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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Jeremiah 48: MSG
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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.
Jeremias (Jeremiah) 48
48
1Against Moab, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nabo, for it is laid waste and confounded: Cariathaim is taken: the strong city is confounded and hath trembled.
2There is no more rejoicing in Moab over Hesebon: they have devised evil. Come and let us cut it off from being a nation. Therefore shalt thou in silence hold thy peace, and the sword shall follow thee.
3A voice of crying from Oronaim: waste, and great destruction.
4Moab is destroyed: proclaim a cry for her little ones.
5For by the ascent of Luith shall the mourner go up with weeping: for in the descent of Oronaim the enemies have heard a howling of destruction.
6Flee, save your lives: and be as heath in the wilderness.
7For because thou hast trusted in thy bulwarks and in thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken: and Chamos shall go into captivity, his priests, and his princes together.
8And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape. And the valleys shall perish, and the plains shall be destroyed: for the Lord hath spoken.
9Give a flower to Moab, for in its flower it shall go out: and the cities thereof shall be desolate and uninhabited.
10Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully: and cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood.
11Moab hath been fruitful from his youth and hath rested upon his lees: and hath not been poured out from vessel to vessel, nor hath gone into captivity. Therefore his taste hath remained in him and his scent is not changed.
12Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send him men that shall order and overturn his bottles: and they shall cast him down: and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles one against another.
13And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.
14How do you say: We are valiant, and stout men in battle?
15Moab is laid waste, and they have cast down her cities, and her choice young men are gone down to the slaughter: saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16The destruction of Moab is near to come: the calamity thereof shall come on exceeding swiftly.
17Comfort him, all you that are round about him. And all you that know his name, say: How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod?
18Come down from thy glory and sit in thirst, O dwelling of the daughter of Dibon: because the spoiler of Moab is come up to thee, he hath destroyed thy bulwarks.
19Stand in the way and look out, O habitation of Aroer: inquire of him that fleeth and say to him that hath escaped: What is done?
20Moab is confounded, because he is overthrown. Howl ye and cry: tell ye it in Amen, that Moab is wasted.
21And judgment is come upon the plain country: upon Helon and upon Jasa and upon Mephaath.
22And upon Dibon and upon Nabo and upon the house of Deblathaim,
23And upon Cariathaim and upon Bethgamul and upon Bethmaon,
24And upon Carioth and upon Bosra and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
25The horn of Moab is cut off and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.
26Make him drunk, because he lifted up himself against the Lord: and Moab shall dash his hand in his own vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
27For Israel hath been a derision unto thee: as though thou hadst found him amongst thieves: for thy words therefore, which thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be led away captive.
28Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, you that dwell in Moab: and be ye like the dove that maketh her nest in the mouth of the hole in the highest place.
29We have heard the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his haughtiness and his arrogancy and his pride and the loftiness of his heart.
30I know, saith the Lord, his boasting and that the strength thereof is not according to it: neither hath it endeavoured to do according as it was able.
31Therefore will I lament for Moab and I will cry out to all Moab for the men of the brick wall that mourn.
32O vineyard of Sabama, I will weep for thee with the mourning of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea. They are come even to the sea of Jazer: the robber hath rushed in upon thy harvest and thy vintage.
33Joy and gladness is taken away from Carmel and from the land of Moab, and I have taken away the wine out of the presses: the treader of the grapes shall not sing the accustomed cheerful tune.
34From the cry of Hesebon even to Eleale and to Jasa, they have uttered their voice: from Segor to Oronaim, as a heifer of three years old. The waters also of Nemrim shall be very bad.
35And I will take away from Moab, saith the Lord, him that offereth in the high places and that sacrificeth to his gods.
36Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes: and my heart shall sound like pipes for the men of the brick wall. Because he hath done more than he could, therefore they have perished.
37For every head shall be bald and every beard shall be shaven: all hands shall be tied together and upon every back there shall be haircloth.
38Upon all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof general mourning: because I have broken Moab as an useless vessel, saith the Lord.
39How is it overthrown and they have howled! How hath Moab bowed down the neck and is confounded! And Moab shall be a derision and an example to all round about him.
40Thus saith the Lord: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle and shall stretch forth his wings to Moab.
41Carioth is taken and the strongholds are won: and the heart of the valiant men of Moab in that day shall be as the heart of a woman in labour.
42And Moab shall cease to be a people: because he hath gloried against the Lord.
43Fear and the pit and the snare come upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord.
44He that shall flee from the fear shall fall into the pit: and he that shall get up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon Moab the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.
45They that fled from the snare stood in the shadow of Hesebon: but there came a fire out of Kesebon, and a flame out of the midst of Seon, and it shall devour part of Moab and the crown of the head of the children of tumult.
46Woe to thee, Moab, thou hast perished, O people of Chamos: for thy sons, and thy daughters are taken captives.
47And I will bring back the captivity of Moab in the last days, saith the Lord. Hitherto the judgments of Moab.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.