Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹  the master as well as the servant, ²  the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ³  the seller as well as the buyer, ⁴  the borrower as well as the lender, ⁵  the creditor as well as the debtor. ⁶ 

The many nations massing together are as good as dead, ¹  those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. ²  The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, ³  those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. ⁴ 

Those who pull evil along using cords of emptiness are as good as dead, ¹  who pull sin as with cart ropes. ² 

Look all around you! ¹  All of them gather to you. As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry; you will put them on as if you were a bride.

I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹  Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”

As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons ¹  will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

You ¹  have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. ²  They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate ³  when they divide up the plunder.

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He lifts ¹  the coastlands ²  as if they were dust.

All the nations are insignificant before him; they are regarded as absolutely nothing. ¹ 

The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, ¹  the one beyond the rivers of Cush,

Your plunder ¹  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ²  they swarm over it like locusts! ³ 

Those who think they are wise are as good as dead, ¹  those who think they possess understanding. ² 

Those who are champions ¹  at drinking wine are as good as dead, ²  who display great courage when mixing strong drinks.

Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, ¹  those who are always instituting unfair regulations, ² 

Their residents are powerless; ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

Lambs ¹  will graze as if in their pastures, amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. ² 

¹ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow: “Be sure of this: Just as I have intended, so it will be; just as I have planned, it will happen.

Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ¹  and your children ²  like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence. ³ 

Who comprehends ¹  the mind ²  of the Lord, or gives him instruction as his counselor? ³ 

“I, I am the one who consoles you. ¹  Why are you afraid of mortal men, of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? ²