Knox Bible

1

Look you, the Lord means to make earth a void, a wilderness; twist it out of shape, and scatter its inhabitants far and wide.

2

One law for priest and people, for master and servant, for mistress and maid; for seller and buyer, for borrower and lender, for debtor and exactor of debts.

3

Earth drained to its dregs, earth ravaged and ransacked; such decree the Lord has uttered.

4

Earth woebegone and withered, a world that withers and grows feeble; how feeble they have grown now, the great ones of the earth!

5

Poor earth, polluted by the men that dwell on it; they have broken God’s law, traversed the decree he made for them, violated his eternal covenant with men;

6

cankered it lies by a curse, peopled with guilty men, only a frantic remnant left✻ of its inhabitants.

‘A frantic remnant left’; in the Hebrew text, ‘they will be burned up till few of them are left’.

7

Woebegone the vintage, withered now the vine, hearts sighing that once were merry;

8

silent the gay tambour, hushed the noise of holiday-making, silent the harp’s mirth.

9

No more feasting and song; the wine turns bitter in their mouths.

10

Ransacked and ruined lies yonder city,✻ where every house denies entrance,

It is not clear whether any particular city, and if so what city, is meant.

11

and a cry goes up in the streets because all the wine is spent, the mirth forsaken, the joy vanished;

12

a city left to desolation, with ruin fallen upon its gates.

13

In the midst of the wide earth, among those many peoples, what shall be left? A remnant, the last olives that are shaken from the tree, the gleanings that remain when vintage-time is over.

14

Few only, but they shall lift up their voices in praise; God’s honour vindicated, their rejoicing shall be heard across the sea,

15

Give glory to God, where knowledge of him is revealed;✻ praise to the God of Israel among the distant isles;

‘Where knowledge of him is revealed’; literally ‘in the doctrines’, the Hebrew word being that used for the oracular adornment of the high priest’s breastplate. Its literal meaning is ‘lights’, and some think it is here used poetically for ‘the east’.

16

here at the ends of the earth his song of triumph has reached us, the boast of his elect.✻ Heart, keep thy secret, heart, keep thy secret; no more of that.

But alas, the traitors still betray his cause; treachery is treachery still, and its fruit is treason.

‘His elect’; that is, either the Messias, or the redeemed people generally. The words which follow are obscure in the Hebrew, and some think the meaning is, ‘My weakness, my weakness’ (literally, ‘my leanness’). If this translation is right, the words are more naturally taken with what follows than with what precedes them.

17

For the dwellers on earth, tidings of fear; pit and snare await them;

18

flee they from tidings of fear, they shall fall into the pit, flee they from the pit, they shall be held fast in the snare. The floodgates of heaven will be opened, and the foundations of earth rock;

19

earth must be rent and riven, earth torn and tattered, earth must quiver and quake;

20

earth rolling and reeling like a drunkard, earth tottering like some frail shelter that is gone in a night, bowed down by the weight of its own guilt, till it falls, never to rise again.

21

When that day comes, the Lord will hold a reckoning with the hosts of heaven, there above, with the kings of the earth, here on earth;

22

huddled together, as captives are huddled together in a dungeon, they shall remain prisoners; so, at last, the reckoning will be held.

23

And then the Lord of hosts will reign at Jerusalem, on mount Sion; and the moon will be put to shame, and the sun hide his face, before the glory in which he will appear then, with the elders of his people about him.