Jeremias 31

1 Thus has the Lord said concerning MOAB, Woe to Nabau! for it has perished: Cariathaim is taken: Amath and Agath are put to shame.

At that time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.

2 There is no longer any healing for Moab, [nor] glorying in Esebon: he has devised evils against her: we have cut her off from [being] a nation, and she shall be completely still: after thee shall go a sword;

Thus saith the LORD: The people that were left of the sword have found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I go to cause him to rest.

3 for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.

'From afar the LORD appeared unto me.' 'Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with affection have I drawn thee.

4 Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zogora:

Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; again shalt thou be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

5 for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; ye have heard a cry of destruction.

Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall have the use thereof.

6 Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert.

For there shall be a day, that the watchmen shall call upon the mount Ephraim: arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto the LORD our God.'

7 Since thou hast trusted in thy strong-hold, therefore thou shalt be taken: and Chamos shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together.

For thus saith the LORD: Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; announce ye, praise ye, and say: 'O LORD, save Thy people, The remnant of Israel.'

8 And destruction shall come upon every city, it shall by no means escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain country shall be completely destroyed, as the Lord has said.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a great company shall they return hither.

9 Set marks upon Moab, for she shall be touched with a plague-spot, and all her cities shall become desolate; whence [shall there be] an inhabitant for her?

They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born.

10 Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.

Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say: 'He that scattered Israel doth gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.'

11 Moab has been at ease from a child, and trusted in his glory; he has not poured out [his liquor] from vessel to vessel, and has not gone into banishment, therefore his taste remained in him, and his smell departed not.

For the LORD hath ransomed Jacob, and He redeemeth him from the hand of him that is stronger than he.

12 Therefore, behold, his days come, saith the Lord, when I shall send upon him bad leaders, and they shall lead him astray, and they shall utterly break in pieces his possessions, and shall cut his horns asunder.

And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of the LORD, to the corn, and to the wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not pine any more at all.

13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Baethel their hope, having trusted in them.

Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 How will ye say, We are strong, and men strong for war?

And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the LORD.

15 Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.

Thus saith the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not.

16 The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance].

Thus saith the LORD: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

17 Shake [the head] at him, all ye that are round about him; all [of you] utter his name; say ye, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!

And there is hope for thy future, saith the LORD; and thy children shall return to their own border.

18 Come down from [thy] glory, and sit down in a damp place: Daebon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against thee one to ravage thy strong-hold.

I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: 'Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf untrained; turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for Thou art the LORD my God.

19 Stand by the way, and look, thou that dwellest in Arer; and ask him that is fleeing, and him that escapes, and say, What has happened?

Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.'

20 Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished.

Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me? Is he a child that is dandled? For as often as I speak of him, I do earnestly remember him still; Therefore My heart yearneth for him, I will surely have compassion upon him, saith the LORD.

21 And judgment is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,

Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the high-way, even the way by which thou wentest; Return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities.

22 and upon Daebon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Daethlathaim,

How long wilt thou turn away coyly, O thou backsliding daughter? For the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall court a man.

23 and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gaemol, and upon the house of Maon,

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall turn their captivity: 'The LORD bless thee, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness.'

24 and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.

And Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together: the husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.

25 The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.

For I have satiated the weary soul, and every pining soul have I replenished.

26 Make ye him drunk; for he has magnified himself against the Lord: and Moab shall clap with his hand, and shall be also himself a laughing-stock.

Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

27 For surely Israel was to thee a laughing-stock, and was found among thy thefts, because thou didst fight against him.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

28 The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and dwelt in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.

And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down, and to overthrow and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the LORD.

29 And I have heard of the pride of Moab, he has greatly heightened his pride and his haughtiness, and his heart has been lifted up.

In those days they shall say no more: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

30 But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?

But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 Therefore howl ye for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for thee,

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;

32 O vine of Aserema, as with the weeping of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon thy fruits, [and] upon thy grape-gatherers.

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith the LORD.

33 Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and [though] there was wine in thy presses, in the morning they trod it not, neither in the evening did they raise the cry of joy.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people;

34 From the cry of Esebon even to Aetam their cities uttered their voice, from Zogor to Oronaim, and their tidings [as] a heifer of three years old, for the water also of Nebrin shall be dried up.

and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

35 And I will destroy Moab, saith the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.

Thus saith the LORD, Who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar, the LORD of hosts is His name:

36 Therefore the heart of Moab shall sound as pipes, my heart shall sound as a pipe for the shorn men; forasmuch as what [every] man has gained has perished from him.

If these ordinances depart from before Me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.

37 They shall all have their heads shaved in every place, and every beard shall be shaved; and all hands shall beat [the breasts], and on all loins shall be sackcloth.

Thus saith the LORD: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

38 And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets [shall be mourning]: for I have broken [him], saith the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner.

39 How has he changed! how has Moab turned [his] back! Moab is put to shame, and become a laughing-stock, and an object of anger to all that are round about him.

And the measuring line shall yet go out straight forward unto the hill Gareb, and shall turn about unto Goah.

40 For thus said the Lord;

And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.

41 Carioth is taken, and the strong-holds have been taken together.

42 And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.

43 A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab.

44 He that flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he that comes up out of the pit shall even be taken in the snare: for I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their visitation.