< 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.
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;
3 for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.
4 Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zogora:
5 for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; you have heard a cry of destruction.
6 Flee you, and save your lives, and you shall be as a wild ass in the desert.
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.
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.
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?
10 Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.
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.
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.
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Baethel their hope, having trusted in them.
14 How will you say, We are strong, and men strong for war?
15 Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.
16 The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance].
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!
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.
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?
20 Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished.
21 And judgement is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,
22 and upon Daebon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Daethlathaim,
23 and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gaemol, and upon the house of Maon,
24 and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25 The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.
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.
27 For surely Israel was to you a laughing stock, and was found amongst your thefts, because you did fight against him.
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.
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.
30 But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?
31 Therefore howl you for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for you,
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.
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.
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.
35 And I will destroy Moab, says the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.
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.
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.
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.
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.
40 For thus said the Lord;
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.