⁵ Why do you continue to invite punishment?
    Must you rebel forever?
Your head is injured,
    and your heart is sick.
⁶ You are battered from head to foot—
    covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds—
    without any soothing ointments or bandages.
⁷ Your country lies in ruins,
    and your towns are burned.
Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes
    and destroy everything they see.
⁸ Beautiful Jerusalem^[b] stands abandoned
    like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest,
    like a helpless city under siege.
⁹ If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    had not spared a few of us,^[c]
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
    destroyed like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.”
    Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”
¹¹ “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?”
    says the Lord.
“I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of fattened cattle.
I get no pleasure from the blood
    of bulls and lambs and goats.
¹² When you come to worship me,
    who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?
¹³ Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;
    the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
    and your special days for fasting—
they are all sinful and false.
    I want no more of your pious meetings.
¹⁴ I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.
    They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!
¹⁵ When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.
    Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,
    for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves and be clean!
    Get your sins out of my sight.
    Give up your evil ways.
¹⁷ Learn to do good.
    Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
    Defend the cause of orphans.
    Fight for the rights of widows.

¹⁸ “Come now, let’s settle this,”
    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
    I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
    I will make them as white as wool.
¹⁹ If you will only obey me,
    you will have plenty to eat.
²⁰ But if you turn away and refuse to listen,
    you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!”

²⁴ Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    the Mighty One of Israel, says,
“I will take revenge on my enemies
    and pay back my foes!
²⁵ I will raise my fist against you.
    I will melt you down and skim off your slag.
    I will remove all your impurities.
²⁶ Then I will give you good judges again
    and wise counselors like you used to have.
Then Jerusalem will again be called the Home of Justice
    and the Faithful City.”

²⁷ Zion will be restored by justice;
    those who repent will be revived by righteousness.
²⁸ But rebels and sinners will be completely destroyed,
    and those who desert the Lord will be consumed.

²⁹ You will be ashamed of your idol worship
    in groves of sacred oaks.
You will blush because you worshiped
    in gardens dedicated to idols.
³⁰ You will be like a great tree with withered leaves,
    like a garden without water.
³¹ The strongest among you will disappear like straw;
    their evil deeds will be the spark that sets it on fire.
They and their evil works will burn up together,
    and no one will be able to put out the fire.

² In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house
    will be the highest of all—
    the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills,
    and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
³ People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways,
    and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
    his word will go out from Jerusalem.
⁴ The Lord will mediate between nations
    and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fight against nation,
    nor train for war anymore.

¹² For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    has a day of reckoning.
He will punish the proud and mighty
    and bring down everything that is exalted.
¹³ He will cut down the tall cedars of Lebanon
    and all the mighty oaks of Bashan.
¹⁴ He will level all the high mountains
    and all the lofty hills.
¹⁵ He will break down every high tower
    and every fortified wall.
¹⁶ He will destroy all the great trading ships^[d]
    and every magnificent vessel.
¹⁷ Human pride will be humbled,
    and human arrogance will be brought down.
Only the Lord will be exalted
    on that day of judgment.

¹⁸ Idols will completely disappear.
¹⁹ When the Lord rises to shake the earth,
    his enemies will crawl into holes in the ground.
They will hide in caves in the rocks
    from the terror of the Lord
    and the glory of his majesty.
²⁰ On that day of judgment they will abandon the gold and silver idols
    they made for themselves to worship.
They will leave their gods to the rodents and bats,
²¹     while they crawl away into caverns
    and hide among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.
They will try to escape the terror of the Lord
    and the glory of his majesty
    as he rises to shake the earth.
²² Don’t put your trust in mere humans.
    They are as frail as breath.
    What good are they?

¹ Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior?
    Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?
² All day long you plot destruction.
    Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor;
    you’re an expert at telling lies.
³ You love evil more than good
    and lies more than truth. Interlude

⁴ You love to destroy others with your words,
    you liar!
⁵ But God will strike you down once and for all.
    He will pull you from your home
    and uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude

⁶ The righteous will see it and be amazed.
    They will laugh and say,
⁷ “Look what happens to mighty warriors
    who do not trust in God.
They trust their wealth instead
    and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.”

⁸ But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God.
    I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
⁹ I will praise you forever, O God,
    for what you have done.
I will trust in your good name
    in the presence of your faithful people.

²⁶ Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt
    or put up security for someone else.
²⁷ If you can’t pay it,
    even your bed will be snatched from under you.