Jeremiah
48
- Concerning Moab: This is what the LORD Almighty,
the God of Israel, says: "Woe to Nebo, for it will be ruined. Kiriathaim
will be disgraced and captured; the stronghold will be disgraced and shattered.
- Moab will be praised no more; in Heshbon
men will plot her downfall: 'Come, let us put an end to that nation.' You
too, O Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.
- Listen to the cries from Horonaim, cries
of great havoc and destruction.
- Moab will be broken; her little ones will
cry out.
- They go up the way to Luhith, weeping bitterly
as they go; on the road down to Horonaim anguished cries over the destruction
are heard.
- Flee! Run for your lives; become like a
bush in the desert.
- Since you trust in your deeds and riches,
you too will be taken captive, and Chemosh will go into exile, together with
his priests and officials.
- The destroyer will come against every town,
and not a town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plateau destroyed,
because the LORD has spoken.
- Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste;
her towns will become desolate, with no one to live in them.
- "A curse on him who is lax in doing
the LORD'S work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed!
- "Moab has been at rest from youth,
like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another -- she has
not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged.
- But days are coming," declares the
LORD, "when I will send men who pour from jars, and they will pour her
out; they will empty her jars and smash her jugs.
- Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as
the house of Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel.
- "How can you say, 'We are warriors,
men valiant in battle' ?
- Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded;
her finest young men will go down in the slaughter," declares the King,
whose name is the LORD Almighty.
- "The fall of Moab is at hand; her calamity
will come quickly.
- Mourn for her, all who live around her,
all who know her fame; say, 'How broken is the mighty scepter, how broken
the glorious staff !'
- "Come down from your glory and sit
on the parched ground, O inhabitants of the Daughter of Dibon, for he who
destroys Moab will come up against you and ruin your fortified cities.
- Stand by the road and watch, you who live
in Aroer. Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping, ask them, 'What has
happened ?'
- Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered.
Wail and cry out! Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed.
- Judgment has come to the plateau -- to Holon,
Jahzah and Mephaath,
- to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,
- to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,
- to Kerioth and Bozrah -- to all the towns
of Moab, far and near.
- Moab's horn is cut off; her arm is broken,"
declares the LORD.
- "Make her drunk, for she has defied
the LORD. Let Moab wallow in her vomit; let her be an object of ridicule.
- Was not Israel the object of your ridicule?
Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head in scorn whenever you
speak of her ?
- Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks,
you who live in Moab. Be like a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a
cave.
- "We have heard of Moab's pride -- her
overweening pride and conceit, her pride and arrogance and the haughtiness
of her heart.
- I know her insolence but it is futile,"
declares the LORD, "and her boasts accomplish nothing.
- Therefore I wail over Moab, for all Moab
I cry out, I moan for the men of Kir Hareseth.
- I weep for you, as Jazer weeps, O vines
of Sibmah. Your branches spread as far as the sea; they reached as far as
the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your ripened fruit and grapes.
- Joy and gladness are gone from the orchards
and fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one
treads them with shouts of joy. Although there are shouts, they are not shouts
of joy.
- "The sound of their cry rises from
Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah,
for even the waters of Nimrim are dried up.
- In Moab I will put an end to those who make
offerings on the high places and burn incense to their gods," declares
the LORD.
- "So my heart laments for Moab like
a flute; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they
acquired is gone.
- Every head is shaved and every beard cut
off; every hand is slashed and every waist is covered with sackcloth.
- On all the roofs in Moab and in the public
squares there is nothing but mourning, for I have broken Moab like a jar that
no one wants," declares the LORD.
- "How shattered she is! How they wail!
How Moab turns her back in shame! Moab has become an object of ridicule, an
object of horror to all those around her."
- This is what the LORD says: "Look!
An eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab.
- Kerioth will be captured and the strongholds
taken. In that day the hearts of Moab's warriors will be like the heart of
a woman in labor.
- Moab will be destroyed as a nation because
she defied the LORD.
- Terror and pit and snare await you, O people
of Moab," declares the LORD.
- "Whoever flees from the terror will
fall into a pit, whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare;
for I will bring upon Moab the year of her punishment," declares the
LORD.
- "In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives
stand helpless, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a blaze from the midst
of Sihon; it burns the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of the noisy boasters.
- Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh
are destroyed; your sons are taken into exile and your daughters into captivity.
- "Yet I will restore the fortunes of
Moab in days to come," declares the LORD. Here ends the judgment on Moab.
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