14. So the place of the dead wants more and more people,and it opens wide its mouth.Jerusalem’s important people and common people will go down into it,with their happy and noisy ones.
15. So the common people and the great people will be brought down;those who are proud will be humbled.
16. The Lord All-Powerful will receive glory by judging fairly;the holy God will show himself holy by doing what is right.
17. Then the sheep will go anywhere they want,and lambs will feed on the land that rich people once owned.
18. How terrible it will be for those people!They pull their guilt and sins behind themas people pull wagons with ropes.
19. They say, “Let God hurry;let him do his work soonso we may see it.Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen soonso that we will know what it is.”
20. How terrible it will be for people who call good things badand bad things good,who think darkness is lightand light is darkness,who think sour is sweetand sweet is sour.
21. How terrible it will be for people who think they are wiseand believe they are clever.
22. How terrible it will be for people who are famous for drinking wineand are champions at mixing drinks.
23. They take money to set the guilty freeand don’t allow good people to be judged fairly.
24. They will be destroyedjust as fire burns straw or dry grass.They will be destroyedlike a plant whose roots rotand whose flower dies and blows away like dust.They have refused to obey the teachings of the Lord All-Powerfuland have hated the message from the Holy God of Israel.