1. Look, the Lord is destroying this land. He will clean out the land completely and force all the people to go far away.
2. At that time whatever happens to the common people will also happen to the priests. Slaves and masters will be the same. Women slaves and their women masters will be the same. Buyers and sellers will be the same. Those who borrow and those who lend will be the same. Bankers and those who owe the bank will be the same.
3. Everyone will be forced out of the land. All the wealth will be taken. This will happen because the Lord commanded it.
4. The country will be empty and sad. The world will be empty and weak. The great leaders of the people in this land will become weak.
5. The people have ruined the land. They did what God said was wrong. They did not obey God’s laws. They made an agreement with God a long time ago, but they broke their agreement with God.
6. The people living in this land are guilty of doing wrong, so God promised to destroy the land. The people will be punished, and only a few of them will survive.
7. The grapevines are dying. The new wine is bad. People who were happy are now sad.
8. They have stopped showing their joy. The happy music from the drums and harps has ended.
9. They no longer sing as they drink their wine. The beer now tastes bitter to those who drink it.
10. “Total Confusion” is a good name for this city. The city has been destroyed. People cannot enter the houses. The doors are blocked.
11. People still ask for wine in the marketplaces, but all the joy is gone. It was carried off with everything else.
12. All that is left is destruction. Even the gates are crushed.
13. At harvest time, people knock olives from the trees. But a few olives are left in the trees. It will be like that in this land and among the nations.
14. Those who are left will begin shouting louder than the ocean. They will rejoice about the Lord’S greatness.
15. They will say, “People in the east, praise the Lord! People in faraway lands, praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.”