Jeremiah 48
48
Prophecy Against Moab
1Concerning Moab, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Oy to Nebo! For it will be ravaged. Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured. The fortress will be shamed, shattered.
2There is no more praise for Moab. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: ‘Come, let’s cut her off as a nation.’ You too, Madmen, will be silenced— the sword will chase you.
3The sound of outcry from Horonaim, devastation and great destruction!
4Moab is shattered—her little ones have raised a cry to be heard.
5For at the ascent of Luhith they go up with continual weeping. For on the descent to Horonaim they heard the foe’s shattering cry.
6Flee! Escape with your lives! Be like a tamarisk in the wilderness.
7For because of your trust in your works and your treasures, you will be captured, too. Chemosh will go into exile, together with his priests and princes.
8The destroyer will come to every town. No town will escape. The valley will perish and the plain will be destroyed, as Adonai has said.
9Give wings to Moab, for she must fly and get away. Her cities will become a wasteland, with no one living in them.
10Cursed is the one who does the work of Adonai with slackness, and cursed is the one who withholds his sword from blood.
11Moab has been at ease since his youth. He has settled like wine on its dregs. He has not been emptied from jar to jar, nor gone into exile. Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed.
12Therefore behold, days are coming” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “when I will send to him those who will tip him up and over, and they will empty his vessels, and smash his jars in pieces.
13So Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh just as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.
14How can you say: ‘We are warriors and men valiant for battle’?
15Moab is ravaged, its towns entered, its choice young men gone down to slaughter” —It is a declaration of the King, whose Name is Adonai-Tzva’ot.
16“Moab’s calamity will come soon, and his downfall hastens swiftly.
17Mourn for him, all who are around him, all who know his name. Say: ‘How the mighty scepter, the splendid rod, is broken!’
18O daughter dwelling in Dibon come down from your glory and sit in thirst! For Moab’s destroyer has come to you. He has devastated your strongholds.
19O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the road and watch— ask him fleeing and her escaping, ‘What has happened?’
20Moab is disgraced, indeed shattered. Wail and shriek! Declare by the Arnon, Moab is ruined!
21Judgment has come on the tableland —on Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath,
22on Dibon, Nebo, Beth-diblathaim,
23on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, Beth-meon,
24on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.
25The horn of Moab is cut off and his arm is broken!” It is a declaration of Adonai.
26“Make him drunk, for he exalted himself against Adonai. So Moab will wallow in his vomit and also become a laughingstock.
27After all, Israel is a laughingstock to you. Was he ever found among thieves, that whenever you speak of him, you should wag the head?
28Inhabitants of Moab, leave the towns and dwell in crags— like a dove nesting in a cave’s mouth.
29We have heard of the pride of Moab —very proud he is—his haughtiness, his arrogance, his insolence, and his self-exalted heart.
30I know his arrogance,” says Adonai, “but it is dishonest— his boasts really accomplish nothing.
31Therefore I wail for Moab! Yes, I cry out for all Moab, for the men of Kir-heres I moan.
32More than weeping of Jazer will I weep for you, vine of Sibmah! Your branches spread to the sea, reached as far as the sea of Jazer. On your summer fruits and your vintage the destroyer has fallen.
33So joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I stopped wine from the winepresses. No one will tread with shouting— any shouting is not a shout of joy.”
34“From the outcry of Heshbon to Elealeh, as far as Jahaz they will raise their voice—from Zoar to Horonaim and a 3-year old heifer—for the Waters of Nimrim also will be waste.
35Moreover I will make an end in Moab”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“of the one offering on the high place and the one burning incense to his gods.”
36“That is why my heart is moaning like funeral flutes for Moab, and my heart moans like flutes for the people of Kir-heres. Thus the wealth he made is lost.
37For every head is bald, every beard clipped, on all the hands are gashes, and around the waist sackcloth.
38On all the housetops of Moab and in its squares— lamentation everywhere! For I have broken Moab like a jar In which no one delights” —it is a declaration of Adonai—
39“‘How shattered it is!’ they wailed! ‘How Moab turned his back in shame!’ So Moab will become a laughingstock and a horror to all around him.”
40For thus says Adonai: “Behold, he will swoop down like a vulture and spread out his wings against Moab.
41The towns are captured, the strongholds seized. The hearts of Moab’s warriors in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42Moab will be destroyed as a people, because he boasted against Adonai.
43Panic, pit and trap, are upon you, inhabitant of Moab,” declares Adonai.
44“The one who flees from panic will fall into the pit, and one who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For I will bring on Moab the year of their visitation.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
45“In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stop, exhausted, for fire breaks out of Heshbon flame from within Sihon, and it singes the foreheads and the scalps of Moab’s noisy sons.
46Oy to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished! For your sons are taken away captive and your daughters into exile.
47Yet I will restore Moab from exile in the end of days.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “Until then this is the judgment of Moab.”
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Jeremiah 48: TLV
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
Jeremiah 48
48
Get Out While You Can!
1-10The Message on Moab from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel:
“Doom to Nebo! Leveled to the ground!
Kiriathaim demeaned and defeated,
The mighty fortress reduced to a molehill,
Moab’s glory—dust and ashes.
Conspirators plot Heshbon’s doom:
‘Come, let’s wipe Moab off the map.’
The city of Madmen will be struck mute,
as killing follows killing.
