22. Woe unto those who are heroes to drink wine, and brave men to mingle strong drink; 23. who acquit criminals for a bribe, and take away from every one the righteousness of the righteous.
24. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and hay sinks together in the flame, their root will become like mould, and their blossom fly up like dust; for they have despised the law of Jehovah of hosts, and scornfully rejected the proclamation of the Holy One of Israel. 25. Therefore is the wrath of Jehovah kindled against His people, and He stretches His hand over them, and sites them; then the hills tremble, and their carcass become like sweepings in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not appeased, and His hand is stretched out still, 26. and lifts up a banner to the distant nations, and hisses to it from the end of the earth; and, behold, it comes with haste swiftly. 27. There is none exhausted, and none stumbling among them: it gives itself no slumber, and no sleep; and to none is the girdle of his hips loosed; and to none is the lace of his shoes broken; 28. he whose arrows are sharpened, and all his bows strung; the hoofs of his horses are counted like flint, and his wheels like the whirlwind. 29. Roaring issues from it as from the lioness: it roars like lions, and utters a low murmur; seizes the prey, carries it off, and no one rescues. 30. And it utters a deep roar over it in that day like the roaring of the sea: and it looks to the earth, and behold darkness, tribulation, and light; it becomes night over it in the clouds of heaven.[3]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Barnes, Birks, Henderson, Kay, Strahey, and the Revised English Bible, translate this clause substantially as it is in the A. V.:—e.g., Henderson, “Why, when I expected it to produce grapes did it produce bad grapes?”
[2] Henderson’s translation of this paragraph is especially vigorous and beautiful:—
13. Therefore My people are led captive at unaware
Their nobility are starvelings,
And their multitude are parched with thirst.
14. Therefore Sheol enlarges her appetite,
And gapes immeasurably with her mouth;
And down go her nobility and her multitude.
Her noisy throng, and whoever in her that exultest.
15. The man of mean condition is bowed down,
And the man of rank is brought low;
And the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16. But Jehovah of hosts is exalted through justice,
And the Holy God is sanctified through righteousness.
17. The lambs shall feed wherever they are driven,
And the waste fields of the rich, strange flocks shall consume.