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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!

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!

5Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. ²For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! ⁴But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; ⁵for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.

⁶So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; ⁷for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.