Jeremiah 47–51

Judgment on the Philistines

⁴⁷The word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:^*

²Thus says the Lord:

See, waters are rising out of the north

and shall become an overflowing torrent;

they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,

the city and those who live in it.

People shall cry out,

and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.^*

³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,

at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,

parents do not turn back for children,

so feeble are their hands,^*

⁴because of the day that is coming

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and Sidon

every helper that remains.

For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,

the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.^*

⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza;

Ashkelon is silenced.

O remnant of Anakim!ⁿ

How long will you gash yourselves?^*

⁶Ah, sword of the Lord!

How long until you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard;

rest and be still!^*

⁷How can it^o be quiet,

when the Lord has given it an order?

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore—

there he has appointed it.^*

Judgment on Moab

⁴⁸Concerning Moab.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste!

Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is taken;

the fortress is put to shame and broken down;^*

²the renown of Moab is no more.

In Heshbon they planned evil against her:

“Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!”

You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;^p

the sword shall pursue you.^*

³Listen! A cry goes up from Horonaim:

“Desolation and great destruction!”^*

⁴“Moab is destroyed!”

her little ones cry out.

⁵For at the ascent of Luhith

they go^q up weeping bitterly;

for at the descent of Horonaim

they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.^*

⁶Flee! Save yourselves!

Be like a wild ass^r in the desert!^*

⁷Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds^s and your treasures,

you also shall be taken;

Chemosh shall go out into exile,

with his priests and his attendants.^*

⁸The destroyer shall come upon every town,

and no town shall escape;

the valley shall perish,

and the plain shall be destroyed,

as the Lord has spoken.^*

⁹Set aside salt for Moab,

for she will surely fall;

her towns shall become a desolation,

with no inhabitant in them.^*

¹⁰Accursed is the one who is slack in doing the work of the Lord, and accursed is the one who keeps back the sword from bloodshed.^*

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth,

settled like wine^t on its dregs;

he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

nor has he gone into exile;

therefore his flavor has remained,

and his aroma is unspoiled.^*

¹²Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to him decanters to decant him and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. ¹³Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.^*

¹⁴How can you say, “We are heroes

and mighty warriors”?^*

¹⁵Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up,

and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,

says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.^*

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near at hand,

and his doom approaches swiftly.^*

¹⁷Mourn over him, all you his neighbors,

and all who know his name;

say, “How the mighty scepter is broken,

the glorious staff!”^*

¹⁸Come down from glory

and sit on the parched ground,

enthroned daughter Dibon!

For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;

he has destroyed your strongholds.^*

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,

you inhabitant of Aroer!

Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping;

say, “What has happened?”^*

²⁰Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down;

wail and cry!

Tell it by the Arnon

that Moab is laid waste.^*

²¹Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, ²²and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, ²³and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, ²⁴and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.^{* 25}The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.^*

²⁶Make him drunk because he magnified himself against the Lord; let Moab wallow in his vomit; he, too, shall become a laughingstock.^{* 27}Israel was a laughingstock for you, though he was not caught among thieves, but whenever you spoke of him you shook your head!^*

²⁸Leave the towns, and live on the rock,

O inhabitants of Moab!

Be like the dove that nests

on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.^*

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab—

he is very proud—

of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,

and the haughtiness of his heart.^*

³⁰I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;

his boasts are false;

his deeds are false.^*

³¹Therefore I wail for Moab;

I cry out for all Moab;

for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.^*

³²More than for Jazer I weep for you,

O vine of Sibmah!

Your branches crossed over the sea,

reached as far as Jazer;^u

upon your summer fruits and your vintage

the destroyer has fallen.^*

³³Gladness and joy have been taken away

from the fruitful land of Moab;

I have stopped the wine from the winepresses;

no one treads them with shouts of joy;

the shouting is not the shout of joy.^*

³⁴From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.^{* 35}And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, those who offer sacrifice at a high place and make offerings to their gods.^{* 36}Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the people of Kir-heres, for the riches they gained have perished.^*

³⁷For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; on all the hands there are gashes and on the loins sackcloth.^{* 38}On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel that no one wants, says the Lord.^{* 39}How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all his neighbors.^*

⁴⁰For thus says the Lord:

Look, he shall swoop down like an eagle

and spread his wings against Moab;^*

⁴¹the towns^v shall be taken

and the strongholds seized.

The hearts of the warriors of Moab, on that day,

shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.^*

⁴²Moab shall be destroyed as a people,

because he magnified himself against the Lord.^*

⁴³Terror, pit, and trap

are before you, O inhabitants of Moab!

says the Lord.^*

⁴⁴Everyone who flees from the terror

shall fall into the pit,

and everyone who climbs out of the pit

shall be caught in the trap.

For I will bring these things^w upon Moab

in the year of their punishment,

says the Lord.^*

⁴⁵In the shadow of Heshbon

fugitives stop exhausted,

for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,

a flame from the house of Sihon;

it has destroyed the forehead^x of Moab,

the scalp of the people of tumult.^y*

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab!

The people of Chemosh have perished,

for your sons have been taken captive

and your daughters into captivity.^*

⁴⁷Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab

in the latter days, says the Lord.

Thus far is the judgment on Moab.^*

Judgment on the Ammonites

⁴⁹Concerning the Ammonites.

Thus says the Lord:

Has Israel no sons?

Has he no heir?

Why then has Milcom^z dispossessed Gad

and his people settled in its towns?^*

²Therefore, the time is surely coming,

says the Lord,

when I will sound the battle alarm

against Rabbah of the Ammonites;

it shall become a desolate mound,

and its villages shall be burned with fire;

then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,

says the Lord.^*

³Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!

Cry out, O daughters^a of Rabbah!

Put on sackcloth,

lament, and slash yourselves with whips!^b

For Milcom^c shall go into exile,

with his priests and his attendants.^*

⁴Why do you boast in your strength?

Your strength is ebbing,

O faithless daughter.

Who trusted in her treasures, saying,^d

“Who will attack me?”^*

⁵I am going to bring terror upon you,

says the Lord God of hosts,

from all your neighbors,

and you will be scattered, each headlong,

with no one to gather the fugitives.^*

⁶But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, says the Lord.^*

Judgment on Edom

⁷Concerning Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their wisdom vanished?^*

⁸Flee; turn back; get down low,

inhabitants of Dedan!

For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,

the time when I punish him.^*

⁹If grape gatherers came to you,

would they not leave gleanings?

If thieves came by night,

even they would pillage only what they wanted.^*

¹⁰But as for me, I have stripped Esau bare;

I have uncovered his hiding places,

and he is not able to conceal himself.

His offspring are destroyed, his kinsfolk

and his neighbors, and he is no more.^*

¹¹Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive,

and let your widows trust in me.^*

¹²For thus says the Lord: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup still have to drink it, shall you be the one to go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you must drink it.^{* 13}For by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, that Bozrah shall become an object of horror and ridicule, a waste, and an object of cursing, and all her towns shall be perpetual wastes.^*

¹⁴I have heard tidings from the Lord,

and a messenger has been sent among the nations:

“Gather yourselves together and come against her,

and rise up for battle!”^*

¹⁵For I will make you least among the nations,

despised by humankind.

¹⁶The terror you inspire

and the pride of your heart have deceived you,

you who live in the clefts of the rock,^e

who hold the height of the hill.

Although you make your nest as high as the eagle’s,

from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.^*

¹⁷Edom shall become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.^{* 18}As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors were…