44. Those who marry must not expect to have children, and those who don't marry must live as if they had been widowed.
45. Everything that is done will be useless.
46. Foreigners will harvest the crops, seize the wealth, tear down the houses, and carry off the children as slaves. Anyone who has children will be bringing them up to be slaves or to die of starvation.
47. Anyone who makes money will do so only to see it violently taken away. The more possessions people gather, the more they spend on their cities and houses, the more attention they give to their personal appearance,
48. the more angry the Lord will become with them because of their sin. This is what the Lord says.
49. Just as a respectable woman despises a prostitute,
50. so righteousness despises sinfulness, no matter how attractive it may look. Righteousness will expose every sin in the world and condemn it face to face when her Defender comes.
51. So do not imitate sinfulness or what it does,
52. for in a very short time sinfulness will be swept out of the world and righteousness will rule among us.
53. Sinners must not deny their sins. Those who say that they have not sinned against God and his majesty are only bringing fiery shame upon themselves.
54. The Lord certainly knows everything that people do; he knows their plans and innermost thoughts.
55. When the Lord said, “Let the world be created,” it was done! When he said, “Let the sky be created,” that was done too.
56. He set the stars in place by his command, and he knows how many of them there are.
57. He knows what is in the deepest part of the sea and the treasures that are there. He has measured the sea and everything that is in it.
58. By his word he confined the sea to its place and put the land on top of the water.
59. The Lord stretched out the sky and fixed it firmly over the water like a dome.