punish you, you will be beaten down by it.
19. As often as it comes, it will carry you away. Morning after morning, day and night, it will come to punish you." If you understand this message, it will bring you absolute terror.
20. You will be like someone whose bed is too short to lie down on. You will be like those whose blankets are too small to wrap themselves in.
21. The Lord will rise up to judge, just as he did at Mount Perazim. He will get up to act, just as he did in the Valley of Gibeon. He'll do his work, but it will be strange work. He'll carry out his task, but it will be an unexpected one.
22. Now stop making fun of me. If you don't, your chains will become heavier. The Lord who rules over all has spoken to me. The Lord has told me he has ordered that the whole land be destroyed.
23. Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention to what I'm saying.
24. When a farmer plows in order to plant, does he plow without stopping? Does he keep on breaking up the soil and making the field level?