“I looked at the land and saw ¹  that it was an empty wasteland. ²  I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

Angrily wipe them out! Wipe them out so they vanish! Let them know that God rules in Jacob and to the ends of the earth! (Selah)

As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. ¹  As wax melts before fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God.

What they loved, ¹  as well as what they hated ²  and envied, ³  perished long ago, and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth. ⁴ 

In the evening there is sudden terror; ¹  by morning they vanish. ²  This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us! ³ 

You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear ¹  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ² 

I will bring war, starvation, and disease ¹  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ² 

The Lord affirms, ¹  “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.” ² 

For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon, and put an end to her loud noise. Their waves ¹  will roar like turbulent ²  waters. They will make a deafening noise. ³ 

What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For ¹  your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; ²  it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew! ³ 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, ¹  I set aside childish ways.

and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites ¹  from staring ²  at the result ³  of the glory that was made ineffective. ⁴ 

Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave ¹  or free, but Christ is all and in all.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, ¹  the heavens will disappear ²  with a horrific noise, ³  and the celestial bodies ⁴  will melt away ⁵  in a blaze, ⁶  and the earth and every deed done on it ⁷  will be laid bare. ⁸ 

(The ripe fruit ¹  you greatly desired ²  has gone from you, and all your luxury ³  and splendor ⁴  have gone from you – they will never ever be found again!) ⁵ 

Then ¹  I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, ²  and the sea existed no more.

ג (Gimel) In fierce anger ¹  he destroyed ²  the whole army ³  of Israel. He withdrew his right hand ⁴  as the enemy attacked. ⁵  He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; ⁶  it consumed everything around it. ⁷ 

‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ¹  For I am doing a work in your days, a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ²