Jeremiah 31
1 "At that time," says the LORD, "will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people."
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 Thus says the LORD, "The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
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;
3 The LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.
4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.
Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zogora:
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit.
for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; ye have heard a cry of destruction.
6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, "Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God."'"
Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert.
7 For thus says the LORD, "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, 'For the LORD has saved your people, the remnant of Israel.'
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.
8 'Look, 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: a great company shall they return here.
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 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.'"
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 Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock."
Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
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 They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and they shall be radient over the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, and to the new 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 sorrow any more at all.
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.
13 "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.
And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Baethel their hope, having trusted in them.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness," says the LORD.
How will ye say, We are strong, and men strong for war?
15 Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and weeping and great bitterness, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more."
Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.
16 Thus says the LORD: "Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded," says the LORD; "and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance].
17 There is hope for your latter end," says the LORD; "and your children shall come again to their own border.
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!
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.
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.
19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.'
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?
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.
Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished.
21 "Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
And judgment is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,
22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man."
and upon Daebon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Daethlathaim,
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: 'The LORD bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.'
and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gaemol, and upon the house of Maon,
24 Judah and all its cities shall dwell in it together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25 For I have satisfied the weary soul, and I have filled every sorrowful soul."
The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
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.
27 "Look, 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.
For surely Israel was to thee a laughing-stock, and was found among thy thefts, because thou didst fight against him.
28 It shall 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 will I watch over them to build and to plant," says the LORD.
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.
29 "In those days they shall say no more, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'
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 everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?
31 Look, the days come," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Therefore howl ye for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for thee,
32 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 my covenant they broke, and I disregarded them," says the LORD.
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.
33 "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 minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
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.
34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more."
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 Thus says 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 hosts is his name:
And I will destroy Moab, saith the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.
36 "If this fixed order departs from before me," says the LORD, "then the descendants of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever."
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 Thus says 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 descendants of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD.
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 "Look, the days come," says the LORD, "that the city shall be built to the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
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.
39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.
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 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever."
For thus said the Lord;
Carioth is taken, and the strong-holds have been taken together.
And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.
A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab.
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.
