1-3. Danger ahead! God’s about to ravish the earthand leave it in ruins,Rip everything out by the rootsand send everyone scurrying:priests and laypeople alike,owners and workers alike,celebrities and nobodies alike,buyers and sellers alike,bankers and beggars alike,the haves and have-nots alike.The landscape will be a moonscape,totally wasted.And why? Because God says so.He’s issued the orders.
14-16. But there are some who will break into glad song.Out of the west they’ll shout of God’s majesty.Yes, from the east God’s glory will ascend.Every island of the seaWill broadcast God’s fame,the fame of the God of Israel.From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing:“All praise to the Righteous One!”
16-20. But I said, “That’s all well and good for somebody,but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom.”All of them at one another’s throats,yes, all of them at one another’s throats.Terror and pits and booby trapsare everywhere, whoever you are.If you run from the terror,you’ll fall into the pit.If you climb out of the pit,you’ll get caught in the trap.Chaos pours out of the skies.The foundations of earth are crumbling.Earth is smashed to pieces,earth is ripped to shreds,earth is wobbling out of control,Earth staggers like a drunk,sways like a shack in a high wind.Its piled-up sins are too much for it.It collapses and won’t get up again.
21-23. That’s when God will call on the carpetrebel powers in the skies andRebel kings on earth.They’ll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail,Corralled and locked up in a jail,and then sentenced and put to hard labor.Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated,red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced,Because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over,ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem,Splendid and gloriousbefore all his leaders.