Jeremiah 48

1Concerning Moab: Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, for it is devastated. Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is captured. The stronghold is put to shame and shattered.

2There is no more praise for Moab. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.’ You too, Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will go after you.

3A sound of a cry from Horonaim: devastation and great destruction.

4Moab is shattered; her little ones have made a cry heard.

5For on the ascent of Luhith they go up with weeping; for on the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distressing cry of destruction.

6Flee! Escape with your lives, and be like a juniper in the wilderness.

7Because you trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be captured; and Chemosh will go out into exile, his priests and his officials together.

8And the destroyer will come against every city, and no city will escape; the valley will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as Yahweh has said.

9Give a wing to Moab, for she will surely flee away; and her cities will become a desolation, with no inhabitant in them.

10Cursed is the one who does the work of Yahweh negligently, and cursed is the one who holds back his sword from blood.

11Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has been undisturbed on his dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel, and he has not gone into exile. Therefore his taste has remained in him, and his scent has not changed.

12Therefore behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will send to him pourers, and they will pour him out; they will empty his vessels and shatter their jars.

13And Moab will be put to shame because of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was put to shame because of Bethel, their confidence.

14How can you say, ‘We are mighty men, men of valor for battle’?”

15Moab is devastated, and her cities have gone up; the choicest of her young men have gone down to the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

16The disaster of Moab is near to come, and his calamity is hurrying very quickly.

17Mourn for him, all you around him, and all who know his name, say: “How the mighty scepter is broken, the staff of splendor!”

18Come down from your glory and sit in thirst, O inhabitant, daughter of Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; he has destroyed your fortresses.

19Stand by the road and watch, inhabitant of Aroer; ask the man who flees and the woman who escapes, “What has happened?”

20Moab is put to shame, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out! Declare it by the Arnon: Moab is devastated.

21And judgment has come upon the land of the plateau—upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath—

22and against Dibon, and against Nebo, and against Beth-diblathaim—

23and against Kiriathaim, and against Beth-gamul, and against Beth-meon—

24and against Kerioth, and against Bozrah, and against all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.

25The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares Yahweh.

26Make him drunk, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh; and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall become a laughingstock.

27Was Israel not a laughingstock to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him, you shook your head?

28Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove that nests on the sides of the mouth of a pit.

29We have heard of the pride of Moab—he is exceedingly proud—of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the loftiness of his heart.

30I know his wrath, declares Yahweh, and it is not so; his boasts have accomplished nothing.

31Therefore I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; for the men of Kir-heres one moans.

32With the weeping of Jazer I weep for you, vine of Sibmah; your branches crossed the sea; they reached as far as Jazer. Upon your summer fruit and upon your grape harvest the destroyer has fallen.

33Joy and gladness have been gathered from the orchard land and from the land of Moab; I have made wine cease from the winepresses. No one will tread with a shout; the shout is no shout.

34From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh, as far as Jahaz, they raise their voice; from Zoar to Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim will become desolations.

35And I will put an end in Moab—oracle of Yahweh—to the one who goes up to the high place and burns incense to his god.

36Therefore my heart moans for Moab like flutes, and my heart moans like flutes for the men of Kir-heres, because the abundance he made has perished.

37For every head is bald, and every beard is cut off; on all the hands are gashes, and on the waist is sackcloth.

38On all the rooftops of Moab and in her squares, everywhere there is mourning; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which there is no delight, declares Yahweh.

39How shattered she is! Wail! How Moab has turned her back in shame! So Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to all around her.

40For thus says the LORD: Look, like an eagle he swoops down and spreads his wings over Moab.

41Kerioth has been captured, and the strongholds have been seized; and the heart of Moab’s warriors will be on that day like the heart of a woman in labor.

42And Moab will be destroyed as a people, because he magnified himself against Yahweh.

43Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, inhabitant of Moab, declares Yahweh.

44He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the pit will be caught in the snare; for I will bring upon her, upon Moab, the year of their punishment, declares Yahweh.

45In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand without strength, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon; it has consumed the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult.

46Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity.

47Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.