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⁸Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! ⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. ¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah. ¹¹Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, ¹²whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine, but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands! ¹³Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge; their nobles are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst. ¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure; the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down, her throng and all who exult in her. ¹⁵People are bowed down, everyone is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are humbled. ¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness. ¹⁷Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.

¹⁸Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood, who drag sin along as with cart ropes, ¹⁹who say, “Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment, that we may know it!” ²⁰Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! ²¹Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight! ²²Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, ²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!