CHAPTER 24
1 Lo! the Lord shall destroy the earth, and shall make it naked, and shall torment the face thereof; and he shall scatter abroad the dwellers thereof.
2 And it shall be, as the people, so the priest; as the servant, so his lord; as the handmaid, so the lady of her; as a buyer, so he that selleth; as the lender, so he that taketh borrowing; as he that asketh again, so he that oweth.
3 By destroying the land shall be destroyed, and shall be made naked by ravishing; for why the Lord spake this word.
4 The earth mourned, and floated away, and is made sick; the world floated away, the highness of the people of [the] earth is made sick,
5 and the earth is slain of his dwellers. For they passed [the] laws, changed [the] right, destroyed [the] everlasting bond of peace.
6 For this thing, cursing shall devour the earth, and the dwellers thereof shall do sin; and therefore the lovers thereof shall be mad, and few men shall be left.
7 [The] Vintage mourned, the vine is sick; all men that were glad in heart wailed.
8 The joy of tympans ceased, the sound of glad men rested; the sweet-ness of [the] harp with song was stilled.
9 They shall not drink wine; a bitter drink shall be to them that shall drink it.
10 The city of vanity is all-broken; each house is closed, for no man entereth.
11 Cry shall be on wine in [the] streets, all gladness is forsaken, the joy of [the] earth is taken away.
12 Desolation is left in the city, and wretchedness shall oppress the gates.
13 For these things shall be in the midst of [the] earth, in the midst of peoples, as if a few fruits of olive trees that be left be shaken off from the olive tree, and raisins, when the vintage is ended.
14 These men shall raise [up] their voice, and shall praise, when the Lord shall be glorified; they shall show signs of gladness from the sea.
15 For this thing glorify ye the Lord in teachings; in the isles of the sea glorify ye the name of the Lord God of Israel.
16 From the ends of [the] earth we have heard praisings, the glory of the just [or the rightwise]. And I said, My private to me, my private to me. Woe to me, [the] trespassers have trespassed, and have trespassed by [the] trespassing of breakers of the law.
17 Fearedfulness, and a ditch, and a snare on thee, that art a dweller of [the] earth.
18 And it shall be, he that shall flee from the face of fearedfulness, shall fall into the ditch; and he that shall deliver himself from the ditch, shall be holden of the snare; for why the windows of high things be opened, and the foundaments of [the] earth shall be shaken together.
19 The earth shall be broken with breaking, the earth shall be defouled with defouling, the earth shall be moved with moving,
20 the earth shall be shaken with shaking, as a drunken man. And it shall be taken away, as the tabernacle of one night, and the wickedness thereof shall grieve it; and it shall fall down, and it shall not add, for to rise again.
21 And it shall be, in that day the Lord shall visit on the knighthood of heaven on high, and on the kings of earth, that be on earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together in the gathering together of a bundle into the pit, and they shall be enclosed there in prison; and after many days they shall be visited.
23 And the moon shall be ashamed, and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in the hill of Zion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his elder men.