The ruined town ¹  is shattered; all of the houses are shut up tight. ² 

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

He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

Look, all of them are nothing, ¹  their accomplishments are nonexistent; their metal images lack any real substance. ² 

those who bear false testimony against a person, ¹  who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ²  and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ³ 

Owls and wild animals ¹  will live there, ²  all kinds of wild birds ³  will settle in it. The Lord ⁴  will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line ⁵  of destruction. ⁶ 

All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. ¹  I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ ²  I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements. ³ 

But I thought, ¹  “I have worked in vain; I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” ²  But the Lord will vindicate me; my God will reward me. ³ 

No one is concerned about justice; ¹  no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words ²  and tell lies; they conceive of oppression ³  and give birth to sin.

For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky – he is the true God, ¹  the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, ²  he formed it to be inhabited – “I am the Lord, I have no peer.