Chapter 2

1. Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Pakistan,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;

because he burned his own daughters,

For the sake of honor without virtue.

2. So I will send a fire on all your households,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Islamabad,

and your murderous fathers shall die amid uproar,

amid shouting and the sound of sirens;

3. I will cut off the head of the household,

and will kill all his sons with him,

says the Lord.

4. Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Washington,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;

because they have rejected the law of the Lord,

and have not kept his statutes,

but they have been led astray by the same lies

after which their ancestors walked.

5. So I will send a fire on this land,

and it shall devour your corrupt institutions.

6. Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Wall Street,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;

because they sell the righteous for another promotion,

and the needy for a new pair of shoes

7. they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,

and push the afflicted out of the way;

so they can ruin their own lives with expensive drugs and cheap sex,

so that my holy name is profaned;

8. they lay themselves up in their penthouses,

shrines of concrete and glass, to the god of money,

they lie on silk sheets purchased with the lives they destroy;

and in the house of their god they drink

wine bought with fees they imposed on the poor.

9. Yet you, yourselves proclaim that I have blessed this nation,

you have inscribed your paper idols with the half-truth, “In God we Trust”,

you sing “God Bless America” with undimmed religious conviction;

and yet you have forgotten your God.

10. I brought you here from every corner of the Earth;

refugees, immigrants, slaves, natives, convicts, and outcasts.

You were not a nation, but I made you a nation,

a beacon of hope and freedom

for the dawning of a new age. 11. And I raised up some of your children to be prophets

and some of your youths to be ministers.

Is it not indeed so, O people of America? says the Lord. 12. But you corrupted my ministers with prosperity, and you assassinated my prophets.

13.  So, I will press you down in your place,
like a father restrains a petulant toddler.
14. Flight shall perish from the swift,  

and the strong shall not retain their strength,

nor shall even the billionaires save their lives;

15. those who arm themselves with assault rifles shall not stand, and those with brilliant minds shall not save themselves, nor shall those who drive expensive cars save their lives; 16. and those who demand respect and wield great power, shall flee away naked in that day, says the Lord.