So I will gather all your lovers with whom you found pleasure. Yes, I will gather all those you loved and those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around, and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can see your nakedness.
The Lord has given you this command, Nineveh: “You will not have descendants to carry on your name. I will destroy the idols and metal images that are in the temple of your gods. I will make a grave for you, because you are wicked.”
You Babylonians will be filled with disgrace, not respect. It’s your turn to drink and fall to the ground like a drunk person. The cup of anger from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you. You will receive disgrace, not respect.
This is the happy and safe city that thinks there is no one else as strong as it is. But what a ruin it will be, a place where wild animals live. All those who pass by will make fun and shake their fists.
Listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Honor my name,” says the Lord All-Powerful. “If you don’t, I will send a curse on you and on your blessings. I have already cursed them, because you don’t pay attention to what I say.
“You have not been careful to do what I say, but instead you take sides in court cases. So I have caused you to be hated and disgraced in front of everybody.”
When they tell evil lies about us, we speak nice words about them. Even today, we are treated as though we were the garbage of the world—the filth of the earth.
But it seems to me that God has put us apostles in last place, like those sentenced to die. We are like a show for the whole world to see—angels and people.
Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who desired sexual relations that God does not allow. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an example for all to see.