261 At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation. 2 Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. 3 People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit. 4 Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
5 Those who lived high and mighty he knocked off their high horse. He used the city built on the hill as fill for the marshes. 6 All the exploited and outcast peoples build their lives on the reclaimed land. 7 The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler evens the road for the right-living. 8 We're in no hurry, God. We're content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want. 9 Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right. 10 If the wicked are shown grace, they don't seem to get it. In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living, blind to the splendor of God. 11 You hold your hand up high, God, but they don't see it. Open their eyes to what you do, to see your zealous love for your people. Shame them. Light a fire under them. Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
12 God, order a peaceful and whole life for us because everything we've done, you've done for us. 13 O God, our God, we've had other masters rule us, but you're the only Master we've ever known. 14 The dead don't talk, ghosts don't walk, Because you've said, "Enough - that's all for you," and wiped them off the books. 15 But the living you make larger than life. The more life you give, the more glory you display, and stretch the borders to accommodate more living! 16 O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble, when your discipline was so heavy they could barely whisper a prayer. 17 Like a woman having a baby, writhing in distress, screaming her pain as the baby is being born, That's how we were because of you, O God. 18 We were pregnant full-term. We writhed in labor but bore no baby. We gave birth to wind. Nothing came of our labor. We produced nothing living. We couldn't save the world. 19 But friends, your dead will live, your corpses will get to their feet. All you dead and buried, wake up! Sing! Your dew is morning dew catching the first rays of sun, The earth bursting with life, giving birth to the dead.
20 Come, my people, go home and shut yourselves in. Go into seclusion for a while until the punishing wrath is past, 21 Because God is sure to come from his place to punish the wrong of the people on earth. Earth itself will point out the bloodstains; it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.
31 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. 2 He's withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, 3 captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. 4 He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. 5 People will be at each other's throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbor against neighbor, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. 6 One brother will grab another and say, 'You look like you've got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess.' 7 And he'll say, 'Me? Not me! I don't have a clue. Don't put me in charge of anything.' 8 "Jerusalem's on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in my face.
9 Brazen in their depravity, they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed; now they'll sleep in it. 10 "Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. 11 But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them. 12 "Skinny kids terrorize my people. Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley. They're sending you off on a wild goose chase." A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows 13 God enters the courtroom. He takes his place at the bench to judge his people. 14 God calls for order in the court, hauls the leaders of his people into the dock: "You've played havoc with this country. Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor. 15 What is this anyway? Stomping on my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?" That's what the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.
16 God says, "Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street, swinging their hips, Tossing their hair, gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry." 17 The Master will fix it so those Zion women will all turn bald - Scabby, bald-headed women. The Master will do it. 18 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles - 19 the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, 20 combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, 21 the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, 22 the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, 23 all the world's finest in fabrics and design. 24 Instead of wearing seductive scents, these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns, they'll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos, scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks, scabs and scars. 25 Your finest fighting men will be killed, your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. 26 The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead - A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrows.
