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,” a declaration of YHWH, “I am the God of all families of Israel, And they are 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 said YHWH: “A people remaining from the sword Have found grace in the wilderness When Israel went to find rest.”

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

YHWH has appeared to me from afar, “I have loved you with perpetual love, Therefore I have drawn you [with] kindness.

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

I build you again, And you have been built, O virgin of Israel, You put on your tambourines again, And have gone out in the chorus of the playful.

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

You plant vineyards in mountains of Samaria again, Planters have planted, and made common.

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

For there is a day, Watchmen have cried on Mount Ephraim, Rise, and we go up to Zion, to our God YHWH”;

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 said YHWH: “Sing [with] joy for Jacob, And cry aloud at the head of the nations, Sound, praise, and say, Save, O YHWH, Your 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 am bringing them in from the north country, And have gathered them from the sides of the earth, Blind and lame [are] among them, Conceiving and travailing one—together, A great assembly—they return here.

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 come in with weeping, And I bring them with supplications, I cause them to go to streams of waters, In a right way—they do not stumble in it, For I have been a Father to Israel, And Ephraim—he [is] My firstborn.”

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

Hear a word of YHWH, O nations, And declare among the far off in the islands, and say: He who is scattering Israel gathers him, And has kept His flock as a shepherd,

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 YHWH has ransomed Jacob, And redeemed him from a hand 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 have come in, And have sung in the high place of Zion, And flowed to the goodness of YHWH, For wheat, and for new wine, and for oil, And for the young of the flock and herd, And their soul has been as a watered garden, And they do not add to grieve anymore.

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

“Then a virgin rejoices in a chorus, Both young men and old men—together, And I have turned their mourning to joy, And have comforted them, And gladdened them above their sorrow,

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

And satisfied the soul of the priests [with] fatness, And My people are satisfied with My goodness,” A declaration of YHWH.

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

Thus said YHWH: “A voice is heard in Ramah, Wailing [and] the weeping of bitterness, Rachel is weeping for her sons, She has refused to be comforted for her sons, because they are not.”

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

Thus said YHWH: “Withhold your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, For there is a reward for your work,” A declaration of YHWH, “And they have turned 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 your latter end,” A declaration of YHWH, “And the sons have turned back [to] their 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, You have disciplined me, And I am disciplined, as a heifer [that is] not taught, Turn me back, and I turn back, For You [are] my God YHWH.

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?

For after my turning back I regretted, And after my being instructed I struck on the thigh, I have been ashamed, I have also blushed, For I have borne 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 precious son to Me? A child of delights? For since My speaking against him, I still thoroughly remember him, Therefore My bowels have been moved for him, I love him greatly,” A declaration of YHWH.

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

“Set up signs for yourself, Make heaps for yourself, Set your heart to the highway, the way you went, Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back to these cities of yours.

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

Until when do you withdraw yourself, O backsliding daughter? For YHWH has prepared a new thing in the land, Woman surrounds man.”

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

Thus said YHWH of Hosts, God of Israel: “Still they say this word in the land of Judah, And in its cities, In My turning back [to] their captivity, YHWH blesses you, habitation of righteousness, Mountain of holiness.

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

And farmers have dwelt in Judah, And in all its cities together, And they have journeyed in order.

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

For I have satiated the weary soul, And I have filled every grieved soul.”

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.

On this I have awoken, and I behold, and my sleep has been sweet to me.

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

“Behold, days are coming,” A declaration of YHWH, “And I have sown the house of Israel, And the house of Judah, With seed of man and 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 has been, as I watched over them to pluck up, And to break down, and to throw down, And to destroy, and to afflict; So I watch over them to build, and to plant,” A declaration of YHWH.

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 no longer say: Fathers have eaten unripe fruit, And the sons’ teeth are blunted.

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

But—each dies for his own iniquity, Every man who is eating the unripe fruit, His teeth are blunted.

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, days are coming,” A declaration of YHWH, “And I have made 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 like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made My covenant void, And I ruled over them,” A declaration of YHWH.

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.

“For this [is] the covenant that I make, With the house of Israel, after those days,” A declaration of YHWH, “I have given My law in their inward part, And I write it on their heart, And I have been their God, And they are 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 do not teach anymore Each his neighbor, and each his brother, Saying, Know YHWH, For they all know Me, from their least to their greatest,” A declaration of YHWH; “For I pardon their iniquity, And I make no more mention of their sin.”

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

Thus said YHWH, Who is giving the sun for a light by day, The statutes of moon and stars for a light by night, Quieting the sea when its billows roar, YHWH 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 statutes depart from before Me,” A declaration of YHWH, “Even the seed of Israel ceases From being a nation before Me [for] all the days.”

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 said YHWH: “If the heavens above can be measured, And the foundations of earth searched below, Even I kick against all the seed of Israel, For all that they have done,” A declaration of YHWH.

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, days [are coming],” A declaration of YHWH, “And the city has been built for YHWH, From the Tower of Hananeel to the Corner Gate.

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 has gone out again before it, over the height of Gareb, And it has gone around to Goah.

40 For thus said the Lord;

And all the valley of the carcasses and of the ashes, And all the fields to the Brook of Kidron, To the corner of the Horse Gate eastward, [Are] holy to YHWH, It is not plucked up, Nor is it thrown down anymore for all time!”

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.