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20 The earth staggers like a drunkard;
    it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
    and it falls and will not rise again.(A)

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14 The Lord has poured into them[a]
    a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 19.14 Gk Compare Tg: Heb it

14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria
    and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
    they shall fall and never rise again.(A)

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God Accuses Israel

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel,
    for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty
    and no knowledge of God in the land.(A)
Swearing, lying, and murder,
    and stealing and adultery break out;
    bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
    and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals
    and the birds of the air,
    even the fish of the sea are perishing.(B)

Yet let no one contend,
    and let none accuse,
    for with you is my contention, O priest.[a](C)
You shall stumble by day;
    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night,
    and I will destroy your mother.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 4.4 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain

19 Then he shall turn back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and shall not be found.(A)

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Be astounded and stunned;
    blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk but not from wine;
    stagger but not from strong drink!(A)

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21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,

“With such violence Babylon the great city
    will be thrown down
    and will be found no more;(A)

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Seventh Vision: The Woman in a Basket

Then the angel who spoke with me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what this is that is coming out.” I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is a basket[a] coming out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity[b] in the whole land.” Then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket![c] And he said, “This is Wickedness.” So he thrust her back into the basket[d] and pressed the leaden weight down on its mouth.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 5.6 Heb ephah
  2. 5.6 Gk Compare Syr: Heb their eye
  3. 5.7 Heb ephah
  4. 5.8 Heb ephah

14 My transgressions were bound[a] into a yoke;
    by his hand they were fastened together;
they weigh on my neck,
    sapping my strength;
the Lord handed me over
    to those whom I cannot withstand.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1.14 Meaning of Heb uncertain

27 Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink; get drunk and vomit; fall and rise no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.(A)

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The Blind Perversity of the Whole Nation

You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When people fall, do they not get up again?
    If they go astray, do they not turn back?(A)

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27 Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your mediators rebelled against me.

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12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
    he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;(A)

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For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!(A)

Social Injustice Denounced

Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!(B)
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.(C)
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
    and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[a](D)

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
    in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
    to be inflamed by wine,(E)
12 whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
    or see the work of his hands!(F)
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.(G)

14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
    and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem[b] and her multitude go down,
    her throng and all who exult in her.(H)
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.(I)
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.(J)
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
    fatted calves and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.

18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
    who drag sin along as with cart ropes,(K)
19 who say, “Let him make haste;
    let him speed his work
    that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
    that we may know it!”(L)
20 Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!(M)
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and shrewd in their own sight!(N)
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
    and valiant at mixing drink,(O)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
    and deprive the innocent of their rights!(P)

Foreign Invasion Predicted

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
    and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
    and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.(Q)

25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
    the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
    in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.(R)

26 He will raise a signal for a nation far away
    and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!(S)
27 None of them is weary; none stumbles;
    none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
    not a sandal strap broken;(T)
28 their arrows are sharp;
    all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels like the whirlwind.(U)
29 Their roaring is like a lion;
    like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
    they carry it off, and no one can rescue.(V)
30 They will roar over it on that day,
    like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
    only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.(W)

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Footnotes

  1. 5.10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
  2. 5.14 Heb her nobility
  3. 5.17 Gk: Heb aliens

28 But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
    and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.(A)

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And daughter Zion is left
    like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
    like a besieged city.

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27 they reeled and staggered like drunkards
    and were at their wits’ end.(A)

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For my iniquities have gone over my head;
    they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.(A)

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35 so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

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