Do you wish to torment ¹  a windblown ²  leaf and chase after dry chaff? ³ 

“The Lord says, ¹  ‘That is why I will scatter your people ²  like chaff that is blown away by a desert wind. ³ 

Not so with the wicked! Instead ¹  they are like wind-driven chaff. ² 

I grind them as fine windblown dust; ¹  I beat them underfoot ²  like clay ³  in the streets.

Who stirs up this one from the east? ¹  Who ²  officially commissions him for service? ³  He hands nations over to him, ⁴  and enables him to subdue ⁵  kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, like windblown straw with his bow. ⁶ 

“‘As for ¹  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.

Their residents are powerless, ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field, or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

before God’s decree becomes reality ¹  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ²  before the Lord’s raging anger ³  overtakes ⁴  you – before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!