Jeremiah 48
48
A Prophecy against Moab
1This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says about Moab:
How horrible it will be for Nebo; it will be destroyed.
Kiriathaim will be put to shame; it will be captured.
Its stronghold will be put to shame and torn down.
2People will no longer praise Moab.
The people in Heshbon will plan Moab’s destruction.
“Let’s destroy that nation!”
You will be silenced, city of Madmen.
Death will come after you.
3People will cry out from Horonaim, “Looting and great destruction!”
4Moab will be broken.
Its little ones will cry out.
5People go up the pass of Luhith, crying bitterly as they go.
On the road down to Horonaim they have heard
the distressful cry of destruction.
6“Run away! Run for your lives!
Run like a wild donkey in the desert.”
7Since you trust the things you do and your treasures,
you will be captured.
Chemosh will go into captivity with all its priests and officials.
8The destroyer will come to every city, and no city will escape.
The valley will be destroyed, and the plain will be laid waste
as the Lord has threatened.
9Put salt on Moab.
It will be destroyed.
Its cities will become deserted ruins.
10Cursed are those who neglect doing the Lord’s work.
Cursed are those who keep their swords from killing.
11“Moab has lived securely ever since it was young.
Its people are like wine left to settle in a jar.
They aren’t poured from one jar to another.
They haven’t gone into captivity.
That is why its flavor has remained the same,
and its aroma hasn’t changed.
12That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will send people to pour Moab out of its jars
and to smash its pitchers.
13Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh
as the nation of Israel was ashamed when it trusted Bethel.
14“How can you say, ‘We are soldiers and warriors’?
15The enemy will attack Moab and destroy its cities.
Its finest young men will be slaughtered,”
declares the king, whose name is the Lord of Armies.
16“Moab’s destruction is coming near; disaster is coming quickly.
17Mourn over it, all of its neighbors and everyone who knows its fame.
Say, ‘Look at the strong staff, the beautiful rod, that is broken!’
18“People of Dibon, come down from your place of honor
and sit on the dry ground.
The destroyers of Moab will attack you.
They will destroy your fortresses.
19Stand by the road in Aroer, and watch.
Ask those who are fleeing
and those who are escaping what is happening.
20They will answer, ‘Moab is disgraced; it is defeated.
Shout loudly, and cry.
Tell the news in Arnon that Moab is destroyed.’
21“Judgment has come to all the cities on the plain: to Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath, 22Dibon, Nebo, Beth Diblathaim, 23Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul, Beth Meon, 24Kerioth, Bozrah, and on all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25“Moab’s horn is cut off, and its arm is broken,”
declares the Lord.
26“Get the people of Moab drunk; they have spoken against the Lord.
They will wallow in their own vomit, and people will laugh at them.
27People of Moab, didn’t you laugh at the people of Israel?
Were they caught among thieves?
Whenever you talk about them you shake your heads in contempt.
28People of Moab, abandon your cities.
Live among the cliffs.
Be like doves that make their nests at the entrance of a cave.
29“We have heard about the arrogance of Moab’s people.
They are very arrogant.
They are very arrogant, conceited, and boastful.
30I know how arrogant they are,” declares the Lord,
“but it isn’t right.
They brag and don’t do what they say.
31That is why I will weep for Moab and cry for all of Moab.
I will moan for the people of Kir Hareseth.
32I will cry for you as Jazer cries.
I will cry for you, grapevines of Sibmah.
Your branches ⌞once⌟ spread as far as the sea,
and they reached as far as the sea of Jazer.
The destroyer will destroy your ripened fruits and your grapes.
33Joy and gladness have disappeared from the orchards and fields of Moab.
I will stop the wine flowing from the winepresses.
No one will stomp on grapes with shouts of joy.
There will be shouts, but not shouts of joy.
34“The cry will be heard from Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz. It will be heard from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah. Even the streams of Nimrim will dry up. 35I will stop those in Moab who come to worship sites, those who bring offerings to their gods,” declares the Lord. 36“That is why I moan for Moab like a flute. I sound like a flute for the people of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they gained has disappeared.
37“Every head is shaved, and every beard is cut off. There are gashes on every hand and sackcloth on every waist. 38People in Moab will mourn on every rooftop and in every street. There will be mourning everywhere, because I will break Moab like a jar that no one wants,” declares the Lord. 39“They will cry, ‘Look how Moab is defeated! Moab turns away in shame!’ Moab has become something ridiculed and something held in contempt by everyone around it.
40“This is what the Lord says:
The enemy will swoop down like eagles and spread their wings over Moab.
41The cities will be taken, and the fortified places will be captured.
On that day Moab’s soldiers will be like women in childbirth.
42Moab will be destroyed as a nation,
because it spoke against the Lord.
43Disasters, pits, and traps are in store for those who live in Moab,”
declares the Lord.
44“Whoever flees from a disaster will fall into a pit.
Whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a trap.
I will bring a year of punishment to Moab,” declares the Lord.
45“Those who flee will stand exhausted in the shadow of Heshbon.
A fire will come out of Heshbon and a flame from Sihon.
It will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab
and the skulls of those noisy people.
46How horrible it will be for you, Moab.
You people of Chemosh will die.
Your sons will be taken away into exile,
and your daughters will be taken away into captivity.
47But I will restore Moab in the last days,” declares the Lord.
The judgment against Moab ends here.