Listen! A cry out of Horonaim:
‘Disaster—doom and more doom!’
Moab will be shattered.
Her cries will be heard clear down in Zoar.
Up the ascent of Luhith
climbers weep,
And down the descent from Horonaim,
cries of loss and devastation.
Oh, run for your lives! Get out while you can!
Survive by your wits in the wild!
You trusted in thick walls and big money, yes?
But it won’t help you now.
Your big god Chemosh will be hauled off,
his priests and managers with him.
A wrecker will wreck every city.
Not a city will survive.
The valley fields will be ruined,
the plateau pastures destroyed, just as I told you.
Cover the land of Moab with salt.
Make sure nothing ever grows here again.
Her towns will all be ghost towns.
Nobody will ever live here again.
Sloppy work in God’s name is cursed,
and cursed all halfhearted use of the sword.
11-17“Moab has always taken it easy—
lazy as a dog in the sun,
Never had to work for a living,
never faced any trouble,
Never had to grow up,
never once worked up a sweat.
But those days are a thing of the past.
I’ll put him to work at hard labor.
That will wake him up to the world of hard knocks.
That will smash his illusions.
Moab will be as ashamed of god Chemosh
as Israel was ashamed of her Bethel calf-gods,
the calf-gods she thought were so great.
For how long do you think you’ll be saying, ‘We’re tough.
We can beat anyone anywhere’?
The destruction of Moab has already begun.
Her choice young soldiers are lying dead right now.”
The King’s Decree—
his full name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“Yes. Moab’s doom is on countdown,
disaster targeted and launched.
Weep for Moab, friends and neighbors,
all who know how famous he’s been.
Lament, ‘His mighty scepter snapped in two like a toothpick,
that magnificent royal staff!’
18-20“Come down from your high horse, pampered beauty of Dibon.
Sit in dog dung.
The destroyer of Moab will come against you.
He’ll wreck your safe, secure houses.
Stand on the roadside,
pampered women of Aroer.
Interview the refugees who are running away.
Ask them, ‘What’s happened? And why?’
Moab will be an embarrassing memory, nothing left of the place.
Wail and weep your eyes out!
Tell the bad news along the Arnon river.
Tell the world that Moab is no more.
21-24“My judgment will come to the plateau cities: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath; on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim; on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon; on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25“Moab’s link to power is severed.
Moab’s arm is broken.” God’s Decree.
The Sheer Nothingness of Moab
26-27“Turn Moab into a drunken lush, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomit—Moab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste. Wasn’t it you, Moab, who made crude jokes over Israel? And when they were caught in bad company, didn’t you cluck and gossip and snicker?
28“Leave town! Leave! Look for a home in the cliffs,
you who grew up in Moab.
Try living like a dove
who nests high in the river gorge.
29-33“We’ve all heard of Moab’s pride,
that legendary pride,
The strutting, bullying, puffed-up pride,
the insufferable arrogance.
I know”—God’s Decree—“his rooster-crowing pride,
the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab.
But I will weep for Moab,
yes, I will mourn for the people of Moab.
I will even mourn for the people of Kir-heres.
I’ll weep for the grapevines of Sibmah
and join Jazer in her weeping—
Grapevines that once reached the Dead Sea
with tendrils as far as Jazer.
Your summer fruit and your bursting grapes
will be looted by brutal plunderers,
Lush Moab stripped
of song and laughter.
And yes, I’ll shut down the winepresses,
stop all the shouts and hurrahs of harvest.
34“Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out, and the people in Jahaz will hear the cries. They will hear them all the way from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim will be dried up.
35“I will put a stop in Moab”—God’s Decree—“to all hiking to the high places to offer burnt sacrifices to the gods.
36“My heart moans for Moab, for the men of Kir-heres, like soft flute sounds carried by the wind. They’ve lost it all. They’ve got nothing.
37“Everywhere you look are signs of mourning:
heads shaved, beards cut,
Hands scratched and bleeding,
clothes ripped and torn.
38“In every house in Moab there’ll be loud lamentation, on every street in Moab, loud lamentation. As with a pottery jug that no one wants, I’ll smash Moab to bits.” God’s Decree.
39“Moab ruined!
Moab shamed and ashamed to be seen!
Moab a cruel joke!
The stark horror of Moab!”
* * *
40-42 God’s verdict on Moab. Indeed!
“Look! An eagle is about to swoop down
and spread its wings over Moab.
The towns will be captured,
the fortresses taken.
Brave warriors will double up in pain, helpless to fight,
like a woman giving birth to a baby.
There’ll be nothing left of Moab, nothing at all,
because of his defiant arrogance against me.
43-44“Terror and pit and trap
are what you have facing you, Moab.” God’s Decree.
“A man running in terror
will fall into a trap.
A man climbing out of a pit
will be caught in a trap.
This is my agenda for Moab
on doomsday.” God’s Decree.
45-47“On the outskirts of Heshbon,
refugees will pull up short, worn out.
Fire will flame high from Heshbon,
a firestorm raging from the capital of Sihon’s kingdom.
It will burn off Moab’s eyebrows,
will scorch the skull of the braggarts.
That’s all for you, Moab!
You worshipers of Chemosh will be finished off!
Your sons will be trucked off to prison camps;
your daughters will be herded into exile.
But yet there’s a day that’s coming
when I’ll put things right in Moab.
“For now, that’s the judgment on Moab.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.