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,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will 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 you shall go a sword;
The LORD says, “The people who survive the sword found favour in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.
The LORD appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zogora:
I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; you have heard a cry of destruction.
Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
6 Flee you, and save your lives, and you shall be as a wild ass in the desert.
For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to the LORD our God.’”
7 Since you have trusted in your strong-hold, therefore you shall be taken: and Chamos shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together.
For the LORD says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘LORD, save 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 will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
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 will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.
“Hear the LORD’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does 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 has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 Therefore, behold, his days come, says 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.
They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow 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 the virgin will rejoice in the dance, 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 you say, We are strong, and men strong for war?
I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says the LORD.
15 Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.
The LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
16 The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance].
The LORD says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” says the LORD. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 Shake [the head] at him, all you that are round about him; all [of you] utter his name; say you, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!
There is hope for your latter end,” says the LORD. “Your children will come again to their own territory.
18 Come down from [your] glory, and sit down in a damp place: Daebon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against you one to ravage your strong-hold.
“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned, for you are the LORD my God.
19 Stand by the way, and look, you that dwell 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. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore 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 my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says the LORD.
21 And judgement is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,
“Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart towards the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
22 and upon Daebon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Daethlathaim,
How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
23 and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gaemol, and upon the house of Maon,
The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘The LORD bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’
24 and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.
Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25 The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.
For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 Make you 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 awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 For surely Israel was to you a laughing stock, and was found amongst your thefts, because you did fight against him.
“Behold, the days come,” says 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 animal.
28 The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and lived in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.
It will happen 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 I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says 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 will 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 everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 Therefore howl you for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for you,
“Behold, the days come,” says 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: your branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon your fruits, [and] upon your 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, which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD.
33 Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and [though] there was wine in your 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,” says the LORD: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. 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.
They will no longer each teach his neighbour, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 And I will destroy Moab, says the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.
The LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar— the LORD of Armies is his name, says:
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,” says the LORD, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
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.
The LORD says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says the LORD.
38 And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets [shall be mourning]: for I have broken [him], says the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless.
“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the city will be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananel to 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.
The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn towards Goah.
40 For thus said the Lord;
The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate towards the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”
41 Carioth is taken, and the strongholds 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 you, 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.