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Jeremiah 48: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 48
48
1 Against Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Woe upon Nebo! For it has been devastated and confounded. Kiriathaim has been seized; the strong one has been confounded and has trembled.
2 There is no longer any rejoicing in Moab over Heshbon. They have devised evil. 'Come and let us destroy it as a nation.' Then you will be utterly silenced, and the sword will pursue you.
3 A voice of clamor from Horonaim: devastation and great destruction!
4 Moab has been crushed. Announce an outcry for her little ones.
5 For, along the ascent of Luhith, the mourner will ascend with weeping. For, on the descent of Horonaim, the enemies have heard the wailing of devastation.
6 Flee, save your lives! And you shall be like a saltcedar tree in the desert.
7 For because you have had faith in your fortifications and in your storehouses, you too will be seized. And Chemosh will go into captivity: his priests and his leaders together.
8 And the despoiler will overwhelm every city, and not a single city will be saved. And the valleys will perish, and the fields will be destroyed. For the Lord has spoken.
9 Give a blossom to Moab. For it will depart when it is blossoming. And its cities will become desolate and uninhabited.
10 Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully. And cursed is he who prohibits his sword from blood.
11 Moab has been fertile from his youth, and he has rested amid his brood. And he has not been transferred from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into the transmigration. Therefore, his taste has remained with him, and his scent has not changed.
12 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will send to him those who will line up and knock down his bottles, and they will knock him down and empty his vessels, and they will break their bottles against one another.
13 And Moab will be confounded by Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was shamed by Bethel, in which they had faith.
14 How can you say: 'We are strong and robust men of battle?'
15 Moab has been devastated, and they have cut down her cities. And her elect young men have descended to slaughter. So says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 The passing away of Moab draws near and arrives. Its evil will rush forward with great speed.
17 Console him, all you who surround him and all you who know his name. Say: 'How has the strong staff become broken, the glorious staff?'
18 Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst, O habitation of the daughter of Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has ascended to you; he has dissipated your fortifications.
19 Stand in the way, and gaze out, O habitation of Aroer! Question him who is fleeing, and say to him who has escaped: 'What has happened?'
20 Moab has been confounded, because he has been conquered. Wail and cry out! Announce it in Arnon: Moab has been devastated,
21 and judgment has arrived upon the land of the plains: upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath,
22 and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon the house of Deblathaim,
23 and upon Kiriathaim, and upon the house of Gamul, and upon the house of Meon,
24 and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, those far away and those nearby.
25 The horn of Moab has been cut away, and his arm has been crushed, says the Lord.
26 Inebriate him, for he has lifted himself up against the Lord. And Moab will thrust his hand into his own vomit, and also now he himself will become a derision.
27 For Israel had been a derision to them. It was as if you had discovered him among thieves. Because of your own words, then, which you have spoken against him, you will be led away captive.
28 Relinquish the cities, and live upon a rock, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove nesting at the mouth of an opening at the summit.
29 We have listened to the arrogance of Moab; he is very proud: his exaltation, and arrogance, and pride, and the loftiness of his heart.
30 I myself know, says the Lord, his boasting, and that his ability is not in accord with it, nor is it in accord with what he has been striving to do.
31 For this reason, I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out to all of Moab, to the men on the brick wall who are lamenting.
32 O vineyard of Sibmah, I will weep for you, with the mourning of Jazer. Your offshoots have crossed over the sea. They have reached even to the sea of Jazer. The despoiler has rushed over your harvest and your vintage.
33 Rejoicing and exultation has been taken away from Carmel and from the land of Moab. And I have taken the wine from the winepresses. The treader of grapes will no longer sing the usual rhythmic chant.
34 From the outcry of Heshbon, even to Elealeh and Jahzah, they have uttered their voice; from Zoar, even to Horonaim, like a three year old calf. So too, the waters of Nimrim will be very bad.
35 And I will take away from Moab, says the Lord, the one who makes offerings in exalted places, and the one who sacrifices to his gods.
36 Because of this, my heart will resound for Moab, like the pipes, and my heart will make a sound like the pipes for the men on the brick wall. For he has done more than he was able, yet still they have perished.
37 For every head will be bald, and every beard will be shaved. All the hands will be bound together, and there will be haircloth on every back.
38 Over all the rooftops of Moab, and in its streets, everyone will mourn. For I have crushed Moab like a useless vessel, says the Lord.
39 How was it conquered, so that they would wail? How is it that Moab has cast down his neck and been confounded? And Moab will be a derision and an example to everyone around him."
40 Thus says the Lord: "Behold, he will fly like the eagle, and he will extend his wings to Moab.
41 Kerioth has been captured, and the fortifications have been taken. And in that day, the heart of the strong ones of Moab will be like the heart of a woman giving birth.
42 And Moab will cease to be a people. For he has been glorified against the Lord.
43 Terror and the pit and the snare will overwhelm you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the Lord.
44 Whoever flees from the terror will fall into the pit. And whoever climbs out of the pit will be seized by the snare. For I will lead over Moab the year of their visitation, says the Lord.
45 Those fleeing from the snare stood in the shadow of Heshbon. For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and it will devour the portion of Moab, and the top of the head of the sons of tumult.
46 Woe to you, O Moab! You have been ruined, O people of Chemosh! For your sons and your daughters have been taken into captivity.
47 But I will convert the captivity of Moab in the last days, says the Lord." Such are the judgments of Moab thus far.
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