⁹ ‘Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses,
    setting your nest on high
    to be safe from the reach of harm!’
¹⁰ You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.
¹¹ The very stones will cry out from the wall,
    and the plaster^[d] will respond from the woodwork.

¹² ‘Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed,
    and found a city on iniquity!’
¹³ Is it not from the Lord of hosts
    that peoples labour only to feed the flames,
    and nations weary themselves for nothing?
¹⁴ But the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
    as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ ‘Alas for you who make your neighbours drink,
    pouring out your wrath^[e] until they are drunk,
    in order to gaze on their nakedness!’
¹⁶ You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
    Drink, you yourself, and stagger!^[f]
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
    will come around to you,
    and shame will come upon your glory!
¹⁷ For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
    the destruction of the animals will terrify you—^[g]
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who live in them.

¹⁸ What use is an idol
    once its maker has shaped it—
    a cast image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in what has been made,
    though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!
¹⁹ Alas for you who say to the wood, ‘Wake up!’
    to silent stone, ‘Rouse yourself!’
    Can it teach?
See, it is plated with gold and silver,
    and there is no breath in it at all.

²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth keep silence before him!