Jeremiah 47–49

Jeremiah 47–49 WEB

^47:1The LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza. ²The LORD says: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, and will overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein. The men will cry, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail. ³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don’t look back for their children because their hands are so feeble, ⁴because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for the LORD will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor. ⁵Baldness has come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing. You remnant of their valley, how long will you cut yourself? ⁶“‘You sword of the LORD, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself back into your scabbard; rest, and be still.’ ⁷“How can you be quiet, since the LORD has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there he has appointed it.”

^48:1Of Moab. The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Woe to Nebo! For it is laid waste. Kiriathaim is disappointed. It is taken. Misgab is put to shame and broken down. ²The praise of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: ‘Come! Let’s cut her off from being a nation.’ You also, Madmen, will be brought to silence. The sword will pursue you. ³The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction! ⁴Moab is destroyed. Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. ⁵For they will go up by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping. For at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction. ⁶Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness. ⁷For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken. Chemosh will go out into captivity, his priests and his princes together. ⁸The destroyer will come on every city, and no city will escape; the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken. ⁹Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get herself away: and her cities will become a desolation, without anyone to dwell in them. ¹⁰“Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD negligently; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood. ¹¹“Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. ¹²Therefore behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will send to him those who pour off, and they will pour him off; and they will empty his vessels, and break their containers in pieces. ¹³Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. ¹⁴“How do you say, ‘We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war’? ¹⁵Moab is laid waste, and they have gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King, whose name is the LORD of Armies. ¹⁶“The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast. ¹⁷All you who are around him, bemoan him; and all you who know his name, say, ‘How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!’ ¹⁸“You daughter who dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you. He has destroyed your strongholds. ¹⁹Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch. Ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, ‘What has been done?’ ²⁰Moab is disappointed; for it is broken down. Wail and cry! Tell it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste. ²¹Judgment has come on the plain country— on Holon, on Jahzah, on Mephaath, ²²on Dibon, on Nebo, on Beth Diblathaim, ²³on Kiriathaim, on Beth Gamul, on Beth Meon, ²⁴on Kerioth, on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near. ²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,” says the LORD. ²⁶“Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against the LORD. Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will be in derision. ²⁷For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head. ²⁸You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock. Be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss. ²⁹“We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud in his loftiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the arrogance of his heart. ³⁰I know his wrath,” says the LORD, “that it is nothing; his boastings have done nothing. ³¹Therefore I will wail for Moab. Yes, I will cry out for all Moab. They will mourn for the men of Kir Heres. ³²With more than the weeping of Jazer I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your branches passed over the sea. They reached even to the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruits and on your vintage. ³³Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one will tread with shouting. The shouting will be no shouting. ³⁴From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for the waters of Nimrim will also become desolate. ³⁵Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab,” says the LORD, “him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his gods. ³⁶Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like flutes, and my heart sounds like flutes for the men of Kir Heres. Therefore the abundance that he has gotten has perished. ³⁷For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist. ³⁸On all the housetops of Moab, and in its streets, there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which no one delights,” says the LORD. ³⁹“How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So will Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.” ⁴⁰For the LORD says: “Behold, he will fly as an eagle, and will spread out his wings against Moab. ⁴¹Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized. The heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. ⁴²Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against the LORD. ⁴³Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says the LORD. ⁴⁴“He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken in the snare, for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation,” says the LORD. ⁴⁵“Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the middle of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones. ⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity. ⁴⁷“Yet I will reverse the captivity of Moab in the latter days,” says the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

^49:1Of the children of Ammon. The LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people dwell in its cities? ²Therefore behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and it will become a desolate heap, and her daughters will be burned with fire; then Israel will possess those who possessed him,” says the LORD. ³“Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry, you daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourself in sackcloth. Lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam will go into captivity, his priests and his princes together. ⁴Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? You trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come to me?’ ⁵Behold, I will bring a terror on you,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies, “from all who are around you. All of you will be driven completely out, and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives. ⁶“But afterward I will reverse the captivity of the children of Ammon,” says the LORD. ⁷Of Edom, the LORD of Armies says: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? ⁸Flee! Turn back! Dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him when I visit him. ⁹If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves came by night, wouldn’t they steal until they had enough? ¹⁰But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he will not be able to hide himself. His offspring is destroyed, with his brothers and his neighbors; and he is no more. ¹¹Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.” ¹²For the LORD says: “Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup will certainly drink; and are you he who will altogether go unpunished? You won’t go unpunished, but you will surely drink. ¹³For I have sworn by myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah will become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. All its cities will be perpetual wastes.” ¹⁴I have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Gather yourselves together! Come against her! Rise up to the battle!” ¹⁵“For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. ¹⁶As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill, though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD. ¹⁷“Edom will become an astonishment. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and will hiss at all its plagues. ¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein. ¹⁹“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?” ²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom, and his purposes that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they will drag them away, the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them. ²¹The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea. ²²Behold, he will come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah. The heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. ²³Of Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t be quiet. ²⁴Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. ²⁵How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? ²⁶Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says the LORD of Armies. ²⁷“I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.” ²⁸Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck, The LORD says: “Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east. ²⁹They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, ‘Terror on every side!’ ³⁰Flee! Wander far off! Dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor,” says the LORD; “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. ³¹Arise! Go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care,” says the LORD; “that has neither gates nor bars, that dwells alone. ³²Their camels will be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a plunder. I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of their beards cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them,” says the LORD. ³³Hazor will be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever. No man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.” ³⁴The LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵“The LORD of Armies says: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. ³⁶I will bring on Elam the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds. There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam will not come. ³⁷I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life. I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them. ³⁸I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and princes,’ says the LORD. ³⁹‘But it will happen in the latter days that I will reverse the captivity of Elam,’ says the LORD.”