Jeremiah 48:1–38

A Message About Moab

48Here is what the Lord says about Moab.

The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says,

“How terrible it will be for Nebo!

It will be destroyed.

Kiriathaim will be captured.

It will be put to shame.

Its fort will be broken down.

It will be put to shame.

²Moab will not be praised anymore.

In Heshbon people will plan its fall from power.

They will say, ‘Come. Let’s put an end to that nation.’

City of Madmen, you too will be silent because you are sad.

My sword will hunt you down.

³Listen to the cries from Horonaim.

The town is being completely destroyed.

⁴Moab will be broken.

Her little ones will cry out.

⁵The people go up the road to Luhith.

They are sobbing bitterly as they go.

Loud cries are heard on the road down to Horonaim.

People cry out because the town is being destroyed.

⁶People of Moab run away! Run for your lives!

Become like a lonely bush in the desert.

⁷You trust in the things you can do.

You trust in your riches.

So you too will be taken away as prisoners.

Your god Chemosh will be carried away.

So will its priests and officials.

⁸The one who is going to destroy you

will come against every town.

Not even one of them will escape.

The valley and the high flatlands

will be destroyed.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁹Sprinkle salt all over Moab.

It will be completely destroyed.

Its towns will be a dry and empty desert.

No one will live in them.

¹⁰“May a person who is lazy when he does my work

be under my curse!

May anyone who keeps his sword from killing

be under my curse!

¹¹“Moab has been at peace and rest from its earliest days.

It is like wine that has not been shaken up.

It has not been poured from one jar to another.

Moab’s people have not been taken away from their land.

They are like wine that tastes as it always did.

Its smell has not changed at all.

¹²But other days are coming,”

announces the Lord.

“At that time I will send people who pour wine from jars.

They will pour Moab out like wine.

They will empty its jars.

They will smash its jugs.

¹³Then Moab’s people will be ashamed of their god Chemosh.

They will be ashamed just as the people of Israel were

when they trusted in their god at Bethel.

¹⁴“How can you say, ‘We are soldiers.

We are men who are brave in battle’?

¹⁵Moab will be destroyed.

Its enemies will march into its towns.

Her finest young men will die in battle,”

announces the King.

His name is The Lord Who Rules Over All.

¹⁶“The fall of Moab is near.

Its time of trouble will come quickly.

¹⁷All you who live around it, sob over its people.

Be sad, you who know how famous Moab is.

Say, ‘Its powerful ruler’s rod is broken!

His glorious staff is smashed.’

¹⁸“Come down from your glorious city, you who live in Dibon.

Come and sit on the thirsty ground.

The one who destroys your country

will come up and attack you.

Your enemies will destroy your cities

that have high walls around them.

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,

you who live in Aroer.

Ask the men who are running away.

Ask the women who are escaping.

Ask them, ‘What has happened?’

²⁰Moab has been put to shame.

It has been destroyed.

Sob and cry out!

Tell everyone Moab has been destroyed.

Announce it by the Arnon River.

²¹The high flatlands have been judged.

So have Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath.

²²Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim have been judged.

²³So have Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon.

²⁴Kerioth and Bozrah have also been judged.

And so have all of the towns of Moab, far and near alike.

²⁵Moab’s power is gone.

Its strength is broken,”

announces the Lord.

²⁶“Moab’s people think they are better than I am.

So let their enemies make them drunk.

Let the people get sick and throw up.

Let them roll around in the mess they have made.

Let people laugh at them.

²⁷Moab, you laughed at Israel, didn’t you?

Were Israel’s people caught among robbers?

Is that why you shake your head at them?

Is that why you make fun of them

every time you talk about them?

²⁸Leave your towns,

you who live in Moab.

Go and live among the rocks.

Be like a dove that makes its nest

at the mouth of a cave.

²⁹“We have heard all about Moab’s pride.

We have heard how very proud they are.

They think they are so much better than others.

Their pride reaches deep down inside their hearts.

³⁰I know how rude they are.

But it will not get them anywhere,”

announces the Lord.

“Their bragging does not accomplish anything.

³¹So I cry out over Moab.

I cry for all of Moab’s people.

I groan for the men of Kir Hareseth.

³²I sob over you as Jazer sobs,

you vines of Sibmah.

Your branches used to spread out.

They went all the way down to the Dead Sea.

They reached as far as the sea of Jazer.

The one who destroys your country

has taken away your grapes and ripe fruit.

³³Joy has left your orchards.

Gladness is gone from your fields.

I have stopped the flow of juice from your winepresses.

No one stomps on your grapes with shouts of joy.

There are shouts.

But they are not shouts of joy.

³⁴“The sound of their cry rises from Heshbon.

It rises as far as Elealeh and Jahaz.

It rises from Zoar.

It goes all the way to Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah.

Even the waters at Nimrim are dried up.

³⁵In Moab people sacrifice offerings on the high places.

They burn incense to their gods.

But I will put an end to those people,”

announces the Lord.

³⁶“Like a flute my heart sings a song of sadness for Moab.

It sings like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth.

The wealth they had gotten is gone.

³⁷Every head is shaved.

Every beard is cut off.

Every hand is cut.

And every waist is covered with black cloth.

³⁸Sobbing is the only sound in Moab.

It is heard on all of its roofs.

It is heard in the market places.

I have broken Moab

like a jar that no one wants,”

announces the Lord.