¹⁸ Then once more you shall ^(A)see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

⁴ If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’”

^6 (A)You have sown much, and harvested little. ^(B)You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who ^(C)earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(D)Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that ^(E)I may take pleasure in it and that ^(F)I may be glorified, says the Lord. ^9 (G)You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, ^(H)I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house ^(I)that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(J)the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. ¹¹ And ^(K)I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on ^(L)the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and ^(M)on all their labors.”

¹⁶ how did you fare? ^(A)When^[a] one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. ^17 (B)I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, ^(C)yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.